OneTimeSuite Blog · 2026

Clickmap vs Hotjar: Open Source vs Subscription

Clickmap and Hotjar solve the same problem from opposite directions: one is source-available software you can own outright for $49, the other is a subscription at $39/mo run entirely on someone else's servers.

Head to head

ClickmapHotjar
Price$49 once$39/mo
SessionsUnlimited (your disk is the limit)Plan-capped
Data locationYour serverTheir cloud
Click heatmaps + scroll depthYesYes
Session replayYes (cursor/click/scroll stream)Yes (full DOM replay)
Rage-click filterYesYes
Surveys, feedback widgets, funnelsNoYes
Input recording riskImpossible by constructionMasked by config

What Clickmap does well

  • One-tag install — Drop a single defer script tag with your site key and start collecting.
  • Click heatmaps — Click density on a proportional page canvas, per URL, filterable by device and date range, with a most-clicked elements list.
  • Scroll-depth chart — See what percentage of visitors reach each 10% fold of the page.
  • Session recordings — Lightweight click/cursor/scroll event stream with a replay player: play/pause, scrubbing, 0.5-4x speed.

What Hotjar still does better

There's a real reason Hotjar costs what it does: a bigger team, broader integrations and dedicated support behind it. If that ecosystem is genuinely what you need, it's worth paying for.

Which one should you pick

If your workflow depends on Hotjar's specific integrations or you'd rather not run anything yourself, stay put — that's a legitimate call. If you're comfortable owning the tool and want to stop paying $39/mo for a job your own hardware can do, Clickmap pays for itself and then some: two months of Hotjar buys Clickmap outright, and it never prices you by the session again.

Try Clickmap — $49, once

Self-hosted click heatmaps, scroll depth and session recordings, all in your own SQLite file.