Free, unlimited heatmaps and session recording — forever
Microsoft Clarity is the most straightforward decision in the Indian product analytics stack: it's completely free, has no session or traffic limits, installs in 5 minutes, and delivers heatmaps and session recordings that are genuinely useful. If you're currently paying for Hotjar just for heatmaps and session recordings, you can cancel today. Clarity's only gaps vs paid Hotjar are user surveys and more granular recording filters — which most Indian early-stage teams don't need yet. Install it on every web product immediately.
Microsoft Clarity is a free behaviour analytics tool launched by Microsoft in 2020. It records user sessions, generates heatmaps, and surfaces behavioural insights — all without any cost, any session limits, or any traffic caps. It's funded by Microsoft as part of their broader cloud and advertising ecosystem strategy, which is why it can remain genuinely free at any scale.
For Indian product teams, Clarity solves a real problem: behaviour analytics tools like Hotjar were historically priced for US SaaS companies, making them expensive relative to Indian startup budgets. Clarity removes that barrier entirely. A Bangalore-based fintech with 500,000 monthly users gets the same unlimited session recordings and heatmaps as an enterprise team — at ₹0.
Microsoft has also added AI-powered features: Copilot integration that summarises session patterns in plain language, and AI-generated insights that surface the most significant behavioural anomalies without requiring manual analysis. These features keep improving rapidly as Microsoft invests in the product.
Click, scroll, and area heatmaps for every page — no page limits, no traffic limits. Clarity automatically generates heatmaps for all pages from day one. No configuration required. Breakdowns by device type (mobile vs desktop vs tablet) included.
Unlimited session recordings with mouse movement, clicks, scrolls, and tab visibility tracking. Filter by rage clicks, dead clicks, excessive scrolling, and JavaScript errors. Co-play mode to watch multiple sessions simultaneously.
Automatic detection of rage clicks (frustrated rapid clicks), dead clicks (clicks on non-interactive elements), and quick backs (immediate return from a destination page). These surface UX problems without any manual event tagging.
Ask Clarity questions in plain English: "What are users struggling with on my checkout page?" The AI analyses sessions and heatmaps and surfaces patterns. Still maturing, but already useful for teams that don't have time for manual session analysis.
Install Microsoft Clarity as your baseline on every web product — it's free, takes 5 minutes, and covers 80% of what most teams need from a behaviour analytics tool. Only add Hotjar if you specifically need in-product surveys or NPS collection, which Clarity doesn't offer.
| Feature | Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar Free | Hotjar Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — no limits | Free — 35 sessions/day | ₹2,700–8,400/mo |
| Session volume | Unlimited | 35/day max | 100–500/day |
| Heatmaps | Unlimited, all pages | Limited pages | More pages |
| Rage click detection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| User surveys / NPS | No | Basic | Yes (Hotjar's edge) |
| Session filtering | Good | Basic | Advanced |
| AI insights | Copilot (improving fast) | Basic | Basic |
| Setup time | 5 minutes | 5 minutes | 5 minutes |
Unlimited sessions. Unlimited heatmaps. Unlimited traffic. No credit card. No usage limits. No paid tier — Clarity is completely free with no upsell path. Microsoft funds it as a strategic product investment. No catch.
💡 Why is it free? Microsoft uses Clarity data in aggregate (anonymised) to improve Bing Ads' audience targeting and to surface Clarity as a reason for Indian developers to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem (Azure, Teams, GitHub Copilot). Your individual session data is not sold. The privacy policy is clearer than most SaaS tools — worth reading if data residency matters to your team.
Adds user surveys and NPS to behaviour analytics. Free tier limited to 35 sessions/day. Worth paying for only if surveys are critical to your research workflow.
Includes session replay + heatmaps + product analytics + feature flags. Free up to 1M events. Best choice if you want behaviour analytics plus funnel analysis in one tool.
Heatmaps + session recording + A/B testing bundled. Worth it if you're running experiments — the combined tool pays for itself vs Clarity + a separate A/B platform.
<head> tag (or use the Google Tag Manager integration if you're already on GTM). No configuration needed — Clarity starts recording immediately. Data appears in the dashboard within a few hours.We help Indian product teams design the right combination of free and paid tools — so you pay only for what you actually need.
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