Is Hotjar or Stigg better?

Neither clearly leads. Hotjar starts at Free and Stigg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Hotjar or Stigg?

Hotjar starts at Free and Stigg at Free.

Does Hotjar or Stigg run on more platforms?

Hotjar runs on Web. Stigg runs on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.

Can I use Hotjar for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Hotjar best used for?

Hotjar is most often used for user behavior analysis, conversion optimization, ux research, customer feedback. Of those, user behavior analysis and conversion optimization are not what Stigg is typically brought in for.

What can Hotjar do that Stigg cannot?

Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys. Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement, Financial-grade credits, High-scale metering, Budget governance.

E-Commerce · head to head

Hotjar vs Stigg

Hotjar

E-Commerce

Understand how users behave on your site

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Stigg

Accounting

Usage runtime platform for credits and entitlements

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Hotjar website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings; Stigg free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
They diverge on capability: Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hotjar and Stigg actually diverge.

Attributes where Hotjar and Stigg differ
Attribute	Hotjar	Stigg
Pricing model	Unknown	Freemium with usage-based and custom tiers
Platforms	Web	Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API
Category	E-Commerce	Accounting
Founded	2014	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Hotjar

Heatmaps
Session recordings
Feedback widgets
Surveys
User interviews
Conversion funnels
Form analytics
Rage click detection

Only in Stigg

Real-time credit enforcement
Financial-grade credits
High-scale metering
Budget governance
Flexible deployment
Billing platform integration
Data warehouse integration
CRM integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Hotjar

User behavior analysisnot Stigg
Conversion optimizationnot Stigg
UX researchnot Stigg
Customer feedbacknot Stigg
Usability testingnot Stigg

Stigg

Managing token and credit usage for AI productsnot Hotjar
Enforcing spending caps and budget controlsnot Hotjar
Implementing prepaid credit systems with expirynot Hotjar
Real-time entitlement verification for feature accessnot Hotjar
Scaling billing infrastructure for high-volume eventsnot Hotjar

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Hotjar

Website performance impact - Hotjar tracking code can cause noticeable slowdowns affecting site speed and Google rankings
Session recording limits - free and lower-tier plans have monthly session recording caps that must be sampled above the limit
Inaccurate heatmaps on dynamic pages - heatmaps fail to display correctly on pages with modals, sticky navigation bars, and pop-up overlays
No mobile app - only web-based access available
Not real-time analytics - includes slight data processing delay

Stigg

Free tier limited to 10,000 entities and 5M events per month
Pro plan pricing ($399/month) may be high for early-stage companies
Scale and BYOC plans require custom contracts and sales engagement
Primarily targets AI and high-scale use cases, not all business models
Requires integration with separate billing platform (Stripe, Zuora, etc.)

Pricing, plan by plan

Hotjar

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Hotjar review.

Stigg

Free

Build (Free Forever)Free
- 10,000 managed entities per month
- 5M usage events per month
- 1K events per second rate limit
Pro$399/month
- 10,000 entities included (graduated pricing to 100K)
- 25M usage events included (to 500M with graduated rates)
- 10K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
Scale$null/custom
- Custom entity and event volumes
- 50K events per second (upgradeable to 100K)
- RBAC and SSO (SAML)
BYOC$40000/year
- Deploy in customer VPC
- Unlimited entities and events
- No event billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Hotjar if

You need heatmaps.
You want to start without paying.
You also want session recordings.

Hotjar review

Choose Stigg if

You need real-time credit enforcement.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
You also want financial-grade credits.

Stigg review

Questions people ask

Is Hotjar or Stigg better?: Neither clearly leads. Hotjar starts at Free and Stigg at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hotjar or Stigg?: Hotjar starts at Free and Stigg at Free.
Does Hotjar or Stigg run on more platforms?: Hotjar runs on Web. Stigg runs on Web, Cloud, BYOC, BYODB, API.
Can I use Hotjar for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Hotjar best used for?: Hotjar is most often used for user behavior analysis, conversion optimization, ux research, customer feedback. Of those, user behavior analysis and conversion optimization are not what Stigg is typically brought in for.
What can Hotjar do that Stigg cannot?: Hotjar covers Heatmaps, Session recordings, Feedback widgets, Surveys. Stigg covers Real-time credit enforcement, Financial-grade credits, High-scale metering, Budget governance.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hotjar: Does Hotjar have a free tier?

Yes. Hotjar's free plan (now under Contentsquare) includes 200,000 monthly sessions, 10,000 session replays, and unlimited heatmaps, with no time limit on the free tier.

Source

Stigg: How quickly does Stigg check entitlements?

Stigg makes entitlement checks in under 10 milliseconds, enabling real-time enforcement of spending decisions before token consumption.

Source

Hotjar: Can I export my data from Hotjar?

Yes. Hotjar allows exporting heatmaps as JPG images, survey responses as CSV files, and session recording metadata. Advanced export options are available through the Hotjar API.

Source

Stigg: Can I use Stigg with my existing billing platform?

Yes, Stigg integrates with major billing platforms including Stripe, Zuora, Chargebee, Metronome, and Orb to manage entitlements and credits.

Source

Hotjar: Does Hotjar provide real-time analytics?

No. Hotjar has a slight delay in data processing and does not offer true real-time analytics compared to some competitors.

Source

Stigg: What deployment options does Stigg offer?

Stigg offers cloud API, BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) for VPC deployment, and BYODB options for customers who want to manage their own database.

Source

Hotjar: What integrations does Hotjar support?

Hotjar integrates with Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Slack, HubSpot, Jira, Linear, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and hundreds of other tools through its API and partner integrations.

Source

Hotjar vs Stigg

Hotjar

Stigg

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Hotjar

Only in Stigg

What people use each for

Hotjar

Stigg

Where each one falls short

Hotjar

Stigg

Pricing, plan by plan

Hotjar

Stigg

Which should you pick?

Choose Hotjar if

Choose Stigg if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Hotjar

More on Stigg

Keep looking

Other head to heads