Hotjar vs Microsoft Clarity: Which Heatmap Tool Actually Works?

Quick Verdict

If you’ve got a budget and want every bell and whistle — Hotjar is the safe bet. But if you’re like me (broke, running a small site, and tired of subscription creep) then Microsoft Clarity is absurdly good for exactly zero dollars. Hotjar *** (3/5) – powerful but wallet-draining. Clarity **** (4/5) – free, fast, and mildly frustrating in ways you can live with.

It was 2am. I was eating stale tortilla chips straight from the bag — the kind that crunch too loud in your own head. My landing page had a 90% bounce rate. I had no idea why. Users were landing, then… poof. Ghosts. I needed heatmaps. I needed session recordings. I needed to see someone actually click the damn button.

So I signed up for Hotjar first. Classic move. Everyone talks about Hotjar, right? Their website looks like it was designed by people who actually care about UX. I expected a smooth ride. What I got was a signup flow that asked me eight questions before even letting me see a heatmap. Free tier: 35 daily sessions. Thirty-five. That’s basically two people with an extra tab open. I burned through that in an hour. Then I accidentally — I swear this is true — sent an email to my entire client list with the subject line "Test" because their interface for triggering a feedback survey looked exactly like the "send test" button. Yeah. That happened. Still get twitchy when I see the Hotjar logo.

But the heatmaps themselves? Gorgeous. Color-coded, scroll depth lines that actually work, snapshots I could share with clients and look professional. Their session recordings had full scroll data and mouse movements that didn’t lag. I felt like I was peering through a one-way mirror. Until I realized the free tier recordings were capped at 100 per month. And the paid plans start at $39/month and still limit you. For a solo project? That stings.

Then I tried Clarity. Microsoft’s free analytics tool. I expected it to feel like a corporate handout — functional but soulless. I was half right. The first impression is… Microsoft-y. Lots of white space, generic icons, dashboard that looks like it was designed by committee. But it’s free. Completely free. Unlimited heatmaps. Unlimited session recordings? Well, they say unlimited but there’s a 30-day retention cap. Still, for a small site that’s plenty. The rage click feature is genius — it highlights where users click repeatedly in frustration. Helped me find a broken checkout button within minutes. Their click maps are also surprisingly detailed, and the dead-click tracking caught issues Hotjar’s heatmaps didn’t even flag.

But Clarity has weird quirks. Their session replay sometimes just refuses to load in Firefox. On Chrome it’s fine, but for a Microsoft tool that’s ironic. And the filtering? Clunky. You can’t combine advanced filters like "users who scrolled 80% and then clicked this button" without writing regex. Hotjar lets you do that with a dropdown. Also, Clarity’s data sampling for larger sites? Not an issue for me, but if you get heavy traffic, I hear they thin out the recordings. And there’s no proper support — just community forums. You’re on your own.

The part nobody talks about: hidden costs. Hotjar will charge you overage if you exceed your recording limit. I went over by 12 sessions one month and got hit with a $15 surcharge. For twelve sessions! Their team seat pricing is also sneaky — add another editor? That’s an extra $10/month per seat. Meanwhile Clarity has no team pricing because it’s all free, but you do lose data after 30 days and there’s no export option for raw session data unless you beg Microsoft on GitHub. Also, Clarity’s heatmap data sometimes looks weird on mobile — the tap zones don’t always align with actual finger presses. Hotjar handles mobile better.

What I Actually Use Now

I use both. I know, cop-out answer. But here’s the real story: for my personal blog and side projects, I run Clarity. It’s free, it’s fast, and the rage clicks alone have saved me hours of guessing. For client work — when someone’s paying me to optimize their $50k ecommerce site — I use Hotjar. Because clients want those pretty color-coded reports and they want to feel like they’re getting premium analytics. And Hotjar’s integrations with Google Analytics and Slack actually work. But for my own stuff? Clarity. No contest. Hotjar is for people with money. Clarity is for the rest of us.

(One more thing: Clarity’s dashboard has a "Session Recordings" tab that defaults to showing only the last 7 days… and there’s no way to change it permanently. You have to adjust a date filter every single time. That’s the kind of 1am frustration that makes you want to scream into a pillow.)

Pros & Cons

Hotjar

• Beautiful heatmaps with scroll depth, click counts, and move maps
• Session recordings that actually show scroll velocity and hover time
• Powerful filtering: combine attributes, user actions, URLs easily
• Good integrations: GA4, Slack, Shopify

• Free tier is laughably limited (35 sessions/day, 100 recordings/month)
• Overage charges are predatory — $15 for 12 extra recordings? Seriously?
• Support is slow unless you’re on the Plus plan ($99/month)
• UI confuses "send test" with "actually send" — ask me how I know

Microsoft Clarity

• Completely free — no hidden fees, no caps on heatmaps or recordings (30-day retention)
• Rage click detection is brilliant for finding broken UI
• Dead click tracking catches issues Hotjar’s heatmaps miss
• Fast loading, lightweight script

• Session replay fails on Firefox sometimes
• Dashboard feels half-baked — date filter resets every time you open recordings
• No proper support, just community forums
• Data retention is only 30 days (cannot extend even on request)
• Mobile heatmaps can be misaligned

Pricing at a Glance

| Tool | Starting Price | What You Actually Get | |——|—————|———————-| | Hotjar Free | $0 | 35 daily sessions, 100 recordings/month — enough to tease you into paying | | Hotjar Plus | $39/month | Unlimited heatmaps, 100 recordings/day, 10 team members — still limited recording | | Hotjar Business | $99/month | Everything Plus + 500 recordings/day, priority support — now we’re talking | | Microsoft Clarity | $0 | Unlimited heatmaps, unlimited recordings (30-day retention), no user limits — the deal of the century |

FAQ

Q: Is Hotjar free to use for a small blog?
A: Technically yes, but you’ll hit the session cap in a day if you get more than 35 visitors. For a small blog that gets 100 visitors a day, you’ll see maybe a third of your traffic. It’s frustrating.

Q: Which tool is better for ecommerce heatmaps?
A: Hotjar, if you can afford it. Its filtering lets you isolate cart page behavior vs product pages way easier. Clarity works fine, but you’ll have to dig through raw recordings more.

Q: Does Microsoft Clarity actually have unlimited session recordings?
A: Yes, but they’re stored for only 30 days. After that they’re gone. No way to extend. So if you need historical data, you’ll want Hotjar’s longer retention (paid plans go up to 365 days).

Q: Can I use both Hotjar and Clarity on the same site?
A: Yeah, I do it. Clarity for general rage clicks and dead clicks, Hotjar for deep-dive recordings on specific pages. Just make sure your site’s performance can handle two analytics scripts — they add up.

Q: Which one has better support?
A: Hotjar, because it exists. Clarity has a forum and a GitHub issues page. If you break something with Clarity, you’re waiting for strangers to answer.