Guide
User behavior analytics, in plain terms.
Web analytics tells you how many people came. Behavior analytics tells you what they did once they got there. It covers several kinds of tool, and you probably don’t need them all.
In short
User behavior analytics shows how people actually use a website or app. Its main tools are heatmaps, session replay, funnels and surveys. Heatmaps give the quickest overview, so most teams start there and add others when they have a question heatmaps can’t answer.
Which tool answers which question
What to start with
If you have none of these, start with heatmaps on your few most important pages. They need no setup and give you an answer in days. You’ll probably find something obvious to fix, and it’ll show you which question to ask next. Add replay if you can’t work out why something’s happening, a funnel if you have a multi-step flow, and tests once you have enough traffic to trust them.
A note on the term
In security, “user and entity behavior analytics” means something else: spotting unusual activity on company systems to catch intruders. If that’s what you’re after, this isn’t the right page, and Maximizii isn’t the right tool.
Where Maximizii fits
Maximizii covers the first row and basic traffic numbers, and that’s all. There are no funnels, surveys or tests. Our comparison pages cover the tools that do those.
Questions
What is user behavior analytics?
Measuring how people actually use a website or app: what they click, how far they scroll, where they drop out. It goes beyond counting visits.
What’s the difference between behavior analytics and web analytics?
Web analytics counts visits, sources and conversions. Behavior analytics looks at what happens on a page. You’ll usually want both.
What are the best behavior analytics tools?
It depends which question you have. Microsoft Clarity covers maps and replay for free, PostHog suits product teams, and Maximizii suits anyone who only wants maps.
Keep reading
- Heatmaps vs session replayWhat each is for, what each costs, and why we built only one of them.
- Website heatmapsClick, scroll and attention maps over a picture of your real page, from one line of code.
- PostHog alternativePostHog is a whole product platform. Maximizii is one small job, done on its own.
- Hotjar alternativeNew Hotjar accounts now go to Contentsquare. A smaller option, if you only need maps.
- Rage clicksWhat rage clicks are, what causes them, and how to find them on your site.
- Click trackingTrack every click on your site without tagging a single button.
Find out where they click.