Hotjar's own homepage now redirects to Contentsquare and says Hotjar is now Contentsquare, so this is a comparison of Contentsquare's experience analytics, which lists a free tier, with Fullstory. Both show where users drop off in funnels. Contentsquare leads with heatmaps, session replay and AI summaries; Fullstory leads with captured behaviour that feeds AI and personalised content.
Product managers, UX researchers and marketers usually come to this pairing with one practical question: where are people getting stuck on our site or app? Both platforms answer it with replay and funnels. What's changed is the name on one side, and that shifts what you're signing up for. Everything below comes from each company's own pages, unranked and unscored.
Questions to settle before any demo
Demos are built to impress. Walk in with your own list and you'll come out knowing far more. These are the questions that separate the two platforms once you strip away the sales pitch.
- Which flows you need to watch first, such as sign-up, checkout or onboarding.
- Who'll watch the recordings each week, and how much time they'll give it.
- Whether you need heatmaps, replay and funnels from day one, or one of them.
- Whether error monitoring belongs in the same tool or stays with engineering.
- Whether you'd rather read AI summaries of sessions or watch them yourself.
- Whether behaviour data should drive personalised content, or only inform decisions.
- Which company name will sit on your contract and your support account.
Write your answers down before you look at either product. If most of them point at understanding pages and fixing what you see, you're in one camp. If they point at feeding behaviour data into AI and automation, you're in the other. The rest of this page shows which platform describes which job.
Where the Hotjar name now leads
Type Hotjar's address into a browser and you'll end up on Contentsquare. The page says it plainly: Hotjar is now Contentsquare. So the Hotjar name now points to a wider experience-analytics platform, and that platform is the one you'd be comparing with Fullstory. Older reviews, tutorials and team habits may still say Hotjar; the product you'd sign up for is presented under Contentsquare.
That's not a reason to cross it off. It's a reason to check practical things early: how existing Hotjar accounts are handled, where help content now lives, and whether the features your team relied on appear on the Contentsquare pages. The free tier is a good example. Contentsquare's page lists attention maps, funnels and error monitoring on it, but limits on any free option change, so confirm what's included on the vendor's own site.
It also helps to be clear with colleagues about which name you're using. A product manager who says Hotjar and a buyer who reads Contentsquare on the paperwork can easily talk past each other, so agree on the name early and use it in your notes.
Fullstory hasn't changed its name. It describes itself as an intelligent digital experience company that captures real user behaviour and puts it to work, and its pages talk as much about AI and automation as about watching sessions. That's the real fork in this comparison.
Contentsquare and Fullstory in their own words
The Contentsquare side
The page Hotjar now leads to lists the ability to replay real user sessions, AI-powered summaries of heatmaps and recordings, and funnels that visualise drop-off at every step of your key flows. Its free tier, as listed there, includes attention maps, funnels and error monitoring. The emphasis is on seeing what visitors did and understanding it quickly, with AI doing some of the summarising for you.
The Fullstory side
Fullstory's headline is to capture real user behaviour and put it to work, so your AI moves faster and your experience improves. Its pages list identifying and eliminating the points where users struggle, seeing exactly where and why users drop off in funnels, and using real-time behavioural data and AI to automate personalised content and offers. It also speaks directly to product and engineering teams, with a line about finding and fixing friction fast to ship better experiences with confidence.
Put the two side by side and the overlap is clear: both do funnels and both talk about friction. The difference is in what happens next. Contentsquare's pages lean towards showing and summarising behaviour. Fullstory's lean towards putting that behaviour to work in AI, automation and personalisation.
Both platforms in one table
A short summary of each platform and the team it seems built for, in alphabetical order.
| Tool | Kind of platform | Who it tends to serve |
|---|---|---|
| Fullstory | Digital experience analytics platform | Product and engineering teams finding and fixing friction |
| Hotjar (now Contentsquare) | Experience analytics with heatmaps | Marketers and UX teams wanting heatmaps and replay |
Listed alphabetically, in no particular order
One line each, taken from what the companies say about themselves.
Fullstory
Best for: Product and engineering teams using captured behaviour for funnels and automated personalisation. Vendor claim: capture real user behavior and put it to work, so your AI moves faster.
Hotjar (now Contentsquare)
Best for: Marketers and UX researchers wanting heatmaps, session replay, funnels and error monitoring, with a free tier listed. Vendor claim: Hotjar is now Contentsquare.
A replay test on one live flow
Run the same small test in both before you commit. Choose one flow that matters, such as your sign-up form, and set up tracking on a staging site or a low-traffic page you're happy to experiment with.
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- Watch five sessions in each and note what you learned that you didn't know.
- Read any AI summary and check it against what you saw in the recordings.
- Build the same funnel and compare where each shows people dropping off.
- Ask a developer whether the output helps them fix anything.
- Ask a marketer the same question.
If your developer gets more from one and your marketer from the other, that's useful too. It tells you which team should own the tool, and that decision often matters more than any single feature.
Matching each platform to your team
If your team is marketing or UX led and wants to see what visitors do, with heatmaps, replay, funnels and AI summaries, the platform Hotjar now leads to is the one whose pages describe that job, and it lists a free tier to start with. If your team is product and engineering led and wants behaviour data feeding AI, automation and personalised content, Fullstory's pages are written for you.
Some companies need both jobs done, and that's fine. Start with the team that'll use the tool every week, since a platform nobody opens doesn't help anyone, and add the other job once the first one has stuck.
Whichever way you lean, keep the checklist from the top of this page. Run it again after the first month, once the novelty has worn off, and ask whether people still open the tool without being reminded. Recordings nobody watches and funnels nobody checks are the most common way a good analytics platform ends up wasted, and that has little to do with which one you chose.
If you'd like a wider shortlist, see these Hotjar alternatives and Fullstory alternatives, or the roundup of heatmap tools if heatmaps are the main thing you're after.
Do you make behaviour analytics or session replay software? Tool makers can ask to be considered for a featured place on this list.
Want your tool on this list? Featured spots and reviews here are paid partnerships. Here's how to partner with me.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hotjar now Contentsquare?
Its own site says so. Hotjar's homepage now redirects to Contentsquare, and the page states Hotjar is now Contentsquare.
Does Hotjar still have a free plan?
The Contentsquare page Hotjar leads to lists a free tier with attention maps, funnels and error monitoring. Limits change, so check the vendor's own site for what's included today.
Does Fullstory offer a free plan?
The Fullstory pages quoted here don't describe one. Plans change, so look at Fullstory's own site for current options.
Do both platforms show funnel drop-off?
Yes. Contentsquare lists funnels that visualise drop-off at every step of key flows, and Fullstory says you can see where and why users drop off in funnels.
Which teams is Fullstory aimed at?
Its pages speak directly to product and engineering teams, with a line about finding and fixing friction fast, and they also describe using behaviour data and AI to personalise content.
Do I need session replay and heatmaps?
Not always. Heatmaps show where attention goes across a page, and replay shows what one person did. Start with the one that answers your most pressing question.
