If you’re reading this, your business is probably in the process of starting or refining its mobile-first approach. There’s an even higher chance that you’re googling “ Hotjar for mobile apps’’ and scanning results to see what you’ve missed.
The bad news: You’re not missing something — Hotjar is not compatible with mobile apps. They do solid web analytics, though. The good news: UXCam supports session recording and heatmaps for mobile apps (Android and iOS) and hybrid apps.
Read on to learn about the top features Hotjar and UXCam offer and which analytics solution is best for both native and hybrid mobile apps. We’ll dig into a few use cases and give you the resources you need to improve your in-app user experience.
Which analytics solution is best for my platform?
Hotjar does not support mobile apps. It only works on websites and web-based applications.
Hotjar launched a beta version of their web-based service as an app in 2017 and took it offline just one year later. The end goal was to create a software development kit (SDK) for their customers to track actions on their mobile apps.
Hotjar for mobile app doesn’t currently exist due to technical limitations. Creating website code and building an SDK for native mobile apps are two very distinct processes that have very different architectures and technical requirements.
Mobile app analytics focuses on interaction design and task completion, while website analytics focuses on accessing information and information architecture.
In the end, Hotjar abandoned their app and SDK plans to focus on the core of their business: web analytics.
What’s a good alternative of Hotjar for mobile apps (Android, iOS and Hybrid)?
UXCam supports native mobile apps ( iOS and Android), including apps developed using cross-platform tools like PhoneGap, Xamarin, React Native and Flutter.
UXCam was founded in 2012 by a team of user experience (UX), mobile development and data analysis experts to support the need for mobile UX analytics. UXCam is at the heart of the shift to experiences over services. Its approach to experience analytics for native and hybrid mobile apps reflects that.
Both Hotjar and UXCam have found their niche and excel in providing experience analytics on their respective platforms.
Try UXCam for FREE now — with 100,000 free monthly sessions and unlimited features.
What features do UXCam and Hotjar have in common?
Hotjar and UXCam have replaced legacy tools that track more traditional vanity metrics in favor of capturing larger, micro-interaction data sets. UXCam integrates with other tools and provides resources (like this guide to building a mobile SDK stack) to complement traditional analytics with UX analysis.
Both solutions are focused on enabling their customers to understand their users and improve user experience. Two features the analytics solutions have in common are heatmaps and session recordings.
Heatmaps for native mobile apps (iOS and Android) with UXCam
UXCam helps deliver a great mobile experience by showcasing in-app user behavior. Heatmaps show you where customers tap (or gesture, double tap, rage tap, etc.), but also screen analytics (entry/exit rates) and all sessions that take place on the screen you’re reviewing.
Using UXCam’s mobile heatmaps is easy — try it on your app for free. The SDK captures usage data, which then gets used to generate heatmaps for your app.
With UXCam’s heat map feature, you can optimize your mobile app interface, create a better user experience, and increase funnel conversions. UXCam also integrates with other tools such as Amplitude, Firebase Crashlytics, and more.
Learn more about UXCam’s mobile app heatmap analytics or download this complete guide to mobile app heatmaps.
Heatmaps for the web with Hotjar (sorry, no Hotjar mobile heatmaps)
Hotjar doesn’t support mobile apps, nor does it offer its heatmap feature for use with native or hybrid mobile apps. As we mentioned above, Hotjar doesn’t have an SDK that enables analytics for native mobile apps, but their heat maps for web are available on desktop, tablet and mobile.
UXCam: session recordings for native and hybrid mobile apps
UXCam offers session replays as visual representations of real user sessions. Session recordings are based on clicks (web) or gestures (mobile apps) and are used to understand user behavior, replicate bugs, and find opportunities to improve conversions in mobile apps. Learn more about mobile session recording and session replay via our guide.
UXCam also offers funnel analytics and crash analytics. Both highlight bottlenecks and pain points so that you can improve your product and increase conversion rates on drop-off points.
Hotjar: session recordings for desktop, tablet and mobile
Hotjar’s heatmap behavior analytics suite allows you to review recordings, receive live feedback, and send surveys to your users. However, it doesn’t have funnel or crash analytics and can’t be used with native mobile apps.
The session recordings are playbacks of web-based user behavior on desktop, tablet or mobile. These recordings offer insight into user frustration and where they experience friction. Session recordings are not available for native mobile apps.
Choosing the right native mobile app analytics software
By now, you’ve realized that several platforms and frameworks are not compatible with Hotjar and that there’s no such thing as Hotjar for mobile apps. While there’s no question that web analytics are valuable, mobile-first is the future.
If your company’s mobile-first approach is also app-first, we hope we’ve given you the knowledge you need to make an informed decision on how you can empower your mobile teams — and take your user experience to the next level. If you’re ready to jump into different software, consider giving UXCam a try.
To learn more about what makes us the market leader in app experience analytics, start a free trial today.
AUTHOR
Audrey Meissner
Originally published at https://uxcam.com.
