Compare Hotjar and Piwik PRO on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Google Analytics, Mixpanel
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.
Poland· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist Piwik PRO when you need a managed European analytics controller with integrated consent, tagging, and real-time data activation—and you can accept cloud residency on Azure and/or Elastx. Skip when you require open-source self-hosting (consider Matomo or Friendly Analytics) or only need a minimal cookieless counter (Plausible, Simple Analytics).
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Hotjar | Piwik PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | France | Poland |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | France | Poland |
| Legal entity | Content Square SAS, Paris (EU Hotjar contractor). Historical Hotjar Ltd Malta merged 1 July 2025. | Piwik PRO SA (Wrocław); affiliates Piwik PRO LLC (New York), Piwik PRO GmbH (Berlin) |
| US parent / control | No known US parent | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Medium | Medium |
| Hosting / residency | 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. | Customer-selectable regions: Microsoft Azure public cloud (US, Netherlands, Germany, Hong Kong) and Elastx (Sweden, EU-operated). Enterprise private cloud: 60+ Azure regions plus Elastx. Business plan marketing highlights Swedish EU-operated hosting. No classic customer self-host. |
| Summary | 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. | Polish privacy-first analytics suite combining web and mobile analytics, tag management, consent management, and real-time data activation for regulated teams. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Hotjar | Piwik PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Current HQ / entity | Content Square SAS, Paris, France | Not listed |
| Origin | Founded in Malta in 2014 (vendor history) | Not listed |
| Ownership | Contentsquare group (acquired 2021, merged 1 July 2025) | Not listed |
| Hosting (public) | AWS/Azure Ireland default for EU Free/Growth; Virginia optional on higher plans | Azure US/NL/DE/HK; Elastx Sweden |
| Deployment | SaaS JavaScript tag; not self-hosted; not open source | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Free tier plus paid Growth, Pro, and Enterprise (see vendor site for current terms) | Business subscription + trial; Enterprise custom |
| HQ | Not listed | Wrocław, Poland (Piwik PRO SA) |
| Product type | Not listed | Commercial analytics suite (SaaS / private cloud) |
| Open source | Not listed | No (closed source since split from Matomo lineage) |
| Self-host | Not listed | No classic on-prem; public or private cloud only |
| Modules | Not listed | Analytics, Tag Manager, Consent Manager, Data Activation |
| Key capabilities | Hotjar | Piwik PRO |
|---|---|---|
| EU-operated (Contentsquare) | Yes | Not listed |
| Heatmaps + session replay | Yes | Not listed |
| Surveys and feedback | Yes | Not listed |
| Public B2B DPA | Yes | Not listed |
| ISO 27001 (claimed) | Yes | Not listed |
| EU HQ (Poland) | Not listed | Yes |
| Analytics + tags + consent | Not listed | Yes |
| Data activation | Not listed | Yes |
| EU hosting options | Not listed | Yes |
| ISO 27001 / SOC 2 (claimed) | Not listed | Yes |
| HIPAA BAA (Enterprise) | Not listed | Yes |
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.
ClickHouse-backed web & mobile analytics
Session-level web and app analytics with custom reports, funnels, user flows, multi-channel attribution, and calculated metrics. Vendor positions unsampled collection by default with optional sampling for extreme volumes, plus raw export via API, files, and BigQuery—aimed at teams that outgrew pre-aggregated MySQL-style tools.
Anonymous tracking when cookies are declined
Collect privacy-safe behavioral signals without identifiers when visitors refuse cookies or when you configure limited measurement modes. Marketing can still see channels and journeys; personal identifiers and full attribution wait for a valid lawful basis—useful under GDPR/ePrivacy friction.
Integrated Consent Manager and Tag Manager
Capture and store consent, drive tag firing from preferences, and handle visitor data requests in-product. Optional Cookie Information CMP and server-side tagging paths reduce the usual glue code between a separate CMP, GTM, and analytics.
Data Activation for real-time personalization
Segment audiences from live behavior and trigger on-site or outbound actions without exporting every event to a second CDP first. Suited to regulated marketers who want activation on first-party data they control.
Selectable cloud residency (Azure + Elastx)
Public cloud regions include Azure US, NL, DE, and HK plus Elastx Sweden; Enterprise private cloud spans 60+ Azure regions and Elastx. Business plan marketing highlights EU-operated Swedish hosting—pick region in procurement, not after go-live.
Regulated-industry packaging (GDPR tooling, HIPAA BAA path)
DPA available on Business signup; Enterprise adds private cloud, higher action volumes, SLAs, and HIPAA Business Associate Agreements for healthcare marketing analytics. Vendor also claims ISO 27001 and SOC 2—request current certificates in diligence.
| Assurance & compliance | Hotjar | Piwik PRO |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | 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). | Partial Vendor states regular external security audits and SOC 2/ISO programs; no public third-party no-logs-style audit PDF reviewed for this draft. Request reports under NDA. |
| ISO 27001 | 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. | Vendor claimed Asserted on privacy-security and platform pages; certificate not independently re-verified against a public registry for this entry. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Vendor claimed Trust portal and security pages claim a SOC 2 Type II report. Report not independently downloaded. | Vendor claimed Vendor claims SOC 2 (comparison content references type II) and SOC 2-certified infrastructure; obtain current report in diligence. |
| GDPR / EU data protection | 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. | Vendor claimed EU legal entity, residency options, consent tooling, anonymization, and DPA. Compliance depends on customer configuration and purposes. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | 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. | Partial No known US parent (Polish SA). Medium exposure due to Microsoft Azure as public/private cloud subprocessor and optional US region; Elastx Sweden is EU-operated alternative. Not legal advice. |
| Data processing agreement (B2B) | 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. | Vendor claimed Business DPA linked from Business plan signup (piwik.pro/business-dpa/); Enterprise contracts expand terms. |
| EU AI Act | 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. | Not applicable Analytics/activation platform; not marketed as an AI system provider. Customer AI use of exported data is out of product scope. |
| CSA STAR | Vendor claimed Security page displays a STAR badge. Scope and level not independently verified. | Not listed |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not listed | Vendor claimed HIPAA-oriented offering with BAA on Enterprise path per vendor; not available on all plan tiers. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Hotjar | Piwik PRO |
|---|---|---|
| No longer an independent Maltese company | 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. | Not listed |
| US-group cloud and US support path | 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. | Not listed |
| Session replay can capture extra personal data | 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. | Not listed |
| SaaS tag only | Low No official self-hosted or open-source edition. Practical impact: skip this product if residency rules require your own servers. | Not listed |
| Optional LLM features add extra processors | 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. | Not listed |
| US-group cloud (Azure) in hosting path | Not listed | Medium Even with EU region selection, Azure introduces US-group infrastructure risk. Pin region, review SCCs/subprocessors, and escalate if policy forbids US cloud groups entirely. |
| Closed source and no classic self-host | Not listed | Medium Cannot independently audit full source or run fully air-gapped on customer iron. Private cloud still involves vendor-managed stack on Azure/Elastx. |
| Certifications not independently verified here | Not listed | Low ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA are vendor-claimed. Request certificates/reports and BAA text before treating them as assured. |
| Paid plans only after Core sunset | Not listed | Low Free Core has been discontinued; evaluation relies on trials and paid Business/Enterprise metering by actions/domains. |
| Compliance depends on configuration | Not listed | Medium Anonymous modes and CNIL exemption require correct setup and purpose limitation. Misconfiguration can recreate the same legal exposure teams left GA to avoid. |
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.
When: You need open-source code and true on-premises control
Consider: Matomo (self-host) or Friendly Analytics / Matomo by Stackhero for managed Matomo
Piwik PRO is proprietary cloud/private-cloud only.
When: You want minimal, cookieless EU analytics without enterprise suite complexity
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics
Far smaller feature surface; no HIPAA/CDP-style activation packaging.
When: You need a German enterprise analytics vendor with long public-sector presence
Consider: etracker
Different product depth and packaging—compare consent tooling and activation needs.