SurveyMonkey vs Hotjar

UmfrageOnline

Google Forms

Jotform

UmfrageOnline provides businesses with a multi-language survey creation platform, as well as multi-channel survey distribution and real-time reporting. Features include logical workflows, customizable branding, mobile device compatibility, dynamic content, answer piping, and more.

Google Forms is a free form builder tool that enables users to create surveys and questionnaires online in order to collect and organize information

Jotform is a cloud-based form builder platform that helps businesses streamline form creation via ready-made templates, integrations with third-party applications, and design features that cater to organizations globally.

SurveyMonkey's AI-powered platform provides survey design assistance and surfaces real-time insights to help teams of all experience levels work and grow quickly. With 200+ integrations and enterprise-grade security, SurveyMonkey fits into existing workflows while protecting sensitive data.



Customizable Questions

Customizable Templates

Feedback Management

Data Import/Export

Data Analysis Tools

Question Branching

Email Marketing

Skip Logic

Support Audio/Images/Video

URL Customization

Drag & Drop

Reviews for SurveyMonkey come from a wide variety of industries, including education management (8% of reviewers), hospital & health care (5%), and marketing and advertising (5%). The most frequent use case for SurveyMonkey cited by reviewers is conducting surveys (75% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Reviewers appreciate the free plan for basic surveys and initial evaluation, and they value the freemium model for exploring features. However, some users report that limitations, steep price increases, and confusing pricing reduce SurveyMonkey’s value for money.

Value for money

The SurveyMonkey integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: Microsoft Excel (a spreadsheet product rated 4.8 out of 5 for its integration with SurveyMonkey), Mailchimp (an email marketing product, 4.8), and Google Forms (a survey product, 4.5).

Integrations

SurveyMonkey is a survey tool offering key features such as customizable questions, surveys and feedback collection, a survey builder, poll management, reporting and analytics, and data import/export, among others.

SurveyMonkey

Web-based

Android

iPhone

iPad

XM for Strategy & Research

XM for Customer Experience

Typeform

Zoho Survey

Sogolytics

Alchemer

Microsoft Forms

SurveySparrow

Wufoo

QuestionPro

Constant Contact

Survicate

SurveyHero

Team Advantage

Team Premier

Enterprise

Restrictive and costly pricing

39% of reviewers feel negative about SurveyMonkey’s pricing. Some users say the free version is too limited, restricting the number of questions, responses, and access to essential features like report downloads and customization. Reviewers indicate that upgrading to paid plans is often necessary for basic business needs, but they find the costs high and the pricing structure confusing or inflexible. They report frustration with unexpected charges, auto-renewals, and lack of refunds, especially for small businesses or infrequent users. Many users feel the value does not justify the expense compared to alternative survey tools.

Quick and easy polling

Senior Corp Com Specialist

SurveyMonkey allows us to poll thousands of people at once and compiles their feedback into easy-to-read and helpful results.

95% of reviewers feel positive about SurveyMonkey’s polling features. Users think the platform makes it simple to create and distribute polls for a variety of purposes, from event planning to gathering opinions on business decisions. Some reviewers find the intuitive interface and multiple distribution options—such as email, social media, and web links—helpful for reaching large groups quickly. They appreciate being able to poll both internal teams and external audiences, and say the results are easy to compile and analyze. Many users value the time saved and the ability to make data-driven decisions efficiently.

Versatile feedback collection

97% of reviewers feel positive about SurveyMonkey’s feedback capabilities. Reviewers indicate they use the platform to gather feedback from a wide range of audiences, including customers, employees, and stakeholders, helping them make informed decisions and improve services. Some users report that the ability to customize surveys and collect detailed, candid responses is especially valuable for understanding satisfaction and identifying areas for improvement. They say the tool’s ease of use and support for anonymous feedback encourages honest input, while its data analysis features help them quickly interpret results and share insights across their organizations.

Business Development

One of the easiest way to facilitate survey creation, survey design, review feedback, and of course the best part was seeing how this encouraged team and employee engagement,

Short Course Manager

There is not AI integration to the level where it could automate or help with Survey Cadence, or translating the feedback into actionable ideas or strategy around employee engagement.

Assistant manager

The free/basic tier has serious restrictions—limited questions, limited number of responses you can view/export, and many features locked behind paid plans.

Sr. Dir. Support and Operations

Another small challenge has been with the Google Sheets integration—when using custom fields, the data ordering sometimes breaks, requiring manual cleanup.

Legal Assistant

What I liked most about SurveyMonkey was the ease of creating and distributing surveys, along with its strong analytics and reporting tools.

Sales and Marketing Manager

It works great after PK sessions we have our staff attempt quizzes and look for a specific score before giving them the certificate for that section.

The main drawback was the pricing, as key features require a paid subscription. While the platform is powerful, I found the free version quite limited, and upgrading to access advanced features can be expensive for smaller projects or occasional use.

Hospital administrator

We love using survey monkey to track and determine human engagement and use surveys to really update our business strategy

Director

It is the most intuitive survey builder there is with features such as drag and drop interface, various questions types and provides a comprehensive way to add logic to the surveys.

Consultant

It's been a game changer for me, it allows me to connect with my customers asking their suggestions on how I can serve them in a more effective way.

CO-Owner

SurveyMonkey is helpful when it comes to creating custom surveys and assist your team in being more self driven and you can manage all of the information from the surveys easily as well as using AI to assist you in creating a more personalized survey expericence.

Secretary to the Principal

We use SurveyMonkey to send surveys out to our students and staff, we have always had good experiences with the website.

Event Planner

The free version of Survey Monkey limits the number of questions you can ask as well as the number of responses.

Development Coordinator

Surveys are easily generated, employees can quickly log their responses, an data can be retrieved quickly.

Manager

It allows me to create the format I want for surveying and also keeps the email addresses for future reference.

BCBA

It offers user friendly formatting and navigation to create surveys that are easily accessed and completed by others.

Senior Program Manager

We used SurveyMonkey to send annual questionnaires to the parents of our programs - it was helpful to send all at once and see all the responses in one place.

Assistant Reservations Manager

The cost of the platform is the most disadvantage above all. If you have the basic plan, you are restricted to 10 questions only. If you have the advanced plan, it costs a lot of money.

Project manager

I do believe you could accomplish great analytical data on this platform but you really need to be able to pay for the service which for a small business is more difficult.

The platform made it simple to collect responses, analyze data, and generate clear, actionable insights.

Head of Sales

As far as we were able to tell, the WhiteLabel program within SurveyMonkey is not a true white label that matches brand identity. If this is a smaller organization, it does appear to be available on an enterprise plan, but those are costly.

Principal Consultant

We are able to send out surveys to help our board make decisions based on homeowner sentiment.

Senior Digital Sttategist

Building and modeling research activities such as surveys that actually generate accurate insights in a desired manner, can become quite complex and burdensome for those who are inexperienced.

Marketing Specialist

We use SurveyMonkey for recruitment and for event registration, as well as internal communications.

Manager, Business Development

What I liked most about SurveyMonkey is the extremely wide variety of options for a survey it provides.

Language Instructor

The price of the premium levels is very expensive in relation to such a small learning facility, and the customer service response time is not always that quick.

Comms Manager

Simplicity and how the platform makes it so easy to just put in your request or even giving SurveyMonkey a bit about what you want to do and they build surveys for you.

HR Manager

It wasn’t clear when I started creating the survey without having an account that there was a limit of how many people that I could send it to.

IT Manager

SurveyMonkey is a robust application that ensures feedback collection is done efficiently

Overall, I believe it’s a good tracking system for surveys and there is various surveys you can create and different ways.

Salesforce Developer

Only one thing I dislike is the free version has limitations on number of question and responses so need paid plan for that.

One of them being that I cannot share the link like a google drive product, it has to be emailed as a link.

Email notifications on results are sometimes delayed - to analyze job applications we use results in real time and are not always notified when new answers have come in.

Lecturer

An affordable solution to collect data from different respondents at very low prices yet with amazing features that range from the unlimited number of questions and designs to data exportation and report analyses.

Lead consultant

The best parts of SurveyMonkey are its ease of you, customizable templates, ability to use logic or advanced question types, data analytics, and integration to other platforms.

Director of Human Resources

Only con would be the free plan is limited and if I want to use at work, I would need to purchase and plans can be expensive.

operational manager

Some advanced features require upgrading, and customization options can feel limited on the free plan.

I wish it had more integration opportunities - photo integration or even videos so I could send stuff of for review.

Given my background in research, I found SurveyMonkey to be an excellent resource for building and generating somehwat simple research surveys ti fulfill a variety of objectives and needs.

It can be deployed to collect feedback via survey's enabling anonymity or recorded.

To go from a free level to a plan with some customizations you are looking at over $300 per user.

Coordinator Victim Services

The drag-and-drop editor lets me lay out questions exactly how I want, and the built-in templates saved me tons of time.

IT Engineer

Conditional logic allows SurveyMonkey to become more efficient however exporting filtered responses can be tedious and involve additional manual operations.

Recruiter

I like how it submits surveys to our temps to see how their experience was with us or with the position they worked.

Web Producer

It's equally suited to internal use and external, client-facing use, and it's handily the easiest to use survey tool (both for the creator of the survey and the one taking it) that I've come across.

Clinical Office Manager

Using SurveyMonkey has been a great experience I use it once a month for surveys online and the work environment very professional setting.

SurveyMonkey also helped me to develop dynamic survey, where the respondents were only shown questions that were pertinent to their answers.

Talent Partner

Powerful survey logic and question types for more detailed data collection

Nutrition and Regulatory Officer

Can customise the style and theme of a survey according to brand guidelines.

Executive Assistant

Can create a survey in minutes that are simple and straightforward for my audience.

Survey Creation

Pricing

Data Collection

Email Distribution

Customer Support

Response Tracking

Templates

Employee Engagement

Question and Answer

Small Business

Large Enterprises

Mid-size Business

Freelancers

Reviewers appreciate that SurveyMonkey offers a free plan with enough basic features to get started, making it accessible for individuals and small businesses on a budget. Some users say the free version is helpful for simple surveys and initial evaluation, and they value the ability to try out the platform before committing to a paid plan. They find the free trial and freemium model generous, allowing them to explore advanced features temporarily. Some reviewers feel the paid plans unlock valuable capabilities like advanced analytics, branding, data export, and customization, which are important for business use. Users think the pricing structure provides flexibility for growing organizations, and some indicate that the paid features are reasonably priced compared to competitors.

However, some reviewers find the free version too limited, citing restrictions on the number of questions, responses, and export options, which often forces them to upgrade. Users report that advanced features and adequate customization are locked behind higher-priced plans, and they feel the cost increases steeply for additional users or team plans. Some reviewers say the pricing and licensing structure is confusing, and they dislike auto-renewal policies and the lack of refunds. They indicate that other tools, like Google Forms, offer similar functionality for free or at a lower cost, making SurveyMonkey’s value for money less attractive for some use cases.

Momentive

Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange is an all-in-one conversion optimization suite that helps website owners identify drop-offs in the conversion process using dynamic heatmaps, visitor recordings, form analytics, live chat, and polls

Microsoft Clarity

Clarity is a free, easy-to-use tool that captures how real people actually use your site.

Instant heatmaps: See at a glance which areas on your page drive the most engagement.

Session recordings: Watch how people use your site.

Insights: Learn what's working and what isn't.

Tableau

Tableau is a business intelligence and analytics platform that enables users to connect to databases, create data visualizations, and share insights. The platform offers deployment options including cloud-based, self-hosted, and desktop environments with drag-and-drop functionality for building interactive dashboards. It features AI-based analytics capabilities, integration with Salesforce CRM, and supports visual storytelling and collaboration across organizations.

See how people are really using your site, and uncover insights to make the right changes. With Hotjar's all-in-one digital experience insights platform, you'll get to know your users at every step of their journey, through interviews, behavioral insights, and frequent feedback.

Heatmaps

Data Visualization

Visual Analytics

Website Analytics

Reporting & Statistics

Real-Time Analytics

Some reviewers find Hotjar’s free plan valuable for small businesses and appreciate the flexible pricing options. However, some users report that advanced features are limited, upgrades are expensive, and billing restrictions can frustrate growing businesses.

By industry, Hotjar reviewers are most commonly professionals in marketing and advertising (25%). The most frequent use case for Hotjar cited by reviewers is heatmap analysis (74% of reviewers).

Proprietary

Hotjar

Mouseflow

Smartlook

Mixpanel

Fullstory

VWO Testing

Inspectlet

LiveSession 

Observe: Heatmaps & Recordings

Ask: Surveys & Feedback

Engage: User interviews & User tests

Technical limitations and glitches

Senior Software Developer

In my opinion, Hotjar has at least two big problems, first is the limited page height that is set at 1500px and the second one is the disabled feature for cross-domains.

66% of reviewers feel negative about Hotjar’s bugs and issues. Users report frustrations with technical glitches, such as problems with CSS rendering in session replays and difficulties integrating with certain site setups. Reviewers indicate that cross-domain tracking limitations and issues with pop-ups or overlays can hinder accurate data collection. Some users mention repetitive bugs and challenges with iframes or mobile interactions. They say these technical problems sometimes require developer intervention and can delay troubleshooting, impacting the overall reliability of insights gathered from the tool.

Session recording usability concerns

VP, Enginnering

Screen recording is not perfect, many of our dom interactions were not recorded leading to us identify them as bugs.

36% of reviewers feel negative about Hotjar’s session recordings. Users say it can be difficult to sift through large volumes of recordings, with many sessions containing idle or irrelevant activity. Reviewers indicate that recordings sometimes fail to capture all interactions, especially with dynamic elements or iframes, and may occasionally be laggy or incomplete. They mention the lack of advanced filtering and downloading options, making it challenging to share or pinpoint specific user issues efficiently. These limitations can make the analysis process time-consuming and less effective for some teams.

Boosts conversion rates effectively

Marketing Associate

Our organization derived a lot of value from Hotjar and it helped us improve our conversion rates across the entire website.

94% of reviewers feel positive about Hotjar’s conversion optimization capabilities. Reviewers indicate the tool helps them identify where users drop off and what changes lead to higher conversions. They say features like heatmaps and surveys provide clarity on user intent, allowing for targeted improvements. Users appreciate being able to track the impact of design changes on conversion rates and report significant increases after using Hotjar’s data. They find it valuable for e-commerce and lead generation, noting that actionable insights help reduce form abandonment and optimize customer journeys for better results.

Detailed user interaction tracking

94% of reviewers feel positive about Hotjar’s user interaction tracking. Users say the tool makes it easy to see exactly how visitors engage with website elements, including clicks, navigation, and time spent on pages. Reviewers appreciate the visual feedback, which helps them understand user preferences and identify usability issues. They find it invaluable for making informed design decisions and improving site navigation. Many users highlight the benefit of real-time interaction data, which supports ongoing website improvements and ensures the site aligns with user expectations and needs.

SurveyMonkey vs Hotjar Comparison (2026)

SurveyMonkey

Hotjar

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives