Microsoft Clarity vs. Hotjar – Choosing the Right Tool for User Insights

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1. Introduction

Imagine you run an online store, and despite getting thousands of visitors, sales remain disappointingly low. Your marketing team is driving traffic, but users aren’t converting. What’s going wrong?

Traditional analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, can tell you where your visitors come from and which pages they visit, but they don’t reveal why users aren’t taking action.

This is where heatmaps and session recordings come in. They provide visual insights into how visitors interact with your website—what they click, where they scroll, and when they leave. Businesses can fix UX issues, improve conversions, and create a better user experience by understanding user behaviour.

Learn About Custom Tracking Events in Google Analytics 4 here. 

Two of the best tools for this are Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar.

• Microsoft Clarity is a completely free behaviour analytics tool from Microsoft.
• Hotjar is a feature-rich platform offering heatmaps, session recordings, and user feedback tools.

Both tools help businesses analyse how visitors interact with their sites but differ in key features, pricing, and ideal use cases. This guide breaks down their pros, cons, and real-world applications to help you choose the best tool for your needs.

2. Why Heatmaps and Session Recordings Matter

2.1 Making Data-Driven Decisions

Businesses that make decisions based on assumptions rather than data risk losing conversions. Heatmaps and session recordings help remove the guesswork by showing how users navigate a website.

Here’s how these tools help optimise websites:

• Spot Navigation Issues – Are users struggling to find the checkout button, search bar, or key navigation links?
• Improve Call-to-Action Placement – Are CTAs placed too low on the page, resulting in poor engagement?
• Identify Distractions – Are users clicking on non-clickable elements and expecting them to work?
• Understand Drop-offs – Where do users typically leave the page, and what happens before they leave?
• Identify Dead Clicks – Are users repeatedly clicking on areas that do nothing, indicating confusion?
• Detect Quickbacks – Are users clicking on a link or button but immediately returning, suggesting they landed on an irrelevant or confusing page?

For example, a SaaS company offering a free trial might notice many users clicking the "Sign Up" button but not completing the form. Using session recordings, they might find that the form has too many fields, leading to drop-offs. The company could then simplify the form to increase conversions.

2.2 Real-World Example: How ClickMechanic Used Hotjar to Boost Revenue by 60%

ClickMechanic, an online marketplace for car repairs, wanted to improve its website’s user experience and conversion rates. Despite having a steady stream of visitors, many potential customers left the site without booking a service.

Using session recordings, they discovered a friction point:

• Many users did not scroll beyond the hero section, meaning users missed important service details and pricing information.
• Heatmaps showed that users clicked on non-clickable elements, assuming they were interactive, which led to confusion and frustration.
• Visitors who landed on the booking page often left before completing the process, suggesting a lack of clarity about the next steps.

Solution:

The ClickMechanic team used these insights to make the following changes:

• Redesigned the landing page to place key information higher up, ensuring visitors saw it without needing to scroll.
• Improved button placement and visibility, making navigation easier and reducing confusion.
• Made clickable elements more obvious, ensuring users could interact with the content as expected.

Results:

• Within a short period, ClickMechanic saw a 60% increase in revenue from website bookings.
• Heatmaps showed higher engagement with key sections, confirming that users were now finding the information they needed.
• Fewer rage clicks and drop-offs indicated an improved user experience.

This case study demonstrates how heatmaps and session recordings can uncover small UX issues that, when fixed, improve conversions and customer satisfaction.

Read the full case study here: Hotjar Customer Story.

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3. Key Similarities Between Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar

Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar are designed to help businesses understand user behaviour and improve website performance. They provide visual insights into how visitors interact with a website, making it easier to spot navigation problems, design flaws, and conversion roadblocks.

3.1 Free Plans: Cost-Effective Analytics

One of the biggest reasons businesses choose these tools is their free access to core features.

• Microsoft Clarity is completely free and has no limits on the number of session recordings or heat maps.

• Hotjar offers a free plan, but it limits the number of session recordings and heatmaps per month. Businesses must upgrade to a paid plan for full access.

If budget is a concern, Microsoft Clarity has a clear advantage: It provides unlimited data at no cost.

3.2 Core Features: What Both Tools Offer

Both platforms provide essential behaviour analytics tools, including:

• Heatmaps – Visualize where users click, scroll, and engage with a webpage.
• Session Recordings – Replay real user interactions to see where visitors struggle or drop off.
• Mobile and Desktop Tracking – analyse behaviour across different devices to improve the mobile experience.

For example, if an eCommerce store sees a high drop-off rate on the checkout page, they can use session recordings to understand if users are confused by payment options, struggling with form fields, or encountering errors.

3.3 Common Use Cases for Both Tools

Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar can help businesses:

• Identify UX Issues – Are users struggling with navigation? Are important links being ignored?
• Improve Conversions – Are CTAs being clicked? Are forms too complicated?
• Validate Website Changes – How do users interact with a new layout or feature update?

For example, a SaaS company launching a new pricing page might use heatmaps to track:

• Whether users scroll down far enough to see the pricing plans.
• Which pricing tier receives the most clicks?
• Whether users click on FAQ links or leave the page without engaging.

Both tools provide insights that help businesses optimise their websites, but their differences determine which one is the better fit.

4. Microsoft Clarity: Pros and Cons

Microsoft Clarity is an excellent choice for businesses looking for a free, lightweight tool to understand user behaviour without additional costs.

4.1 Pros of Microsoft Clarity

✅ Completely Free – No usage limits or premium plans. Businesses can analyse unlimited session recordings and heatmaps.

✅ Google Analytics Integration – Allows businesses to combine behavioural insights with traffic analytics, making tracking user journeys from landing pages to conversions easier.

✅ User-Friendly Dashboard – Clarity’s interface is designed for quick insights, making it accessible even for non-technical users.

✅ Error Tracking – Clarity automatically detects JavaScript errors and reports them in session recordings, helping developers fix broken pages that impact user experience.

✅ Minimal Performance Impact – Unlike some tracking tools that slow down websites, Clarity is optimised for fast performance with low impact on page speed.

Example Use Case:
An online news website struggling with high bounce rates used Clarity to analyse reader behaviour. They discovered that:

• Many users were rage-clicking on non-clickable elements, expecting them to work.
• The mobile layout had a broken menu, making navigating difficult for users.
• Fixing these issues reduced bounce rates by 20% and increased time spent on the site.

4.2 Cons of Microsoft Clarity

❌ No Cursor Tracking – Unlike Hotjar, Clarity does not track mouse hovers or movement patterns, limiting insights into how users interact with content before clicking.

❌ No Built-In User Feedback Tools – Clarity does not offer polls, surveys, or feedback widgets, which can be valuable for gathering direct user opinions.

❌ Limited Page-Specific Tracking – While Clarity provides heatmaps and session recordings, custom tracking for specific pages requires additional setup.

Example Limitation:
A travel booking site wanted to track why users abandoned flight searches. Clarity’s session recordings showed drop-offs, but without user feedback tools, they couldn’t ask users why they left.

Best For: Businesses that need basic user behaviour tracking without extra costs and those who want seamless Google Analytics integration.

5. Hotjar: Pros and Cons

Hotjar is a widely used user behaviour analysis tool that offers more than just heatmaps and session recordings. It also offers user feedback tools and advanced filtering options. While it’s not free like Microsoft Clarity, its extra features make it a strong choice for teams that need deeper insights into user behaviour.

5.1 Pros of Hotjar

✅ Cursor Movement Heatmaps – Unlike Clarity, Hotjar tracks mouse movement, allowing businesses to analyse where users hover their mouse before clicking. This helps understand reading patterns and user attention.

✅ User Feedback Tools – Hotjar includes on-site polls, surveys, and feedback widgets, making it possible to ask visitors directly about their experience. For example, an eCommerce store could use a poll on the checkout page to ask users: “What stopped you from completing your purchase?”

✅ Advanced Filtering and Segmentation – Businesses can filter session recordings based on:

• User type (new vs. returning visitors)
• Device (mobile vs. desktop behavior)
• Specific pages (checkout, pricing page, signup form, etc.)

✅ Established and Reliable Platform – Hotjar has been around since 2014 and is trusted by thousands of businesses, offering stable and team-friendly collaboration features.

Example Use Case:
A SaaS company running A/B tests on their pricing page used Hotjar to:

• Track which pricing plan received the most cursor activity.
• Use scroll heatmaps to see if users read the feature comparison table.
• Run an exit-intent survey to ask visitors why they didn’t sign up.

The company discovered that most visitors did not scroll far enough to see the CTA. By moving the CTA higher up the page, they increased signups by 18%.

5.2 Cons of Hotjar

❌ Free Plan Limitations – Hotjar’s free tier limits the number of heatmaps and session recordings, making it difficult to analyse large traffic volumes. High-traffic businesses may need to upgrade to a paid plan for deeper insights.

❌ No Native Google Analytics Integration – Unlike Clarity, Hotjar does not integrate directly with Google Analytics, meaning data has to be manually merged to analyse traffic sources alongside behavioural insights.

❌ Occasional Playback Issues – Some session recordings may fail to capture images or load properly, making analysing user behaviour frustrating.

Example Limitation:
A travel booking website wanted to track drop-offs on the payment page. While Hotjar’s heatmaps showed a high drop-off rate, the team had to manually cross-check Hotjar data with Google Analytics to see which traffic sources led to more abandoned bookings.

Best For: Businesses that need deeper behavioural insights with cursor tracking, user feedback tools, and advanced segmentation to refine their UX strategy.

6. Head-to-Head Comparison

Now that we’ve explored the strengths and weaknesses of each tool, here’s a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar:

Feature

Microsoft Clarity

Hotjar

Cost

Free

Free + Paid tiers

Heatmap Types

Scroll, Click

Scroll, Click, Cursor Movement

Session Recordings

Yes, Unlimited

Yes, Limited in Free Plan

User Feedback Tools

No

Yes (Polls, Surveys, Feedback Forms)

Google Analytics Integration

Yes

No

Error Tracking

Yes

No

Filtering & Segmentation

Basic

Advanced

Team Collaboration

Basic

Advanced

Ease of Use

Simple Dashboard

More Features, Slightly Steeper Learning Curve

Key Takeaways from the Comparison

• Microsoft Clarity is the best option if:
  
  • You need a completely free tool with unlimited heatmaps and session recordings.
  • You rely on Google Analytics and want behavioural insights integrated with traffic data.
  • You want to detect technical issues like JavaScript errors affecting user experience.
• Hotjar is the better choice if:
  
  • You need cursor tracking to understand how users read and navigate pages.
  • You want on-site polls and surveys to collect direct user feedback.
  • You have a team that needs collaboration features to share insights and findings.

If budget is a constraint, Clarity is the clear winner. However, if your team needs more in-depth insights into user behaviour and direct visitor feedback, Hotjar provides more powerful tools for UX optimisation.

7. When to Choose Which Tool

Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar are great tools but serve different purposes. The right one depends on your budget, goals, and the level of insight you need.

Choose Microsoft Clarity If:

✅ You want a free tool with unlimited usage – Clarity provides unlimited session recordings and heatmaps, making it ideal for businesses that need user behaviour data but don’t want to invest in a paid tool.

✅ You rely on Google Analytics – Clarity integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics, allowing you to combine traffic data with user behaviour insights. This is useful to track how traffic sources (organic, paid, referral) affect on-site interactions.

✅ You need technical insights, not just user behaviour – Clarity tracks JavaScript errors, which can help developers identify technical problems that might impact user experience.

✅ You want a simple and lightweight tool – Clarity has a clean, easy-to-use dashboard and doesn’t require a steep learning curve.

Example Use Case:
An early-stage SaaS startup wants to understand how users interact with its landing page. Since it's a tight budget, it uses Microsoft Clarity to track where visitors click, which sections they scroll past, and whether technical issues are causing drop-offs.

Choose Hotjar If:

✅ You need deeper behavioural insights – Hotjar’s cursor movement tracking allows businesses to see how users read and navigate a page before clicking, which can be useful for optimising long-form content or pricing pages.

✅ You want direct user feedback – Hotjar’s on-site polls and surveys let you ask visitors why they left the checkout page, didn’t sign up, or abandoned a form.

✅ You need advanced filtering and segmentation – If you want to segment users by traffic source, device, or behaviour patterns, Hotjar offers more detailed filtering options than Clarity.

✅ You work in a team that needs collaboration features – Hotjar allows teams to annotate, share, and discuss session recordings and heatmaps, making it useful for UX designers, developers, and marketers working together.

Example Use Case:
A mid-size eCommerce business notices a high cart abandonment rate. To address this, they use Hotjar’s session recordings to observe user interactions with the checkout page. Then, they launched an exit-intent survey to ask why visitors didn’t complete their purchases. The feedback helps them identify that users were confused by unclear shipping costs, leading to a design fix that improves conversions.

8. Real-World Application: Fixing a Cart Abandonment Issue

Real-World Application: Reducing Cart Abandonment Through UX Improvements

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Company: Mizzen+Main

Industry: Retail E-commerce

The Problem: High Rate of Rage Clicks Indicating User Frustration

Mizzen+Main observed many rage clicks—instances where users repeatedly clicked on a particular area out of frustration—on their product pages. This behaviour suggested that users were experiencing difficulties during their shopping journey, potentially leading to cart abandonment.

The Investigation: Utilizing Heatmaps and Session Recordings

Amanda Vilay Oliveri, the Product Manager at Mizzen+Main, dedicated weekly time to reviewing Heatmaps and Session Recordings to monitor user interactions. Through this analysis, she discovered that:

• Users were rage-clicking on the clothing swatch section, which displayed fabric colour options.
• The existing design required users to click arrows to scroll through swatches, displaying only a few options at a time.
• This setup led to frustration, as users had to click multiple times to view all available options.

The Discovery: Inefficient Swatch Navigation Leading to User Frustration

The analysis revealed that the carousel-style swatch display was causing user frustration. Users expected to see all colour options simultaneously but were required to navigate through multiple clicks, leading to a suboptimal user experience.

The Solution: Redesigning the Swatch Display for Better Usability

To address this issue, the team implemented a design change by displaying all swatches simultaneously, eliminating the need for users to click through a carousel. This allowed users to view and select their preferred product variations more efficiently.

The Result: Significant Improvement in User Engagement and Reduction in Cart Abandonment

After implementing the redesign, Mizzen+Main achieved the following results:

• 39% Increase in Add-to-Cart Clicks: Users were more inclined to add products to their carts, likely due to the improved ease of selecting product variations.
• 60% Decrease in Rage Clicks: Reducing user frustration indicated a smoother and more intuitive shopping experience.
• 4% Decrease in Cart Abandonment: More users completed their purchases, suggesting that the enhanced user experience positively impacted conversion rates.

This case study underscores the importance of analysing user behaviour through tools like heatmaps and session recordings. Businesses can implement targeted design improvements that increase engagement and reduce cart abandonment by identifying and addressing specific pain points in the user journey.

Read the full case study here: How Mizzen+Main Increased Add-to-Carts by 39%

9. Key Considerations When Choosing a Tool

Aside from features and pricing, businesses should consider these factors when deciding between Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar.

9.1 Team Size and Workflow

• Solo entrepreneurs or small teams may prefer Microsoft Clarity because of its simple dashboard and unlimited free access.
• Larger teams working on UX improvements might need Hotjar’s collaboration tools, which allow team members to share insights and annotate session recordings.

9.2 Website Traffic Volume

• Microsoft Clarity is ideal for high-traffic sites since it offers unlimited tracking without requiring a paid plan.
• Hotjar’s free tier has recording limits, so high-traffic businesses may need a paid subscription to analyse all sessions.

9.3 Feature Priorities

• If cursor tracking and user feedback tools are essential, Hotjar is the better choice.
• If Google Analytics integration, error tracking, and cost savings are more important, Microsoft Clarity is the way to go.

For businesses that want the best of both worlds, it’s possible to use both tools: Microsoft Clarity for free session recordings and heatmaps and Hotjar for user feedback surveys and cursor tracking.

10. Future Outlook: What’s Next for Clarity and Hotjar?

10.1 Microsoft Clarity’s Growth

Since its launch, Microsoft Clarity has added more advanced filtering and analytics features, which will likely continue to improve. Potential future updates might include:

• Cursor tracking to provide even richer behavioural insights.
• Built-in user feedback tools similar to Hotjar’s polls and surveys.

10.2 Hotjar’s Evolution

Hotjar continues to refine its platform by:

• Improving session recording accuracy to fix playback issues.
• Expanding AI-powered insights to automate behaviour analysis.
• Enhancing integrations with marketing and analytics tools.

Both tools are expected to grow and evolve, making them valuable assets for businesses that want to improve their website’s UX and conversions.

Conclusion: Which One Should You Choose?

Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar are excellent tools, but the right choice depends on your needs.

• If you want a free tool with unlimited heatmaps and Google Analytics integration, go with Microsoft Clarity.
• If you need cursor tracking, user feedback tools, and team collaboration features, choose Hotjar.

For most businesses, starting with Clarity is a good idea. If you need more advanced insights, upgrade to Hotjar later.

Final Recommendation:

Experiment with both tools, analyse your data and make improvements based on real user behaviour. A well-optimised website can dramatically increase conversions, improve UX, and boost business success.

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