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There are so many different heatmap software options that making a shortlist of the best can be tricky. You want to see user interaction patterns, page scroll behavior and make decisions about on-page elements - and need the right tool for it. I've got you covered! In this post, I use my experience having analyzed hundreds of heatmaps and using many different platforms with diverse products to share my picks of the best heatmap software.

Why Trust Our Heatmap Software Reviews

We’ve been testing and reviewing heatmap software since 2021. As product managers ourselves, we know how critical, and difficult it is to make the right decision when selecting software.

We invest in deep research to help our audience make better software purchasing decisions. We’ve tested more than 2,000 tools for different product management use cases and written over 1,000 comprehensive software reviews. Learn how we stay transparent & our heatmap software review methodology.

The Best Heatmap Software Comparison Chart

Here is a table that includes all the tools we just covered in the overviews, so that you can compare them.

Tools Price
Mouseflow From $39/month
Smartlook From $55/month
FullStory From $199/month
Hotjar From $59/month
Looker Pricing upon request
LiveSession Plans start at $65/month
Lucky Orange From $18/month
MapBusinessOnline Plans start at $500/year
Matomo Plans start at $21/month
Maply Paid plans start at $12/month
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Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

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How to Choose Heatmap Software

With so many different heatmap software solutions available, it can be challenging to make decisions on what heatmap software is going to be the best fit for your needs.

As you're shortlisting, trialing, and selecting heatmap software consider the following:

  • What problem are you trying to solve - Start by identifying the heatmap feature gap you're trying to fill to clarify the features and functionality the heatmap software needs to provide.
  • Who will need to use it - To evaluate cost and requirements, consider who'll be using the software and how many licenses you'll need. You'll need to evaluate if it'll just be the product management professionals, or the whole organization that will require access. When that's clear, it's worth considering if you're prioritizing ease of use for all, or speed for your heatmap software power users.
  • What other tools it needs to work with - Clarify what tools you're replacing, what tools are staying, and the tools you'll need to integrate with, such as accounting, CRM or HR software. You'll need to decide if the tools will need to integrate together, or alternatively, if you can replace multiple tools with one consolidated heatmap tool.
  • What outcomes are important - Consider the result that the software needs to deliver to be considered a success. Consider what capability you want to gain, or what you want to improve, and how you will be measuring success. For example, an outcome could be the ability to get greater visibility into performance. You could compare heatmap software features until you’re blue in the face but if you aren’t thinking about the outcomes you want to drive, you could be wasting a lot of valuable time.
  • How it would work within your organization - Consider the software selection alongside your workflows and delivery methodology. Evaluate what's working well, and the areas that are causing issues that need to be addressed. Remember every business is different — don’t assume that because a tool is popular that it'll work in your organization.

Best Heatmap Software Reviews

You can use the simple overviews below to understand how each tool stands out from other heatmap software.

Best for website owners seeking to understand user behavior and optimize their website's user experience

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $39/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.7/5

Mouseflow is a web analytics tool that caters to website owners seeking to understand user behavior and optimize their website's user experience through its ability to provide heatmaps, session replay, and funnel analysis tools all in one platform.

Why I picked Mouseflow: One of Mouseflow's standout features is its ability to provide session replay with keystroke logging, allowing businesses to see how users interact with their site down to the smallest detail. Additionally, Mouseflow's heatmaps and funnel analysis tools provide valuable insights into user behavior, allowing businesses to identify areas for improvement and optimize their website's user experience.

Mouseflow is best suited for website owners, ecommerce businesses, and digital marketers seeking to improve user experience and increase conversions. Its standout features include session replay with keystroke logging, heatmaps, funnel analysis, and form analytics.

Mouseflow’s Standout Features and Integrations

Features include session replay, six types of heatmaps, conversion funnels, form analytics, user feedback, and friction scores.

Integrations include Kameleeon, Adobe Analytics, Intercom, Optimizely, HubSpot, Tealium, Google Optimize, Segment, Google tag manager, and Google analytics.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Scroll heatmaps

Cons:

  • Too expensive for small teams

Best for website and app owners seeking real-time user behavior analytics

  • 30-day free trial + free plan
  • From $55/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.6/5

Smartlook is a web and mobile analytics vendor that offers session replays and automatic event tracking to help businesses optimize their user experience.

Why I picked Smartlook: One particularly cool feature of Smartlook is its ability to detect rage clicks, which are clicks made repeatedly in frustration in the same location on a website or app. This feature enables businesses to quickly identify user pain points and take action to improve the user experience.

Smartlook is best suited for ecommerce businesses, SaaS companies, and mobile app developers seeking to optimize their user experience and drive revenue growth. Its standout features include session replay, event tracking, funnels, and conversion tracking.

Smartlook Standout Features and Integrations

Features include session recordings, heatmaps, events, funnels, crash reports, cross-platform, and mobile app analytics.

Integrations include Google Analytics, Slack, Optimizely, Salesforce, Segment, Jira, Make, Zendesk, Intercom, and Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Heatmap creation
  • Rage click detection

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Filtering is complicated

Best for optimizing user experience through session replay

  • 14-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $199/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.5/5

FullStory is a digital experience analytics platform that empowers businesses to understand and optimize their user's experience through session replay, best serving ecommerce, SaaS, and content websites.

Why I picked FullStory: FullStory offers advanced search capabilities that allow users to easily find specific sessions based on various criteria, such as page URL, browser type, and user actions. Furthermore, its analytics and reporting features offer valuable insights into user behavior, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions that optimize the user experience.

FullStory is ideal for businesses and organizations that want to optimize the user experience on their websites or apps. It is particularly useful for user experience designers, product managers, and customer support teams. With FullStory, users can quickly identify pain points and opportunities for improvement to enhance the user experience and boost customer satisfaction.

FullStory Standout Features and Integrations

Features include session replay, conversion funnels, advanced search capabilities, customer management, analytics and insights, and searchable session data.

Integrations include management apps like Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Optimizely, Google Analytics, Segment, Amplitude, FullStory API for custom integrations, Zendesk, Trello, and more via Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Advanced session search
  • Robust analytics
  • Personalization features
  • Easy integration

Cons:

  • Expensive
  • Limited mobile support

Best for understanding user behavior with heatmaps and recordings

  • 15-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $59/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

Hotjar is a user behavior analytics and feedback tool that helps marketing teams, product teams, product managers, UX designers, and researchers understand user behavior through heatmaps and recordings.

Why I picked Hotjar: Hotjar has an all-in-one approach to user feedback and behavior analytics. In addition to heatmaps and session recordings, Hotjar also offers surveys and feedback polls, giving businesses a complete picture of their users' behavior and preferences. This unique combination allows teams to make data-driven decisions and create customer-centric products and designs.

Hotjar works well for website owners and designers who want to gain insights into how their website is being used and how to improve its user experience. Its standout features include its easy-to-use interface, heatmapping capabilities, and ability to collect user feedback through polls and surveys.

Hotjar Standout Features and Integrations

Features include heatmaps, recording, conversion funnel analysis, filtered insights, and segmentation of visitor data.

Integrations include Slack, Google Analytics, Microsoft teams, Optimizely, Segment, HubSpot, Google Optimize, and Omniconvert.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Insightful visualization
  • Customizable filters
  • Multiple heatmap types

Cons:

  • Limited data points
  • No real-time tracking
  • No click attribution

Best for data analytics, business intelligence, and data visualization

  • $300 in free credits
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

Google Looker is a cloud-based data analytics and business intelligence platform designed for organizations seeking centralized and intuitive data insights.

Why I picked Google Looker: Looker's unique semantic layer sets it apart from other tools by allowing non-technical users to easily explore and understand complex data sets and derive insights to inform strategic decision-making. Additionally, Looker's collaboration features make it easy for teams to share real-time data and insights.

The main use case for Looker is for businesses of all sizes seeking a scalable and powerful data analytics and BI platform. With its intuitive interface, robust visualization capabilities, and collaboration features, Looker works well for organizations that want to centralize their data. Some of the standout features of Looker include its semantic layer, which makes it easy to explore and understand complex data sets, as well as its powerful visualization capabilities and collaboration features.

Google Looker Standout Features and Integrations

Features include LookML, embedded analytics, Looker blocks and actions, Looker extension framework, Looker alerts, Looker security and Persistent Derived Tables (PDTs), and incremental PDTs. 

Integrations include Looker studio, Google Cloud, Google Ads customer match, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Microsoft SQL Server, Snowflake, Oracle, Salesforce, Marketo, and Zendesk.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Intuitive interface
  • Powerful visualization capabilities
  • Collaboration features

Cons:

  • Not ideal for small teams
  • Expensive to scale up

Best for insightful user behavior analysis for websites

  • 14-day free trial available
  • Plans start at $65/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.6/5

LiveSession is an effective user behavior analysis tool that caters to website owners and marketers seeking to gain actionable insights by replaying sessions, creating heatmaps, and building conversion funnels.

Why I picked LiveSession: One cool feature of LiveSession is its ability to automatically detect and mask sensitive user data, such as credit card numbers and passwords, to ensure user privacy and security. Additionally, LiveSession's custom events and tagging capabilities allow users to easily track specific actions and behaviors on their website.

LiveSession is a tool designed for website owners, marketers, and customer experience professionals who want to understand how website visitors interact with their websites. It works well because it provides a range of visualizations that allow users to track visitor behavior and identify areas for improvement.

Standout features of LiveSession include its ability to track user behavior across multiple devices, its integration with popular marketing tools, and its AI-powered error detection, which alerts users to potential problems on their website.

LiveSession Standout Features and Integrations

Features include heatmaps, session replays, conversion funnels, event tracking and tagging, and automatic data masking.

Integrations include Google Analytics, Intercom, HubSpot, Segment, Zapier, Amplitude, FullStory, Salesforce, Mixpanel, and Pipedrive.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Automatic data masking
  • Custom events and tags
  • Integrations with popular tools

Cons:

  • Limited features on free plan
  • Expensive for large teams
  • No mobile app available

Best for website analytics and optimization with real-time data

  • 7-day free trial + free plan available
  • From $18/month
Visit Website
Rating: 4.4/5

Lucky Orange is a web analytics vendor that caters to website owners and marketers looking to understand user behavior on their sites through its ability to provide session recordings and dynamic heatmaps for user interactions.

Why I picked Lucky Orange: One of the coolest features of Lucky Orange is its dynamic heatmaps, which provide insights into how users interact with a website in real-time. The tool also offers session recordings that enable website owners to see exactly how users navigate their site and identify areas for improvement, all while ensuring user privacy.

Lucky Orange is best suited for website owners, marketers, and ecommerce businesses looking to optimize their website's user experience. Its standout features include real-time analytics, funnel tracking, and conversion tracking. Additionally, Lucky Orange's easy-to-use interface and intuitive dashboard make it accessible to users of all levels of technical expertise.

Lucky Orange Standout Features and Integrations

Features include session recordings, surveys, dashboard insights, form analytics, dynamic heatmaps, live chats, conversion funnels, visitor profiles, and announcements.

Integrations include BigCommerce, Google Analytics, Google optimize, HubSpot, Square, Shopify, WordPress, Adobe DTM, and Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use
  • Impressive visualizations

Cons:

  • Data is not archived

Best for business mapping and location analysis for sales, marketing, and operations

  • 30-day free trial available
  • Plans start at $500/year
Visit Website
Rating: 4.3/5

MapBusinessOnline is a cloud-based mapping software that is ideal for businesses looking to perform location analysis and market planning. 

Why I picked MapBusinessOnline: I picked MapBusinessOnline because of its user-friendly interface and robust set of features, including its ability to perform sales territory mapping and customer analysis.

This tool is best suited for businesses that require location-based analysis and planning, such as sales, marketing, and operations teams. MapBusinessOnline's standout features include its ability to create optimized routes, generate heatmaps, and visualize data layers. 

MapBusinessOnline Standout Features and Integrations

Features include sales territory mapping, MapPoint replacement, business maps visualizations, and business listings.

Integrations include Microsoft Excel and Salesforce.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • User-friendly interface
  • Robust features
  • Useful data visualizations

Cons:

  • Limited integrations

Best for website owners looking for an open-source, privacy-focused analytics platform

  • 21-day free trial available
  • Plans start at $21/month

Matomo is an open-source analytics platform that offers a secure and customizable solution for website owners prioritizing privacy and data ownership, with a user-friendly interface and powerful data visualization tools.

Why I picked Matomo: Matomo stands out for its commitment to data privacy and ownership, with the ability to store all data on your own servers or in the cloud, as well as providing an option for completely anonymizing visitor IP addresses. Additionally, its customizable reporting and dashboard features enable users to tailor analytics data to their specific needs and requirements.

Matomo is designed for website owners and businesses of all sizes who want to track and analyze their website's performance and user behavior in a secure and private environment. 

It works well because it is an open-source platform that allows users full control over their data and offers advanced security and privacy features.

Matomo Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a real-time visitor world map, Google analytics importer, enhanced insights, and an open-source platform.

Integrations include WordPress, PhotoDeck, Drupal, Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Symfony, Laravel, Mailchimp, and Campaign Monitor.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Open-source
  • Customizable
  • Privacy-focused

Cons:

  • Self-hosting
  • Steep learning curve

Best for interactive and engaging heatmap creation for businesses and events

  • Free forever plan available
  • Paid plans start at $12/month

Maply is a platform that specializes in creating interactive and engaging maps for businesses, events, and organizations, offering unique features such as real-time updates, custom styling, and multimedia integration to help users effectively communicate their message to their target audience.

Why I picked Maply: One of the standout features of Maply is its ability to display real-time updates and data, making it ideal for events, conferences, and other time-sensitive activities. Maply offers custom styling options and multimedia integration, allowing users to create unique and engaging map experiences that match their brand and message.

Maply's main use case is for businesses, organizations, and event planners looking to create interactive maps that engage and inform their target audience. The platform's real-time data updates, custom styling options, and multimedia integration make it a great choice for anyone looking to create a customized and engaging map experience. Additionally, Maply's user-friendly interface and intuitive design make it easy to create professional-looking maps without any technical knowledge or experience.

Maply’s Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a heatmap, cluster map, networking map, route optimization, zip/postal code analytics, and location layer batch creation.

Integrations are not currently available.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Affordable
  • Custom styling options
  • Free plan option

Cons:

  • No integrations

Other Heatmap Software

Here are a few more website heatmap tools and other options that didn’t make the top, but are worth considering if you are expanding your tool search.

  1. Contentsquare

    Best for analyzing and optimizing digital customer experiences for businesses

  2. Freshmarketer

    Best for small and medium-sized businesses looking to track marketing performance

  3. Crazy Egg

    Best for website owners seeking to improve user experience and conversion rates through visual data analysis

  4. Tableau

    Best for analysts, data scientists, and business users seeking interactive data visualization

  5. Browsee

    Best for session replay and heatmaps to optimize website or application design

  6. NotifyVisitors

    Best for creating and managing website notifications to engage with website visitors

  7. Mapbox

    Best for creating custom maps and location-based applications for web and mobile

  8. JMP

    Best for statistical analysis and data visualization for scientific research and business analytics

  9. eSpatial

    Best for creating and sharing interactive maps and visualizing data

If you still haven't found what you're looking for here, check out these tools closely related to heatmap software that we've tested and evaluated:

  1. Best Product Management Tools 
  2. Best Product Planning Software
  3. Best UX Design Tools
  4. Best Product Development Software
  5. Best Product Analytics Tools
  6. Best Idea Management Software
  7. Best User Research Tools

Selection Criteria for Heatmap Software


Selecting heatmap software requires a strategic approach, focusing on functionality and how well the tool meets specific use cases. After personally researching and testing various tools, I've developed selection criteria that align closely with software buyer needs, address common pain points, and ensure that the software offers top-notch features and functionalities. Each criteria is weighted based on importance, and they are eventually combined into a final overall score.

Core Heatmap Software Functionality (25% of final scoring): To be considered for inclusion on my list of the best heatmap software, the solution had to fulfill common use cases, including the following functionalities:

  • Understanding user engagement on specific page elements
  • Identifying usability issues on websites or applications
  • Analyzing the effectiveness of page layouts and content placement
  • Segmenting user behavior by source, device, or demographic
  • Optimizing conversion paths and reducing bounce rates

Additional Standout Features (25% of final scoring): I looked for standout features that not only enhance the core functionality of heatmap software, but also provide users with the tools to gain deeper insights, predict future behaviors, and make informed decisions to optimize digital experiences.

  • Innovative Analytics Capabilities: Leading heatmap tools incorporate AI to predict user behavior, offering insights beyond traditional analysis. This allows for preemptive design and content adjustments to improve user experience based on predictive models rather than solely on past interactions.
  • Advanced Segmentation Features: The ability to dynamically analyze user groups based on behavior, source, and other demographics enables a more nuanced understanding of different user needs. This segmentation helps in tailoring website experiences to match specific user expectations, significantly enhancing user satisfaction and conversion rates.
  • Unique Data Visualization Formats: While traditional heatmaps focus on clicks and scrolls, standout tools offer additional visualizations like attention heatmaps that measure time spent on different areas of a page. Such formats provide deeper insights into user engagement and content effectiveness.
  • Exceptional Integration with Other Data Tools: The best heatmap solutions offer seamless integration with a wide range of analytics, marketing, and testing tools. This interoperability allows for a more comprehensive analysis by combining heatmap data with other metrics, offering a holistic view of user behavior and website performance.
  • Unique Session Replay Functionalities: Beyond standard session replays, some tools offer advanced features like anomaly detection, where the system flags unusual user behaviors for further investigation. This can uncover hidden issues that might not be evident through aggregate data analysis, providing opportunities for targeted improvements.

Usability (10% of total weighting score): Usability features are critical for ensuring that the heatmap software can be effectively used by a wide range of individuals. A tool that scores high in usability is more likely to be adopted and utilized to its full potential, leading to better insights and outcomes for the organization.

  • An intuitive dashboard that offers at-a-glance insights without overwhelming users
  • Simple navigation structures that facilitate quick access to various features
  • Efficient data filtering options to swiftly isolate specific user interactions

Onboarding (10% of total weighting score): By providing comprehensive onboarding, heatmap tools can facilitate a smooth transition for users. This not only improves user satisfaction but also accelerates the time to value, making it a critical factor in the overall evaluation of heatmap software.

  • Comprehensive guides and tutorials that ensure a smooth initial setup
  • Interactive product tours that familiarize users with key features
  • Support systems like chatbots and live support for immediate assistance

Customer Support (10% of total weighting score): By providing timely, diverse, and helpful support options, heatmap software vendors can significantly impact user satisfaction and loyalty, making customer support a pivotal factor in the software selection process.

  • Rapid response times to support inquiries, ensuring minimal disruption
  • A variety of support channels, including email, chat, and phone
  • Proactive resources, such as community forums and detailed FAQs

Value For Money (10% of total weighting score): This criterion assesses the cost of the software relative to the features, benefits, and overall utility it provides. It's about ensuring that investment in the software yields significant returns in terms of enhanced user experience insights, website optimization, and ultimately, business growth.

  • Competitive pricing structures that offer clear benefits over alternatives
  • Flexible plans that cater to businesses of different sizes and needs
  • Free trials or demos that allow for thorough evaluation before purchase

Customer Reviews (10% of total weighting score): Evaluating customer reviews requires understanding the context of user feedback, identifying consistent themes, and recognizing how the software addresses specific needs and challenges in order to understand the software's real-world application and impact.

  • High ratings in user satisfaction for ease of use and functionality
  • Positive feedback on customer support responsiveness and helpfulness
  • Strong testimonials regarding the software’s impact on user experience optimization

Through this detailed criteria, I aim to identify heatmap software that not only offers comprehensive functionality but also stands out in terms of usability, support, and value, ensuring that users can effectively capture, analyze, and act upon user behavior insights to enhance digital experiences.

As technology improves and product management needs change, heatmap software also continues to evolve and offer ever more sophisticated tools. These product trends not only reflect the changing landscape of user experience design, but also highlight the features and functionalities that are gaining importance, evolving rapidly, or becoming less in-demand.

Evolving Features

  • Advanced User Segmentation: Recent updates show a strong trend towards more granular user segmentation capabilities. This allows businesses to create highly customized heatmaps based on specific user behaviors, demographics, or traffic sources, providing deeper insights into different audience segments.
  • AI-Powered Insights: A rapidly evolving feature in heatmap software is the use of artificial intelligence to analyze user behavior patterns. AI algorithms can predict user actions, identify anomalies, and suggest optimizations, making data analysis both more efficient and insightful.

Most Important and In Demand Features

  • Session Replay and Real-Time Analytics: Continuously in high demand, session replay and real-time analytics remain critical for understanding the 'why' behind user behaviors. These features allow businesses to watch user sessions as they happen and make immediate adjustments to enhance the user experience.
  • Integration Capabilities: The importance of integrating heatmap software with other tools (such as analytics, CRM, and marketing automation platforms) is more pronounced than ever. This reflects a growing need for a holistic view of the customer journey across different touchpoints.

Decreasing in Importance

  • Static Heatmaps: As the technology evolves, traditional static heatmaps are becoming less important. Users now expect dynamic, interactive heatmaps that offer more than just basic click and scroll data, reflecting a shift towards more actionable and in-depth analytics.

Overall, the ongoing developments in heatmap software underscore the industry's shift towards more predictive, personalized, and actionable insights. These trends not only cater to the immediate needs of product management professionals, but also pave the way for more intuitive, efficient, and effective user experience optimization strategies.

What Is Heatmap Software?

Heatmap software is a type of tool that visually represents data using colors to indicate the intensity of values in a two-dimensional space. In the context of user experience and web analytics, heatmap software is commonly used to visualize and analyze user interactions with a website or application.

Heatmaps help identify areas of interest, user engagement, and potential usability issues on a website or within an application. This information is valuable for optimizing design, content placement, and user interface elements to enhance the overall user experience.

Features of Heatmap Software

Heatmap software offers a range of powerful features that enable businesses to gain valuable insights into user behavior and optimize their digital experiences. These insights provide a comprehensive view of user engagement, helping businesses make data-driven decisions to improve website performance and maximize conversions. Here are some key features to look for:

  1. Real-Time Data Visualization: This feature enables the immediate representation of user interactions. It is vital because it allows teams to see how changes or updates affect user behavior as they happen, facilitating quick adjustments.
  2. User Segment Filtering: With this, you can filter data based on specific user segments. It's crucial for tailoring your analysis to different demographics, behaviors, or sources of traffic, and offering more personalized insights.
  3. Click and Scroll Tracking: This provides detailed insights into where users click and how far they scroll. Understanding these patterns helps in optimizing content placement and improving overall user engagement on a site.
  4. Heatmap Types Variety: The availability of different types of heatmaps, such as click, move, and scroll heatmaps, offers a comprehensive view of user behavior. Each type sheds light on different aspects of user interactions, making it easier to identify areas for improvement.
  5. Session Replay: This feature allows you to watch recordings of user sessions. Watching real user interactions can uncover usability issues that might not be evident from aggregated data alone.
  6. Integration Capabilities: The ability to integrate with other tools, like analytics or A/B testing software, enriches the data you can analyze. This interoperability is key for a holistic understanding of user behavior across tools.
  7. Responsive Design Compatibility: Ensures heatmaps are accurate across devices. As user behavior varies by device, this feature is essential for optimizing experiences no matter how users access your site.
  8. Data Privacy Compliance: With regulations like GDPR, ensuring user data is handled securely and legally is non-negotiable. This feature helps protect user privacy and maintain your organization's reputation.
  9. Customizable Dashboards: This allows for the personalization of how data is displayed. Custom dashboards let you focus on the metrics that matter most to your specific analysis needs, improving efficiency.
  10. Export and Reporting Features: The ability to export data and generate reports facilitates the sharing of insights with stakeholders. This feature is important for communicating findings and driving action based on heatmap data.

By focusing on these key features, you can ensure that your heatmap tool not only captures essential data, but also aligns with your strategic analysis and decision-making processes.

Benefits of Heatmap Software

By visually representing how users interact with various elements, heatmap software provides clear, actionable data that can drive decision-making and improve user experiences. For businesses considering investing in this technology, here are five primary benefits of heatmap software:

  1. Enhanced User Experience (UX) Design: Heatmap software enables users to identify popular areas and elements on a website that attract the most engagement. This data helps businesses optimize their website's layout, ensuring that important content is placed where users are most likely to notice and interact with it, thereby enhancing the overall user experience.
  2. Increased Conversion Rates: By highlighting areas on a site that receive less attention or are problematic for users, heatmap software allows businesses to make informed adjustments. This can lead to improved user flow and navigation, reducing friction points that may prevent users from completing desired actions, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
  3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Heatmap software provides visual data that can be more intuitive and easier to understand than traditional analytics. This enables teams to make quicker, more informed decisions about design and content strategies, leading to more effective and user-focused website updates.
  4. Improved Content Engagement: Understanding how users interact with content, including what they click on and how far they scroll, allows for the optimization of content placement and format. This ensures that high-value content is seen and engaged with more frequently, improving the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
  5. Efficient Identification of Usability Issues: Heatmaps can quickly reveal areas where users encounter difficulties, such as unclickable elements or confusing navigation. Identifying and resolving these issues promptly leads to a smoother, more enjoyable user experience, reducing bounce rates and encouraging longer site visits.

For organizations seeking to deepen their understanding of user behavior and optimize their digital platforms, heatmap software offers a suite of benefits that can lead to enhanced user satisfaction, higher conversion rates, and more strategic decision-making. By leveraging the insights gained from heatmap analysis, businesses can ensure their websites and applications meet and exceed user expectations, driving success in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

Costs & Pricing For Heatmap Software

When exploring heatmap software options, it's essential to understand the various plan and pricing structures available. Pricing and plans can vary significantly among providers, with options typically ranging from free versions with basic features to more advanced, premium plans that offer deeper analytics and greater customization. Here's a breakdown of common plan options and their pricing to help you make an informed decision:

Plan Comparison Table for Heatmap Software

Plan TypeAverage PriceCommon Features Included
Basic$10 - $50/monthBasic heatmap functionality, limited pageviews, basic reporting, and limited session replays.
Standard$50 - $100/monthEnhanced heatmap functionality, increased pageviews, advanced reporting, more session replays, and segmentation capabilities.
Premium$100 - $200/monthAll standard features plus advanced integrations, full customization, unlimited pageviews, and dedicated support.
EnterpriseCustom PricingAll premium features plus API access, custom data retention, enterprise-level security, and personal account management.
Free Option$0Limited heatmap functionality, very limited pageviews, and basic reporting.

When selecting a plan, it is important to consider both your immediate needs and potential future requirements. Starting with a free option or basic plan can be a good way to familiarize yourself with heatmap software functionalities before upgrading to more advanced features as your needs grow.

Heatmap Software Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions other people ask about this topic.

What is a heatmap?

A heatmap is a data visualization technique that represents data in the form of a map. The “heat” part of the term derives from the color coding used in this technique to provide visual cues to the reader about clusters of information based on interactions with page elements.

For example, an area of the map that has a red color represents a high concentration of activity, while an orange and yellow hue represent less occurrences.

What type of data is best visualized with a heatmap?

Heatmaps are best for visualizing large data sets with high density and displaying relative differences in values using color gradients, making them ideal for displaying patterns in user behavior, website clicks, and customer engagement.

What are the benefits of using heatmaps?

Using heatmaps will give you loads of information about user behavior. Therefore, here are four benefits you can get from using heatmaps:

  1. Visualizing Data: Heatmaps provide a visually intuitive way to represent complex data patterns, making it easier to understand and analyze information.
  2. Identifying Trends: Heatmap analytics help to quickly identify trends, patterns, and anomalies in data, enabling data-driven decision-making.
  3. Improving User Experience: The information you get out of session recordings will give you an idea of what is the natural way in which people consume your product. This provides a roadmap on how you should rearrange your UI or where your most important elements need to be to help them navigate it.
  4. Communicating Effectively: Heatmaps simplify the communication of data insights to stakeholders by presenting information in a clear and accessible manner.
  5. Helping Conversion Rate Optimization: Heatmaps can help you understand how to direct users toward the desired actions you have planned for them. These could be a sign-up, form, add to cart, or product purchase.

What are the different types of heatmaps?

Even though heatmaps are always presented as a color-coded map, choosing what to track will provide you with different types of maps. Here are five types of heatmaps that are commonly used:

Move map

Also called a mouse tracking heatmap, it is a map that shows mouse movements from users. This can give you valuable information in terms of how they navigate your website and where they stay the longest. Something fun these types of maps revealed is that we use the pointer as a visual aid while we read text.

Click map

Click maps track the amount of clicks in a specific area. They can be used to test specific CTA buttons or other media elements. The results can tell you if users are clicking on that button, skipping it, or maybe clicks on an image (which would tell you they expected a video to play). As you can see, the information from these maps allows you to reorganize elements on a page given user interactions.

Scroll map

A scroll map will tell you how far users get when scrolling your pages. The heatmap displays a color gradient that is expected to gradually change color as people move through the website. If there are sudden color changes, you have to address it. Some of the things that this map can help you decide are:

  • Making a page shorter
  • Moving important information up the page to keep people engaged

Engagement Zone map

This map helps you see the areas where your users are spending the most time and interacting with. It combines the information of the three maps above: move, click, and scroll. Remember to view this map with the user’s perspective in mind as it will reflect natural tendencies when navigating your product and can surface expectations that you might not be addressing.

Rage click map

Although some clicks outside of the ordinary can indicate expectations, an increase in clicks where users cannot click displays frustration. You can use these maps to see which parts of your page are causing friction with the user and discover what you can do to control those expectations or direct them better to where they can click.

What other product manager software should I use?

Here are some other popular product manager software options:

What’s Next?

Using the right heatmap software is crucial for any product manager looking to optimize their workflow and improve their team's productivity. And while we are on the topic, I would invite you to read about product usage analytics to find out how important quantitative and qualitative data is to user journey analysis.

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By Hannah Clark

Hannah Clark is the Editor of The Product Manager. Following six years of experience in the tech industry, she pivoted into the content space where she's had the pleasure of working with some of the most brilliant voices in the product world. Driven by insatiable curiosity and a love of bringing people together, her mission is to foster a fun, vibrant, and inspiring community of product people.