Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar in 2026: limits, features and GDPR
Clarity vs Hotjar compared: pricing, traffic limits, recordings, heatmaps, AI, data retention and EU cookie consent, based on each vendor's documentation.
On the surface, Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar do the same job: they record visitor sessions and turn them into heatmaps. The differences sit in the limits, in the extras, and in how each one handles cookie consent in the EU. And in 2026 Hotjar added one more variable: its accounts are moving to the Contentsquare platform.
Every fact below comes from the vendors’ own documentation (Microsoft Learn, the Hotjar help center and Contentsquare support) as of September 2026. A disclosure up front: we build Kaen, who can connect to both Clarity and Hotjar but does not collect recordings or heatmaps himself. At the end we explain where Kaen overlaps with these tools and where he doesn’t.
The comparison at a glance
| Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever, no paid tier | Free plan plus paid plans; hotjar.com/pricing now redirects to Contentsquare’s pricing page |
| Traffic limits | No traffic limits; recordings up to 100,000 sessions per project per day | Daily session capture limit set by your plan |
| Sampling | FAQ says no sampling; a heatmap covers up to 100,000 page views | Samples above the daily limit; Hotjar Free captures around 35 sessions a day, per Hotjar |
| Heatmaps | Yes (clicks, scroll, rage and dead clicks) | Yes |
| Recordings | Yes | Yes |
| Surveys and feedback widgets | Not listed in the documentation | Yes; feedback widgets became part of Surveys in September 2024 |
| AI | Copilot: summaries of single recordings, groups of recordings and heatmaps, plus chat over the dashboard | AI analysis of survey responses (sentiment, tagging, summaries); Contentsquare adds AI summaries of replays and heatmaps |
| GA4 integration | Connects to a GA4 property; no GA4 segments, no playback links sent to GA4 | GA events as filters for recordings, heatmaps and survey targeting; does not work when GA is deployed through GTM |
| Data retention | Recordings 30 days; favorites and a random sample up to 9 months | Recordings and heatmaps 365 days on all plans; surveys are not deleted automatically |
| Where data lives | Microsoft Azure; EU customers contract with Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited | AWS in Ireland (eu-west-1) |
| Cookie consent | Consent signal required for EEA, UK and CH traffic since 31 Oct 2025; Consent API and supported CMPs | You block the script until consent with your own banner; cookie classification is left to your legal counsel |
Microsoft Clarity: what free gets you
According to Microsoft, Clarity is free forever with no traffic limits. There is no cap on sites per account or on team members. The limits are technical: Clarity records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day, and a single heatmap is built from at most 100,000 page views. The FAQ also notes that a recording may not exist for every tracked session.
Copilot runs on top of the data. It can summarize a single recording, summarize a group of recordings picked by a filter, and summarize the heatmaps for a URL. A chat answers questions about the dashboard. Microsoft itself says Copilot’s takeaways are not expert recommendations and should be checked.
Retention is the weak spot. Recordings stay available for 30 days; favorites and a random sample are kept for up to 9 months. If you want to compare behavior before and after a redesign, flag the recordings that matter while you still can.
The GA4 integration links Clarity to your GA4 property, with two limits stated in the docs: Clarity does not support GA4 segments, and it does not send playback links into GA4.
Hotjar: more tools, but a platform in transition
On top of recordings and heatmaps, Hotjar offers surveys. The old feedback widgets moved into Surveys in September 2024 and gained AI analysis of responses: sentiment, automatic tagging and summaries. If you need to hear what visitors think, not just watch what they do, that is the main reason to pick Hotjar.
On the free plan, the main constraint is sampling. Every site has a daily session capture limit. Once traffic exceeds it, Hotjar samples sessions evenly across the day. For Hotjar Free, Hotjar’s own help center puts that at around 35 sessions a day. On a site with thousands of daily visits, your heatmap rests on a small slice of them.
Retention is the stronger side: recordings and heatmaps are kept for 365 days on every plan. The documentation says data is stored on AWS in Ireland, and keystrokes in input fields are suppressed in the browser before they ever reach Hotjar.
The Google Analytics integration turns GA events into Hotjar events you can use to filter recordings and heatmaps or to target surveys. The catch: it does not work if GA is deployed through Google Tag Manager, and it does not see events created in GTM.
The move to Contentsquare
Contentsquare acquired Hotjar in 2021, Hotjar merged into the Contentsquare Group on 1 July 2025, and now the two platforms are merging too. According to the transition FAQ, customers have been getting 30 days of access to Contentsquare in phases since late August. Unless the account owner opts out, the account then switches to the Contentsquare Growth plan, and Hotjar says the price may change. Historical Hotjar data does not carry over: it stays read-only for 90 days and is then deleted.
One line in that FAQ matters for GDPR: the Contentsquare tag does not inherit your cookie banner or CMP configuration. You have to add the new cookies to your consent setup by hand.
Free users can switch to Contentsquare Free. It tracks up to 200,000 sessions a month without sampling, but records replays for only 5% of them (at most 10,000 a month) and keeps replays for 30 days instead of 365.
Microsoft Clarity and GDPR: what changed in 2025
This is where most setups go wrong. Clarity is not GDPR-ready just because Microsoft makes it. Since 31 October 2025, Clarity requires a valid consent signal for visits from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and it works out the visitor’s location from the IP address.
If you don’t pass consent:
- Clarity sets no cookies and gives every page view its own ID.
- A visit to page A and then page B counts as two sessions.
- Page views and basic interactions are still collected, but full session replays and continuous user journeys are not available.
You pass consent in one of two ways: call clarity('consentv2', …) with ad_Storage and analytics_Storage values, or use a supported CMP (the docs name CookieYes). Google Consent Mode support is still listed as “coming soon” in the FAQ. So if your consent lives only in GTM’s Consent Mode, Clarity will not pick it up on its own. Each Clarity project needs its own consent handling.
Hotjar’s approach is simpler and leaves more to you. Its cookie documentation recommends blocking the script until the visitor consents and leaves cookie classification to your legal counsel. Hotjar also reminds you to disclose the tool in your privacy policy.
In practice, you only get complete data from visitors who consented. With Hotjar blocked until consent, the rest are missing entirely; with Clarity, they show up only as fragmented page-level data without full replays. Your recordings and heatmaps mostly describe people who clicked “accept”, not every visitor.
When to choose Clarity
- You want recordings and heatmaps with no budget, on a site with enough traffic that Hotjar’s free plan would only sample it.
- Looking back 30 days is enough, and you will flag the recordings you need to keep.
- Your cookie banner can call the Consent API, or you use a supported CMP.
When to choose Hotjar
- You need surveys and feedback widgets in the same place as recordings.
- You want a longer history: 365 days for recordings and heatmaps.
- You are ready for the account to move to Contentsquare, with the time and budget that takes.
When to run both, or neither
Both makes sense only occasionally: Clarity for recordings and heatmaps, Hotjar surveys for asking visitors questions. Expect two scripts, two entries in your cookie banner and two sets of masking settings.
Neither, if you don’t yet know which page to look at. Recordings pay off once you know where the problem is; without that, you end up watching random sessions. Many mobile issues also show up without any recordings, as soon as you check what customers actually see on their phones. For a wider view of the market, see Hotjar alternatives.
What neither tool will tell you
Clarity and Hotjar show how people behave on a given page: where they click, how far they scroll, where they get stuck. They don’t tell you which step of your funnel costs you the most money. That is a question for the funnel in your analytics: how many people move from product page to cart, from cart to checkout, from checkout to payment. Funnel analysis in GA4 walks through building one, and GA4 vs PostHog helps if you are still choosing where to measure it.
The order that works: the funnel shows where people drop off, and recordings then explain why.
Here is the disclosure part: we build Kaen, a growth buddy for conversion rate optimization. Kaen is an AI CRO agent run as a service. He reads the funnel from GA4 or PostHog, checks it daily and hunts for lost revenue weekly. He prices every finding in CZK and proposes a fix or an A/B test. He can connect to Clarity and Hotjar and use their recordings and heatmaps to find why people leave at an expensive step. He does not collect them himself, so he does not replace Clarity or Hotjar. Nothing ships without your approval. Kaen can ship the change himself, or your developer does.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Clarity really free?
Yes. Microsoft’s documentation says Clarity is free forever, with no paid tier and no traffic limits. The practical caps are on recordings (up to 100,000 sessions per project per day) and heatmaps (up to 100,000 page views per heatmap).
Does Microsoft Clarity need cookie consent in the EU?
Yes. Since 31 October 2025, Clarity enforces a consent signal for visits from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. Without it, Clarity sets no cookies, assigns a new ID to every page view and sessions fall apart. You pass consent through the consentv2 API or a supported consent management platform.
What is happening to Hotjar after the Contentsquare merger?
Hotjar merged into the Contentsquare Group on 1 July 2025. According to Hotjar’s help center, accounts are being moved to the Contentsquare Growth plan in phases unless the account owner opts out in time. Historical Hotjar data does not transfer; it stays read-only for 90 days and is then deleted.
Should I run Clarity and Hotjar at the same time?
Usually not. Both do recordings and heatmaps. Hotjar (now Contentsquare) adds surveys and feedback widgets, which Clarity’s documentation does not list. If you run both, both belong in your cookie banner and privacy policy.
The takeaway
For free recordings and heatmaps, Clarity is the more practical choice today, as long as you pass it cookie consent correctly. Hotjar makes sense when you want surveys and a longer history and are ready for the move to Contentsquare.
Both answer “how”, not “where”. If you want to know which funnel step costs you the most, see how Kaen works: he reads your data, finds where people drop out of the funnel and prices every leak. Nothing ships without your approval.
