Hotjar vs Plausible Analytics

Hotjar (Product Experience Insights Tools) and Plausible Analytics (Simple, open source, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.) both appear on the Smoower Developer Ecosystem Index.

Hotjar (rank #317) holds a narrow lead over Plausible Analytics (rank #338) on the overall Smoower ecosystem score (44 vs 43). The gap of 1 points reflects composite signals across code, docs, community and reach.

On education (docs, guides and learning material for developers), Hotjar is ahead of Plausible Analytics. On community (issue response, PR reviews and discussion health), Plausible Analytics is clearly ahead of Hotjar. On reach (how visible the ecosystem is beyond its own repos), Hotjar is ahead of Plausible Analytics. On momentum (release cadence and how fast the ecosystem moves), Plausible Analytics is ahead of Hotjar.

Hotjar carries 52 GitHub stars across 2 public repos, with 1 repositories active in the last 90 days and 2 external contributors on record. Plausible Analytics shows 31,145 stars across 21 public repos, 7 active in the last 90 days and 23 external contributors. The star gap on its own does not decide the comparison, but Plausible Analytics's footprint is roughly 598.9x larger, which usually shows up in downstream signals like inbound issues and third party integrations.

Hotjar is the stronger read for anyone weighting education. Plausible Analytics looks better where community 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.