ExpressVPN vs Hotjar

ExpressVPN and Hotjar (Product Experience Insights Tools) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Hotjar (rank #317) holds a modest lead over ExpressVPN (rank #569) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (44 vs 35). The gap of 9 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On code quality (the state of repositories, tests, releases and polish), ExpressVPN is slightly ahead of Hotjar. On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Hotjar is ahead of ExpressVPN. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), ExpressVPN is slightly ahead of Hotjar. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Hotjar is ahead of ExpressVPN. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Hotjar is ahead of ExpressVPN.

ExpressVPN carries 1,250 GitHub stars across 12 public repos, with 3 repositories active in the last 90 days and 7 external contributors on record. Hotjar shows 52 stars across 2 public repos, 1 active in the last 90 days and 2 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but ExpressVPN's footprint is roughly 24.0x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

ExpressVPN is the stronger read for anyone weighting community. Hotjar looks better where education is the deciding factor. The table below breaks the scores down pillar by pillar; the linked profiles cover the underlying repos, docs and community signals in full.