The verdict
If you have no analytics yet, I'd pick Plausible first. It gives the whole team a shared set of numbers, and you will use it every week. If you already have numbers, and a page converts badly, I'd pick Clarity. A few real sessions often show the cause within minutes.
They do not compete, so on a small site I'd run both. Clarity costs nothing, so the only price is your time and some care with consent and masking of sensitive fields. Neither replaces a product analytics tool for in-app behaviour. If you need on-page surveys, look at Hotjar, since Clarity shows what people did but does not ask them why.
Side by side
| 5 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $7.50/mo | |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No |
| Event autocapture | Yes | Yes |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Microsoft Clarity
- ClarityFree
Plausible Analytics
- Starter$9/mo
- Growth$14/mo
- Business$19/mo
Who each is for
Choose Microsoft Clarity if…
Pick Clarity if you want to see real visitor behaviour without a budget conversation. It suits lean marketing, product and UX teams who need free recordings and heatmaps, and it works alongside Google Analytics.
I have run Clarity alongside Hotjar on multiple B2B sites, and Clarity is where I would start on any site. Setup took minutes and it did not slow the pages. Free still needs care. You decide what to record, so check masking and your consent set-up. The export API is narrow, and it has an official MCP server for pulling the numbers elsewhere.
Choose Plausible Analytics if…
Pick Plausible if you want simple, privacy-friendly traffic numbers that anyone in the team can read. It suits small marketing teams, SaaS companies and agencies, especially if you want to avoid a cookie banner. The vendor says none is needed.
You get goals, UTM campaigns with channel grouping, scroll depth, outbound clicks and an AI traffic report. It is open source, so you can self-host the Community Edition, though that is a real job. It has no recordings and no heatmaps, and plans follow pageviews. It has a Stats API but no MCP server.
Other options worth a look
Combines analytics, session replay, and heatmaps to reveal user behaviour and identify conversion friction.
Measure website and app traffic, user behaviour, conversions, and revenue with free event-based analytics.
Links marketing touchpoints and ad spend to customer revenue and pipeline for B2B SaaS teams.
Assigns unique phone numbers to campaigns so inbound calls can be attributed to their original marketing source.