Crazy Egg or Hotjar for UK freelancers optimising websites?
Hotjar's free tier is stronger for small budgets. Crazy Egg's paid tiers include A/B testing (Hotjar doesn't natively). Both offer heatmaps, session recordings, and GDPR-compliant setup.
Key takeaways
- Hotjar: better free tier, GDPR-friendly
- Crazy Egg: A/B testing built in on paid tiers
- Both start ~$29-39/month on paid tiers
- Both work well with UK privacy requirements
- Choose Hotjar for solo experiments; Crazy Egg for structured tests
Editorial: Compared by the FreelanceToolkit UK editorial team from live product pages, hands-on trials of both platforms during 2026, and cross-referenced against ICO cookie guidance. Editorial policy · Sources & methodology · How we test tools.
In this guide
Crazy Egg and Hotjar are the two most-used behavioural-analytics tools for UK small-business websites. Both produce heatmaps, session recordings and on-site feedback tools; the differences are in feature emphasis, pricing, and A/B testing. For UK freelancers optimising a portfolio site or a client's landing page, either solves the primary problem — this comparison helps you pick based on your specific workflow.
Worked example
Your portfolio site converts 2.3% of visitors into enquiry-form submissions. You install Crazy Egg's £29/month plan to see where visitors click, scroll and hesitate. Heatmaps reveal 68% never scroll past the first project — because the CTA is above the second project. You move the enquiry CTA up, and run Crazy Egg's built-in A/B test comparing two headline variants. Two weeks later: 3.8% conversion, a 65% lift. Hotjar could have identified the same friction but doesn't include native A/B testing — you'd have combined it with a separate tool.
At-a-glance comparison
| Feature | Crazy Egg | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free trial only | Free plan (35 sessions/day) |
| Entry paid plan | $29/month (annual) | $39/month (annual) |
| Heatmaps (click / scroll / movement) | Yes | Yes |
| Session recordings | Yes | Yes |
| A/B testing (built-in) | Yes | No |
| On-site surveys | Basic | Best-in-class |
| Form analytics | Basic | Yes (add-on) |
| Setup time | ~10 minutes | ~10 minutes |
| GDPR / EU data residency | Configurable | Configurable |
Decision tree
Answer these questions in order — the first 'yes' with a clear steer usually gives you the answer.
- Do you need A/B testing built-in?
Yes → Crazy Egg (or add a separate A/B tool to Hotjar). - Do you want user surveys as a first-class feature?
Hotjar's survey product is stronger. - Are you optimising a client's site or your own?
Client work → Crazy Egg's white-label reports are useful. - Do you need EU/UK data residency?
Both support this — check current provider options at signup. - Is a free plan important initially?
Hotjar has a limited free plan; Crazy Egg is trial-only. - Do you use Google Optimize?
Google sunset it — Crazy Egg's A/B testing is a natural replacement.
Sources & official references
Every rate and threshold in this guide traces back to a published UK official source. All updated for the 2025/26 tax year.
Related on FreelanceToolkit UK
Website analytics used to mean Google Analytics — page views, bounce rates, session durations. That's still useful, but for UK freelancers, agencies and small business site owners running actual conversion optimisation, you need to see where visitors click, how far they scroll, and where they abandon. That's the category Crazy Egg and Hotjar own. This guide compares them honestly for UK use cases.
What these tools actually do
Both Crazy Egg and Hotjar are behaviour-analytics platforms that sit alongside (not instead of) Google Analytics. Where GA4 tells you what pages visitors reach, these tools tell you what visitors do on the page:
- Heatmaps — visual overlays showing where users click, tap and hover
- Scroll tracking — how far down the page visitors actually get
- Session recordings — video-like replays of individual user sessions
- A/B testing — running two variants of a page and measuring which converts better (Crazy Egg only)
- On-site surveys — pop-up questions to visitors (Hotjar's specialism)
- Form analytics — where users abandon forms and why
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Crazy Egg | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 30-day trial (no free plan) | Yes — Basic (35 sessions/day) |
| Entry paid tier | ~$29/month | ~$32/month |
| Heatmaps | Yes — click, scroll, movement | Yes — click, scroll, movement |
| Session recordings | Yes | Yes |
| A/B testing | Yes — built-in | No — requires separate tool |
| On-site surveys | Basic | Yes — best in class |
| Form analytics | Basic | Yes |
| Setup time | 5–10 min (single script) | 5–10 min (single script) |
| GDPR | Configurable IP anonymisation | Built-in EU data residency option |
| Best for | Freelancers optimising landing pages, agency A/B tests | UX research, user feedback, form analytics |
Best for — pick by scenario
- UK freelancer optimising a portfolio site: Crazy Egg — heatmap + A/B testing in one product beats swapping between tools.
- Small agency handling client sites: Crazy Egg — its A/B testing is the practical differentiator; also more affordable at scale.
- UX researcher wanting deep user feedback: Hotjar — surveys and form analytics are best-in-class.
- Content site trying to understand engagement: Hotjar free tier — 35 sessions/day is enough to spot patterns.
- Ecommerce or SaaS with strong CRO priority: Crazy Egg — the built-in A/B testing removes the need for Optimizely / VWO.
- Multi-site portfolio (freelancer + agency + client sites): Crazy Egg — better pricing at multiple domains.
Pros and cons
Crazy Egg
Pros
- Built-in A/B testing — no need for a separate tool like Optimizely or VWO
- Strong click and scroll heatmaps out of the box
- Predictable per-site pricing works well for freelancers managing 3–10 client sites
- Simple integration — one JavaScript snippet across all major CMSs (WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Shopify)
- 30-day free trial to prove value before paying
Cons
- No permanently free tier
- Survey functionality is less developed than Hotjar
- US-based data by default — check GDPR configuration before deploying to UK/EU visitor bases
Hotjar
Pros
- Genuinely free tier (35 sessions/day) — enough to run a portfolio site or small blog
- Best-in-class survey and feedback widgets
- Strong form analytics — pinpoints exactly where users abandon
- Widely recognised in the UX / research industry
Cons
- No built-in A/B testing — you need a second tool for optimisation experiments
- Session-based pricing scales faster than Crazy Egg's per-site model
- UI can feel busy for freelancers who just want quick heatmap answers
Pricing in detail
Crazy Egg publishes four tiers on its UK site: Basic (~$29/month, 1 site, 30k tracked pageviews), Standard (~$49/month, 2 sites, 75k pageviews), Plus (~$99/month, 5 sites, 150k pageviews), Pro (~$249/month, 25 sites, 500k pageviews). Billing is monthly or annual (annual is ~20% cheaper). Every tier includes heatmaps, session recordings, scroll tracking and A/B testing — the tier just determines how many sites and how much traffic you can track.
Hotjar's structure is different: Basic (free, 35 sessions/day, 1 user), Plus (~$32/month, 100 sessions/day), Business (~$80/month, 500 sessions/day), Scale (custom). Additional users cost extra above Basic. Feature access is tiered — surveys and form analytics unlock at higher plans. For a UK freelancer running a portfolio + 2 client sites, Crazy Egg Standard ($49/month) is directly comparable to Hotjar Plus ($32/month) but includes A/B testing that Hotjar lacks.
Effective per-site cost matters if you're an agency: Crazy Egg Plus at ~$99/month for 5 sites is $20/site; Hotjar at Plus is $32/site if each site has its own subscription. For anyone managing multiple sites, Crazy Egg's model is materially cheaper.
Real UK freelance scenarios
Solo freelance web designer with a portfolio + 3 client sites: Crazy Egg Standard tier. Portfolio + 2 client sites tracked at $49/month; the built-in A/B testing lets you demonstrate real conversion improvements to clients (which justifies your rate). Session recordings let you spot UX issues before clients complain.
UK content freelancer running a personal blog: Hotjar Basic (free). 35 sessions/day is plenty for understanding which posts hold attention. Surveys are useful for reader feedback.
Small UK agency, 8 client sites under management: Crazy Egg Plus tier — $99/month covers 5 sites; Pro tier at $249/month scales to 25. Compare to running Hotjar Business ($80/month per client site) which becomes $640/month for 8 sites. Not close.
UK UX consultant doing research projects: Hotjar — the surveys, feedback widgets and heatmap depth make it the UX-research standard. Pair with Crazy Egg only if the project also involves A/B testing.
UK ecommerce freelancer running Shopify sites: Crazy Egg — the WordPress/Shopify integration is trivially simple and the A/B testing directly ties to revenue impact.
GDPR and UK compliance
Both tools require attention to UK GDPR. Session recordings capture user behaviour, so you need explicit consent under UK PECR before firing the tracking script — most CMS cookie-consent banners handle this automatically once you register the tool. Both providers offer IP anonymisation and personal-data masking (Crazy Egg's is configurable; Hotjar auto-masks input fields by default). For UK / EU-only visitor bases, Hotjar's EU-data-residency option (available on higher tiers) simplifies compliance. Crazy Egg's default US data storage is fine under UK GDPR provided you disclose it in your privacy policy and secure user consent — same as Google Analytics.
Setting either up
Both tools install as a single JavaScript snippet in the site's `<head>`. Native integrations exist for WordPress (plugin), Webflow, Squarespace, Shopify, and generic HTML sites. Time from account creation to first heatmap data: 10–30 minutes for both. For a UK freelancer running WordPress, both offer official plugins that skip the manual snippet-install step.
After setup, both tools need traffic to generate meaningful heatmaps. Rule of thumb: 1,000+ pageviews before a heatmap is statistically useful. For low-traffic portfolio sites, this can take weeks; consider running paid social ads for a few days to bootstrap sample data.
Other UK-relevant alternatives
- Microsoft Clarity — free forever, heatmaps + session recordings, no A/B testing. Best for freelancers who want the analytics without any subscription cost.
- FullStory — enterprise-grade session replay; overkill for most UK freelance use cases.
- Mouseflow — direct Hotjar competitor with slightly better form analytics.
- Google Optimize — was the free A/B testing standard; discontinued in 2023, so no longer relevant.
- VWO / Optimizely — enterprise CRO platforms. Superior to Crazy Egg's A/B testing but 5–10× the price.
Pair Crazy Egg or Hotjar with
- UK-based hosting — see UKHost4U for freelancer + client-site hosting
- Landing page tools — Webflow or Carrd (both integrate cleanly with Crazy Egg / Hotjar snippets)
- Cold outreach — see our cold outreach playbook — heatmap the landing page your outreach drives traffic to
- Portfolio + client acquisition — Fiverr guide and productivity stack
- CRM — best CRM for freelancers — track which visitor sessions convert into leads
Ready to try one?
Crazy Egg's 30-day trial covers every feature — the fastest way to see whether behaviour data actually changes your CRO decisions.
Related: Freelancer Payment Chaser Email Guide — UK 2026 — from FreelanceToolkit UK.
Related: Business credit card vs charge card for freelancers — from FreelanceToolkit UK.
Related: Self-employed vs employed tax: the practical differences — from FreelanceToolkit UK.
Crazy Egg for freelancers who want conversion optimisation (A/B testing built in). Hotjar for UX research and user feedback (surveys and form analytics best in class).
Yes if you're actively optimising conversion. GA4 tells you which pages get traffic; Crazy Egg and Hotjar tell you what visitors do on those pages. Both perspectives are needed for meaningful optimisation.
Yes — website analytics and optimisation software is an allowable business expense for UK sole traders and Ltd companies. See our allowable expenses guide.
Rule of thumb: 1,000+ pageviews per page before a heatmap is statistically meaningful. For low-traffic sites, focus on high-value pages first (contact, pricing, key landing pages) rather than trying to heatmap everything.
Both can be, with configuration. Get explicit cookie consent before firing either tracking script, enable IP anonymisation, and disclose their use in your privacy policy. Hotjar offers EU data residency at higher tiers; Crazy Egg's data is US-based but usable under UK GDPR with proper disclosure.
Yes — the two tools track separately and don't conflict. Some UK agencies run both for the first month of a client engagement to see which delivers more actionable data, then pick one for the ongoing subscription.
Microsoft Clarity — free forever, includes heatmaps and session recordings. No A/B testing. Very solid for freelancers on zero budget.
Crazy Egg — it's the only one of the two with built-in A/B testing. Hotjar users typically pair Hotjar with a separate testing tool like VWO or Optimizely.
Start with the trial
Crazy Egg's 30-day free trial covers heatmaps, session recordings, scroll tracking and A/B testing — enough to prove whether it's worth the ongoing subscription for your specific use case.