
Smartlook
Datadog
FullStory
Replay every journey, collect feedback, support users, and ship updates with no vendor session caps. Free forever and self-hosted.

Smartlook
FullStory
Google Analytics
Crazy Egg
Lucky Orange
Mixpanel
Mouseflow
The #1 Leader in Heatmaps, Recordings, Surveys & More. Sign up for a 15-day free trial and start learning from real user behavior today!

Which is more popular?
Based on our record, Hotjar seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 13 times since March 2021.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Website | trace-ux.builtbyfrank.dev | hotjar.com |
| Pricing | ||
| Platforms | — | |
| Company | — | Startup from Malta · 2014 |
| Listed in |
In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.


No description of TraceUX.dev yet.
Hotjar's product experience insights make it easy to understand what users are really doing on your site. Visualize behavior on your site with Heatmaps Eliminate guesswork with user Recordings Understand the reasons behind behavior with Surveys and Incoming Feedback
What each product offers, as listed by its team.


No features have been listed yet.
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


No analysis of TraceUX.dev yet.
Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
Hotjar is recommended for small to medium-sized businesses, eCommerce sites, and startups looking to improve their website's user experience. It is also suitable for UX/UI designers and product managers who want detailed analytics without the complexity of larger enterprise-level tools. However, larger organizations may want to consider more robust analytics platforms that can handle and analyze larger volumes of data.
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
No TraceUX.dev videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.
What is Hotjar?
More videos
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


As answered by people managing TraceUX.dev and Hotjar.
TraceUX.dev's answer
ReplyPro uses TraceUX to monitor platform errors and get alerts on Slack
TraceUX.dev's answer
Go powers the backend, SQLite handles storage, and React, TypeScript, and Vite power the dashboard. The TypeScript browser tracker uses rrweb to record DOM events, while rrweb-player reconstructs sessions for playback. The dashboard is embedded in the Go binary, and Docker deployment is also supported.
TraceUX.dev's answer
At the company I worked for, we used Smartlook to understand user behavior and investigate problems. When Smartlook shut down, we looked for a replacement, but the alternatives we found were too expensive. That led me to build TraceUX as a side project in my time outside work.
TraceUX.dev's answer
Independent developers, technical founders, and small product teams running web applications.
TraceUX.dev's answer
Choose TraceUX if you want to understand user behavior while keeping recordings on infrastructure you control. It is free to self-host, with no vendor-enforced session caps or per-seat license fees.
TraceUX.dev's answer
TraceUX combines session replay, in-product feedback, announcements, browser logs, and backend performance insights in one self-hosted dashboard. It runs as a single Go binary with SQLite and an embedded dashboard, without requiring a separate database or a stack of services. Feedback can be linked to the session that produced it, connecting what users report with what actually happened.
Share your experience with using TraceUX.dev and Hotjar. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


We have no reviews of TraceUX.dev yet. Be the first one to post
Hotjar is a behavioral analytics tool that provides heatmaps and session recordings. In the discovery process, it acts as the "eyes," showing where users get stuck, click out of frustration, or ignore a new feature...
Hotjar is an all-in-one feedback and analytics software suite to optimize your website and make data-driven decisions. Hotjar Observe is the suite’s most popular Mixpanel alternative—pair it with Hotjar Ask, Hotjar...
I've been using Hotjar for a few months, and it's been a perfect tool for understanding how users interact with my website. The heatmaps and session recordings are especially helpful for identifying problem areas, and...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


Tracking TraceUX.dev since Oct 2026.
Hotjar Hotjar.com Heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback polls (free basic plan). - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
Hotjar — Website Analytics and Reports . Free Plan allows 2000 pageviews/day. One hundred snapshots/day (max capacity: 300). Three snapshot heatmaps can be stored for 365 days. Unlimited Team Members. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
So you can use heatmapping software such as Crazy Egg and Hotjar to see how your end users use your website. Source: almost 3 years ago
When comparing TraceUX.dev and Hotjar, you can also consider the following products.

Qualitative analytics for websites and mobile apps Start understanding the 'whys' of your users' behaviors with clear, visual insights. With session recordings and event tracking, you get the complete picture.
Compare Smartlook to TraceUX.dev or Hotjar:

See metrics from all of your apps, tools & services in one place with Datadog's cloud monitoring as a service solution. Try it for free.
Compare Datadog to TraceUX.dev or Hotjar:

Meet FullStory, the app that captures all your customer experience data in one powerful platform.
Compare FullStory to TraceUX.dev or Hotjar:

Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.
Compare Google Analytics to TraceUX.dev or Hotjar: