Choosing the best heat maps tool can be a challenge.
There are so many different tools on the market that it becomes difficult to find one that is appropriate for your needs.
For example, some tools are designed specifically for website optimization while others focus more on mobile marketing and conversion rate optimization strategies.
In this blog post, I want to help you make the right decision for your business by exploring some of these options.
First, let’s explore what heat map tools are and how they work.
Heat maps track user behavior on a website in order to identify problem areas that need improvement or changes to improve conversions rates.
This is done through color-coding where red indicates a high concentration of user activity, yellow indicates medium usage levels, and blue means the area is underused.
Different tools have different features that you may find more attractive for your business needs. Some offer a free trial period while others are inexpensive to purchase outright.
- Best heat maps platforms
- How to choose the best heat maps tool?
- What factors matter when choosing the best heat maps tool?
- 9 of the best heat maps platforms compared
- Do you need just a heat map?
- Is content the only driver for choosing the best heat maps tool?
- So how do I choose the best heat maps tool?
Best heat maps platforms
The following table offers an overview of some top-rated heat map tools:
– FIgPii – All-In-One conversion optimization platform that offers heat maps, website polls, A/B testing, user recordings.
– Clicky – A/B testing tool with real-time analytics.
– CrazyEgg – Heatmaps and conversion rate optimization (CRO) software.
– Hotjar – Review and feedback platform that includes interactive recordings, surveys, quizzes, etc.
– Mouseflow – Multiplatform tracking software for recording mouse movements on desktop or mobile devices along with video annotations, heatmaps & scroll maps.
– Optimizely – Conversion rate optimization (CRO) and A/B testing tool.
If you’re looking for a comparison for all of these tools we’ve compiled the best heat map tools list so you can compare and contrast them all in one place.
This will allow you to make a decision that one for you, you can check it right here.
The purpose of this blog is to help you identify what your website needs the most and what’s the best heat maps tool that fits your needs.
How to choose the best heat maps tool?
Every platform has its ups and downs, and according to your business need, you need to start gathering information about what exactly do you need.
What I consider the best heat maps tool for my business can be an average one for your business.
Let me give you a real-time example.
Invesp which is a big CRO agency uses FIgPii as the go-to heat maps tool because it offers A/B testing tools, session recordings.
As they look for optimizations and missed conversion opportunities they want a full view from different angles of the website.
Also, they do a lot of A/B testing to improve the conversion rates, so they need all the data to be in on a centralized report at the end of the day.
Or if your site is primarily mobile-friendly then it’s best to go for one of those options that focus on cross-device tracking and heat maps.
In the end, there will be some factors influencing your decision like price point, features offered by the tool, etc.
But in order to make an educated choice about which software is right for you, I recommend going through different reviews before making up your mind.
Reviews can provide much more insight into what each product has to offer than just reading descriptions or visiting their websites alone.
What factors matter when choosing the best heat maps tool?
I’ll speak from my own observation on what makes a heat maps tool great, and what to look for when searching for one.
– The number of heat map reports that are offered.
– Ability to create personal segments and filters for the data gathered on your website
– Variety in visualizing options.
– Integration with other software that you use.
– Free trial period or a lower pricing point if purchasing outright
– Ease of setup, customization, and user experience on the platform.
9 of the best heat maps platforms compared
I suggest you read our full article where we looked at the top 9 heat maps platforms and compared them in detail, I’ll give you the short summary here.
Built-in A/B Testing | Session Recordings | Feedback Surveys / Polls | Data Storage | |
Hotjar | No | Yes (100 recordings/day with the base plan) | Unlimited (with all plans) | Up to 365 days |
FigPii | Unlimited (with all plans) | Yes (Unlimited with all plans) | Unlimited (with all plans) | Up to 2 months |
Mouseflow | No | Yes (500 recording/mo with the free plan; 5000 recordings/mo with the base plan) | Yes (1 – unlimited, varying with the pricing plan) | 1 month – 12 months (varying with the pricing plan) |
Smartlook | No | Yes (1,500 recordings/mo with the base plan; 7,500 recordings/mo with the base plan) | No | Up to 1 month |
Contentsquare | Yes | Yes | No | Up to 13 months |
FullStory | No | Yes | No | N/A |
Quantum Metric | No | Yes | No | N/A |
Microsoft Clarity | No | Yes | No | N/A |
Crazy Egg | Unlimited (with all plans) | Yes (100 recordings/month with the base plan) | No | 3 months – 2 years (varying with the pricing plan) |
Do you need just a heat map?
Heat maps are a great visualization tool, but the best heat maps platform is the one that uncovers what you don’t see using normal analytics.
Let’s take content for an example, what do you usually track when you look at your content?
- Time spent on page
- Bounce Rate
- CTR
- On page goals
Right?
But what normal analytics doesn’t tell you can be as crucial as the stats that your analytics gives you.
Let’s say we have a blog, a pillar blog that you spent hours and hours writing.
You want to know which is the best article out of all that you wrote, which one has the most engagement, and if your audience is getting bored with any particular topic.
But how do you find those answers?
Think about a heat map.
A heat map will be able to tell you exactly where people spend their time on the page which can help you understand the popularity of your content.
If people spend a lot of time on one article, that means it’s really good and worth promoting more.
If there are pages with no engagement at all, then maybe they’re not getting the attention they deserve which should guide you in writing new content for those topics or changing up how you present existing content.
In the end, heat maps are an invaluable tool for uncovering what you don’t see with normal analytics and improving your website’s performance in the process.
Is content the only driver for choosing the best heat maps tool?
No, there are a lot of factors that go into something like this, content is indeed one of them but you also have the reports.
Do you want an interactive report?
A scroll map that shows the conversion area, click maps to see where people are clicking on your site.
Is a heat map enough or do you need more detailed data like dwell time and page value score?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for this question because there are many factors that you need to take into account when choosing which heat map is best for your business.
Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the task at hand and what data you want that will determine whether or not a scroll map, click maps, or heuristic analysis would work best.
So how do I choose the best heat maps tool?
The best way to do this is by first going through the reviews for each product and then narrowing down your choices.
This way, you can make an educated decision based on what features are offered in a heat map tool from which company suits your needs.
I’ll also recommend getting everything set up before you need it because plenty of people make the mistake of spending money on a platform and then realizing they need something else.
FigPii specializes in providing high-quality web analytics tools such as heatmaps, user polls, A/B testing, and session recordings so signup today for 14 days free trial period and see how we can grow your business together!