Startup & small team · Prompt 4 of 8 · July 2026

A real buyer question from the July 2026 snapshot, asked 3× to each of the three models. 9 answers recorded.

“Which heatmap tool is best for a startup on a budget?”

ChatGPT answered 3× this snapshot

If you’re on a tight budget, a few heatmap tools consistently punch above their price: Hotjar (free + low-cost tiers) This is usually the go-to. The free plan gives you heatmaps, session recordings, and basic feedback tools. It’s easy to set up and good enough for most early-stage startups. Paid plans scale reasonably once traffic grows. Microsoft Clarity (completely free) Hard to beat on price: it’s free with…

Named across its answers: 1. Hotjar2. Microsoft Clarity3. Crazy Egg4. Smartlook5. PostHog

Verbatim excerpt from one collected ChatGPT answer; formatting flattened, words untouched.

Microsoft Clarity is the dominant answer here, appearing in all 9 responses and leading 7 of them with an average position of 1.2, almost certainly because it is free and budget framing triggers that signal strongly. Hotjar is a consistent second at average position 1.8, but the more notable gap is that FullStory, LogRocket, Amplitude, and Mixpanel are invisible despite strong category rankings, suggesting AI models treat this question as a price-filter that excludes premium tools entirely.

AI-generated read of the July 2026 measurements.

Who wins this question

Owned Consensus

All three models name Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Smartlook, PostHog and Lucky Orange on this question.

ChatGPT

Claude

Gemini mentioned · first · avg. pos

Microsoft Clarity 212111111 9/9 · 7× first · #1.2

Hotjar 121222222 9/9 · 2× first · #1.8

Smartlook 443344 6/9 · never first · #3.7

Lucky Orange 54334 5/9 · never first · #3.8

Crazy Egg 334 3/9 · never first · #3.3

PostHog 353 3/9 · never first · #3.7

Google Analytics 3 1/9 · never first · #3

Plerdy 4 1/9 · never first · #4

Mouseflow 4 1/9 · never first · #4

Each square is one collected answer; the number is the brand's position in that answer. Lime = the very first recommendation. Unlinked brands were named by the models here but sit outside this category's published top 15 overall. Never mentioned here: FullStory, LogRocket, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap, Splunk, Contentsquare, Microsoft Sentinel, Exabeam.