| Functionality | 7 <p>For a web analytics tool, we were pleasantly surprised by the depth of functionality that Matomo offers. Features such as heatmaps, session replays and scroll depth tracking are all unique when looking at Matomo's competitors. We also appreciate that the tool is open source and can be self-hosted should you wish.</p> | 6 <p>Hotjar dominates in visual analytics with industry-leading heatmaps and session recordings. While purposely narrower than full-spectrum analytics platforms, its specialized tools for click/tap tracking, scroll depth, mouse movement, and rage clicks provide unmatched visual behavior insights. It's best used alongside a more quantitative, events centric tool.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 3 <p>Given the sheer breadth of functionality and dated design, we found Matomo frustrating and confusing to use. Most of its interfaces are non-standard when compared with modern web analytics products and its more powerful features take a lot of effort to fully configure. It would take an average SMB employee several hours to master the platforms use.</p> | 8 <p>Hotjar excels in user experience with an exceptionally intuitive interface that makes complex behavioral data accessible through visual representations. The tool requires virtually no training even for non-technical users, with self-explanatory visualizations and intelligent filtering options that simplify analysis.</p> |
| Look and feel | 2 <p>Matomo's design is very dated. Most interfaces are extremely overwhelming, confusing or clunky. Given the sheer breadth of functionality on offer this isn't exactly surprising. Additionally, we found many pages to be sluggish to load (taking >3 seconds).</p> | 8 <p>Hotjar's interface is clean, visually appealing and purpose-built for clarity. The design prioritizes visual understanding with intuitive heat overlays and user recordings that require minimal interpretation. Navigation is straightforward and focused, with remarkably fast load times (<1s) for heatmaps and smooth playback for session recordings.</p> |
| Customisability | 7 <p>Matomo offers a lot of scope for customization. From custom reports to A/B tests there are a number of fine tweaks, visualization changes or experiment details which can be fine tuned to get the most out of your analytics experience. Additionally the product is open-source meaning you can self-host it if you wish to.</p> | 3 <p>While less customizable than comprehensive analytics platforms, its focused approach means most needed adjustments are readily available without overwhelming complexity.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 5 <p>Matomo offers a self-serve free trial like most of the tools in this sector. In terms of setup, most websites will only need to install a simple code snippet to access full functionality. That being said, if you want to take advantage of the more powerful features such as heatmaps, there is a fair amount of additional customization and setup required in the dashboard itself which can take several days.</p> | 8 <p>Hotjar offers remarkably simple implementation requiring only a single JavaScript snippet installation. The platform begins delivering valuable insights immediately after installation with no additional configuration required. Given the lack of functionality depth, there's little additional configuration needed.</p> |
| Customer Support | 3 <p>Like with most analytics tools, developer documentation and knowledge bases are the primary avenue for support. Unfortunately we found Matomos to be poorly laid out and hard to navigate. Beyond that, they offer a ticket system for help queries which take a few days to get responses from.</p> | 5 <p>Hotjar's documentation is middle-of-the-road. We would have preferred a more developer centric layout instead of providing articles in a help centre format which can be harder to navigate. Beyond this, email support replies take 24-48 hours in our testing.</p> |
| Integratability | 7 <p>Matomo offers an extensive API that goes beyond just gathering stats - it also allows you to access live data and make changes to goal/website configuration. Additionally, we were pleased to see easy set up with Google tag manager and BigQuery.</p> | 6 <p>Hotjar offers a number of native integrations with popular ticketing tools such as Jira/Linear, automation platforms like Zapier and analytics tools like Google Analytics/Mixpanel. It's integration range is somewhat limited when compared to larger, all-in-one product analytics tools though.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 8 <p>Matomo offers self-serve export of key data directly from its web app. Additionally, it also offers a strong API through which you can pull data programatically.</p> | 6 <p>Hotjar provides straightforward exports for heatmaps, recordings, and feedback data. Users can download recordings, export heatmap data as CSV files, and access feedback responses through the dashboard or API. While not as extensive as enterprise analytics platforms, the export capabilities align well with the qualitative nature of the data collected.</p> |
