Skip to content
Stefan Stroe logo 500

Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar: All features compared

  • by
Rate this post

If you are one of my fellow digital geeks already using Hotjar but would like to have more UX analytics, you should read this Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar comparison.

In case you haven’t tried Clarity yet, you should and read my previous article covering all Microsoft Clarity’s features since its launch in October 2020.

Also, if you like comparisons and are familiar already with Google Analytics, check out another popular article on Stefan Stroe .com: Microsoft Clarity vs. Google Analytics: Which one is better?

What are Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar main advantages

You might be wondering how is Hotjar’s speed load performance vs. Microsoft Clarity or how switching to the latter would affect your website’s Core Web Vitals.

Let’s see all the features of these two solutions, with advantages and drawbacks for each. I am really curious what you will decide at the end.

Hotjar and Mouseflow are somehow the veterans on the market, so they have millions of session recordings that they used to optimize their data collecting scripts, usability, and reporting features. Clarity on the other hand is the big elephant in the room that cannot be ignored: it is a Microsoft tool, simple to use, packed with big data analytics (after all, they are the inventors of Excel, right? 😀) and it’s FREE of charge.

If you are a numbers person, you will love Clarity. If you want to feel what the users felt while interacting with your website, Hotjar and Mouseflow offer you through those good-looking heatmaps every customer session or the big picture.

Mouseflow, the alternative to Hotjar and Clarity for eCommerce funneling

However, as Hotjar removed December 2020 the conversion funnel feature, both they and Clarity now miss this critical eCommerce functionality. I assume the feature was dropped because UX specialists and eCommerce managers split their analytics needs and there was little use for it in Hotjar (eCommerce experts use Google Analytics Sales Funnels functionalities, which are fantastic).

The alternative to funneling though is Mouseflow, which besides sessions recordings and heatmaps offers eCommerce experts this advanced feature.

Pricing of Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar

Both solutions offer free-of-charge usage. For Clarity, the zero cost it’s a given no matter the volume of recordings, while for Hotjar the paid monthly packages range between $29 and $9,589 (for maximum 270k daily sessions/recordings).

Hotjar offers also a no-hassle 30 days money-back guarantee.

microsoft clarity vs hotjar pricing comparison

All features comparison: Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar

Let’s see the granular comparison between the two solutions in the table below:

Heatmap features

Clarity

Hotjar

Click heatmaps (or Tap for mobile)YesYes
Move HeatmapsNoYes
Scroll HeatmapsNoYes
Download and share HeatmapsNoYes
Mobile responsive HeatmapsYesYes
Session playbacksYesYes

Backend users

Clarity

Hotjar

Unlimited team membersYesYes
User rolesYesYes, but only with a minimum Business package ($89/month)

Recording functionalities

Clarity

Hotjar

Replay sessions of site usersYesYes
Tag recordingsYesYes
Annotations / Notes for user actionsNoYes
Share RecordingsNoYes
Recording filtersYesYes
Privacy masking / Suppress keystrokes and text inputYesYes

Analytics and reporting

Clarity

Hotjar

SessionsYesYes
Pages per sessionsYesYes
Scroll depthYesYes
Dead clicksYesNo
CountriesYesNo
Operating systemsYesNo
BrowsersYesNo
Javascript errorsYesYes
Popular pagesYesNo
Click rage detectionYesYes
Export Heatmap data as .csvNoYes
ReferrersYesYes
White-label reports (no branding)YesYes, but only with a minimum Business package ($89/month)
Integration with A/B testingNoYes
Integration with SlackNoYes

Surveys

Clarity

Hotjar

Get feedback from visitorsNoYes
NPS measurementNoYes
Visualise survey resultsYesYes

Real user feedback

Clarity

Hotjar

SurveysNoYes
NPSNoYes
Visual feedbackNoYes
Forwarding user feedback to support emailNoYes

Advanced functionalities

Clarity

Hotjar

Block IPsNoYes
APINoNo
Funnel integrationNoNo
Local targetingNoNo

Pricing

Clarity

Hotjar

Free version availableYesYes
Maximum monthly cost (standard offer)Free$9,589,00 (for 270k daily sessions/recordings)
30 days money-back guaranteeNot applicable (it’s free)Yes

How to setup Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar on the website

The setup of Hotjar is very simple, meaning you have to copy/paste the corresponding script in your website’s header section.

Setting up the Clarity account however requires also a Microsoft account, so it isn’t as straightforward as for Hotjar, but installing the script is also a copy/paste job in the website’s header.

Data privacy and GDPR of Clarity and Hotjar

Both tools claim that will keep a privacy notice that complies with Data Protection Law and GDPR.

If you use a WordPress website or any other platform, you should include in your Privacy Policy that third parties such as Hotjar or Microsoft may collect Personal Data from people visiting your pages.

GDPR  and Data Protection Law require you to offer visitors an appropriate opt-out choice and you should make very clear who is the entity that collects that data (I recommend including a hyperlink) to Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity homepages.

Key takeouts

Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar are direct competitors and from my point of as long as Clarity’s is for free, you should give it a shot and consider switching to it. The good news is that much of the features are similar between the two, but Clarity also seems to be a bit lighter on page loading time.

Although the comparison looks to be in Clarity’s favor, the newer tool lacks tag recording and the scrolling function for heatmaps.

On its side, Hotjar is missing a good-looking data dashboard and KPIs such as rage clicks, OS, device type, referrers, and more.

[sc_fs_faq html=”true” headline=”h2″ img=”4997″ question=”Can I use Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar at the same time?” img_alt=”” css_class=””] Absolutely, you can run them in parallel, especially if you are assessing to migrate from your current heatmap solution or just trying them for the first time. Because Clarity is in beta and still free of charge, in your final decision you should also include the impact of each script on your website’s Core Web Vitals.[/sc_fs_faq]