Microsoft Clarity
Why Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is a free behavioural analytics tool capturing session replays, heatmaps and user-behaviour signals such as rage clicks and dead clicks. It helps marketers, product and UX teams understand how visitors navigate websites and identify usability problems. The tool integrates with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, and setup via GTM takes minutes.
What it does
Microsoft Clarity is a free tool that shows how people use your website. It records sessions, builds heatmaps of clicks and scrolling, and flags frustration signals such as rage clicks and dead clicks. Newer parts add AI summaries of what happened on a page, an AI chat over your data, and tracking of how AI systems cite and crawl your content.
You add one script to your site, for example through Google Tag Manager, and the data starts to arrive. Microsoft describes it as GDPR and CCPA ready.
Why you would need it
Analytics tells you that people leave a page. It does not tell you why. The pain shows up when a landing page converts badly and nobody can explain it. Watching a few real sessions often shows the cause within minutes: a button that looks dead, a section nobody scrolls to, a form that fails.
What changes is that you fix problems you could see, not problems you guessed at.
Where it fits
Clarity sits next to your analytics. Your site and tag manager feed it. It feeds your optimisation work: the fixes you test and the pages you rewrite. It works alongside Google Analytics, which gives the numbers while Clarity gives the pictures.
It replaces paid behaviour tools when your needs are basic. Hotjar and Contentsquare are the usual paid alternatives.
What stands out
- It is free, and Microsoft's own page says free for ever. There is no paid tier.
- Session recordings with key moments highlighted, so you do not watch every minute.
- Heatmaps plus AI summaries that point out trends on a page.
- A data export API and an official MCP server for pulling the numbers into other tools.
My take
I have run Clarity alongside Hotjar on multiple B2B sites, and I came away with a balanced view of both. Clarity is where I would start on any site. Setup took minutes, it did not slow the pages, and the free recordings meant I never worried about hitting a cap.
When I ran them side by side, Hotjar was better at the why. Its on-page surveys let visitors explain themselves, and it was easier to share clips with a team. Clarity showed me what people did. I use it as the baseline and bring in something heavier only when a question needs it.
Verdict
Pick Clarity if you want to see real visitor behaviour without a budget conversation. Skip it as your only tool if you need on-page surveys, deep funnel work or segmenting recordings by user type.
Notes
Your note
Before you choose
Free still needs careful setup
Clarity costs no money, but you still decide what to record. Check masking of sensitive fields, your cookie consent setup and your privacy notice before you roll it out. Microsoft describes it as GDPR and CCPA ready, but the configuration is yours.
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The export API is narrow
The Data Export API is rate limited to 10 requests per project per day and only covers the last 1 to 3 days. You can break the data down by up to three dimensions. If you want a long history in your own warehouse, you need to pull it on a schedule and store it yourself.
It shows what, not always why
Clarity shows behaviour. It does not ask visitors questions. If you want feedback in their own words, pair it with a survey tool or choose Hotjar, which has on-page feedback.
Compare the paid options
Hotjar adds feedback widgets. Contentsquare goes much deeper for enterprise teams. PostHog combines replay with product analytics. Start with Clarity and move only when a clear gap appears.