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Utilising the best heatmap software tools help marketers and designers build better user experiences.
A heatmap analysis of a web page gives deep insights into prospects’ interactions and the page’s performance. Heatmaps have a lot of components that together make the analysis fruitful and formulate hypotheses worth testing.
Scroll maps, rage clicks, visitor recordings, etc., all provide real-time data showcasing how users navigate a page. For making a powerful heatmap analysis, a robust tool is required.
But out of so many heatmap tools in the market today, which one should you use?
In this blog, I will explore the top five best heatmap software available that can be helpful for all types of professions, be it marketers, designers, product managers, etc.
But before that, let’s understand what type of different types of data are and which ones the heatmap focus on.
What type of Data do Heatmaps Deliver?
All types of data can be divided into two categories: qualitative and quantitative data.
Quantitative data refers to numerical information, such as statistics, metrics, graphs, charts etc., providing objective information that is easy to communicate.
For example, the Google analytics tool shares exact numbers of bounce rates, page monthly visitors, and other web analytics in numerical form, making it a quantitative data provider.
Qualitative data is derived from experiences, behaviour, and emotions. It focuses on subjective information and is best suited for areas where user experiences are given priority. For example, public surveys that ask visitors about their page experience provide qualitative data.
Heatmaps help discover in-depth insights about user experiences and are a great source of qualitative data regarding the target audience. As heatmaps provide concrete numerical data as well, it can be said they provide quantitative data also.
Professionals should understand that to create better UX, they must combine quantitative and qualitative data. Data acquired from heatmaps and tools like Google Analytics must be thoroughly analysed before making final hypotheses and testing.
You can check out this blog, where you can understand how Google Search Console (providing quantitative data) and heatmaps (providing qualitative data) together can help generate leads from your blogs:
5 Best Heatmap Sofware
Having reliable heatmap software makes it easier to create a better buyer journey. Let’s explore the five best heatmap software tools that are a must to check out:
1. Hotjar
Installed for over 900,00+ websites and serving in 180+ countries, Hotjar is a heat mapping tool that is efficient and accurate. Started in 2014, Hotjar’s prime focus is easily visible through its services, that all focus on a single goal: observing and analysing user interactions with a web page.
Whether you have a landing page, website, or blog page to examine, Hotjar is easy to integrate with web pages and serves results within 60 minutes.
Pros:
- A lifetime free basic plan is available.
- It can also integrate surveys and feedback forms on a targeted page for better user behavior insights.
Cons:
- Not available for mobile apps.
- No A/B testing.
2. MS Clarity
Though a fairly new heat mapping tool, Microsoft’s Clarity proves its capabilities through services about heatmaps. It is a great tool that can be easily paired with Google Analytics to turn average-performing pages into conversion-ready websites.
The main strength of MS Clarity lies in its dashboard, which is easy to use and navigate. Clarity takes one to two hours to provide a detailed heatmap report of a submitted page.
Pros:
- It is free for a lifetime.
- Pays close attention to user frustration metrics like rage clicks, dead clicks, quick backs, etc.
Cons:
- No feature for taking visitor surveys or feedback.
- Lacks movement heatmaps.
- The interface can be clumsy sometimes.
3. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg boosts a clientele of some of the biggest companies like Dell, Etsy, Zendesk, etc. Started in 2006, it serves various industries like ecommerce, education, enterprise, etc., with its amazing heat mapping features.
A unique feature of the Crazy Egg tool is that it offers A/B testing. It allows users to form hypotheses through heat maps and test them on the same platform. But it might be hard for marketing beginners to find their way through this tool as it is built for intermediate and advanced marketers plus CRO pros.
Pros:
- The snapshot feature allows users to get five in-depth reports of any web page. The reports include a heatmap, confetti, overlay, and list reports. If you want to know more about these reports, check out this blog: Heatmaps for UX
- Provides detailed information about Javascript errors that helps in debugging.
Cons:
- It provides no free plan. It has a 30-day trial period which requires your credit card information.
- No feedback form integrations.
4. Lucky Orange
Founded in 2010, Lucky Orange is a tool for all business owners and product managers that want real-time interventions and support for their clients. Lucky Orange is a bit different from other heatmapping tools that heavily focus on different types of heatmaps.
Most of its advanced features lean towards taking active feedback from visitors, providing them with on-time assistance, and helping businesses assess their conversion funnel analysis.
Including all the basic heat mapping tools, it offers LIVE chat, surveys, and announcement integrations on a web page. It also provides form analytics and metrics that will closely focus on just your forms and help optimise their conversion rate.
Pros:
- The tool focuses on individual user experiences and helps get better and more valuable insights into their problems.
- It has a free plan with all the features intact.
Cons:
- The dashboard can be confusing sometimes.
- It has a data retention period of 30 days, which is not ideal for understanding long-term user trends.
5. FullStory
FullStory’s approach to understanding user behavior is simple: index every user action. The end goal of every heat mapping tool is to get as close to understanding user experience. Whether it is through various heatmaps, surveys, feedback, LIVE chats, etc., everything helps.
By indexing every user event and making it searchable, it becomes easier to spot patterns and create user journeys. The “index everything” approach also helps in detecting bugs and helps in creating better UX from the backend as well.
Pros:
- It has a free plan.
- Provides pinch-to-zoom metrics specifically for mobile apps.
Cons:
- No feedback forms or survey integration is present.
Conclusion
Here is a comparison table for the five best heatmap software tools:
A robust heatmap tool is the best way to strengthen a CRO strategy, website redesign, and landing page conversion funnel. Hotjar, MS Clarity, and Crazy Egg focus on securing user experience data that helps better copy and design.
In contrast, Lucky Orange and FullStory provide heatmap solutions but mainly focus on improving user support.
Businesses considering heatmap software should remember their end goal before picking a tool. If you are unsure which of these best heatmap software will benefit your brand, you can always try them out, as they all have a free plan.
