Sublim Analytics vs Hotjar by Contentsquare
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar and unified the group in July 2025. This comparison focuses on the Hotjar plan, designed for growing teams. Hotjar by Contentsquare does not include web analytics, and is not GDPR-compliant by default. Sublim combines behavioral analytics, web analytics, and AI in one EU-hosted platform.
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At a glance
All-in-oneFull web analytics + behavioral analytics + SEO in one GDPR-compliant platform. Unified dashboard, AI insights, heatmaps, session recordings, and task management: no extra subscriptions.
- Unified dashboard: traffic, behavior, SEO
- Heatmaps & session recordings
- AI-powered insights
- EU-hosted (France)
- Task management included
- One platform, no tool switching
Behavioral toolSMB-focused behavioral analytics: heatmaps, session recordings, and user surveys for growing teams. Part of the Contentsquare group since July 2025.
- Industry-standard heatmaps & recordings
- Free plan available
- Feedback & survey tools
- AI-powered experience intelligence
- No web analytics included
- Data stored outside EU by default
- Requires a consent banner (cookie-based)
- Requires a separate web analytics tool
Feature-by-feature comparison
Hotjar by Contentsquare focuses on behavioral analytics, but does not include web analytics, EU data hosting by default, or full GDPR compliance out of the box. Sublim covers all of this in one platform.
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Heatmaps | ||
| Session recordings | ||
| Click maps | ||
| Scroll depth tracking | ||
| Full web analytics | ||
| AI-powered insights | ||
| EU-hosted data | ||
| GDPR compliant | ||
| Cookie-free tracking | ||
| Task management | ||
| Conversion funnel analysis | ||
| User feedback / surveys | ||
| Campaign tracking | ||
| Automated reports | ||
| SMB-accessible pricing | ||
| Transparent pricing | ||
| Free plan |
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Deep dive
A closer look at the key differences between Sublim and Hotjar by Contentsquare.
Hotjar by Contentsquare: What Changed After the Acquisition
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in 2021 and completed the full legal merger in July 2025. The product is now officially branded 'Hotjar by Contentsquare'. For SMB users, the day-to-day experience remains largely the same: heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys at session-based pricing. The acquisition introduced new AI features and a roadmap aligned with Contentsquare's enterprise vision, but the SMB product has not fundamentally changed.
What Hotjar by Contentsquare does well
Hotjar has set the standard for SMB behavioral analytics for years. Its heatmaps are easy to read, session recordings are reliable, and the survey and feedback tools are genuinely useful for user research. For teams that want to understand how users interact with a specific page, Hotjar is fast to set up and covers the basics well.
The AI features added post-acquisition (Trends, automated survey summaries) are a meaningful step forward. They reduce the manual effort of going through recordings one by one and surface patterns that would otherwise require analyst time.
The missing piece: web analytics
Hotjar by Contentsquare does not include web analytics. You can see where users click on a page and watch session recordings, but you cannot see which channel drove that traffic, what campaigns are converting, or how organic search performance compares to paid. Every Hotjar customer needs a separate web analytics tool running in parallel.
This is not a minor gap. Web analytics and behavioral analytics answer different questions, but they are strongest when the answers can be connected. A heatmap that shows users dropping off at a CTA is more actionable when you also know that the traffic came from a low-intent keyword with a high bounce rate across all pages. Without that connection, behavioral insights float without context.
GDPR and Data Hosting: What to Know Before You Install
Hotjar by Contentsquare is not GDPR-compliant by default. Understanding what that means in practice helps you assess the real cost of the tool for EU-based teams.
Cookies, consent banners, and what you miss
Hotjar by Contentsquare uses cookie-based tracking by default. Visitors must consent before their behavior is recorded, which means any visitor who declines, uses an ad blocker, or browses in private mode will be invisible to your heatmaps and recordings. In EU markets with active consent management, this can exclude 30–50% of your traffic.
Data residency adds another layer of complexity. While Hotjar by Contentsquare has moved toward EU data center use, the legal jurisdiction of a US-headquartered group means that data protection authorities in France and Germany have scrutinized similar setups. Compliance is achievable but requires configuration and ongoing review.
Sublim's approach: GDPR by architecture, not configuration
Sublim's behavioral analytics are built on cookieless tracking. No consent banner is required, which means you capture 100% of your visitors, including those who would decline a cookie dialog. All data is stored in France, under EU legal jurisdiction, with no third-country data transfers.
The practical benefit is not just legal: it is data quality. A heatmap built on 100% of your traffic reflects reality. A heatmap built on the 60% who consented shows you the behavior of a self-selected group that is demonstrably different from visitors who block or decline tracking.
Behavioral Analytics and Web Analytics: Stronger Together
The standard analytics stack for most marketing teams involves two separate tools: a behavioral analytics tool like Hotjar and a web analytics tool like Google Analytics. This setup works, but it creates friction at the point where insights matter most.
The gap between sessions and traffic
Hotjar shows you what happened during a session: where users clicked, how far they scrolled, where they dropped off. Web analytics show you where those users came from: which channel, campaign, keyword, or referrer. The connection between the two (that users from paid search behave differently on your landing page than users from organic) is the insight that drives decisions.
With separate tools, making that connection means manually cross-referencing data, segmenting recordings by UTM parameters, and building context that neither tool provides on its own. It works, but it is slow and error-prone.
The integrated approach
Sublim combines behavioral analytics and web analytics in a single platform. Heatmaps and session recordings are linked to the same session data that shows traffic source, campaign attribution, and conversion outcomes. When Sublim's AI flags a page with a high drop-off rate, it already knows whether that page is primarily receiving organic, paid, or direct traffic, and can connect the behavioral signal to the acquisition channel.
For teams managing both behavioral and traffic data, this eliminates the context-switching and manual correlation that makes insights slow to reach. The analysis is done automatically, in one place, on data that is already connected.
Which behavioral analytics tool should you choose?
Choose Sublim if...
- You want behavioral analytics AND web analytics in one platform
- You need EU-hosted, GDPR-compliant behavioral data
- You want AI to automatically analyze heatmaps and recordings
- You need to connect behavioral insights to traffic and conversion data
- You want to eliminate the cost of a separate Hotjar subscription
- You want a single subscription covering behavioral analytics, web analytics, and AI
Consider Hotjar by Contentsquare if...
- You need behavioral analytics on a completely free plan
- You specifically need user feedback surveys and NPS tools
- You already have a web analytics solution and only need behavioral data
Frequently asked questions
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar: what does this mean?+
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in 2021 and completed the legal merger in July 2025. The SMB product is now officially branded 'Hotjar by Contentsquare'. For most users, the day-to-day experience has not changed: same heatmaps, recordings, and surveys, with new AI features progressively added since the acquisition. Pricing and the core feature set remain focused on growing teams.
Is Hotjar by Contentsquare GDPR-compliant?+
Not by default. Hotjar by Contentsquare uses cookie-based tracking and requires a consent banner, which means a significant share of EU visitors are never recorded. Data residency is partially in the EU but the legal jurisdiction of a US-headquartered group adds complexity. Compliance is achievable with configuration, but it is not guaranteed out of the box. Sublim stores all data in France: GDPR-compliant by default, no configuration needed.
Does Sublim have heatmaps like Hotjar?+
Yes. Sublim includes heatmaps, click maps, scroll depth tracking, and session recordings: the core behavioral analytics features Hotjar is known for. These are integrated with Sublim's web analytics and AI insights in one platform.
Can I replace Hotjar with Sublim?+
For most paid use cases, yes. Sublim covers Hotjar's core behavioral features (heatmaps, recordings, scroll depth) and adds web analytics and AI on top. Two things to know: behavioral analytics in Sublim requires a paid plan (the free plan covers web analytics only), and Hotjar's user feedback surveys and NPS widgets are not yet in Sublim.
How does Hotjar by Contentsquare pricing compare to Sublim?+
Hotjar by Contentsquare has a free plan (up to 10,000 session replays/month, basic heatmaps). Paid plans start at €39/month. Sublim's pricing includes behavioral analytics, web analytics, AI, and task management in one bundle. See our pricing page for details.
