UXTap vs Hotjar: Task Testing and Website Analysis with Contentsquare

Your site shows a drop in the registration step. The team wants to know if the form is difficult, if the proposal was not clear, or if visitors are just comparing providers. Observing an exit helps locate a question; it does not automatically reveal which of these explanations is true.

This is where the comparison between UXTap and Hotjar becomes useful. UXTap allows you to prepare studies with tasks, prototypes, websites, and questions. The name Hotjar, today, needs to be read alongside Contentsquare's offering, which brings together behavior analysis, replay, heatmaps, and other capabilities.

To investigate spontaneous use of an instrumented website, evaluate the current Hotjar/Contentsquare offering. To deliver a defined task to participants and relate the attempt to their responses, evaluate UXTap. There is overlap and possibilities for joint use; the choice does not have to be a complete exchange of one platform for another.

This text is published by the UXTap Team. The competitors' situation was checked against official sources on September 7, 2026, and UXTap's capabilities were verified in the code and documentation. The examples are investigation proposals, not results of an independent test between products.

What Hotjar Means in This Comparison

The official page states that Hotjar and Contentsquare have integrated into a unified platform. It features heatmaps, replay, surveys, funnel analysis, error tracking, and AI capabilities. Therefore, using an old list of Hotjar features or prices may lead to a decision about an offering that has already changed.

It is necessary to distinguish between current contracting and the situation of an existing account. Migration documentation describes specific rules for data, access, and transition. The presence of a feature on the new page does not guarantee that all historical data or old configurations will be available in the same way.

The analysis below considers the current offering, without attributing all modules to any plan and without reproducing promotional prices. Those who already use Hotjar should also review the specific conditions of their account.

Two Ways to Investigate the Same Drop

In website observation, the person arrives with an intention that the researcher has not defined. They might want to register, check conditions, or simply follow a received link. The behavior occurs within the context of the visit, with its interruptions and collection limitations.

In a task test, you invite someone and propose an objective. It is possible to prepare a fictitious account, choose a starting screen, and ask what the person expected. This makes the activity investigable but alters the context: the participant knows they are in a study and has received explicit motivation to try.

None of these conditions automatically makes the data superior. They answer different questions. A task completion rate is not the website's conversion rate; a page exit does not demonstrate that the person failed when trying to register.

A Roadmap for Investigating Registration

Imagine a service that requests a phone number before allowing account creation. The team suspects that the field causes drop-offs, but there has also been a recent change in traffic origin. There are at least two hypotheses: the form creates friction or people with less intention to register have arrived.

Locate the Situation on the Published Website

In behavior analysis, filter by period and device. Compare equivalent pages and steps. Consult sessions that advanced and sessions that exited; selecting only the most dramatic cases can distort the reading.

Contentsquare describes replay connected to journeys, heatmaps, and feedback, in addition to filters and error analysis. These features can help find relevant episodes in the contracted offering. A repeated click, however, still needs to be interpreted: there might be delay, error, expectation of a response, or a deliberate attempt to repeat the action.

Note a verifiable observation, such as “there was a return to the phone field before exiting.” Avoid immediately transforming it into “the user does not trust the company.” The second phrase requires additional evidence about the intention.

Turn the Doubt into a Task

In UXTap, prepare an activity such as: “You want to organize your team's work in this service. Explore the beginning of the registration and proceed as far as you feel comfortable.” Use fictitious data and define beforehand where the activity ends.

If you order everyone to fill in the phone number, you stop observing part of the hesitation you want to investigate. The instruction needs to match the question. A survey about the ability to complete might ask for completion; a survey about willingness to provide data asks for space for the person to decide.

Afterward, ask what they expected to find at that point and what information they considered necessary to continue. Confront the explanation with the recorded episode. A person might say they understood everything and still have repeatedly looked for the contact policy.

Test the Proposal Before Launching It

If the hypothesis points to a lack of context, build an alternative message in the prototype and test its comprehension. You can add an open-ended question or a content activity, depending on the decision.

After implementing the change, monitor website behavior under comparable conditions. An improvement in the test helps justify the proposal but does not guarantee an impact on real traffic. Campaigns, seasonality, and other changes can also affect the observed result.

This cycle links discovery, investigation, and monitoring. The onboarding with research guide helps choose a small enough step to produce a clear decision.

UXTap Tag and Extension: Limits That Change the Study

UXTap's real website testing offers two modalities. The tag requires access to install code on pages and allows participation via mobile. The extension works in a compatible desktop environment and tracks navigation during the test.

The tag does not capture a background image of the page, and its installation does not activate passive recording of all visitors. Task tracking is linked to the research session. There is a continuous research modality with an on-site invitation, but this also does not transform it into a general traffic replay tool.

If you need to see clicks on an interface image, validate the modality and device that will produce this evidence. Screen recording depends on browser permission and support; event-based replay is not a complete screen video.

Perform the rehearsal with login, redirection, opening another tab, and returning to the study. A task that goes through another domain requires verifying each segment. The tag versus extension guide and the real website testing page help choose the collection method.

Captured Session Does Not Mean Replay of Entire Session

In Contentsquare, the documentation distinguishes between sessions used in analysis and sessions available for replay. The portion captured for replay and the access period depend on the plan's conditions. Thus, a session quota should not be read as the same quantity of complete replays available.

This distinction affects the pilot and the budget. Confirm that the type of event you want to investigate appears in the collection and that there will be time to review the material. Do not expect to discover, after the round, that the necessary evidence was not captured or is no longer accessible.

In UXTap, check which participants and outcomes are in the analyzed database. A person might give up on a task and complete the rest of the study. These states have different meanings. The session replay material helps understand what can be reconstructed.

In any tool, validate what appears on authenticated pages and use appropriate material for internal sharing. The pilot should verify the concrete capture, including its limits, before it becomes a promise in the report.

Continuous Research Can Complement Analysis

A question presented in the context of use can help investigate a still recent expectation. In UXTap, continuous research allows configuring this type of invitation for a study. It serves to collect responses in the defined context, with display and participation criteria.

This does not eliminate the bias of those who agree to respond. People who ignore the invitation may have different experiences. Keep the response rate and participation conditions in the context of the analysis.

In the Hotjar/Contentsquare offering, surveys and feedback are also part of the investigation. If you already use these features and they answer the question, perhaps it is enough to refine the design. Adding another platform makes sense when it solves a concrete need, such as testing a proposal still in prototype with a chosen audience.

How to Compare Cost and Decide the Fit

The website analysis budget should consider traffic, sessions, replay portion, contracted products, retention, and instrumentation work. The budget for a task-based study should consider rounds, responses, recruitment, incentives, recording, and analysis. These are different units of work.

In UXTap, plans are presented in Brazilian Reals and recruitment is separate. In Contentsquare, confirm the composition of products and applicable limits. Do not just compare the entry price, nor conclude that a numerically larger quota offers more useful research.

Prioritize Hotjar/Contentsquare when the main need is to monitor real usage, locate episodes in traffic, and investigate behavior on already functional pages. Prioritize UXTap when you need to propose a task, test a version before launch, and relate behavior to the responses of recruited participants.

Consider joint use when the team needs both types of evidence and has the capacity to analyze both. Define who monitors the website, who formulates the task, and who verifies the effect of the change. Without this responsibility, two tools might only produce two rarely consulted archives.

Migration: Preserve What Will Not Be Transferred

For Hotjar accounts in transition, the official documentation consulted states that the Observe history, including data used in heatmaps, recordings, funnels, and saved analyses, is not transferred to Contentsquare. Surveys and feedback are treated differently in the described migration.

Review your account's notice and export what you need to keep before the applicable access termination. Organize the file by site, period, segment, and decision. Storing only captures without context makes it difficult to reuse the research.

If you start participating in investigations in UXTap, there is no promise here of importing this history or automatic continuity of indicators. Keep previous data as a reference and create your own database for new studies. Record the difference between observed visits and participants who received tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should Hotjar Still Be Evaluated as a Separate Product?

For a new choice, consider Contentsquare's current offering, presented as an integrated evolution of Hotjar. For an existing account, verify the transition and the conditions applicable to the history and subscription.

Does the UXTap tag replace continuous replay of my website?

No. It tracks the configured research session and does not capture a background image. Continuous research can invite visitors to respond, but this is not equivalent to recording all traffic navigation in replay.

Can I use UXTap before having a functional website?

Yes, with Figma prototypes or images and the appropriate method. Define what behaviors the material represents. A prototype result guides the design but does not measure the future conversion of the published website.

Why not directly compare conversion and task success?

Participants receive an instruction and enter a planned situation; visitors have varied intentions. Distinct bases and conditions produce distinct measures. Relate the findings without presenting the two percentages as if they were the same indicator.

Start by choosing a registration step and writing down what has already been observed and what is still a hypothesis. Consult the results resources and the heatmap analysis guide to link each conclusion to its evidence.