Migrating from Amplitude to Hotjar
Hotjar is built for heatmap analysis and session replay at startup and scaleup scale. This guide covers the practical steps to move your workflow from Amplitude across without losing data or disrupting your team mid-sprint.
At a Glance
- Best-in-class behavioral analytics with powerful event segmentation, funnel analysis, and retention charts that go far deeper than Google Analytics
- Generous free Starter plan with up to 50,000 MTUs — enough for many early-stage startups to use without paying
- AI-powered natural language querying (Ask Amplitude) enables non-technical PMs and stakeholders to get insights without writing queries
- Extremely fast setup — just add a single JavaScript snippet and start collecting heatmaps and recordings within minutes
- Intuitive, beginner-friendly interface that non-technical PMs, designers, and marketers can use without training
- Combines qualitative (recordings, surveys, feedback) and quantitative (heatmaps, funnels) insights in one platform
You leave behind
- −workflow automations
- −custom fields
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Hotjar, document what lives in Amplitude: projects and tasks, custom fields, automations, integrations, and team permissions. Export a full CSV backup — most tools support this from Settings → Export. Pay particular attention to any custom fields and workflow automations that your team relies on daily.
Set up your Hotjar workspace
Create your Hotjar workspace and replicate your project structure using tasks and projects. Start with the free tier — it covers the core workflow before you commit to a paid plan. Run with a single pilot team before migrating everyone.
Map your workflow equivalents
Find the closest Hotjar equivalent for each Amplitude feature your team relies on. projects and tasks in Amplitude maps to tasks and projects in Hotjar. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
Hotjar supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 20+ native integrations. For automations that don't have a native equivalent in Hotjar, Zapier or Make can bridge the gap. Start with your most active project rather than importing everything at once.
Onboard your team
Run a 30-minute walkthrough covering the daily workflow: how to create tasks and projects, update status, and find your board. Hotjar has a gentle learning curve — most PMs are fully productive within 1–2 days. Focus the session on the UI differences rather than feature training.
Run Amplitude in parallel for two weeks
Keep Amplitude read-only while your team works primarily in Hotjar. This reduces risk and lets people reference historical context — old decisions, archived tickets, past sprint data — without slowing the migration. After two weeks with no new work going into Amplitude, archive the workspace and make Hotjar the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Hotjar review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.