The price anchor
| Hearback | Hotjar | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $0 — no subscription | $32/mo |
| Annual | $0 after purchase | $384 |
| 5-year total | $79 | $1,920 |
| 10-year total | $79 | $3,840 |
Subscription figures from the vendor's published pricing ($32/mo, ~$384/yr); the Hearback column is the full price, paid once.
Break-even analysis
Three months of Hotjar costs more than Hearback does once. Everything after that is free.
- After 1 year: Hearback has cost you $79 total — Hotjar has cost $384.
- After 3 years: Hearback is still $79 — the subscription is at $1,152.
- After 5 years: Hearback is still $79 — the subscription is at $1,920.
What you get for $79 once
- One-line embed. A single script tag. Self-contained JS + CSS in a shadow DOM, so your site's styles never leak in and the widget never leaks out.
- Feedback form. 1–5 emoji rating, Issue / Idea / Praise category, message, optional reply email.
- NPS surveys. The classic 0–10 with a follow-up question — shown once per visitor with a frequency cap enforced in the browser and on the server.
- Auto-captured context. Page URL, user agent, viewport, referrer and an anonymous visitor token arrive with every response.
- An inbox that works. Filter by mode, category, rating and status; full-text search; detail drawer; new → in progress → resolved workflow.
- No renewal, ever. The license does not expire and there is no per-seat meter — $79 is the whole price.
Pricing questions
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/feedback-widget-mvp. $79 buys the packaged version, 1-click setup and updates.
Does it do heatmaps or session recordings?
No — and we'll be straight about that. Heatmaps and recordings are Hotjar's other half, and Hearback doesn't attempt them. If you need to watch session replays, keep Hotjar. If what you actually use is surveys and feedback, Hearback covers it for 1/12th of one year's bill.
Are responses really unlimited?
Yes — they're rows in your own SQLite file. Hotjar's entry plan caps you at 500 survey responses a month; your disk is the only cap here.
Will the widget break my site's styles?
No — everything renders inside a shadow DOM, so your CSS and the widget's can't touch each other. The whole thing is ~9 KB of dependency-free vanilla JS.
Hearback — $79, one time
Or get Hearback plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.