Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Microsoft Clarity is free, Hotjar is free tier available.
- How to start: Microsoft Clarity is free, Hotjar is free tier available.
- Where they differ: only Hotjar has public api and sso (saml).
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Microsoft Clarity is
What Microsoft Clarity isMicrosoft Clarity is a free, user behavior analytics tool that helps you understand how people are interacting with your website. It provides heatmaps, session recordings, and powerful 'dead click' and 'rage click' detection to find UX friction points. Unlike Hotjar, Clarity is completely free with no traffic limits, making it an incredible value for websites of all sizes. It is lightweight and GDPR compliant, offering a powerful way to see your site through your users' eyes without spending a dime.
What Hotjar is
What Hotjar isHotjar is an analytics tool that visualizes user behavior, showing you how people truly experience your site. While Google Analytics tells you 'what' happened (number of visits), Hotjar explains 'why' (why they didn't click the button). Through heatmaps, you can see where users click most, and session recordings allow you to watch their journey like a video. It provides invaluable insights for product managers and UX designers aiming to increase conversion rates and improve user experience.
Side by side
| Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Marketing | Marketing |
| How to start | Freeverified | Free tiernot a monthly price |
| Public API | No | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | No | Yes |
| Visit | Microsoft Clarity ↗ | Hotjar ↗ |
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What Microsoft Clarity is built to do
- Session Recordings
- Watch real videos of user visits to see exactly where they get stuck or confused.
- Instant Heatmaps
- See where people are clicking and how far they are scrolling on every page.
- Rage Click Analysis
- Find and fix UI elements that are causing user frustration in real-time.
- Performance Insights
- Monitor page load times and their impact on user engagement directly.
What Hotjar is built to do
- Heatmaps
- Visual maps showing exactly where users click, move, and scroll on any page.
- Session Recordings
- Watch real videos of how visitors navigate your site from start to finish.
- Feedback Widget
- Allow users to rate their satisfaction with your site in real-time.
- Conversion Funnels
- Visualize exactly where visitors are dropping off in your checkout or sign-up path.
Choose Microsoft Clarity if
- Heatmaps and session recordings at any traffic level — the vendor states no traffic limits and no cost
- Sites that cannot justify a paid analytics subscription
- Teams in regulated markets: the vendor states GDPR and CCPA readiness
Skip Microsoft Clarity if
- You are uncomfortable sending behavioural data to Microsoft in exchange for a free product
- You need funnel or revenue analytics; this is behaviour recording, not product analytics
- You want a paid support contract; there is no paid tier to buy
Choose Hotjar if
- Seeing where visitors click and where they give up, without a paid analytics contract
- Small sites that fit the free session allowance
- Teams that want recordings and heatmaps rather than a full analytics platform
Skip Hotjar if
- You have real traffic — the free Hotjar Basic plan captures 35 sessions a DAY
- You are planning long term: Hotjar is being folded into Contentsquare and the Plus, Business and Scale plans are being merged
- You want funnel and revenue analytics; this is behavioural recording
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Microsoft Clarity: pros & cons
- 100% Free: No hidden fees or traffic limits, ever.
- Instant Setup: Start recording and generating heatmaps within minutes of installation.
- Rage Click Detection: Automatically highlights where users are getting frustrated.
- Google Analytics Link: Syncs your recordings directly with your GA data for deep context.
- Basic Surveys: Lacks the deep user feedback and survey tools found in Hotjar.
- Reporting Limits: Analytical filters are powerful but less customizable than pro tools.
- Data Retention: Historical data is kept for a limited time compared to paid competitors.
Hotjar: pros & cons
- Visual Analysis: Interpret data through visual videos and maps rather than complex tables.
- Rapid Setup: Start collecting data in minutes with a single code snippet.
- Customer Feedback: Get instant responses from users via embedded on-site surveys.
- Bug Detection: Instantly see where users are getting stuck or 'rage clicking' on your UI.
- Site Slowdown: Can slightly impact page load speed if not configured correctly.
- Privacy Compliance: Requires careful masking settings to comply with GDPR and local laws.
- Free Tier Limits: The number of sessions recorded per day is quite low on the free plan.
Our verdict on Microsoft Clarity
A genuinely free heatmap and session-recording tool, with no seat or session caps to work around.
Our verdict on Hotjar
A magnifying glass for your site: heatmaps and session recordings show what analytics numbers cannot.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Microsoft Clarity
No published plan prices verified. Microsoft Clarity either quotes on request or renders its prices in a way we could not read from the pricing page.
Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar: common questions
- Does Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar have a free plan?
- Both do: Microsoft Clarity is free, and Hotjar has a free tier with limits.
- What is the difference between Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar?
- On the criteria we check, only Hotjar has public api and sso (saml). The table above lists every criterion side by side.