Happy Valley

Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity

Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity are both analytics tools. Hotjar is aimed at small businesses and agencies, while Microsoft Clarity is aimed at small businesses and E-commerce. Both have a free plan.

Hotjar

Heatmaps, recordings and surveys

Microsoft Clarity

Free heatmaps, session recordings and AI insights from Microsoft

PricingFreemium · $49Free
Starting price$49/moNot published
Free planYesYes
Free trial15 days—
Built forSmall businesses, AgenciesSmall businesses, E-commerce, Developers, Agencies, Enterprise
Platformswebweb, ios, android
CountryMT · 2014US · 2020
Rating——

Choose Hotjar if

Marketing and CRO teams who want to see and ask users what happens on their site.

  • Easy to set up and understand
  • Combines behavior and voice-of-customer tools
  • Free plan for small sites

Look elsewhere if: Budget-constrained teams (Microsoft Clarity is free) or product teams wanting replay plus events (PostHog).

Choose Microsoft Clarity if

Websites and apps of any size that want free heatmaps and session recordings with AI summaries.

  • Completely free with no traffic or session caps
  • Quick setup through a tag, plugin or Google Tag Manager
  • AI summaries save hours of watching recordings

Look elsewhere if: Teams that need surveys, in-depth product analytics or long data retention (Hotjar, PostHog, Mixpanel).

Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity pricing

Hotjar

  • Free$0Up to 200k monthly sessions, 1 month data, 1 project
  • Growth$49/mo$39 billed annually; from 7k sessions, 13-month data
  • ProCustom1M+ sessions
  • EnterpriseCustom1M+ sessions

Microsoft Clarity

  • Free$0No traffic limits; recordings kept 30 days, heatmaps 13 months

Hotjar · Key features

  • Heatmaps: click, move, scroll and rage clicks
  • Session recordings with filters and highlights
  • Funnels and trends for conversion analysis
  • On-site surveys, feedback widget and user interviews (Engage)
  • AI survey creation and insight summaries
  • Integrations with GA, Segment, HubSpot and Slack

Cons

  • Session-based pricing escalates
  • Clarity offers heatmaps and recordings free
  • Consent and privacy handling needed

Microsoft Clarity · Key features

  • Session recordings with AI highlights of key moments
  • Click, scroll and area heatmaps with page version comparison
  • Automatic rage click, dead click and quick back detection
  • Copilot summaries and chat over your recordings and heatmaps
  • Bot Activity and Citations reports on AI crawlers and AI answers
  • Mobile app SDK for Android, iOS, Flutter and React Native

Cons

  • Recordings are deleted after 30 days unless favorited or labeled
  • No built-in surveys, feedback widgets or user interviews
  • Funnel and product analytics are basic next to PostHog or Mixpanel

Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity: FAQ

Do Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity have a free plan?

Yes, both Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?