Compare Hotjar and SEAL Metrics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: FullStory, 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.
Spain· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist when European eCommerce or hospitality teams need cookieless full-traffic capture and last-click ROAS they can align with finance—without GA4 Consent Mode as the measurement backbone. Skip when you need self-host or open source, session replay and product analytics depth, or a certified ISO/SOC package today—consider Plausible, Simple Analytics, Pirsch, or Matomo-based hosts instead.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Hotjar | SEAL Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | France | Spain |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | France | Spain |
| Legal entity | Content Square SAS, Paris (EU Hotjar contractor). Historical Hotjar Ltd Malta merged 1 July 2025. | SealMetrics (Spain; exact registered company name not found on public imprint) |
| Governing law | Not listed | Spain (Terms of Service; courts of Barcelona) |
| 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 analytics app, DB, and backups: Dublin, Ireland (EU data center, provider not named publicly). Subprocessor: Cloudflare for CDN/DDoS on encrypted transit at EU edge locations; vendor states no analytics data at rest on Cloudflare and no US cloud storage of customer analytics. |
| 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. | Spanish cookieless web analytics for European eCommerce: first-party capture, Dublin EU storage, last-click revenue and ROAS without consent-dependent tags. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Hotjar | SEAL Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Not listed |
| 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) | Not listed |
| HQ | Not listed | Spain (Spanish law; Barcelona courts per Terms) |
| Founded | Not listed | 2020 (vendor how-it-works page) |
| Hosting | Not listed | Dublin, Ireland — EU data center; Cloudflare edge transit |
| Model | Not listed | SaaS; event-volume plans; free agentic tier + trial |
| Open source | Not listed | No |
| Self-host | Not listed | No |
| Key capabilities | Hotjar | SEAL Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Cookieless first-party pixel | Not listed | Yes |
| EU-hosted (Dublin) | Not listed | Yes |
| Revenue / ROAS focus | Not listed | Yes |
| Real-time dashboards | Not listed | Yes |
| DPA included | Not listed | Yes |
| SaaS only | 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.
846-byte first-party cookieless pixel
Install a tiny first-party script on your domain that logs pageviews without cookies, localStorage, or fingerprinting. Designed so ad blockers that target third-party analytics domains hit less often. Benefit: fuller traffic capture for teams stuck with consent-gated tags; trade-off: aggregate and channel metrics rather than person-level journey stitching.
Last-click revenue and ROAS attribution
Attributes conversions and revenue to channels, campaigns, and landing pages with last-click models the vendor positions as CRM-alignable. Built for eCommerce and hospitality media decisions—not generic pageview vanity charts. Limits: not a full multi-touch marketing mix model out of the box; validate against your CRM as the case studies do.
Real-time promo and campaign dashboards
Live views of revenue, channels, campaigns, and products during Promo Days so media teams can reallocate spend the same day. Suited to peak-load retail calendars. Constraint: value depends on tagging microconversions and keeping UTM hygiene; not a substitute for warehouse-grade BI alone.
LENS private AI on full capture
Optional LENS layer answers growth, risk, and wasted-spend questions in plain language against SealMetrics data (vendor states exclusive private AI on Enterprise tiers). Useful when analysts are scarce. Caveat: AI outputs are assistive—confirm high-stakes budget cuts against raw reports and offline finance data.
MCP and AI-assisted provisioning
Hosted MCP endpoint and docs let teams spin up accounts, pixels, and reports from AI coding assistants instead of a pure UI-only onboarding path. Speeds evaluation for engineering-heavy stacks. Still SaaS-only—there is no self-hosted SEAL Metrics server to run in your VPC.
EU Dublin storage with exports
Vendor documents processing and backups in Dublin, Ireland, with TLS 1.3, AES-256 at rest, and roughly 24-month analytics retention. API and BigQuery-style exports support dual-running with GA4. Hosting operator is described generically as an EU data center; Cloudflare sits on the transit path only.
| Assurance & compliance | Hotjar | SEAL Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| 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). | Not found Vendor mentions regular security audits and independent legal audits; no public third-party audit PDF found on site/docs. |
| 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. | Not found Data location docs list ISO 27001 as planned, not certified. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Vendor claimed Trust portal and security pages claim a SOC 2 Type II report. Report not independently downloaded. | Partial Vendor docs list SOC 2 Type II as in progress — not a completed public report. |
| 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 Spanish entity; cookieless architecture; EEA processing claims; DPA published. Legal conclusion remains for counsel. |
| 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 EU entity / no known US parent; analytics at rest in Dublin. Cloudflare (US group) processes TLS transit at EU edge. 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 Public DPA page; vendor states standard DPA with every plan, custom on Enterprise. |
| 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 Core product is measurement analytics; optional LENS private AI is a feature—confirm classification if heavily relied on for automated decisions. |
| CSA STAR | Vendor claimed Security page displays a STAR badge. Scope and level not independently verified. | Not listed |
| Considerations & known limitations | Hotjar | SEAL Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| 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 edge subprocessor (Cloudflare) | Not listed | Medium Even with Dublin storage, Cloudflare sits on encrypted traffic. Procurement that bans any US-group vendor in the path will need a written exception or alternative edge posture. |
| ISO/SOC not fully certified yet | Not listed | Medium SOC 2 in progress and ISO planned per vendor docs. Enterprise security questionnaires may block until reports are available under NDA. |
| Consentless claim is architectural, not a warranty | Not listed | Medium Vendor argues no personal data / no cookies so analytics need no banner. Other scripts on the same site and national guidance still matter—get DPO sign-off. |
| SaaS-only, proprietary pipeline | Not listed | Low No self-host path. Mitigate with API/BigQuery export and dual-running with GA4 during evaluation. |
| Hosting operator not named | Not listed | Low Docs say EU data center in Dublin without naming the cloud or colo operator. Ask for the concrete provider in the TPSR pack. |
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 or self-hosted cookieless analytics
Consider: Plausible Analytics (self-host Community Edition) or Matomo
SEAL Metrics is SaaS-only with no public source license.
When: You want simple privacy-first page analytics without eCommerce ROAS tooling
Consider: Simple Analytics or Pirsch Analytics
Lighter EU privacy analytics peers; less paid-media attribution depth.
When: You need managed Matomo with Swiss hosting or enterprise on-prem options
Consider: Friendly Analytics
Matomo ecosystem plugins and heatmaps vs SealMetrics proprietary ROAS focus.
When: You need Google Ads-native reporting and free-tier product analytics breadth
Consider: Google Analytics 4
Different sovereignty and consent trade-offs; often kept alongside SealMetrics.