Varly vs Hotjar (now Contentsquare), compared
By Joost BakkerChecked on on each vendor’s own pages
The short answer
Hotjar is now sold as Contentsquare: you can no longer create a new Hotjar account, and new users sign up on Contentsquare instead (Contentsquare). Contentsquare has a free plan with heatmaps, replays, funnels and basic surveys, and paid plans priced by sessions (Contentsquare pricing). Varly (varly.ai), an EU-hosted CRO platform, is in private beta and charges one price per website, with A/B testing included.
What happened to Hotjar
- New accounts: Contentsquare's Hotjar page says it's no longer possible to create a new account on Hotjar (Contentsquare). hotjar.com/pricing now redirects to Contentsquare's pricing page (Contentsquare pricing).
- Existing accounts: Contentsquare may move Hotjar customers to its Free or Growth plans after a notice. After the move, Hotjar stays read-only for 90 days, and then the remaining Hotjar data is deleted (Hotjar service schedule). If you're on Hotjar, export what you want to keep.
So the real comparison today is Varly against Contentsquare's Experience Analytics (heatmaps and replays) and Voice of Customer (surveys) (Contentsquare pricing).
Comparison table
Checked on 7 November 2026. Every fact about the other tool links to that vendor's own page.
| Varly | Hotjar (Contentsquare) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €99 per website per month, or €89 a month billed yearly. Outside Europe: $125, or $112 billed yearly. | Heatmaps and replays: free up to 200,000 sessions a month; Growth from $39 a month billed yearly ($49 monthly). Surveys: free for 100 responses a month; Growth from $79 a month billed yearly ($99 monthly). Pro and Enterprise: custom prices (pricing) |
| Billing basis | Per website. One price, whatever your traffic. Yearly billing locks the price for 12 months. | By monthly sessions (heatmaps and replays) and monthly responses (surveys). 20% off when you pay yearly by card or PayPal in the app (pricing) |
| Can you start today? | No. Private beta with a waitlist. | Yes, on the free plan (pricing) |
| Hosting and data location | Hetzner, Germany. Cloudflare, a US company, delivers the snippet (sub-processors). | Free and Growth: Ireland, on AWS or Azure. Pro and Enterprise: Ireland or Virginia (US); EU customers default to the EU (sub-processors) |
| Heatmaps and recordings | Built in. Recordings are kept 30 days, favorites 13 months. | Free: heatmaps, and replays of 5% of sessions (10,000 at most), with 1 month of data. Growth: 13 months of data (pricing) |
| Funnels | Built in | Included, also on the free plan (pricing) |
| On-site surveys | Built in, with orders and revenue per answer | Basic surveys on the free plan; full surveys are a separate product, Voice of Customer (pricing) |
| A/B testing | Built in: A/B, A/B/n, multivariate, split URL and server-side tests | "A/B testing & outcomes analysis" is listed on Pro and Enterprise. Growth and up connect to Optimizely, AB Tasty and Kameleoon (pricing) |
| AI | Varly's AI builds test variants and summarizes research. It runs on your own AI key, billed by your AI provider. | Sense AI chat and replay and heatmap summaries from Growth (pricing) |
| MCP (use it from Claude or ChatGPT) | Yes. An assistant can read research, draft tests and, if you allow it, launch them. | Yes, on every plan: up to 300 tool calls a month on Free (pricing) |
| Mobile apps | No, web only | SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter (docs) |
| Consent | Does nothing until your cookie banner gives consent: no cookie, no data, no recording. | The web docs tell you to run an opt-out command for visitors who decline tracking (docs) |
| Script loading | Asynchronous. During a test it hides only the parts it changes, for 2.5 seconds at most. | Asynchronous loader, placed before the closing </body> tag or through a tag manager (docs) |
Varly facts come from our help center: pricing, consent, privacy and GDPR, survey results and connect Claude.
Choose Hotjar (Contentsquare) if…
- You want a free plan. Up to 200,000 sessions a month with heatmaps, replays, funnels and basic surveys (pricing).
- You need to start today. Contentsquare's free plan is open now (Contentsquare).
- You have a mobile app. Contentsquare has SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter (docs).
- You want 13 months of replay and heatmap data on a paid plan (pricing).
- You already test in Optimizely, AB Tasty or Kameleoon. Contentsquare Growth connects to them (pricing).
Choose Varly if…
- You want A/B tests in the same tool as your heatmaps, recordings, funnels and surveys, for one price per website (pricing).
- You want to know which answers and clicks go with orders. Varly shows orders and revenue per survey answer (survey results) and per clicked element (click to revenue).
- Your traffic is growing. The price stays the same, however many visitors you get.
- You want measuring to wait for your cookie banner by default, with text hidden in the visitor's browser before a recording leaves it (recording privacy).
- You want an assistant to build tests for you. From Claude or ChatGPT you can draft tests and, with your permission, launch them (connect Claude).
When Varly is not the right choice
- You need a tool today. Varly is in private beta with a waitlist.
- You only need heatmaps and recordings, and a free plan is enough. Contentsquare's free plan covers 200,000 sessions a month (pricing), and Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic limits (Clarity FAQ).
- You have a mobile app. Varly is web-only.
- You need form analytics. Varly doesn't have them.
- You want to keep every recording longer than 30 days. Varly keeps favorites for 13 months, the rest for 30 days (privacy and GDPR).
- You need US data residency. Varly stores data in Germany only.
How we checked
We checked every fact on this page on 7 November 2026 on each vendor's own pages, linked next to the fact. Varly facts come from our own help center. We left out anything we couldn't confirm on the vendor's pages. Prices and plans change; check the vendor's page before you buy. Varly is our own product, so read this page with that in mind. Spotted something out of date? Email support@varly.ai and we'll fix it.
More background: alternatives for heatmaps and recordings and EU-hosted heatmap tools.