Updating our pricing model

The essential details

• We’re grouping our Surveys and Feedback tools into a separate product called Hotjar Ask that’s priced based on the number of responses you want to collect in those tools.

• Our Heatmaps and Recordings tools will be grouped into another product called Hotjar Observe that’s priced based on the number of sessions you want to capture, exactly as Hotjar is priced today.

• Both products, Observe and Ask will have Basic (free), Plus, Business, and Scale plans.

• The updated pricing model will apply to newly-created Hotjar accounts from April 20, 2022, and will take effect for existing Hotjar accounts from July 1, 2022.

How we think about value and pricing

We’re both humbled and grateful for the 900,000 sites across 180 countries who use Hotjar to improve their product experiences. Nothing makes us happier than hearing the success stories our customers share with us about how they use Hotjar to understand their users and ultimately provide them with a better experience.

We’ve evolved a lot since our days as a plucky start-up back in 2014, and we’re now a team of 250+ Hotjarians working hard every day to serve you better. Of course, that work is never done and there’s always room for improvement. But one thing we’ve had to learn over the years is not to undervalue our product and the contribution it makes to hundreds of thousands of Hotjar users all over the world.

Even though our customers have been telling us for years how much Hotjar helps them make better decisions on both their products and their businesses, we're a humble bunch by nature and we've historically struggled to evolve our pricing in a way that reflects our product improvements. From day one, we offered as much as possible in our free forever plan (it’s not going anywhere – don’t worry), like market-leading data capture allowances and retention periods, unlimited users, and unlimited feedback responses across all of our plans, free and paid.

How our pricing has evolved

In the early days, this approach allowed us to get up and running quickly. We could get Hotjar into as many hands as possible, without worrying about the complexities of making our pricing match the value we were providing. We told ourselves we’d revisit our pricing model “some day”, but aside from a few small iterations, our plans have remained largely unchanged since Hotjar was founded back in 2014.

We’ve come to realize that this lack of evolution in how we charge for our service is problematic for us as a business and for our customers, because it ultimately prevents us from making the investment necessary to achieve our vision.

So, like any good product team would do, we spoke with our customers, dug into the data, and analyzed the wider market. It didn’t take long to identify one key area where our pricing and the value we’re providing were totally misaligned: the fact that we’ve always offered unlimited responses in our Surveys and Feedback tools, across all plans. 

We know that our customers get a huge amount of value from Surveys and Feedback. The responses these tools collect add vital qualitative context to the more visual insights in Heatmaps and Recordings. With that in mind, we decided it’s time for the value of Surveys and Feedback responses to be reflected in our pricing model.

What’s changing in our pricing model

These changes come into effect for new accounts created from April 4, 2022 and for existing accounts from July 1, 2022. Hotjar customers can then pick the right plan (Basic, Plus, Business, or Scale) to match their usage of each Hotjar product – Observe and Ask:

• Observe will include Heatmaps and Recordings, and plans will be based on the number of sessions you want to capture in those tools. The session allowances for each Observe plan will be the same as they were before: 35 sessions/day on Basic, 100 sessions/day on Plus, starting from 500 sessions/day on Business, and unlimited sessions on Scale.

• Ask will include Surveys and Feedback, and plans will be based on the number of responses you want to collect in those tools. Each plan will have a monthly allowance of responses across both tools: 20 responses/month on Basic, 250 responses/month on Plus, starting from 500 responses/month on Business, and unlimited responses on Scale. 

• Observe and Ask can be upgraded or downgraded separately based on each customer’s requirements, so you don’t need to be on the same plan for both products. A 20% discount will be applied if you choose paid plans for both products.

The updated pricing model in more detail

The first questions that are likely to occur to new and existing Hotjar customers are “what’s the monthly allowance of responses in each Ask plan?”, and “how much will it cost?” Here’s a breakdown of the new plans and pricing.

The best way to understand how this updated pricing model works is by checking our pricing page and trying out different combinations of plans for Observe and Ask.

Some key points you’ll notice on the updated pricing page:

• The previous sessions-based prices for all Hotjar tools are now the prices for Observe.

• There are separate prices for Ask that are based on monthly responses.

• The Basic plan will remain free for both Ask and Observe.

• You don’t need to choose the same plan level for both Ask and Observe.

• If you choose a paid plan for both Ask and Observe, a 20% discount is applied.

• This bundle discount is in addition to the existing 20% discount for paying yearly.

• You might not be sure how many responses per month is enough or what Ask plan to choose. As a general rule, we recommend starting with a plan that covers 10% of your total traffic. We’ll notify you when you’ve reached 50% and again when you reach 100% of your response allowance, and you can upgrade/downgrade at any time.

What about existing Hotjar customers?

These changes will take effect for existing Hotjar accounts from July 1, 2022. We’ll be in touch with all existing account owners via email with more information in the coming days.

Some key points for existing customers to note:

• You won’t be charged any more than you pay for Hotjar today unless you choose to upgrade.

• You will continue to have unlimited Surveys and Feedback responses, regardless of your current plan, until July 1.

• If you take no action, your site will remain on your current Hotjar plan for Observe and automatically default to the free version of Ask after July 1. Ask Basic includes 20 responses per month across Surveys and Feedback.

• If you don’t currently use our Surveys or Feedback tools, or if you collect less than 20 responses per month in these tools, you can continue using Hotjar exactly as you do today at no extra cost.

• If you do use our Surveys and Feedback tools, collect more than 20 responses per month, and want to continue doing so after July 1, you will need to choose the Ask plan that best matches your requirements. In our next email to your account owner, we will outline your site’s current number of responses per month to help you choose a plan.

• After July 1, if you do collect Surveys and Feedback responses, we will notify you when you reach 50% of your Ask plan’s monthly allowance of responses and again when you reach 100%. Once you’ve collected all of the responses allowed in your plan, your survey and feedback widgets will no longer display on your site until your allowance resets in the following month, or you upgrade to a plan with a higher response allowance.

What’s next?

Over the next few months, you’ll start to see even more improvements and new features popping up in our Surveys and Feedback tools as we begin to reinvest more heavily in their development. We’ll be in touch with our existing customers regularly between now and July 1 to make this transition as easy as possible. As always, our support team is on hand for any questions you might have.