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Not so long ago, if you had a website and you were aiming to optimize it to maximize your conversions, all you needed was Google Analytics. It would give you unending numbers and statistics to wrap your head around and come up with ideas to make your website better and increase your revenue.
Things have changed in the past couple of years. Numbers are not enough anymore. Now you need to see what users do on your website and analyze it so that you can reach a deep understanding of their pain points. Also, you need to know why some of them decide to leave your website before finalizing their conversion.
This is where user behavior tracking tools come into play. With features such as session recordings and heatmaps, they show you each user’s journey, where they click, how they scroll, and tons of other data.
WatchThemLive and Smartlook are both great user behavior tools. They have almost similar features, but, of course, they’re not the same. Here we will make a comparison between WatchThemLive and Smartlook and go through their similarities and differences.
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This table can show you a quick comparison between their features:
| WatchThemLive | Smartlook | |
| Free Plan | ✅ | ✅ |
| Analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Session Recording | ✅ | ✅ |
| Heatmaps | ✅ | ✅ |
| Exporting Reports | ✅ | ✅ |
| User Profiling | ✅ | ✅ |
| Goal Tracking | ✅ | ❌ |
| Funnels | ❌ | ✅ |
| Paid plans start at | $19/month | $39/month |
WatchThemLive vs. Smartlook: User Interface
Having an intuitive user interface has always been a priority for WatchThemLive. Finding what you’re looking for on WatchThemLive happens as easily as possible. Each item or feature is positioned so neatly that even a first-time user will not feel the slightest amount of confusion when working with its interface.
Smartlook, too, has an almost straightforward user interface. Although you definitely will need to skim through their guides and “learn more” pages to understand how some of their features work, it still is not a deal-breaker.
WatchThemLive vs. Smartlook: Features
Most of the features on WatchThemLive and Smartlook do the same thing. They both have features such as analytics, heatmaps, and session recordings. However, some of their features are rather unique, such as the goal tracking feature in WatchThemLive. Now let’s take a look at each of these features and compare them in detail.
Analytics
The analytics on WatchThemLive include various important items such as the number of your pageviews, sessions, and visitors in your preferred period of time followed by an apprehensible line graph.
In the “Pages” column, you can see the number of visits each page has received and their percentages.
The rest of the analytics on WatchThemLive include the number of visits your website has received sorted from most to least based on the referrers (external web pages that have linked to your website,) countries, operating systems, devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet,) browsers, screen resolutions, browser languages, and UTMs (used to track the effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns.)
The analytics on Smartlook include devices, top visited pages, top landing pages, top exit pages, and top countries.
Session Replays
Session recordings give you access to the recordings of all of your users’ activities on your website. These recordings are way more useful than you might imagine.
Sometimes you face issues that remain a mystery and leave you wondering for days because you can’t understand the reason behind them. Why do some unwanted things (like errors or users bouncing) happen, and why do some desired actions (like conversion and transaction) don’t take place?
Session recordings work like CCTV and will show you what happens on your website, why they happen and how you can manipulate them. This way, nothing remains a mystery anymore.
The session replays feature in WatchThemLive does this in the most perfect way. It shows you the journey each and every user goes through with their mouse movements, scrolling, and clicks in detail.
Session recordings in WatchThemLive and Smartlook work almost in the same way. In both of them, you can change the speed, skip inactive parts automatically, and filter the sessions based on various factors.
In its free plan, WatchThemLive lets you record 5,000 session recordings per month while in Smartlook the numbers are way more limited, allowing you to record only 1,500 session recordings with their free plan.
How about their paid plans, you ask? Well, with the cheapest paid plan in WatchThemLive called the pro plan, which only costs $19 per month, you will have access to 50,000 session recordings monthly. On the other hand, in Smartlook, the cheapest plan will cost you $39 per month with a limit of 5,000 recordings monthly.
Heatmaps
Every web developer, UI/UX designer, or expert in any similar field is now aware of the importance of website heatmaps. Heatmaps show you which places on your webpage are more popular, receive the most clicks, and are more suitable for your CTA and Important buttons.
Even with their free plan, WatchThemLive lets you create an unlimited number of heatmaps.
Interestingly, in Smartlook, you can only create three heatmaps monthly with their free plan and 30 heatmaps with their business plan, which costs $95 per month!
If you ask me, there isn’t even a competition here.
WatchThemLive’s Goal Tracking
In this comparison, goal tracking is a feature that is exclusive to WatchThemLive.
You may use this tool to define conversion targets in order to evaluate your marketing effectiveness. This is done by looking at the number of visitors who took the activities that were anticipated.
Analyzing the data might reveal ways to improve your marketing strategy and optimize conversions. You can find out what you need to do to attain your company objectives by tracking your goals.
With the goal-tracking tool, you can track things that conventional analytics couldn’t. It might be anything from a simple button click to downloads and specialized page visits (for example, a thank-you page after a successful checkout) and so on.
Funnels
We talked about the goal-tracking feature that was unique to WatchThemLive. Now let’s discuss a Smartlook exclusive feature.
With Smartlook’s funnels, you can list several events, and the app will track the users through each stage. It will show you how many of them dropped off along the way and how many of them finalized their conversion.
WatchThemLive vs. Smartlook: Plans and Pricing
We went through both WatchThemLive and Smartlook features and compared them. Now let’s take a look at one of the most important criteria in product comparison: their pricing.
WatchThemLive
WatchThemLive offers a free plan that gives you access to 5,000 pageviews, 5,000 session replays, 100,000 events, unlimited heatmaps, goals, and team members. The plans and their prices are listed as follows:
- Pro – $19 per month
- Advanced – $59 per month
- Enterprise – $149 per month
You can also save a lot of money by purchasing annual or lifetime plans. Check out the pricing page on WatchThemLive!
Smartlook
The free plan on Smartlook offers 1,500 sessions, three heatmaps, two events, and one funnel per month. The Smartlook prices for their paid plans are as follows:
- Startup – starting at $39/month
- Business – starting at $95/month
- Ultimate – You need to contact their team for the Smartlook pricing of their ultimate plan
Conclusion: WatchThemLive or Smartlook?
Using website tracking tools is now considered a necessity for website owners. In this article, we compared two powerful tools in this field: WatchThemLive and Smartlook. After reading a number of Smartlook reviews and delving into its features, you realize that in most ways, Smartlook and WatchThemLive function almost similarly, although they have some unique features as well.
The most clear-cut difference between WatchThemLive and Smartlook lies in their prices and user interface. WatchThemLive is a way more cost-effective option, not only compared to Smartlook but also in the whole market. Moreover, the user interface is so straightforward that you can get started in less than 5 minutes.
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