13 Heatmap Tools That Will Tell You Where Your Users Are Clicking

Website heatmaps aren‘t just about conversions and sales. As an experienced cybersecurity professional, I can tell you these tools provide invaluable user behavior insights to lock down vulnerabilities.

With data breaches, hacking and online fraud at all-time highs, understanding exactly how people interact with your site is mission critical. You need eyes on every click, swipe, hover and scroll to prevent security holes before attackers exploit them.

That‘s where advanced heatmap analytics prove their worth in gold. Consider them your x-ray goggles providing a crystal-clear view of user activities most ripe for intruders.

This definitive guide will showcase the 13 top heatmap software platforms purpose-built to help digitally-savvy professionals like you safeguard online assets.

I‘ll explain the distinct capabilities, features and real-world use cases of each option – from free starter tools suitable for personal sites to advanced suites that enterprise security teams depend on.

Let‘s first quickly level-set on what website heatmaps are, why cybersecurity geeks like myself rely on them, and an overview of the main types available today…

What Are Heatmaps & Why You Need Them

Website heatmaps visualize visitor behavior on your site pages as color-coded overlays on top of your content. Typically, darker shades indicate more user activity, while lighter colors reflect areas of less engagement.

As you scroll down a heatmap-enabled page, you gain instant insight into:

  • Your most (and least) clicked buttons and links
  • Content that encourages scrolling vs. bounce backs
  • Pain points in page layouts causing frustration
  • Engagement patterns across different devices

For cybersecurity experts and online privacy advocates, this x-ray vision unlocks invaluable intel to fortify defenses. Just some of the use cases include:

  • Identifying vulnerabilities based on where users click and access
  • Spots third-party tracking cookies to limit data harvesting
  • Informs stronger access controls for high-risk pages
  • Detects malicious bots based on cursor patterns

Heatmaps can reveal security gaps that may be invisible without watching actual human behavior directly. Paired with other tools like malware scanners and access logs, they provide comprehensive website protection.

Types of Heatmaps & Their Security Applications

As website security analysts, we have numerous heatmap types at our disposal, each providing a unique analytical lens. Let‘s examine four of the most common and helpful for cybersecurity missions:

Click Heatmaps

By revealing your most and least clicked page elements, click heatmaps spotlight areas ripe for exploitation. You can instantly identify:

  • Access points attacked via unauthorized clicks
  • Entry vectors through neglected links
  • Suspicious click patterns from bots/attacks

Scroll Heatmaps

Scroll heatmaps demonstrate user scrolling behavior on pages. You can confirm whether key content is visible above the fold vs. buried far down vulnerable pages.

This allows optimizing placement of:

  • Security warnings
  • Privacy policy notices
  • Terms & conditions

So they are unavoidable for all visitors.

Cursor Heatmaps

By mapping mouse movements, cursor heatmaps detect fast-moving, straight line patterns that signal bots over real human behavior. This allows screening out and blocking suspicious traffic.

Attention Heatmaps

Attention heatmaps reveal which elements attract the most visual focus on landing first. You can validate sight lines to critical messaging around:

  • Secured connection badges
  • Multifactor authentication promotion
  • Password requirements

Confirming every user sees security cues.

Now let‘s count down the 13 strongest heatmap tools available today based on hands-on testing…

#13) Inspectlet

While best known for its session replay capability showing exactly how visitors navigate websites, Inspectlet also packs robust heatmap tracking.

You can instantly visualize security vulnerabilities, including:

  • Funnel fallout showing authentication drop-off
  • Form field tracking to prevent data harvesting
  • Media engagement metrics on risks of embedded content

For enterprise-class sites, Inspectlet should be a go-to solution. With over 5,000 customers, their security insights are battle-tested daily across industries like finance, insurance and healthcare where data protection is paramount.

#12) MouseStats

MouseStats packs a suite of 7 heatmap tools focused specifically on cursor movements and hovers. Their attention maps are also exceptionally detailed, registering even micro-interactions.

For cybersecurity teams, benefits include:

  • Revealing cursor patterns signaling bots vs. humans
  • Detecting hover engagements on risk factors like account numbers
  • Snapshot comparison for irregular activity alerts

With customized security reporting and trend analysis, MouseStats is relied on by leading companies like Adidas, Stack Overflow, Dashlane and more to lockdown vulnerabilities.

#11) Mouseflow

Mouseflow stands out with an unmatched 22 different heatmap types – from clicks to scrolling to geo-behavior tracking. For security teams, that delivers incredible visibility into potential threats.

I‘m especially impressed with their security filters allowing segmentation by:

  • Traffic origin hotspots signaling attacks
  • Connection types (VPN, Tor, proxies)
  • Incognito browsing patterns
  • Bot filtering by behavior analysis

The granular filtering paired with heatmaps delivers an early warning system revealing abnormal or suspicious activity that warrants further investigation.

#10) Plerdy

Plerdy offers free website heatmap software with flexible tools to monitor several security factors:

  • Real-time alerts on geography-based threats
  • Incognito user tracking
  • Filtering by VPN connections
  • Multi-language click tracking

It’s a great entry-level toolkit suitable for personal sites or basic business protection needs given the budget-friendly pricing. Just expect fewer advanced features vs. paid competitors. But core security tracking is turnkey.

#9 Smartlook

Smartlook stands out with exceptional platform compatibility. Their security heatmap integrates seamlessly with leading solutions like:

  • Shopify for ecommerce protection
  • WordPress sites to cover vulnerabilities
  • Web applications to prevent data leakage

That allows tracking risks across your digital ecosystem – not just websites. Their cursor heatmaps even support pattern analysis to uncover bots attempting to infiltrate defenses.

#8) Heatmap.com

Heatmap.com delivers lightning-fast click heatmap implementation – typically under one minute. This allows rapidly spotting emerging threats and suspicious activity in real-time.

Their instant alerts capability notifies security admins immediately of anomalies like:

  • Spikes in incognito browsing
  • Traffic surges from VPNs/Proxies
  • New geographic hotspots

For agility responding to risks, Heatmap.com empowers website protection at scale even for complex sites. Their solutions cover companies like Philips, Trivago, Fujitsu and more.

#7) Clarity by Microsoft

Backed by Microsoft‘s security engineering might, Clarity offers free heatmap software to identify vulnerabilities through:

  • Dead click mapping to detect failed access attempts
  • Rage click alerts signal frustration at multi-factor authentication
  • Scroll reach metrics to guarantee policy visibility

As a free tool, Clarity provides tremendous baseline website security visibility – especially for lighter risk personal sites and blogs. But those managing sensitive data should still consider advanced paid solutions for full-spectrum protection.

#6) VWO

VWO delivers robust clickmap heatmaps even for complex web applications thanks to exceptional dynamic scaling. Their security use cases span:

  • Real-time attack alerts based on unusual traffic
  • Instant visibility on new vulnerabilities
  • Integrates with web app scanners like Acunetix

I also appreciate the scrollmaps that guarantee your security and privacy policies stay above the fold. Overall, expect superior visibility into threats before damage occurs.

#5) Lucky Orange

Lucky Orange stands out with best-in-class user segmentation capabilities for security teams. You can instantly filter heatmaps by high-risk factors like:

  • Traffic source (Google, social, dark web)
  • VPN connections
  • TOR origins
  • Bot footprints

Their visual graphing tools also empower deep forensic analysis to establish patterns for emerging adversary tactics. For defense teams, Lucky Orange is truly luck in diagnosing website vulnerabilities.

#4 Mouseflow

Mouseflow fully earns its reputation as a gold standard in heatmap tools. Their unrivaled capability spans across:

  • Security-focused session replays
  • Anomaly alerts for irregular traffic
  • Filtering by security headers
  • Incognito user tracking

Expect deep integration with existing website protection tools through Mouseflow‘s API and webhooks. For all-around threat visibility, it leads the pack.

#3 Hotjar

Boasting over 350,000 websites monitored globally, Hotjar provides incredible benchmark data to validate security defenses against. You gain instant visibility if attack patterns emerge against peers in your industry.

I‘m especially impressed with Hotjar Inspect for on-demand heatmaps. You can launch detailed behavior analysis for high-risk pages – perfect for penetration testing.

This has fueled Hotjar‘s explosive growth with defenders at companies like Nintendo, Adobe and Microsoft trusting their platform.

#2) Freshmarketer

Where Freshmarketer truly stands out is leveraging AI-powered analytics to automatically surface security insights from heatmap data. Their machine learning algorithms spotlight anomalies including:

  • Spikes suggesting denial of service attacks
  • Bots mimicking human behavior
  • Geographic activity indicating unauthorized access

The AI assistance acts like a smart virtual analyst flagging risks. Paired with robust click and scroll heatmap views, Freshmarketer is winning converts from savvy cybersecurity leaders.

#1) UXTweak

UXTweak earns my vote as the most powerful heatmap platform for cybersecurity and online privacy teams. Their session replay system provides unprecedented visibility by essentially recording over-the-shoulder videos of every visitor interaction.

You can meticulously analyze threats like:

  • Data exfiltration through submissions
  • Suspicious navigation to hidden pages
  • Bot traffic mimicking human patterns

With UXTweak, your website security monitors essentially gain virtual eyes on all user behavior 24/7 across devices. Their platform powers heavyweights like Apple, Microsoft, IBM and HP to help neutralize getData breeches worldwide.

For the ultimate toolkit protecting online assets, UXTweak is my hands-down recommendation.

Apply Website Heatmaps to Lockdown Your Security

I hope mapping out these 13 powerful heatmap tools demonstrates why cybersecurity experts like me consider them must-have website protections. They bring otherwise invisible threats and vulnerabilities to the surface instantly.

My recommendation isn‘t choosing a single solution, but layer them for depth defense. Start with a free foundation like Microsoft Clarity or Plerdy to baseline security. Then build upwards to advanced solutions like UXTweak offering complete user behavior visibility to block intruders.

And integrate heatmap signals with your core website monitoring stack – from malware scanners to access logs – for comprehensive protection.

Today‘s mounting threats put everyone at risk – from bloggers to multinational companies. Website heatmaps represent a critical line of defense to secure your online assets.

There‘s no better way to lockdown vulnerabilities than watching actual attack patterns unfold through a heatmap lens. So deploy them now before the criminals and fraudsters target you first.