Heatmap.com vs Microsoft Clarity (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Microsoft Clarity grades higher than Heatmap.com: 3.2 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Heatmap.com grades higher on features. Microsoft Clarity grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Heatmap.com
Revenue-based heatmaps and analytics for online stores
Microsoft Clarity
Free session recordings and heatmaps from Microsoft, no traffic cap
Which one is for you
Pick Heatmap.com if
- Fits if you run an online store and want heatmaps tied to revenue
- Works for Shopify stores using Klaviyo or Attentive
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're small: $199 a month is the starting price
- Tight if you want a free plan, as there's only a 14-day trial
- Watch out: MCP and API access are on Scale only
- Watch out: add-ons run about $399 and $499 a month, and a CRO strategist is $1,000 a month
Pick Microsoft Clarity if
- Fits if you run a small site or blog and want recordings without paying
- Works for Google Analytics users who want to watch the visits behind the numbers
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need recordings kept longer than 30 days
- Not for you if you'd rather your visitors' behavior didn't feed Microsoft's models
- Tight if you get data deletion requests, as removing one user means deleting the whole project
- Watch out: sites serving the EEA, UK and Switzerland must pass visitor consent to Clarity, or recordings and funnels may suffer
- Too light for anyone who wants product analytics beyond recordings and heatmaps, or an app to view them in
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAHeatmap.comFair | 3.2GPAMicrosoft ClarityVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | C$199 a month for stores under $10M a year, above the category's dearer-quarter start of $159 but below its dearest tenth ($299). | 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, none costs less. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 14-day free trial on all three plans. No free plan, and the page doesn't spell out card terms. | AEverything is free: unlimited sites, team members and traffic, always-on recordings, heatmaps and Copilot. There's no paid plan. The one limit is that data is kept for 30 days. |
| Features | BRevenue per element, scrollmaps, funnels, recordings, surveys and AI scan. The listing shows no gap in the core job. | 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 | CNo rating on record. You add a script and, for stores, link Shopify. | 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 once the code is in and heatmaps build from them. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Klaviyo, Attentive and Shopify, plus an API and Chrome extension on Scale. | 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 | revenue-based heatmaps for online stores | 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: Heatmap.com and Microsoft Clarity. How we grade
Price against what you get
Heatmap.com starts at $0.83 a month when paid by the year 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 $0.83 a month lower. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than Heatmap.com 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
- Heatmap.com also covers surveys and online store.
At a glance
| Heatmap.com | Microsoft Clarity | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free |
| Starts at | $199 per month for stores up to $10M annual revenue, 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 | 14-day free trial on Launch, Growth and Scale | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Heatmap, Inc. | Microsoft |
| Price read from | heatmap.com | clarity.microsoft.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Heatmap.com
- The plan is chosen by annual store revenue; the $50M+ band has no listed price, and the pricing page also lists a Book a Demo button for Scale.
- MCP and API access are only on Scale; the free-trial label covers all three listed plans.
- Add-ons cost extra: about $399 a month for a Revenue Intelligence Pack and about $499 for Data & Integrations.
- A CRO Strategist service is $1,000 a month and concierge onboarding $750 one time; basic onboarding is free.
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
Heatmap.com
- Revenue per element
- Heatmaps show what each button, image or block earned, with revenue-per-pixel attribution, rather than only click counts.
- Scrollmaps
- Show how far visitors scroll and what sits below the point where most of them stop.
- Funnels and journeys
- Unlimited funnel drop-off analysis plus pre-built and custom funnels, with filters and custom page targeting.
- Screen recordings
- Recordings tracked against revenue, with a user-journey timeline and session details such as location, device and operating system.
- Surveys with AI summaries
- Unlimited feedback and pop-up surveys, with AI summaries and qualitative recommendations built from the responses.
- AI page scan and data chat
- Page-level AI recommendations on every plan, and a Talk to Your Data assistant that is limited on Launch and fuller on higher plans.
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
Heatmap.com
Launch$199
per month for stores up to $10M annual revenue, billed monthly
Unlimited heatmap pages, scrollmaps, funnels, screen recordings and surveys. Talk to Your Data is limited; revenue tracking capped at $10M.
Growth$349
per month for $10-25M annual revenue, billed monthly
Same core features as Launch with expanded Talk to Your Data. Revenue tracking is capped at $25 million.
Scale$699
per month for $25-50M annual revenue, billed monthly
Full Talk to Your Data, MCP and API access and a Chrome extension. Revenue tracking is capped at $50 million.
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
Heatmap.com
- Annual discount
Save up to 32% with annual prepay
The pricing page offers a Pay Yearly option and states a saving of up to 32% over paying monthly.
Microsoft Clarity
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Heatmap.com or Microsoft Clarity?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Microsoft Clarity is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $0.83 a month when paid by the year for Heatmap.com. Heatmap.com starts at $199 per month for stores up to $10M annual revenue, billed monthly, and Microsoft Clarity is free.
Which has a free plan, Heatmap.com or Microsoft Clarity?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Microsoft Clarity has a free plan. Heatmap.com does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.