Hotjar vs. Refiner: Why we think Refiner is a great alternative to Hotjar surveys

Hotjar vs. Refiner

Hotjar provides a large set of different tools to understand user behaviour. Refiner is a specialized microsurvey tool tailored to the needs of data-driven software companies.

Focused on in-product surveys

Hotjar surveys are designed for a general audience. This means they are not a perfect fit for software teams looking to launch surveys inside a web or mobile application. We understand you don’t only run NPS, CSAT or CES surveys and you need to be able to create specific surveys for specific customers and users.You probably already use analytics tools better designed for your needs than Hotjar, and you want the same for your surveys.We know your product experience needs to be perfect so we built the right tools to improve the response rate inside your product.

Specialized in "post-signup" surveys

While you can use Hotjar on your website and even within your application, it is generally for an anonymous audience and associating responses to users is somehow limited.On Refiner, you are able to very easily tie survey responses to user profiles.It opens up unlimited opportunities to precisely target the right people at the right time, create rich user segments, dive deeper into the results to uncover hidden insights, following up with individual users, and a lot more.Refiner surveys have been designed for post-signup usecases with logged-in users. That’s why you will have a lot more options to create the right surveys in Refiner.

More customization options

Hotjar lets you customize a few colors and that’s basically it.With Refiner, you can of course customize colors and borders, you can also define which kind of widget you want: slide-in, modal, etc.But there’s more. For enterprise customers, you have total control over the design so you can create fully branded surveys.With great survey design and precise targeting you will achieve incredibly high response rates with perfectly timed micro surveys!

Integrations with your favorite tools

Hotjar has a few integrations but they are mostly marketing-oriented.Surveys are a means to an end and the goal is to close the customer feedback loop so everyone knows what to do next.That’s why integrations are so important and why the right seamless integrations can make this job a lot easier.In addition to Zapier, Refiner also integrates with Make so you can create even more advanced automations. Send survey data to all the platforms you need to and create users or events from external triggers.Customer.io is also a first-class integration of Refiner and lets you send messages depending on a survey response and close the feedback loop with the right message to customers.

Send survey responses to your favorite tools

Reach more users with email surveys

With Hotjar, you can only send a link to a survey page.Refiner lets you embed a question inside your emails and use your own provider.Your emails will be beautiful with a provider that will be better than any email editor we can even give you as it is not our core product.

Easy to use reporting dashboard and advanced segmentation

Because Refiner is dedicated to surveys, we are able to give you a much more complete reporting dashboard and segmentation features.You will reduce errors compared to manual analysis, save time on data processing, and overall improve the speed and quality of your research.The reporting dashboard shows everything you need at a glance. You can track your NPS or CSAT ratings then filter by segment to find where to focus next in just a few minutes.

Reporting dashboard for survey responses

Don’t just take our word for it

We proudly serve hundreds of happy SaaS, Fintech, Edtech, Online Marketplaces and Consumer Mobile Apps customers.

We love using Refiner to automatically gather NPS survey results and get critical feedback we need from our trial users so we can constantly improve our word of mouth flywheel. With its Segment and Zapier integrations it fits right into our product led growth tech stack. Easy to install, tons of value and zero hassle.

Paul Yacoubian

Founder, CEO

Refiner is a powerful survey tool that allows to precisely target user segments based on our data. We tested several tools before going to Refiner and what made the big difference is that with Refiner every survey answer is directly logged into our database via Segment, and that’s a game changer! Also, the initial integration and setup were seamless and extremely easy. The templates and the ability to customize survey with our own branding and targeting specs is very much appreciated too.

Margaux Reynaud

Product Manager

Refiner is the tool we were searching for to better profile our users, and gather feedback about our products. It’s very easy to set up, comes with a great UX for our users and the team is very reactive.

Javier Escribano

CPO

Refiner changed the way we operate. As a data-driven online service, we needed a way to collect feedback unintrusively at scale. Their tool helped us reach this goal in no time. Bonus : it fits super well in our growth stack (Segment, Customer.io).

Grégoire d’Aboville

Head of Growth

Super easy two-way integration with Segment and great support in setting up and launching our in-app surveys, made it a success!

Coralie Blanc

CRM Lead

With its Segment integration, Refiner makes it super easy to survey fragmented user segments easily based on properties and/or events and sync results with our data warehouse for further analysis. Setting up Refiner was a child’s play and creating new surveys is a matter of minutes. 10/10 points.

Alexander Schneekloth

Co-Founder

We discovered Refiner while using another SaaS product and we instantly fell in love with their UI / UX. So we gave it a go and were collecting user feedback for SnapShooter in no time. We are using Refiner to collect insights about how our users discovered us. The Slack notifications when someone completes a survey are a great addition to keep the team informed.

Simon Bennett

Founder

We were looking for a survey solution for our product that could flawlessly be synced with Segment. Refiner is the only solution we found that addresses data integrations as a main feature and not as an afterthought. Refiner is an incredibly flexible tool that can be used by nearly every team at Livestorm: growth and marketing, product, customer experience and support, and even sales.

Thibaut Davoult

Head of Growth

We looked at various NPS solutions but Refiner was the only one which was built from the ground up to meet the needs of SaaS companies. Refiner gives us complete flexibility and their surveys match our UI/UX 100%.

Mathieu Le Roux

Voice of the Customer Manager

Unlock the full potential of microsurveys ...

Logic Jumps & Branching

Customize your survey based on answers to get the most accurate feedback possible.

Liquid tags

Create more personalized surveys by using customers’ name and information.

Hidden fields & prefill responses

Don’t ask people questions you already have the answer to.

Precise targeting

Trigger your surveys at a specific time, event, page view or manually with our Javascript client. Leverage segmentation for even better targeting.

Dynamic Call-to-Actions

Invite respondents to take action right after their answers. Ask for a review, offer a coupon, schedule a call, etc.

All the integrations you need

We have integrations with Segment, Zapier, Make, Customer.io, Amplitude, Rudderstack, Google Sheets - ready to use with just a few clicks.

Slack and email notifications

Receive customer feedback where you spend most of your time.

Filter and segment customer data in any way you want

Segment customers by their survey responses, traits, or behavior, and uncover precious customer insights.

Track NPS®, CSAT, and CES ratings

See if your efforts to improve customer experience bear fruit.

Want to see our surveys in action?

Why customers are using Refiner instead of Hotjar Surveys

Are Hotjar surveys really the best option for you?