Fathom Analytics vs Microsoft Clarity
We give Fathom Analytics a 2.4 GPA and Microsoft Clarity a 3.2, out of 4.0. Microsoft Clarity grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Fathom Analytics
Cookie-free, privacy-first website analytics priced by pageviews
Microsoft Clarity
Free session recordings and heatmaps from Microsoft, no traffic cap
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAFathom AnalyticsFair | 3.2GPAMicrosoft ClarityVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$12.50 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly) covers up to 100k pageviews, which fits a 10,000-visitor site, across 50 sites. That's inside the cheapest quarter of what this category charges, with every feature on every plan. | A$0 at any size, so $0 for a 10,000-visitor site too. Recordings, heatmaps, Copilot summaries and the Google Analytics link are all free, for unlimited sites and team members. Graded against Fullstory and Contentsquare, nothing here costs less. |
| Free plan and trial | DNo free plan. The 7-day trial needs a card and the plan renews by itself, though Fathom emails you before billing starts. A week is short to judge traffic stats. | AEverything is free: unlimited sites, team members and traffic, always-on recordings, heatmaps and Copilot. There's no paid plan to push you towards. The one real limit is that data is kept for 30 days. |
| Features | CPages, referrers, countries, campaigns, events with revenue, Search Console terms and client email reports. It does the page counting job fully, but it's a smaller job than the suites: no recordings, funnels or visitor-level data on record. | CRecordings, heatmaps, rage and dead click flags, 40+ filters, Copilot summaries and mobile SDKs. It does the recording and heatmap job fully, but that's a smaller job than the suites do, and data is gone after 30 days. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record, but there's nothing to set up beyond a small script, or a plugin for WordPress, Ghost and the like. One page shows everything. | BNo rating on record, but there's nothing to set up beyond a tracking code, or a plugin on WordPress, Shopify or Wix. Recordings start straight away and heatmaps build themselves. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, no desktop or phone app. It works with WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Next.js and Nuxt, pulls in Search Console and old Google Analytics data, and has an API. | BWeb, plus SDKs that record native iOS and Android, React Native and Flutter apps. It connects to Google Analytics, Tag Manager, WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Squarespace. There's no desktop or phone app to view it in. |
| Best for | cookie-free stats across lots of client sites | free recordings and heatmaps, no traffic cap |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Fathom Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. How we grade
Price against what you get
Fathom Analytics starts at $12.50 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Microsoft Clarity has no paid plan and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Microsoft Clarity starts $12.50 a month lower. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than Fathom Analytics for less, and none scores higher than Microsoft Clarity for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Fathom Analytics starts at $12.50 per month for up to 100k pageviews, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly). Microsoft Clarity is free.
- Microsoft Clarity has a free plan. Fathom Analytics does not, though it has a free trial.
- Fathom Analytics also covers reports.
- Microsoft Clarity also covers session replay.
At a glance
| Fathom Analytics | Microsoft Clarity | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free |
| Starts at | $12.50 per month for up to 100k pageviews, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly) | Free |
| Free plan | None | Everything is free: unlimited sites, team members, heatmaps and traffic, always-on recordings, Copilot summaries and the Google Analytics integration. Data is kept 30 days. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial, card required; Fathom emails you before billing starts | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Fathom Analytics | Microsoft |
| Price read from | usefathom.com | clarity.microsoft.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Fathom Analytics
- Site owners who want traffic stats without a cookie banner
- Agencies reporting on many client sites
- Bloggers and small businesses leaving Google Analytics
Microsoft Clarity
- Small sites and blogs that want recordings and heatmaps at no cost
- High-traffic sites that would pass other tools' session caps
- Google Analytics users who want to watch the sessions behind the numbers
Worth knowing
Fathom Analytics
- There is no free plan: the 7-day trial needs a card, then the plan renews automatically.
- Custom events count against the monthly pageview allowance, shared across all your sites.
- Fathom is hosted only and cannot be self-hosted.
- Extra sites beyond those included cost $10 a month or $100 a year per pack of 50.
Microsoft Clarity
- Recordings and data are kept only 30 days from the time of recording.
- Sites serving the EEA, UK and Switzerland must pass visitors' consent to Clarity; without it, recordings and funnels may be affected.
- Microsoft uses the anonymous behavior data it collects to improve its own products and machine learning models.
- Deleting one user's data means deleting the whole project.
Key features
Fathom Analytics
- No cookies or consent banner
- Counts visits without cookies and anonymizes data with hashes and salts, so the vendor says no analytics consent banner is needed. EU visitor data stays in the EU.
- Single-page dashboard
- Pages, referrers, countries, devices and UTM campaigns on one page, in real time, with saved filtered views and milestones marked on the chart.
- Events and revenue
- Tracks sign-ups, form submissions and purchases as events, with a value and currency so sales totals show beside counts.
- Client reports and sharing
- Weekly or monthly email reports covering one or several sites, and dashboards shared publicly or behind a password.
- Google Analytics and Search Console
- Imports historical GA4 data and shows Search Console terms, clicks, impressions and positions beside your traffic.
Microsoft Clarity
- Session recordings
- Always-on recordings of real visits, with highlights of key moments and filters to find sessions where people got stuck.
- Heatmaps
- Click, scroll, area and conversion heatmaps for every page, generated instantly, with comparisons across page versions.
- Rage and dead click insights
- Flags frustrated repeated clicks and clicks that do nothing, and segments sessions with more than 40 filters.
- Copilot summaries and chat
- AI summaries of sessions, groups of sessions and heatmaps, plus a chat that answers questions about your data.
- Mobile app SDKs
- SDKs for native Android and iOS, React Native and Flutter (Cordova and Ionic on Android) bring recordings to mobile apps.
Plans
Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics$12.50
per month for up to 100k pageviews, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)
Every feature, 50 sites, events and revenue, email reports, API. Rises with pageviews: $60 a month at 1M and $200 at 10M, billed monthly.
High trafficCustom
High-traffic plans above 25M monthly pageviews, quoted on request. The 25M tier itself is $470 a month, billed monthly.
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity$0
Free forever with all features: recordings, heatmaps, rage and dead click insights, 40+ filters, Copilot and smart events.
Ways to pay less
Fathom Analytics
- Annual discount
2 months free with yearly billing
Yearly billing costs 10 times the monthly rate: $150 a year instead of $15 a month at 100,000 pageviews, and $600 instead of $60 a month at 1M.
Microsoft Clarity
No public discounts listed.
