Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar

Compare Friendly Analytics and Hotjar on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Google Analytics

Friendly Analytics

Switzerland· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you need full Matomo depth (heatmaps, funnels, ecommerce, API) with Swiss product hosting and managed privacy defaults—especially regulated CH/EU orgs leaving Google Analytics. Skip when you only want a minimal pageview counter, a free self-serve tier, or pure DIY Matomo ops—consider Plausible, etracker, or self-hosted Matomo instead.

Matomo-as-a-ServiceCookieless by defaultSwiss product hostingISO 27001 (claimed)DPA availableEU / on-prem option

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Hotjar

France· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist for Contentsquare-owned heatmaps and replay with a public DPA and Ireland defaults. Skip if you need an independent recorder or no US-group cloud. Consider Mouseflow.

EU-operated (Contentsquare)Heatmaps + session replaySurveys and feedbackPublic B2B DPAISO 27001 (claimed)

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar: Snapshot
Feature	Friendly Analytics	Hotjar
Country of origin	Switzerland	France
Category	Web Analytics	Web Analytics
Open source	Yes	No
Self-hosted	Yes	No
Headquarters	Switzerland	France
Legal entity	Friendly LLC (Friendly GmbH on DPA), Werkhofstrasse 5, 6052 Hergiswil, Switzerland	Content Square SAS, Paris (EU Hotjar contractor). Historical Hotjar Ltd Malta merged 1 July 2025.
Governing law	Swiss law (per customer principal agreement / DPA framework)	Not listed
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Medium	Medium
Hosting / residency	Analytics product: Infomaniak (CH) primary hosting; Netstream and Hosttech (CH) backups. AWS listed only for Friendly Automate email, not Analytics. Enterprise marketing also offers EU or on-premise hosting. Company ops: US SaaS including Google Workspace, HelpScout, Stripe, Notion, Calendly, Cloudflare (help docs).	Visitor data: AWS and Azure Ireland for Free/Growth and VoC Observe/Surveys. Pro/Enterprise may pick Ireland or Virginia. Defaults: EU/Japan to EU; US and most other APJ to US. Support: Content Square, Inc. and Zendesk (USA), Atlassian (Australia). Sense AI on AWS Bedrock/Azure; survey AI on Azure OpenAI France. Engage: Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous.
Summary	Swiss Matomo-as-a-Service: cookieless-by-default web analytics with heatmaps, funnels, and ecommerce, product data hosted in Switzerland, plus enterprise DPA and on-prem options.	Contentsquare-owned heatmaps, session replay, and on-site surveys. French-group SaaS with default EU hosting on AWS and Azure Ireland, not an independent Maltese startup.
Tags	gdpr analytics matomo privacy open-source switzerland nfadp enterprise self-hosted	gdpr heatmaps session-replay experience-analytics voice-of-customer contentsquare

At a glance: Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar
At a glance	Friendly Analytics	Hotjar
HQ	Hergiswil, Switzerland	Not listed
Legal entity	Friendly LLC / Friendly GmbH	Not listed
Stack	Matomo (unmodified + premium plugins)	Not listed
Product hosts	Infomaniak; backups Netstream & Hosttech (CH)	Not listed
Commercial model	Hit-based SaaS; enterprise custom; no free trial	Free tier plus paid Growth, Pro, and Enterprise (see vendor site for current terms)
Open source base	Matomo; portable to other Matomo hosts	Not listed
Current HQ / entity	Not listed	Content Square SAS, Paris, France
Origin	Not listed	Founded in Malta in 2014 (vendor history)
Ownership	Not listed	Contentsquare group (acquired 2021, merged 1 July 2025)
Hosting (public)	Not listed	AWS/Azure Ireland default for EU Free/Growth; Virginia optional on higher plans
Deployment	Not listed	SaaS JavaScript tag; not self-hosted; not open source

Key capabilities: Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar
Key capabilities	Friendly Analytics	Hotjar
Matomo-as-a-Service	Yes	Not listed
Cookieless by default	Yes	Not listed
Swiss product hosting	Yes	Not listed
ISO 27001 (claimed)	Yes	Not listed
DPA available	Yes	Not listed
EU / on-prem option	Yes	Not listed
EU-operated (Contentsquare)	Not listed	Yes
Heatmaps + session replay	Not listed	Yes
Surveys and feedback	Not listed	Yes
Public B2B DPA	Not listed	Yes
ISO 27001 (claimed)	Not listed	Yes

Friendly Analytics

Matomo-as-a-Service with privacy defaults
Runs unmodified Matomo plus selected premium plugins, preconfigured for cookieless tracking, IP truncation, and nFADP/GDPR-oriented defaults so teams avoid operating Matomo themselves while keeping exit paths to another Matomo host.
Heatmaps, funnels, session recording, and ecommerce
Beyond pageviews: heatmaps, privacy-oriented session replays, conversion funnels, form analytics, A/B tests, and ecommerce reporting for UX and revenue analysis without bolting on a separate US product suite.
Swiss product hosting with EU or on-prem options
Visitor analytics hosted with Infomaniak in Switzerland; backups via Netstream and Hosttech (CH). Enterprise can contract Swiss, EU, or on-premise placement—confirm region in the order form rather than assuming SaaS-only CH.
Ads conversion export without third-party pixels
Advertising Conversion Export sends conversions to Google or Bing via API so campaigns can be optimized without placing those vendors' tracking codes on your site—useful when privacy policy bans extra ad tags.
GA import, reporting API, and Matomo portability
Historical Google Analytics data can be imported (manual, effort-billed). Reporting API and live export links feed BI tools; data can move to another Matomo instance, limiting classic SaaS lock-in.
Enterprise contracts, SSO, and dedicated instances
Enterprise tier adds custom DPA/DORA/NDA/SLA paperwork, dedicated account management, SSO, custom domain, dedicated instance, and phone/video support for banks, insurers, and public bodies.

Hotjar

Click, move, and scroll heatmaps with Attention Maps
Aggregated overlays show where visitors click, hover, and scroll. Contentsquare documents Attention Maps (engagement, not only clicks) and, on the wider platform, zone-based heatmaps that attach conversion context to page elements. Use this when a page-level bounce rate does not explain the layout. Coverage is limited to sessions the tag actually captures and to pages the recorder can reconstruct.
Session replay with claimed automatic masking
Replays mouse movement, clicks, taps, and scrolls so UX and engineering can watch a single journey. Official pages describe event-triggered recording, comments, and jump-to-replay from heatmaps or surveys. Contentsquare states that card and bank details are masked automatically. You still must suppress other personal data with blocking scripts or field exclusion. This is a browser reconstruction, not a server-side log archive.
Surveys, feedback widgets, and Engage research
On-site surveys and feedback widgets (Ask) plus user interviews and unmoderated tests (Engage). The DPA treats this as Voice of Customer. Observe and survey visitor data is hosted on AWS Ireland. Interview and user-test recordings are retained for 2 years per the DPA. Engage adds extra subprocessors (Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous). Response volume is plan-gated.
Funnels that open the matching recordings
Build step funnels and open sessions that converted or dropped at a step. That pairing is the reason teams keep a recorder next to GA-style charts. Advanced journey and multi-session funnel work sits on Contentsquare product analytics (Heap lineage), not on the classic Hotjar-only recorder. Funnel depth and comparison features are plan-dependent.
Error and speed context on the Contentsquare platform
The unified platform adds JavaScript error lists ranked by impact and speed analysis tied to behavior. Classic standalone Hotjar was weaker here. Full network-waterfall debugging is a platform capability. If you refuse the DXA transition you may not get this layer. Errors are only as good as what the browser tag can see.

Assurance & compliance: Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar
Assurance & compliance	Friendly Analytics	Hotjar
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found Vendor describes anonymization defaults and mentions external pen tests in ISO materials; no public independent no-logs audit report found.	On request / NDA Vendor claims annual external penetration tests and publishes a Trust Portal with pentest reports behind access. No public independent no-logs audit (this is a recorder, not a no-logs VPN).
ISO 27001	Vendor claimed Vendor publishes ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification covering the company/products with a certificate PDF; not independently re-verified against the cert body registry in this draft.	Vendor claimed Contentsquare states it is ISO 27001 certified (also claims ISO 27017, 27018, 27701). Certificates are on the Trust Portal; not independently downloaded for this draft.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 claim found on security/about pages reviewed.	Vendor claimed Trust portal and security pages claim a SOC 2 Type II report. Report not independently downloaded.
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed Swiss entity; public materials assert nFADP and GDPR alignment; cookieless defaults and CH processing described in DPA.	Vendor claimed EU parent and contracting entity for non-Americas Hotjar Services. Public DPA, SCCs, and GDPR language. Customer is controller and must supply a lawful basis for visitor capture.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial Swiss entity, no known US parent; Analytics product hosts are Swiss (Infomaniak/Netstream/Hosttech). Medium/partial because company subprocessors include US SaaS (e.g. Google Workspace, HelpScout, Stripe, Cloudflare). AWS not used for Analytics per vendor list. Indicative only—not legal advice.	Partial Assessment, not a vendor slogan. French parent and no known US parent, but AWS and Azure host visitor data, Content Square, Inc. and Zendesk process support data, and US regions exist. Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed Public DPA text for Friendly GmbH; customers asked to contact to sign. Enterprise also references DORA/NDA/SLA packs.	Vendor claimed Public Contentsquare DPA incorporated by the MSA. Execution of the MSA or an order form is treated as execution of the DPA and SCCs.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Web analytics SaaS; not positioned as an AI system product.	Not applicable Core product is analytics and replay, not an AI system sold as such. Sense AI and survey LLMs exist as optional features. Confirm AI Act role if you enable those modules.
ISO 9001	Vendor claimed Vendor publishes ISO 9001 certification materials alongside ISO 27001.	Not listed
CSA STAR	Not listed	Vendor claimed Security page displays a STAR badge. Scope and level not independently verified.

Considerations & known limitations: Friendly Analytics vs Hotjar
Considerations & known limitations	Friendly Analytics	Hotjar
US company-operation subprocessors	Medium Support, email/calendar, payments, CRM/docs, and help-docs edge use US-headquartered SaaS even though Analytics visitor data hosts are Swiss. Material for DPIAs that demand zero US processors in any vendor process.	Not listed
Cookie features can reintroduce consent needs	Low Default is cookieless, but enabling cookie-based Matomo capabilities may require banners for EU visitors—configuration discipline required.	Not listed
Small Swiss operator dependency	Low Seven-person-scale Open Startup; mitigations include Matomo portability and open financial transparency, but capacity and roadmap still depend on a small firm.	Not listed
Certifications vendor-published	Low ISO 27001/9001 are claimed with PDFs on the vendor site; procurement should verify certificate validity with the issuing body.	Not listed
Do not conflate with Friendly Automate	Medium Automate uses AWS for email sending. Scope assessments to Analytics-only subprocessors unless you also buy Automate.	Not listed
No longer an independent Maltese company	Not listed	High Acquired in 2021 and described as merged into Contentsquare on 1 July 2025. New contracts are Contentsquare entities. A scheduled DXA transition from 18 August 2026 can move data and retire the old UI unless you elect to stay. Practical impact: vendor risk, product roadmap, and DPA counterparty are the French group, not Hotjar Ltd.
US-group cloud and US support path	Not listed	Medium Visitor data sits on AWS and Azure. Zendesk (USA) and Content Square, Inc. handle support. US regions are default for some geographies. Practical impact: an Ireland region does not remove US-group infrastructure from a CLOUD Act discussion.
Session replay can capture extra personal data	Not listed	Medium The vendor asks customers to block non-permitted personal data and claims card masking. Misconfigured tags still record inputs or on-screen PII. Practical impact: you need a suppressions review and a consent story before go-live.
SaaS tag only	Not listed	Low No official self-hosted or open-source edition. Practical impact: skip this product if residency rules require your own servers.
Optional LLM features add extra processors	Not listed	Low Sense AI and survey AI use AWS Bedrock and Azure OpenAI. Practical impact: disable those features or map their regions if procurement treats LLMs as a separate transfer.

Fit

Friendly Analytics

Best fit when

Teams that want Matomo's full feature set without self-hosting ops burden
Swiss and EU organizations prioritizing CH product residency (Infomaniak + CH backups)
Sites aiming for cookieless measurement under default privacy configuration
Marketing teams needing heatmaps, funnels, ecommerce, and ad conversion export without Google Analytics
Enterprises needing DPA/DORA/SLA paperwork, SSO, or dedicated instances

Poor fit when

Buyers who only need lightweight pageview analytics and prefer a free tier (see Plausible-class tools)
Teams that must self-operate every component with no SaaS operator in the path
Orgs that require zero US-headquartered tools anywhere in the vendor's company stack (support/billing SaaS is disclosed)
Use cases outside web/app analytics (Friendly Automate is a different product with different subprocessors)

Consider instead when

When: You want a minimal, open-source, cookieless counter with simpler SaaS UX
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Less Matomo plugin depth; different hosting/operator story (Estonia).
When: You need German enterprise analytics with long public-sector track record
Consider: etracker
Different stack (not Matomo); compare cookieless claims and contracts directly.
When: You prefer a modern EU analytics product with open-source core and lean UI
Consider: Pirsch Analytics
Germany-based; trade Matomo feature breadth for a different product surface.
When: You already run Matomo well and only need software, not a Swiss operator
Consider: Self-hosted Matomo
Maximum control; you own privacy config, updates, and hosting risk.

Hotjar

Best fit when

UX, CRO, and product teams that need heatmaps and session replay next to existing page analytics
EU organisations that will accept a French group parent and Ireland hosting on AWS or Azure
Teams that want on-site surveys and feedback tied to the same visitor sessions
Buyers who prefer a published DPA and named subprocessors over a free US recorder with no contract
Existing Hotjar tenants planning how to stay on Hotjar Services or move to Contentsquare DXA

Poor fit when

Teams that require self-hosted or open-source analytics with no third-party tag
Procurement that forbids US-group clouds (AWS, Azure) or US support SaaS such as Zendesk
Sites that cannot lawfully record mouse paths and form interactions even with masking
Buyers who only need cookieless page counts and do not want replay
Organisations that need the vendor to remain an independent Maltese company

Consider instead when

When: You want session replay and heatmaps from an independent European vendor, not the Contentsquare group
Consider: Mouseflow
Danish SaaS with selectable EU or US Google Cloud residency and a public DPA.
When: You only need page or privacy-oriented analytics without replaying mouse paths and form fields
Consider: Plausible Analytics or etracker
Lighter measurement. Not a substitute for session replay.
When: You want a no-contract recorder and will accept a US vendor
Consider: Microsoft Clarity
Free Microsoft product. Different jurisdiction and contract posture than Content Square SAS.
When: You need a US-native event warehouse more than qualitative replay
Consider: Mixpanel or Amplitude
Product analytics incumbents. Pair with a recorder only if you still need heatmaps.

Open questions for due diligence

Friendly Analytics

Will the signed DPA and order form pin hosting to Switzerland only, or allow EU/on-prem variants?
Which company subprocessors (HelpScout, Google Workspace, Stripe, etc.) receive which categories of customer personal data in practice?
Can the current ISO 27001 certificate be validated against the certification body's public register (scope, dates, sites)?
For enterprise: what is the RPO/RTO and whether backups remain exclusively in Switzerland?
If both Analytics and Automate are purchased, how are subprocessors and data paths segmented contractually?

Hotjar

Does our live order form still name Hotjar Limited (Malta), or Content Square SAS / Content Square, Inc.?
What is the actual storage region on our project, and is a US region disabled?
Will we be auto-transitioned to Experience Analytics from 18 August 2026, and have we elected to remain on Hotjar Services if we want to?
Can we download current ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II reports from the Trust Portal, and does the scope include Hotjar/VoC as well as DXA?
Which support and AI subprocessors (Zendesk, Bedrock, Azure OpenAI) will process our tenant’s data on the plan we buy?