Analytics
Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity
Clarity is free, unlimited and genuinely good — start there. Move to Hotjar when you need on-site surveys, feedback widgets and recruitment for user interviews, not just recordings.
- No affiliate links
- Public pricing only
- Updated by hand
Microsoft released Clarity free with no session caps, which reset expectations for this category. Heatmaps, recordings, rage-click and dead-click detection all cost nothing.
Hotjar's answer has been to become a research tool rather than a recording tool: surveys, feedback widgets, interview recruitment and reporting for teams.
Side by side
Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity in short.
Hotjar
Heatmaps, recordings, on-site surveys and user-feedback tooling.
- Free
- Free Basic plan with a daily session limit.
- Paid from
- Paid plans from roughly $32/month per product line
Good at
- On-site surveys and feedback widgets, which Clarity lacks
- Filters and highlights make sharing findings with a team easy
- User interview recruitment as an add-on product
Weak at
- Priced per product area, so a full stack adds up
- Free tier caps daily sessions
Microsoft Clarity
Free heatmaps and session recordings from Microsoft, with no traffic limits.
- Free
- Everything is free, with no session cap.
- Paid from
- $0
Good at
- Free with unlimited sessions — nothing else in the category matches this
- Rage clicks, dead clicks, excessive scrolling and quick-back detection out of the box
- Integrates with Google Analytics so you can jump from a segment to its recordings
Weak at
- No surveys or feedback widgets
- Your visitor data goes to Microsoft, which needs covering in your privacy policy
The differences
Where they actually diverge.
Pick one
Which one fits you.
Choose Hotjar if
- You want to ask visitors questions, not just watch them
- A team needs to organise and share findings
- You're running structured research, not spot checks
Choose Microsoft Clarity if
- You want heatmaps and replays today for nothing
- Traffic is high enough that session caps would bite
- You already report in Google Analytics
When neither is the answer
Watching recordings is addictive and low-yield past the first hour. Watch ten sessions of people who dropped at one specific step, write down what you saw, then close the tool.
Questions
Common questions.
Do these tools need consent?
Session recording is generally treated as requiring consent in the EU and UK because it can capture personal data. Both tools mask inputs by default, but check your setup and mention them in your cookie notice.
Can I run both?
Yes, and some teams do — Clarity for unlimited recordings, Hotjar for surveys. Two recording scripts add page weight, so consider disabling Hotjar's recording if you do.
Prices are list prices published by each vendor and change often — check the linked pricing pages before you buy. We take no affiliate commission and nobody pays to appear here.
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