Finding the crème de la crème of analytics tools is a bit like searching for a Cinderella. You have to put shoes on an enormous number of feet before you find one that fits. It is the same with analytics tools. You have to get to know their pros and cons, what they’re monitoring, pricing, and other features before making a decision. No one wants to buy a pig in a poke. 

If you are looking for an answer to what a Glassbox tool is, what are its possibilities, and whether this tool is most suitable for you or you need to find a Glassbox alternative, read on.

## What is the Glassbox?

**Glassbox is an analytics tool that captures every customer session on websites and mobile apps.** Glassbox tool analyzes customer experience for every customer journey, it helps enterprises to create frictionless digital journeys for their customers.  

>_**Customer Experience**, also known as **CX**, is the consumer's overall perception of the experience associated with your business. It is the result of every interaction between the brand and the customer – from entering a website, through in-app actions and contact with customer service, to receiving a product or service._


>_**UX** is short for **User Experience**, it refers to any interaction a user has with your product or service. A good User Experience provides users with the most positive experience while using it, which has a huge impact on your conversion rate. Without a well-designed, functional, and intuitive website, it’s hard to expect a great conversion rate in your online business. [Learn more what are the most common mistakes made in UX design.](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/most-common-ux-mistakes/)_

![Differences-CX-UX.png](/uploads/Differences_CX_UX_2e86c7f513.png)

_<center>Differences between Customer Experience and User Experience</center>_

_<center>source: https://sergushkin.medium.com/</center>_

## What Glassbox is monitoring?

Glassbox is an analytical tool based on AI and machine learning that helps entrepreneurs to understand and visualize their customer journey, prioritize customer experience, and last but not least improve their digital product. 

![Glassbox-homepage.png](/uploads/Glassbox_homepage_f55a7e22d4.png)

_<center>Glassbox homepage</center>_

Most analytics tools have features that focus on customer experience and simply make your customer happier. Glassbox, like [cux.io](http://cux.io/), allows you to **recognize, detect and define behavior patterns that indicate problems and frustration with your website in real time**. Both tools capture, visualize and analyze every user journey.

## Glassbox main features

### Session recordings

The Glassbox tool captures events occurring on the client-side and server-side on web and native mobile apps without the need to predefine or tag anything. Glassbox collects data and analysis it. 

Unlike CUX, the Glassbox tool only registers sessions, not full visits. Learn more about [the differences between visits and sessions, here](https://cux.io/blog/visits-vs-sessions).   

![Visits vs sessions ](/uploads/explainer_700x357_aef0a72718.png)

_<center>The difference between sessions and visits</center>_

This analytics tool has a session replay possibility, but wouldn't it be nice to analyze a whole customer visit? 

### Customer journey map

Another Glassbox feature is the customer journey map. Based on session recordings, Glassbox makes visualizations of your customers' journey based on users’ digital sessions in real-time. 

Same as CUX, Glassbox shows you when and why your customers abandon a journey, so you can remove the cause and increase your conversion rates. 

### Mobile app analytics

Same as the websites, Glassbox allows you to see and understand what your customers are experiencing on your mobile app in real time. Glassbox tracks user engagement, network, and device performance and app crashes. 

## Who Glassbox is best for?

Glassbox is a big data analysis tool that helps to understand the digital experiences of customers and native mobile apps. Based on information from [G2](https://www.g2.com/products/glassbox/features) this analytics tool is most suitable for companies from financial sectors, insurance, retail & e-commerce, travel, and telecommunications.

Like CUX, the Glassbox can facilitate the work of various departments and teams within the company – from marketing, through sales, the IT department to product development and management.

## CUX – an alternative to Glassbox

Based on the title, you probably already know what might be an alternative to Glassbox. Yes, that’s right, CUX is one of them! But it isn’t obvious why CUX is the reasonable alternative to Glassbox, please let me explain. 

CUX is the very first UX & Analytics Automation tool that allows organizations and companies to identify their users' behavior patterns and learn about customer experience. The tool enables you to understand individual customer segments, track campaign traffic, make decisions after A/B tests, and even detect rogue partners on sites and in web applications.

If you want to know what are CUXs' capabilities and what CUX is for, necessarily watch Paulina's demo. 

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LCtAxbhdXk4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

Let’s face it, not everyone has hours to pore over numbers and uncover what’s behind all metrics. That is the reason CUX gathers data relevant to your business (of course, like any other analytical data, CUX can present a complete picture of data). 

CUXs' policy is no more data spam! That's the reason CUX's dashboards change in relative time. It's a center of command for your analytics.   

![CUX-dashboard.png](/uploads/CUX_dashboard_238cc79808.png)

_<center>CUX Dashboard</center>_

With CUX, you'll never again waste time watching too many session recordings or analyzing irrelevant metrics. It will alert you on what matters to your company goals, and all you have to do is implement quickly profits on your business site and watch your conversion increase.

### Data analytics related to your business goals

Setting up Goal(s) can shorten the time you’ve previously spent on analytics as it filters the data only relevant to your intended purpose. Thanks to Goal(s), you will be able to focus on those metrics that strictly affect your business. You are free to build custom Goal(s) with as many steps as possible or use one of CUX’s predefined goal settings.

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aQDKkieNUgE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

At this point, you can quickly create funnels on the most impactful opportunities and drill down to individual user sessions to see the events that are impacting your customers' experience, conversions, and more. 

### CUX’s main features 

#### - Goal-oriented analysis

#### - Auto-captured events

#### - Experience metrics

#### - Visit Recordings (instead of sessions) 

#### - Smart Alerts

As we said earlier, CUX is not only about data itself. It's about solutions easy to implement into your web and rock your business.

### CUX users reviews

>#### What do you like best?
>
>_I love the fact that I can track user experiences and behavior and gather insights into their pain points. It's amazing that our team can draw meaningful conclusions in just a few minutes after implementing the tool and setting up proper goals and waterfalls._ 
> - Anna S.

![CUX-review-1.png](/uploads/CUX_review_1_8bc515ef77.png)

_<center> CUX review from G2 </center>_

>#### What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
>
>_CUX helps analyzing the whole user journey on the website. It shows all the tabs opened by the client and treats them as a one visit, which is very important in analyzing online users' behavior. Thanks to this tool, we were able to find immediately bottle necks in our client’s purchase path and suggest him necessary changes to improve process._
> - Marco D.

![CUX-review-2.png](/uploads/CUX_review_2_bbccb44c02.png)

_<center> CUX review from G2 </center>_

## CUX vs Glassbox

![Glassbox-vs-CUX.png](/uploads/Glassbox_vs_CUX_2596a01838.png)

_<center>CUX vs Glassbox</center>_

## 4 main differences between CUX and other analytics tools

### 1. Business-oriented analysis

In the sea of data, CUX not only presents quantitative and qualitative data but also automatically selects the data that have the most impact on your conversion rates. CUX immediately finds your customers’ problems, and frustrations. By fixing them your customer will be happier.

### 2. Codeless implementation

With CUX snippet implemented, you don’t need to engage your developers. You can set up the tool easily on your own in less than 10 minutes. You just have to add CUX tracking code directly to your site and you're free to use it. Furthermore, you’ll gain access to data right away!

### 3. User behavior from all devices and multi-tab observation

Heatmap is not the only thing that CUX presents. CUX gatherers all events on the website and records them. You’ll see data on clicks and scrolls on the website, filling in forms, and going through the various stages of the funnels - all related to your business goal.

### 4. Experience Metrics

CUX helps teams to detect and recognizes customers’ frustration points like [rage clicks](https://cux.io/blog/what-is-a-rage-clicks/), zooming, or rage key presses which of course has a huge impact on your customer experience and conversion rates.

## Which analytics tool should you choose?

There are several analytics tools on the market to analysis mobile apps, sites and users behavior. But which tool is the best one? 

It is not an easy decision, but it might be a good solution to take an example from prince charming and try their free trial version before committing. In case, not to regret it later. 🙈

<center><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/qL1Ig46CJ8XAc" width="480" height="262" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/shoes-disney-cinderella-qL1Ig46CJ8XAc">via GIPHY</a></p></center>

If you have questions about CUX and want to learn about it? [Book a 30-minutes free demo](https://calendly.com/marta-cux) with Marta or drop us a line at [team@cuxio](mailto:team@cux.io).

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the [cux.io](http://cux.io/) nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑


Glassbox-tool.png

You already know what a game-changer for your business analytics is, but finding the best tool that will suit your needs is not easy.

What is Glassbox, and what are its possibilities?

Large companies build entire departments and hire people whose jobs are dedicated solely to analytics. But what if you’re not a large company yet, and more importantly, don’t have a large budget? What should you do when you can’t yet afford to hire analysts but are aware of the value that analytics tools bring to the table? 

To make your life easier, we’ve prepared a little guide. It includes a short overview of methods and a subjective overview of tools available on the market that every business owner should know. 

## I want to see the numbers!

>When you need to…
>
>- Obtain information on how many people visit your website,
>- Learn more detailed demographic data about your users (age, sex, location),
>- Check how many people left your site without interaction (bounce rate),
>- Check the sales conversion,
>- See the traffic heat map of your website…
>
>…you need to use a tool for quantitative data.

What you need: [Google Analytics](https://analytics.google.com/), [Heap Analytics](https://heap.io/)

![Google Analytics](/uploads/Source_analytics_google_com_700x333_e5a678d587.png)

_<center>Source: anayltics.google.com </center>_

Google Analytics is a statistics tool that collects data about users who visit our website. The system answers such questions as: how many users visit your site, what content is the most popular or where do visitors come from.

Google Analytics is a free, but complex tool which provides excellent opportunities when properly set up. If you want to use it for advanced analyses, consider double-checking whether the tool has been properly configured. Otherwise, you might realize you’ve been gathering inessential data. Interpretation of the collected data is a totally separate matter though – if you want quantitative data to reflect reality, it has to relate to a large number of users. The data gathered by GA will not show you individual cases or isolated behaviors, but rather average results. 

If you are already tired of GA and want to try something more powerful, we highly recommend Heap Analytics. 

![Heap](/uploads/3_Understand_your_users_2x_700x412_7c9511dbbb.png)

_<center>Source: heap.io</center>_

## I want to know why?!

>On the other hand, when you need to…
>
>- Answer the “why” behind the metrics – broaden the context of user visits on your website,
>- Understand why exactly somebody has left your site, why he hasn’t made a purchase or got in touch,
>- Learn about the behavior of individual visitors,     
>- Find the quick wins to implement them immediately,
>- Uncover the best solutions for your specific target audience…
>
>…you need to use a tool for qualitative data.  
>
>What you need: [cux.io](https://app.cux.io/register)

![CUX](/uploads/cux_700x474_f41527bd22.png)

_<center>Source: cux.io</center>_

You can keep trying to boost conversion on your website by creating potential solutions to users’ problems. But, wouldn’t it be more efficient to have a closer look into user behavior and learn where and why they give up the purchase?

For example, if users have difficulties with a web form, you can keep changing it, and testing the results, until you find the right wording and structure. However, by observing what users exactly do, you are able to diagnose the specific issues with the form, e.g. which fields should be excluded. When users have difficulties navigating your website or if they get lost right before making a purchase, you can, obviously, change the order of tabs or remove content you dislike. But wouldn’t it be more profitable to check where exactly they get lost or have difficulties?

Broadening research context will allow you not only to see how many visits you noted recently but also how many people are on your website at a given moment, or what exactly they are doing. For instance, when it comes to time spent on a website, while GA data will only show you that the website had been opened for X period of time, with cux.io you are able to see how much time a user spends on a particular subsite, or how long it was active for.

Monitoring each visit will allow you to better understand the behavior patterns of your users, detect anomalies in their behavior, and diagnose problematic areas. 

 
## I want to know what they like better. 
    
>Sometimes what we design and consider to be the best solution, doesn’t work best for our users. Therefore, if you want to find out:
>
>- Which shopping path ends with more conversions,
>- Which graphics bring more users to your site,
>- Whether a drop-down list is better than a radio button list…
>
>… then you need a tool to run A/B tests.

What you need: [Google Optimize](https://optimize.google.com/)

![optimizely-700x333.png](/uploads/optimizely_700x333_7d5b15671a.png)

_<center>Source: reflectivedata.com</center>_

Having an online business is connected to constant changes. Sometimes it is enough to change the graphics, on the other hand you need to optimize the page layout or to minimize the number of fields in the purchase form. The purpose of such tests is to improve the conversion or simply – the sales. This is, after all, the essence of your online business. 

Remember that it is worth deciding in advance what you plan to test. It may seem obvious to mention this, but it’s not really worth testing every little element of the page. It’s better to focus on those elements that generate clicks and – more importantly – influence conversion.

It is also important to determine what kind of results we expect. You need to know how the current website works so you will be able to compare it with the one you are testing. 

_### TIP: Remember – if you are testing several new features, make sure that at least one of them performs better than your current solution before replacing the original._
 

## I want to know them better!
 
>Ok. You have an online business, you run analyses regularly, you run A/B tests. You’ve started to get to know your customers better, but you realize that each of them is one of a kind. So now you want to:
>
>- Effectively target content,
>- Present personalized content,
>- Build customer loyalty…
>
>…in this case, you need marketing automation.

What you need: user.com

![user.com](/uploads/user_com_700x449_5c6656c6bf.png)

_<center>Source: user.com</center>_

Marketing automation will allow you to identify the users on your website by monitoring their behavior. On this basis, you’ll be able to personalize communication, e.g. by segmenting clients according to their interests or sending them personalized messages. Nowadays, systems based on marketing automation have a lot in common with big data analytics and machine learning. Information obtained this way is used to automate marketing campaigns prepared according to the clients’ interests and needs.

Marketing automation will help you optimize costs, by focusing only on those methods that really bring profit and by providing customers exactly what they want. This, in turn, will enable you to build strong and lasting relationships with your customers.

 
## I want to know what they think!
   
>Another method that will allow you to really get to know your users and understand their purchase decisions is to ask them about their opinions. You can do it by asking open questions (when collecting qualitative data) or closed ones (quantitative data).
>
>Therefore, if you want to:
>
>- Know your users’ opinions about your product,
>- Get feedback about the product,
>- Inform your users that you respect their opinion…
>
>…use a tool that will facilitate conducting questionnaires or collecting feedback from users. 

What you need: Intercom

![intercom.io_-700x436.png](/uploads/intercom_io_700x436_a7e42938a1.png)

_<center> Source: intercom.io </center>_

It’s important to remember that this method will not provide easily interpretable data about user behavior. According to a PWC report, 56% of organizations don’t go past the analysis phase, and never apply the improvements suggested by the feedback. Most probably, the reason is that companies need time and experience to draw insightful information and recommendations from users’ answers. 

If so, is there any point in collecting feedback if it’s so hard to make use of it later on?

In our opinion, there is. But it’s also worth remembering that users’ declarations are oftentimes largely exaggerated. My experience has shown me that if you ask users what they think about the changes introduced on, for example, a website, you can experience three possible scenarios:

1. They refuse to take part in the research. If they don’t feel extreme emotions (fondness, or aversion towards the organization) they might not want to get engaged. 

2. They want to introduce completely new solutions. Users, asked about their opinion, might start feeling like experts and will be coming up with new features and functionalities. 

3. They reject everything we’ve created. By nature, people don’t like changes – if they get used to something, they want it to stay this way.

The undeniable benefit of conducting declaration-based research is the fact that users are able to give feedback. Not only will you gain an interesting collection of ideas, but you can also positively influence the image of your brand. You will give users the sense that you respect their opinion and want to strengthen your relationship with them – something that is very important from the user experience point of view. 

 ## I want to know what they say about me!

>You already have knowledge about everything that – in your opinion – is necessary to help you increase conversion and sales on your website. But, at the end of the day, you would like to know what people really think about you and your brand. Therefore, if you want to:
>
>- Know what your customers write about you on the internet,
>- Know where comments about your company appear the most,
>- Monitor all mentions of your business…
>
>… you need the best possible tool that can monitor the web in real-time.

What you need: [SentiOne](https://sentione.com/)

![SentiOne](/uploads/sentione_700x402_78d8f3bad6.png)

_<center> Source: sentione.com </center>_

One of the most important activities that will support your online business is monitoring the internet and social media. Thanks to tools such as SentiOne, you can have access to opinions about your company, product, competitors or even chosen keywords. The best part about this is that you get notified immediately after they appear on the Internet. It is very important to know what people write about you. It may turn out that customers complain about your purchasing path or have terrible after-sales service feelings. But don’t worry, internet is not just about complaining and bad opinions. People are as happy to share positive experiences. It may therefore turn out that you will find a lot of favorable reviews about your website and products. You will also be alerted if the internet is buzzing about some specific keywords you have chosen to monitor. As you can see – checking what is happening on the internet can bring real and measurable benefits.


## I want to know what they feel!

>If you want to:
>
>- work not only on numbers, but also on market advantage
>- step into your client’s shoes
>- get instant insights about your users’ frustration…
>
>…you need to understand what your clients feel.

![CUX dashboard](/uploads/experience_700x390_4a59e95360.png)

_<center> Source: app.cux.io </center>_

Finally, you can remotely see the frustration of the human behind the screen! Thanks to the advanced technology available in CUX, you can see behaviors that indicate something is not right on your site. Zooming – this may mean that the user can’t see the content well. Chaotic movements – this can mean that the customer can’t find what he is looking for. Rage clicking – something isn’t loading properly. Thanks to recordings that will show you specific behavior patterns, you can easily see what exactly causes customer frustration on your website. That’s the level of understanding till now available only for the biggest players with an ethnographic research team on board. 

## How to choose the right method?

Which method should you choose and which tools should you use? It’s definitely worth testing each and every one of the above mentioned tools. However, you must consider several additional aspects, such as the features or constraints a tool has, opinions about a particular solution, or accessibility and professionalism of the tool’s [customer service](https://www.cloudtalk.io/blog/how-to-provide-better-customer-support). 

For many business owners, analytics is still something new, but it’s very beneficial to understand it sooner than later if you want to have insights into your online business. Therefore, apart from useful functionalities, you should take into consideration support from the vendor when choosing a tool to implement in our organization. If you don’t feel like an expert in the field, it’s important to have access to professionals who will support you regardless of the situation and will be able to answer your questions. And when you run out of time, maybe they’ll hand you a ready-made report?

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).

Tools-to-analyze-user-behavior.png

If you own an online business and care about its fast growth, you know that using some kind of analytics tools is a must-have nowadays. Especially if you want to leave your competitors far, far behind. Who doesn’t want that, right? 🙂 

Tools in the times of plague. How to analyze the behavior of users behind the screen?

## Form tracking in CUX: Conversion Waterfall and Goals
CUX Conversion Waterfalls are a great Hotjar alternative to perform an in-depth form analysis. They are designed to mirror every user interaction with forms. Each of the tracked events is precise and aims to ease you to follow user activities in form fields. What are those events? Putting the mouse cursor in the form field, moving it out, or even form submission.

![Adding Waterfall events in CUX](/uploads/Add_Waterfall_700x328_ab578d0903.png)

_<center>Conversion Waterfalls let you track page loads, traffic from referrers, clicks, scrolls and every user action when they work with forms.</center>_

The other Hotjar alternative to form analysis may be a usage of CUX Goals. What are those? It is the ratio of the number of visits recordings that resulted in conversion to all recordings.

![Setting main Goals in CUX](/uploads/Main_Goal_700x277_0e19ff5ebe.png)

_<center>You can set any number of goals depending on your needs. Remember to mark a star next to the Goal you want to see on the dashboard immediately after logging in.</center>_

To track interactions with forms via Conversion Waterfalls or Goals, you can choose one of those four events:

- **Focus in** – the event is recorded whenever a user clicks or tabs into a form field. Action is recorded regardless of the device used, since the primary purpose is the visitor’s focus on the form field.
- **Changed** – tracked every time someone edits a form, changes the field content, or enters new data (actions: typing, deleting, overwriting).
- **Focus out** – this event lets you track whenever people stop typing in a field and move forward. In other words: whenever the user moves the pointer out of a form field.
- **Submit** – tracked whenever someone successfully sends entered data to your server by clicking the submit button. Remember that this event will be more reliable than a basic click-event since its primary focus is on the actual form submissions, not just clicking a button.


For every step in Conversion Waterfall and for every visit that met your Goal, you’ll be able to watch its recording.

## Form tracking in CUX: Heatmaps
If your page contains the form you want to track, you can see all interactions in Heatmaps. CUX collects heatmaps for all pages that the user has interacted with at least once. It means that you don’t have to select and code the pages you want to track.

As a Hotjar alternative, we’ve introduced the following events when it comes to analyzing forms in heatmap:

- **Move** – whenever a user moves their cursor on the screen, you’ll see it on your heatmap.
- **Click** – shows places on your web where users click or tap. More clicks equal the hotter the area (red, yellow, orange), fewer clicks appear cold (green, blue).
- **[Rage click](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/what-is-a-rage-clicks/)** – countless angry mouse clicks. The event appears whenever your page shows signs of design imperfections, implementation errors, or bugs.
- **Zoom** – this type of event shows you heatmaps for visits (only from mobiles and tablets!) where users needed to zoom in or out your page content. 

![Heatmap contact form CUX](/uploads/heatmapa_kontakt_CUX_700x665_1_31a768f1ec.png)

_<center>You can conduct form analysis with heatmaps for your pages with forms.</center>_

>**Remember** that you’ll see the most details about your users’ activity and their interactions with form fields in Waterfalls and Goals. Heatmaps will show you only single clicks around the forms, without an in-depth analysis of user activity.

## Form tracking in Hotjar
You can track interactions with form in Hotjar threefold: with heatmaps, recordings, or by setting up custom events. Heatmaps for the pages with forms allow you to see the intensity of users’ clicks, mouse movements, and scrolls. Recordings aim at reinforcing heatmap findings and helping understand user behaviors. Whenever you want to know how many users reached a given field or step on your form, you’ll need to set up a custom event in Hotjar. 

![Heatmap in Hotjar](/uploads/types_of_heatmaps1_700x322_2c9927a697.png)

_<center>Heatmaps in Hotjar / source: seerinteractive.com</center>_

If your conversion is based on customers filling out forms (contacts, training enrolments, document downloads, generating leads, etc.) or you want to know how exactly users interact with your forms – you may want to look for a Hotjar alternative. Tracking variables such as filling in specific fields, stopping entering data, or submitting a completed form will help you better understand user behavior. 


Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

hotjar-form-analysis.png

Since form analysis was retired from Hotjar last December, you might find yourself looking for an alternative. You’ve probably already searched “Hotjar vs Heap” comparisons, but have you ever considered CUX as a replacement to Hotjar metrics?

Hotjar alternative: form analysis

## Funnel analysis in CUX
We know that users don’t consume content linearly. They are often chaotic and irrational. That’s why in CUX – as an alternative to Hotjar solution – the funnel analysis is conducted via [Conversion Waterfalls](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/waterfalls/what-is-a-waterfall/).

### Conversion Waterfalls, alternative to Hotjar funnel analysis 

Waterfall helps you track visitor behavior across various customer journey scenarios. In other words, the Waterfall is a graphical representation of any sequence of steps visitors perform on your site. You can visualize form submissions, account registration, check-out process, etc. You can also map a scenario to check whether visitors read terms and conditions when you ask them to. It’s up to you what you want to see.

![Conversion Waterfall - funnel analysis](/uploads/Blog_post_7_700x394_68eeccd567.png)

_<center>In CUX funnel analysis is conducted via Conversion Waterfalls</center>_

So when looking for an alternative to Hotjar, you have to answer a question – how detailed a customer journey you need? Is funnel analysis the basis of your business success? With clearly defined goals in mind, it would be much easier for you to choose the right funnel analysis tool.

Waterfalls don’t have to be extra long for your funnel analysis (like when you mirror your conversion funnel). They can be broken down into several smaller ones, for example, to track form submissions.

A Waterfall event represents each user’s action and helps you analyze what happens when people do or don’t do something. The numbers on the Waterfall chart show you how many people have reached a particular stage. For each of the steps of the funnel analysis, you can watch visit recordings – the diagram shows your entry points to a filtered Visits page. Your examination of those visits should tell you if the intended course of events is a reflection of reality.

## Conversion Waterfalls
Before you start building your Waterfall for funnel analysis, make sure to define its goal. It’s best to have a single goal for each of your Waterfalls.

To create a Waterfall in CUX go to the Waterfalls page and click. Always begin with a meaningful name – this will later help you find the Waterfall you need.

![Add Waterfall in CUX](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_07_09_at_16_03_05_700x228_9c668c12ca.png)

_<center>Adding Waterfall for funnel analysis in CUX</center>_

Add a step. Remember that there is no technical limit to the number of steps. Enter a step name. Try to use a name that reflects an action you want your visitors to take.

![Waterfall events in CUX](/uploads/Screenshot_2021_07_09_at_16_03_58_700x329_8adc4d1993.png)
_<center>Waterfall events for funnel analysis in CUX</center>_

Select an event and define its parameters. You can select [events from 3 categories](https://cux.io/knowledge-base/waterfalls/waterfall-events/):

- events related to **web traffic** (page load or visit origin),
- user **movement on the page** (click or scroll),
- user **interaction with a form** (entering data, changing data, submissions).
Optionally repeat adding and configuring steps until you’ve mirrored the entire sequence of actions that match the Waterfall goal.

## How to analyze funnels in CUX
On the Waterfall chart, you’ll see the percentage of users who have made it to the next step. For each step, you can click “View” and be redirected to the filtered list of visits during which users drop.

![Visits recordings in Waterfall](/uploads/Waterfall_700x452_a4d7bfde57.png)

_<center>In CUX you can watch a filtered list of recordings for every step of the funnel</center>_

All you must do now is watch a few of those recordings, look for the patterns, and the reason for the drop will come forward.

## Funnel analysis in Hotjar
To analyze funnels in Hotjar you first have to decide which parts of your funnel you want to monitor (Recording filters). You can choose one of the following options: referrer traffic, drop-outs (filter by the Exit URL), completed checkout. Then you’ll need to add those filters to your Recordings. The next step would be saving the filter list as a Segment and watching Recordings within the Segment.

The main difference between the CUX and Hotjar funnel analysis is the level of detail. In Hotjar alternative – like CUX – you will see why users drop out on different levels of the customer journey, while in HJ you will only see drops in the places you’ve chosen. Why does it matter? Perhaps you are focusing on recovering abandoned carts with your remarketing campaigns.

![Waterfall for Checkout in CUX](/uploads/waterfall_checkout_f1caf53384.png)

_<center>Conversion Waterfall (funnel analysis) for checkout process in CUX</center>_

However, if you’ll take a few steps back, you may notice that users who actually reached checkout are only a fraction of your total traffic. The biggest drops happened earlier.

![Waterfall Product Checkout](/uploads/waterfall_product_checkout_d9b02d23f4.png)

_<center>Conversion Waterfall (funnel analysis) for the whole journey (Product page to checkout)</center>_

Ready to start your journey with smarter analytics and UX automation? Drop us a line at [team@cux.io](mailto:team@cux.io)! 

Want to harvest the freshest analytical crops? Sign up for the cux.io nourishing [newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b)! Be careful! We may grow on you! 🥑 😉

Hotjar-funnel-analysis.png

Tracks and forms were retired from Hotjar last December. Since then, the tool has proposed to watch visits’ recordings for funnel analysis. If you are looking for a Hotjar alternative on this topic, this article is an answer to your prayers.


HotJar alternative: funnel analysis

![digital_marketing.png](https://content.cux.io/uploads/digital_marketing_d40c2c0168.png)

Questions like “what’s the difference between CUX and Hotjar?” or “I’m using Fullstory, can you beat that?” are part of our everyday life. We must have answered them at least a million times. At the same time, we fully understand these concerns. Everyone who is facing a purchase choice – whether it’s clothes, a car, or just an analytical tool- wants to know the differences, strengths and weaknesses, so that in the end they can choose the product that is most suitable for them.

Therefore, to meet your questions and doubts, we have decided to prepare a list of tools similar to CUX. We focused on a comparison of functionalities in relation to different needs. Our aim was to give you the most reliable comparison that will help you make the right choice.

Each of us has different needs, so each of these tools can find both – its supporters and opponents. The most important thing is to match the product to the needs of the business, to what you want to analyze, what conclusions you want to draw and how deep into the data you want to dive.

## TOOL: Hotjar

**For whom:** for beginner marketers entering the path of web analytics.

**Useful for:** basic statistics.

![Hotjar-1.png](/uploads/Hotjar_1_539029a1e0.png)

Let’s start with [Hotjar](https://www.hotjar.com/). It’s probably the most recognizable analytical tool on the market. It’s very basic, there’s not much detail you can glean out of the box. It’s simple, intuitive, and presents basic data that should be sufficient for you at the beginning. The sales funnels are characterized by their simple design, with no possibility to set up a variety of paths and overlaps to see how clients interact.

Using Hotjar you will not be able to analyze the logged-in users’ behavior. You shouldn’t assume that customers who log into your site behave the same way as those who are just beginning their adventure with it. These are two different groups of customers who come to you with different needs (e.g. telecommunication’s users logging into your site will look for their last bill and new customers will look for offers to buy). Therefore, you should be able to analyze the behavior of both groups.

Heatmaps in Hotjar aren’t the most accurate. They don’t show the exact point where your client clicked on the image. They are smoothed out, you might even say they are beautified, as they do not always show what is actually happening on the site. And we shouldn’t want to see beautiful pictures, but real data (even if it’s showing us the ugly truth). Sometimes there happens that some elements disappear from the heatmaps. Aside from that, Hotjar takes an image of the webpage and uses it forever. As Hotjar’s users point out – it can be misleading. If you have made changes to the site in the meantime and Hotjar still refers to the old screen, it is very likely that the collected data will be incorrect.

An important piece of information you will need to know before choosing Hotjar, is that it only records sessions, not visits (remember – a visit may include several sessions). It may therefore give you a slightly distorted picture of what is happening on the site. This is your individual decision whether you want to analyze the whole visit or only the sessions are sufficient for you. However, it is worth remembering that analyzing only one session, and not the whole user’s visit, is like watching the first 20 minutes of a movie – we got familiar with the plot, but we will never know what the final result was.

Hotjar also offers surveys, which will allow you to get feedback from customers. However, we feel that feedback from users who don’t always know what they want from us can be difficult to evaluate and may not bring any measurable conclusions.

**OVERVIEW:**

- a basic tool for beginner analysts,
- no possibility to analyze logged-in users,
- heatmaps don’t always show the exact point of contact between the user and the site,
- recording sessions only, not entire user visits,
- possibility of creating surveys,
- friendly interface,
- easy and quick installation and integration into the site,
- the ability to use the tool’s freemium option.
 

## TOOL: Fullstory

**For whom:** for people who have already taken their first steps in user analytics.

**Useful for:** user-focused analytics, not a holistic approach.

![Fullstory.png](https://content.cux.io/uploads/Fullstory_f191f7d9c8.png)

As a second tool, we looked closely at [Fullstory](https://www.fullstory.com/). Like most tools, it has similar basic functions, i.e. heat maps and recordings. But what makes Fullstory stand out is a completely different analytical context – user-focused, not holistic. This has its advantages – it allows you to gather every user interaction with your site, which can be useful in identifying the bugs, its encounters and providing support. This approach may result in gathering a lot of information and data that can be difficult to analyze.

Once you have exceeded your monthly session limit, Fullstory will stop recording users’ activity on your website until you update or start the next month. This approach may result in skipping some of the recordings from which you could potentially draw insights.

The multitude of features and details make some users perceive Fullstory’s UI as overwhelming and not entirely intuitive. It takes a lot of interaction with the tool to get to the desired results.

**OVERVIEW:**

- user-oriented analytical context,
- no recording of the session after the limit has been reached,
- overwhelming interface,
- possibility to share recordings with other users
- possibility to create segments for easy filtering of recordings,
- security issues related to mask sensitive data.
 

## TOOL: Heap

**For whom:** for people who have a lot of time for analyzing data.

**Useful for:** analyzing an enormous amount of information.

![Heap.png](https://content.cux.io/uploads/Heap_844a4cc93c.png)

Another tool we took a closer look at was [Heap](https://heap.io/). It’s a powerful tool for analysis, but quantitative. It’s like Google Analytics on steroids. Heap gives you a lot of data, a lot of numbers to interpret on your own, which can be both – time-consuming and problematic.

This sea of data is due to Heap’s solution – no need to define events. If you don’t define exactly what data you need, Heap collects all information for you. Can you imagine how much time it will take you to get through it later?

What intrigued us at the very end is the form of settlement. Most of the tools settle their clients per click, visits or sessions. Heap chose another form – billing per user. So if a user comes to your site, he can click as much as he wants, open dozens of tabs, have countless sessions.

**OVERVIEW:**

- a powerful tool with a lot of data to analyze,
- no possibility to define events,
- specific settlement method – per user, not a session or visit,
- intended mainly for medium-sized and large companies,
- no IT integration needed,
- possibility to view historical data (if you define a new event a year after you start using Heap, the historical stats for that event are available).
 

## TOOL: cux.io
**For whom:** for those who want to learn about user behavior on the Internet in the broadest possible context.

**Useful for:** for those who want to learn about user behavior on the Internet in the broadest possible context.

![cux.png](https://content.cux.io/uploads/cux_9c5f29350f.png)

Last, but not least – CUX. CUX provides advanced capabilities under the guise of a simple UI. It is a hybrid of quantitative data, event-based and retroactive (a’la Heap) user analytics, with a broader context than any other tool on the market.

What distinguishes this tool above all, is the recording of entire user visits, not just sessions (we mentioned this describing Hotjar). This feature gives an overview of the entire path that customers go through your site, regardless of whether they open one tab or seven, whether they use your site actively, whether tabs are open in the background and nothing happens there ([by the way – T-Mobile caught their affiliate in red-handed using this feature](https://cux.io/blog/analytics/how-to-monitor-a-campaign-with-cux-t-mobile-case/)).

CUX allows you to analyze every event that a client can perform on your site. It can automatically collect data related to each click in the field on the form, in the dropdown menu, in the checkbox, whatever you want. This makes it easy to build conversion funnels, based on which it will be possible to analyze the user path and possible drops that may appear on particular, defined steps.

A novelty on the market that CUX offers, is the possibility of analyzing user frustration. Using indicators such as Rage Clicks, Content Zooming or Chaotic Movement, you can find out whether or not your website gives users a headache. Additionally, on the dashboard of each of these indicators, there is a list of recordings where you will be able to see exactly which part of your website frustrates your client.

**OVERVIEW:**

- an advanced tool for multidimensional qualitative analytics,
- recording and analyzing entire visits (not just sessions!) of users,
- the ability to analyze every event that the user performs on the site,
- analysis of user frustration,
- individual technical, training and analytical support,
- available only for websites and web applications.
 

We hope that such a comparison will at least put your thoughts in order before making a decision about the choice of an analytical tool. Remember – most of these tools offer a trial period during which you can check whether or not CUX, Hotjar or Fullstory fits your business.

Our recommendation would be to test all possible functions and see whether you need everything the tool has to offer. Remember that you cannot analyze everything. Choose the metrics that are the most suitable for monitoring your business and focus on them. Also check what customer support looks like, because during everyday use it is as important as a fully working tool. There is nothing worse than waiting a few days for assistance with one small thing or a bug fix. And finally, choose the tool that will support you and help you analyze data. The one that will simply be best suited to your needs.

 

**PS:** If you want to know more about CUX and alternative analytical tools, I recommend Paulina’s article for more details [„Why to improve conversion with CUX over HotJar or other alternatives?”](https://cux.io/blog/product/why-to-improve-conversion-with-cux-over-hotjar-or-other-alternatives/)

**PS2:** The article was written on the basis of comments and reviews of the users of these analytical tools.

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).

The competition doesn't have to be worse, it's just different

Comparision-of-the-analytical-competition 

There is a whole range of analytical tools that are available on the market. From those that offer the simplest solutions, providing basic data, to those that are incredibly advanced and allow analyzing user behavior analytics in a very wide context. But how do they differ, which one to choose and why? Every marketer asks themselves this question while looking for the holy grail of analytical tools.

The competition doesn’t have to be worse, it’s just different

It’s time to explain once and for all why CUX will change the way you get to know your users and their behavior.


Of course, it mostly depends how you use this type of tools, what is the key feature for you, and what kind of product/project you analyze. But I would say that for all of us the main goal is to optimize the conversion rate. Am I right?

## Get to know your users inside and out.

When it comes to knowing online user behavior, context is what matters the most. We put a lot effort into showing you the broadest possible contexts. Even though you cannot be at home with the users, you can still learn as much about their interactions with your product as it is technically possible.

## Advanced methodology no longer equals overwhelming user interface.

I know it’s not sexy at all, but it’s also time to start saying out loud that methodology determines how well you know your customers. Advanced methodology no longer equals overwhelming user interface. CUX is a simple solution, so you can go as deep as you need and explore more and more tool capabilities. There’s no need to configure heatmaps or recordings, CUX does it for you all the time, and you can filter what exactly you want to analyze at the moment.

### Let’s have a quick look at the features and see what CUX give you in comparison to similar tools:

#### 1. Conversion waterfall to take next best action

Our game changer, dynamite and a reason we can be so proud of our product team. Till now you’ve probably used URL funnels to check what’s the conversion rate on your website, or you’ve worked with analytics and developers at your company to go through the whole application and paste integration code for each of events you wanted to measure. It’s no longer just a simple funnel. CUX Auto Capture functionality automatically recognizes almost all website events so you can build as big waterfall as your project requires.

![waterfall cux.io](/uploads/1_71ebd1df1e.png)

Sounds nice? So imagine that it’s not everything! After your waterfall is done and you’ll exactly see how looks the numbers for each step and the conversion rate per se. You’ll also get a filtered list of recordings showing you the exact reasons why people drop out of there. Your role here – just getting insights and making the decision. Easy as pie.

![2.png](/uploads/2_c7d7cba25f.png)
![3.png](/uploads/3_40951a0e6c.png)


#### 2. Heatmaps dedicated to e-commerce (not only 😉)

It’s hard to imagine better heatmaps for e-commerce than CUX gives you. Besides regular heatmaps, CUX allows you to:

a. see pixel perfect images for the most popular resolutions (based on your users’ data) and design an ideal website/app for them:
![4.png](/uploads/4_04b0824bc8.png)

b. check all devices users possibly use and while designing focus on the most important for your business
![5.png](/uploads/5_7090c5b6fe.png)

c. aggregate results of identically designed pages or categories of products to get one heatmap, which will give you the knowledge how to redesign UI and what are the exact results for all users.
![6.png](/uploads/6_e0e712ac2a.png)

#### 3. Visits recordings, because online we might go crazy

Let’s face it – we don’t use internet in a linear way. We mostly don’t use websites the way they were designed (not ideal resolution, not designed user journey etc.). Users are chaotic, there are several studies showing that especially Millennials are used to open gazillion tabs and are unpredictable. We take it for granted, that’s why in CUX, as one and only on the market, you’ll see the whole user visits from the very beginning, through all tabs opened till the very end.

![7.png](/uploads/7_b31ded3b1d.png)

Moreover, CUX gives you advanced filters and support for any devices allowing to browse through the Internet.

![8.png](/uploads/8_ba79abe26b.png)


#### 4. URL tagging – for remote user tests and campaign tracking

As I mentioned before, CUX gives you real-time preview. Thanks to that and URL tagging feature, you’re able to conduct remote user tests and get all recording after the interview. One thing you have to do is to send a tagged link to the tested user. As soon as he opens it, you’ll see this tagged visit on the list and you’re free to go through the scenario. No start recording buttons or external tools needed.

![9.png](/uploads/9_ca90e6dfea.png)

This feature can be also helpful to tag any links you’ll ever send in emails/campaigns etc. You’ll be finally able to not only see how many users opened the link or converted thanks to some campaign, but also what is their user journey after and how the different segments of users interact with your content, depending on the link they’ve clicked.

#### 5. Transparency

CUX doesn’t have any magic algorithms, because we don’t think we can decide which user visits are more important for you. CUX shows you up to 100% of visits, obviously excluding bots.We know, how our customers care about data privacy, so it’s important to say that CUX has data center in Europe. We are building our own infrastructure based on bare metals leased from OVH so we know exactly where your data is physically located.

## Is that all?

Not really. CUX also gives you unique metrics, like user engagement time, shows you information if you analyse data about new or returning user (and which time on the website it is for him) you can even filter all his visits and much more details which you can experience while using.

We already test alerts for atypical user behavior like zooming on mobile devices or rage clicks.
Our roadmap leads us to develop predictive analytics features, so your data-driven decisions will be even easier to make.

Believe me, it’s a big challenge to develop a simple and advanced tool at the same time, so [let’s try how it works](https://app.cux.io/register)! You can be sure, the era of #yolomarketing comes to the end, now is #datadrivenmarketing time!

If you have any questions, doubts, would like to implement analytics or solve a problem on your website (or maybe you just want to say “hi” 😉) – drop a line at [paulina@cux.io](mailto:paulina@cux.io). We will be more than happy to hear from you ❤️ And if you would like to receive newest information about our product, sign up for [the CUX newsletter](https://share.hsforms.com/1zmJkyNsvRPSLaAgf-pYNWA2pu7b).

Hotjar-alternatives-CUX.png

I cannot count the times I answered this question over the last 2 years. That’s totally understandable – there are more and more tools for analytics and observing users so it’s easy to get confused by all the features and metrics. Which of them do you need and what will be the results?