Best Heat Map Tools for Websites
Are your website visitors not converting as much as you want?
Use a heat map to find where they drop off.
Are your users adding products to the cart but not checking out?
Use a heat map.
Do you want to know if your CTA button is doing its job?
Start with a heat map.
That’s right.
A heat map is step one to every conversion rate optimization process.
Heat mapping a website is like opening a window into your users’ behaviors. It gives you insights into what they do when they’re on your site. Which elements they focus on. And where they get frustrated or stuck. In short, it allows you to see the quality of user experience as website visitors navigate your site.
By knowing these things, your CRO campaigns can be tailored to your audience’ behaviors.
This means that you’re not just shooting in the dark and using best practices that worked on someone else’s site. Much like a doctor first needs to know what the disease is before he can prescribe a cure, you also need to know your visitors’ problems first before you can make changes to increase conversions.
But how do you know your visitors’ problems when you’re not in their houses to watch them as they navigate your site?
Enter heat map tools for websites. These tools open the virtual wall between you and your website visitors so you can “watch” your users’ behaviors and find your site’s bottlenecks.
Today, I’ll show you how to do this and which are the best heatmap tools to use.
We’ll talk about:
What is a Website Heat Map?
A website heat map is a visual representation of the collective behavior of website visitors. It’s presented in an easy-to-interpret image that shows how visitors experience your site. This is possible using website heatmap tools that collect the data, analyze it and then present it in a visual image. This means you don’t have to deal with numbers and mathematical equations. You simply get an image that presents the whole picture of visitor engagement. Also, with just one glance, you’ll know which parts of your site you need to start work on right away.
There are many types of engagement that heatmap tools measure. For example,
- How far down the page visitors scroll
- Which parts of the page visitors pay attention to the most and
- Which elements users click
These collective behaviors are then presented in the image using the color spectrum. Warm colors like red, orange or yellow mean the section gets a lot of attention. Cool colors like blue and green mean not so much.
The best heat map tools for website
If you’re just starting with heat maps, the most confusing part is choosing which heatmap tool to use. There are a lot of options available at varying prices and features which means that it can get a little overwhelming.
And y’all know how analysis-paralysis works.
At Convertica, we use VWO, an A/B testing software which comes with a heat mapping feature. However, the price can be prohibitive especially if you’re just starting out or if you’re using it for only one site. It’s a great option though if you run an agency or a big website.
With that said, there are other tools that you can easily install so you get started right away. I’m going to try and keep it nice and simple so you can roll out heat maps on your site and get some insights into how users engage with it.
Here are some of the best heatmap tools for websites that you can use.
Heatmap
Let’s start with Heatmap. Using a simple Javascript tag that you install on your site, you can easily “spy” on what your visitors do. Heatmap.com tracks the behavior of your users in real- time. As soon as you install it, you’ll immediately see what your visitors are doing.
Here’s a quick tutorial I did a while back using Heatmap.me (they have since rebranded to heatmap.com)
PROS
- Works on dynamic elements and supports most Javascript libraries
- Offers a forever-free plan that you can use for a maximum of 5 pages
- Anonymous tracking
- Easy to install and operate
CONS
- Doesn’t track conversions
- Not possible to segment users by device
Hotjar
When I first started with CRO, I used Hotjar a lot and loved it. I also used it for my clients’ websites back when Convertica was a one-man team. Many different features have been added to Hotjar since I last used it. It’s still known for the heatmapping feature, but it also now includes analytics tools for conversion funnels, polls, surveys and also form analytics.
Here’s my walkthrough of how to use Hotjar.
Pros
- Easy to use. Works out of the box.
- GDPR compliant
- Offers a free-forever subscription but with limited reports
- You can track number of clicks, mouse movement and scroll depth
- You can track the website visitor’s journey as they navigate the site. You’ll see where they enter and where they drop off.
- Ability to record user sessions
Cons
- Does not have iFrame functionality
Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is one of the most popular heat mapping software. Founded by Neil Patel & Hiten Shah, it is often recommended in internet marketing circles.
Crazy Egg is a software that’s loaded with features. If you’re ready to take your site to the next level, this might be what you’re looking for. Crazy Egg started as a heatmapping tool but now has other features for A/B testing and site analytics.
PROS
- As well as a heatmap tool, Crazy Egg also has the scrollmap and confetti. These are three ways to present data. A heatmap shows which part of the page visitors engage with. A scrollmap shows how far down the page they read and the confetti shows the source of traffic of the user clicks on a page. All these three combined, give you both a general and granular picture of visitor behavior.
- Gets a snapshot of your pages so you can easily compare visitor interaction between old and new pages
- Compares differences in behavior between different devices.
- Customizable
CONS
- Crazy Egg free trial is only for 30 days. After that, subscription starts at $24/month
- No WordPress plugin
- Too many features can make it overwhelming
- Does not have the capability to auto-run heatmapping
Lucky Orange
In my early days of internet marketing, I used Lucky Orange a lot. That was about 15 years ago. It’s nice to see how they’ve evolved as a company. I haven’t used it recently but I’ve noticed that it’s been getting a lot of traction in the last year or so.
Many business owners in eCommerce platforms like Shopify and Big Commerce rate Lucky Orange very highly. So if you own a shop that’s hosted on one of these platforms, Lucky Orange is a quick way to get started with heat maps.
Lucky Orange’s heat mapping tool shows elements clicked, scroll depth and mouse movement. And like a lot of heat mapping tools for website pages, it is more than just a heatmap tool. It’s also a conversion optimization tool that makes polls and surveys easy, tracks the conversion funnel, optimizes web forms and other website analytics tools.
PROS
- Works on dynamic website pages
- Offers a free trial period (7-days) and a very affordable starter package of $10/month unlimited heat maps and recordings
- Offers white-labelling
- Ability to segment users by device type or browser usage
- Track how users engage with every element on a page
- Form analytics feature is great for lead generation sites
- Easily integrates with the Lucky Orange live chat feature
CONS
- For the beginner, the many different features can be overwhelming
- Limited historical data for low-tier subscription
Mouseflow
When it comes to its heat mapping capability, Mouseflow has very similar features to Lucky Orange.
However, Mouseflow has an additional feature that Lucky orange doesn’t have. And this is the attention heatmap. An attention heat map is a useful tool to see how effective a piece of content is. Why? It shows you how long a person stays on a page. This isn’t just length of time on a page, the way Google Analytics does. An attention heatmap tracks exactly which part of the content holds a website visitor’s attention. With these insights, you’ll know which types of content to make more of. You’ll also have a better idea of where to put important elements like the call to action button on a page. Paid subscription starts at $29/month
PROS
- Supports iFrame
- Easy to get started
- A handy auto-tag feature. This makes it very easy for you to quickly see user behavior on a page that usually indicates a problem like click rage, dead time, or taps.
- An intuitive dashboard that’s easy for beginners to navigate
- Offers a free-forever plan. Simply start with a 14-day trial and then you can upgrade to the FREE forever package. It’s not easy to find on the product page. So scroll slowly or you’ll miss it.
- Live chat integration possible
CONS
- Free plan is very limited
- Mobile device screen recording needs improvement
Inspectlet
Last but not least is Inspectlet. With only two lines of javascript, you can quickly and easily use it. Inspectlet on your site. The tool can show your users’ mouse movements, clicks, scrolls and keypress.
PROS
- Very easy to use. Just add the javascript code and it immediately starts recording visitor sessions
- Very useful filtering function
- Has a free plan with limited features
CONS
- Pricey for small sites
To recap:
Don’t overcomplicate this.
This is what I suggest. If you’re an agency looking for an all-in-one A/B testing tool with heat mapping capabilities, get VWO. If you’re looking for a good budget heatmap tool or you run a Shopify store, get Lucky Orange or Hotjar. If you want to improve your content marketing strategy, use Mouseflow for its attention mapping tool. And if you’re looking for the best heatmap tool that works out of the box, get Inspectlet.
Most of these heatmap tools also have a free trial period, so you have no excuse. Just choose one and get it running right away.
Lastly, remember this:
The heatmaps give you insights into what your users are doing: which elements catch their attention, how far down the page they read and what they click on the page. As soon as you have this information, immediately move on to step two and decide what changes to make to alter customer behavior for the better.
Before you know it, you’ll have a website that’s easy for your customers to navigate, lessens friction and anxiety, and increases visitor engagement.
For more on what to do after using a heatmap tool, check out our other articles
Hi, I’m Kurt. Founder & CEO of Convertica. I live and breathe conversion rate optimization. I hope you enjoy my findings.
Use one of the links below to drop me a DM.
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