This article outlines the available features and configurations that exist in Surveys. For help with the Survey creation process, see our How to Create a Survey article.
Overview
Surveys enable you to capture user feedback using a variety of questions and customization options. Hotjar surveys can be displayed in one of the following ways based on which Type you choose during the setup process. The survey type will determine where and how the survey appears. Surveys can be set to appear on your website as a popover, button, overlay, embedded, or on a separate page that is hosted by Hotjar.
The Type options available include:
- Popover - Appears as a small widget, allowing your users to interact with other content on the same page.
- Button - Appears as a button on your page which visitors can click to open the survey.
- Full screen - Appears as an overlay in the middle of the page. Your page's background content is greyed out, making the survey is the main focus.
- Embedded - Appears embedded into the page, instead of an overlay on top of the page.
- Link - Appears as a stand-alone page that exists outside of your website. Hotjar will generate the unique Survey page URL after the Link survey is created. You can send Link surveys to users via targeted email messages, without the need for a user to be on your site to receive the questions. Optionally, you can also set up a pop-up invite to direct users on your site to the Link survey page.
To learn more about each type of survey, and to see the features available for them, keep scrolling or skip to one of the sections below:
Popover Surveys
Popover surveys are initially displayed differently based on the user's device. Here are some examples of how a Popover survey will appear to a user:
Examples of a popover survey in different states
Once you set up a Popover survey, your users are shown the question in a widget which pops out from the bottom of the page. This allows the user two options:
- Answer your question and hit Next: Hotjar surveys allow you to ask multiple questions within the same survey in order. Every time a question is answered and submitted, responses are sent to Hotjar's servers. This maximizes the number of replies you receive as the user does not need to answer all the questions for the survey to send the responses.
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Minimize the survey: Users may not have an interest in answering the question you ask them. Or, they might want to answer your question later on. For this reason, they can minimize a Popover survey so it won't distract them. They can expand it later if they wish, to answer the survey questions when convenient.
When minimized by a user, a survey will stay minimized
Hotjar sets a cookie on their browser to remember this setting. This means the survey will load as minimized immediately if they navigate to another page where the same survey is set to show. Learn more about the cookies we store.
Button Surveys
Button surveys are displayed like feedback widgets, but have the extra functionality that comes with surveys.
For example, you can store user attributes with on-site survey responses. You can also control the behavior of a survey, such as making it disappear once a response has been collected. Survey questions are highly customizable as well, giving you more control and allowing you to incorporate logic into the flow.
Button surveys work in the same way as popover surveys as explained above, the only difference being that popover surveys appear immediately expanded on desktop and tablet (collapsed on mobile), whereas button surveys require that users click the button to open it (this applies to all devices).
Button survey example on a desktop device
Full screen Surveys
Full screen surveys have the same functionality as Popover surveys. However, the difference is that a Full screen survey appears as an overlay in the middle of the targeted page, rather than as a widget. This option is great when you want to get your users' full attention on a page.
Full screen survey example on a desktop device
Embedded Surveys
Embedded surveys have the same functionality as Popover and Full screen surveys. However, the difference is that an Embedded survey appears as a component fixed to a specific point in the targeted page, rather than a popover widget or full screen overlay. This option allows you to customize where you want the survey to appear on a page, and it prevents the survey from covering up other content that exists on the same page.
A Hotjar survey embedded on a website.
Link Surveys
Once you set up a Link survey, Hotjar will generate a unique URL (link) that you can send to users via email. When a user clicks the link, they are shown the survey questions in the order that they have been configured.
Link survey example on a desktop device
Link surveys do not have an option to collapse or close since they are displayed on a dedicated page.
The questions appear one at a time. Each response is sent to Hotjar servers every time a question is answered. This is done to maximize the number of replies you receive. If the user does not answer all the questions for the survey and leaves the survey page early, Hotjar stores the responses provided before the survey page was abandoned.
Link survey on-site invitations
On-site invitation overlay that can be enabled for Link surveys
Even though users can only view Link surveys on a dedicated page, Hotjar includes an option to display an on-site invitation on your website, so that users can be invited to take the survey, without needing the direct link to view it. The invite text can be edited and prompts your users to participate in the survey and directs them to the Link survey page if they accept the invite.
Customizing your Survey
Only our Ask Business and Ask Scale plans allow for color customization of Surveys and Feedback
Customizing the color of Surveys and Feedback widgets is not available on Ask Basic or Ask Plus. Visit our pricing page to find out more about what's included in each plan.
You're able to customize where on your page a Popover survey will appear, what conditions trigger your Popover or Full screen survey, and how persistently it appears to your users.
You also have a number of options available to you in customizing the appearance of each kind of Survey. These options include: choosing the user interface language, color (Ask Business and Ask Scale plans only), and position on-page (Popover and Full screen only). You can also remove Hotjar branding if you're on a Ask Business or Ask Scale plan. In addition, a custom logo can be added to the Survey footer to accommodate your site branding, and images can be added to questions. Find more details on our pricing and plans on the Hotjar pricing page.
Example of a Popover survey
Example of a Link survey with customized colors
Targeting your audience
Surveys can be set up to appear across all pages on your website, or they can be configured to only target specific pages. For some paid plans, it's also possible to target surveys based on when Hotjar Events are triggered on a page, or based on specific attributes of the user (using the User Attributes feature).
Targeting settings
To learn more about the targeting options available for surveys, check out these articles:
- How to Trigger Surveys or Feedback Based on URLs
- How to Use Events for Survey and Feedback Targeting
- How to Use User Attributes with Surveys and Feedback Widgets
Types of questions you can ask your users
Hotjar Surveys support the following question types:
| Question Type | What's Shown |
| Reaction | Displays a scale of five graphics with customizable text labels on the left and on the right. You can choose from the following graphics: Hotjar Buddies, Smileys, Emojis, or Stars. |
| Long text answers | Displays a multi-line text box for the user to type in. |
| Short text answers | Displays a single-line text field for the user to type in. |
| Email (with validation) | Only accepts __@__.__ format. The validation checks the email address format but doesn't check to determine if the email address given is connected to an active inbox. |
| Radio buttons | Allows free-form comments and randomization of answers options. |
| Checkboxes | Allows free-form comments and randomization of answers options. |
| 1-5 and/or 1-7 Rating Scale | A custom question appears over a rating scale, allowing users to select a number 1-5 or 1-7. |
| Net Promoter Score® | A 0-10 rating scale with customizable low and high score labels. See our Net Promoter Score® guide for more details. |
| Statement | Displays custom text without providing a response field. Statements contain a title field and an optional description field. |
You can add images to all question types and use Hotjar Surveys for concept testing (available on Ask Business or Scale).
The responses collected can be viewed in either a typical table format or in a Results view which summarizes the results for you for quick insights.