Microsoft Clarity vs Screaming Frog
The ultimate side-by-side head-to-head analysis for 2026.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Microsoft Clarity is free, Screaming Frog is free tier available.
- How to start: Microsoft Clarity is free, Screaming Frog is free tier available.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. We do not publish a quality score, because we do not have one we can stand behind. They cannot tell you which tool fits your workflow — the sections below are there for that. How we score tools.
Microsoft Clarity
Screaming Frog
Category
Marketing
Marketing
Base Price
Free
Free tier
Public API
No
No
Mobile app
No
No
Open source / self-hostable
No
No
SSO (SAML)
No
No
Choose Microsoft Clarity if:
Website Owners and UX Designers.
Choose Screaming Frog if:
Anyone responsible for technical SEO on a site of real size.
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.
Screaming Frog: pros & cons
- Finds technical issues nothing else catches
- One-off annual licence, no per-seat cloud fees
- Crawls as deep as your machine allows
- Desktop only, no collaboration
- Output needs SEO knowledge to interpret
- Large sites need a powerful machine
Our verdict on Microsoft Clarity
The best free 'Hotjar alternative' on the market with no compromises on power.
Our verdict on Screaming Frog
Still the standard technical crawler. It reports; interpreting is your job.