A heatmap is a visual tool for analyzing user behavior on a page. Warm colors (red, yellow) mark the most-visited/clicked areas; cool (blue, green) the less-used ones. Unlike Google Analytics numeric stats, heatmaps show "beyond the numbers" behavior โ where users look, what they click, where they get confused.
Heatmap types
Click heatmap โ where users click. The primary type. If users click on text that isn't a button, that signals a UX problem. Scroll heatmap โ how far down they scroll. If 70% don't reach mid-page, important content needs to move up.
Move heatmap (mouse-tracking) โ where the cursor moves. Studies show mouse motion correlates 80-90% with eye motion. Attention heatmap โ where users dwell longest โ a newer metric that surfaces attention hotspots.
Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity
Hotjar since 2014, the pro UX-analysis leader. Free is limited (35 sessions/day, 3 heatmaps); Plus is $32/mo. Beyond heatmaps it offers session recording, surveys, feedback, funnels โ a broad UX platform.
Microsoft Clarity launched in 2020 โ a fully free alternative. No limits โ unlimited sessions, heatmaps, recordings. Microsoft offers it free (collecting anonymized data for AI). Clarity has features Hotjar lacks: "Dead clicks" (clicked but nothing happened), "Rage clicks" (3+ rapid clicks out of frustration), "Excessive scroll" โ useful for finding UX issues.
How to draw conclusions from heatmaps
"More clicks = good" is wrong. If users click an image instead of the button, they're confusing it for one. Analyze mobile and desktop separately โ behavior differs. Form hypotheses: "If I make the CTA more visible, clicks lift 30%" โ then verify via heatmap.
Privacy and GDPR
Heatmap tools record user behavior, which can be a privacy concern. Both Hotjar and Clarity offer IP anonymization and mask password/credit-card fields. Under GDPR/CCPA you need a cookie-consent banner. Uzbekistan doesn't strictly require this yet, but respecting privacy is good practice.
Sayt.uz practice
We've used Microsoft Clarity since 2024 (not Hotjar โ free and unlimited). What we fixed based on heatmap: (1) the home-page CTA was easy to miss โ moved down and recolored, clicks +40%; (2) on the hosting plans page users clicked the "First plan" treating it as a button โ we made it clickable; (3) on the domain search page 70% didn't reach the bottom โ we moved results above the catalog. 18% of our clients use Clarity, mostly SaaS and e-commerce.