Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar: Which Should You Use?

If you want to see how real people use your website, Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar is usually the first decision. Both offer a website heatmap and session recording, both are quick to install, and both will show you things your analytics never could. The differences are in cost, depth of features and what you want to do beyond watching behaviour.

Quick answer

Choose Microsoft Clarity if you want free, unlimited heatmaps and session recordings with useful automatic insights such as rage clicks and dead clicks. Choose Hotjar if you also need on-site surveys, feedback widgets and user interviews in one platform and are happy to pay as traffic grows. Many businesses start with Clarity and only add Hotjar when they need direct customer feedback.

What both tools do

At their core, both tools record how visitors interact with your pages and present it in two main ways:

• Heatmaps: aggregated views of where people click, how far they scroll and which areas get attention
• Session recordings: anonymised replays of individual visits showing mouse movement, clicks, scrolling and page changes

Both mask sensitive input such as form fields by default, and both let you filter recordings by page, device, country, traffic source and behaviour.

Microsoft Clarity: overview

Microsoft Clarity is a free behaviour analytics tool from Microsoft. There are no paid tiers for the core product and Microsoft does not cap traffic, which makes it unusually generous.

Strengths

• Free with no traffic limits. Suitable for small sites and high-traffic sites alike.
• Automatic behaviour signals. Clarity flags rage clicks, dead clicks, excessive scrolling, quick backs and JavaScript errors, so you can jump straight to problem sessions.
• GA4 integration. You can link Clarity to Google Analytics and move between GA4 segments and the matching recordings.
• AI summaries. Clarity's Copilot features can summarise recordings and dashboards, which speeds up review.
• Simple setup. Add the tag directly, through Google Tag Manager, or via plugins for common platforms.

Limitations

• No surveys or feedback tools. Clarity shows what people do, not what they think.
• Data retention. Recordings are kept for a limited period unless you mark them as favourites, so save the important ones.
• Data use. Microsoft may use Clarity data to improve its products, including advertising. Some organisations will want to review that against their privacy policy.

Hotjar: overview

Hotjar is a long-established behaviour analytics and feedback platform, now part of Contentsquare. It is split into products for observing behaviour, asking for feedback and running user interviews.

Strengths

• Surveys and feedback widgets. Ask visitors why they are leaving, what is missing or how they rate a page, right on the site.
• User interviews. Recruit and run interviews with your users from within the platform on suitable plans.
• Funnels and trends. Higher tiers include funnel and trend reporting alongside recordings.
• Mature interface and integrations. Strong collaboration features and integrations with common tools.

Limitations

• Cost scales with traffic. There is a free plan, but it caps the number of sessions captured. Busier sites need a paid plan, and advanced features sit on higher tiers.
• Sampling on lower plans. If you exceed your allowance, not every session is recorded, so rare issues can be missed.

Hotjar's plans and limits change from time to time, so check its current pricing page before committing.

Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar: side-by-side

| Feature | Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar | |---|---|---| | Price | Free | Free plan with limits, paid tiers | | Traffic limits | None | Session caps by plan | | Heatmaps | Yes | Yes | | Session recording | Yes | Yes | | Rage and dead click detection | Yes, automatic | Yes | | Surveys and feedback | No | Yes | | User interviews | No | Yes, on suitable plans | | GA4 integration | Yes | Yes | | AI summaries | Yes | Yes, varies by plan |

Privacy and consent in the UK

Both tools use cookies or similar storage and process behavioural data, so in the UK you should treat them as non-essential and load them only after consent through your cookie banner. Both support consent integration, and Microsoft has introduced requirements for sites with visitors in the UK and EEA to pass consent signals to Clarity.

Practical steps:

• Fire the tag only after analytics consent, typically via Google Tag Manager with your consent platform
• Keep input masking switched on so form data is never recorded
• Mention the tool in your privacy and cookie policies
• Avoid recording pages that show personal or account data unless masking is thorough

Which should you choose?

Choose Microsoft Clarity if:

• You want heatmaps and recordings without a monthly cost
• You have moderate or high traffic and do not want sampling
• Your main goal is finding UX friction and broken elements
• You already use GA4 and want to link behaviour to segments

Choose Hotjar if:

• You need surveys or feedback widgets as well as recordings
• You run regular user research and want interviews in the same tool
• You have budget and a team who will actively use the feedback features

Use both?

It is possible, but running two recording scripts adds page weight and duplicates effort. A common approach is Clarity for behaviour plus a lightweight survey tool only where needed.

Getting real value from either tool

The tool matters far less than how you use it. Installing a heatmap and never looking at it changes nothing. A simple routine works:

1. Start from data. Use GA4 to find the page or step with the biggest drop-off. Our guide to funnel analysis in GA4 shows how.
2. Filter recordings. Watch sessions that reached that page and did not convert.
3. Look for patterns. One odd session is noise. The same hesitation across a dozen is a finding.
4. Check heatmaps by device. Mobile and desktop behave differently, so never review a blended heatmap alone.
5. Write it down. Note the issue, the evidence and the fix you propose.
6. Fix and recheck. After changes, watch new recordings to confirm the friction has gone.

For the wider process, see what a CRO audit covers.

FAQs

Is Microsoft Clarity really free?

Yes. Microsoft offers Clarity free of charge without traffic limits. The trade-off is that Microsoft may use the data to improve its own products, which is worth reviewing against your privacy policy.

Does Microsoft Clarity slow down my website?

The script loads asynchronously and has a small impact for most sites. As with any third-party tag, test page speed before and after installing.

Can I use Clarity or Hotjar without a cookie banner?

In the UK, behaviour analytics tools should generally be treated as non-essential, so you should obtain consent before loading them.

Which is better for heatmaps?

Both produce reliable click and scroll heatmaps. Clarity is the stronger value option, while Hotjar adds feedback tools around them.

Turn recordings into decisions

Our CRO & Behaviour Audit is a fixed £229. We set up or review Microsoft Clarity, analyse real sessions and heatmaps, map funnel drop-off and give you prioritised recommendations. Need tracking checked too? Conversion Clarity covers both for £379. Get My Audit.

Related reading: Benchmark conversion rates.