Microsoft Clarity vs OpenReplay (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Microsoft Clarity grades higher than OpenReplay: 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
Microsoft Clarity grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. OpenReplay grades higher on features. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Microsoft Clarity
Free session recordings and heatmaps from Microsoft, no traffic cap
OpenReplay
Open-source session replay and product analytics you can self-host
Which one is for you
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
Pick OpenReplay if
- Fits if you're a developer who wants replays next to errors and network logs
- Works for a team that must keep recordings on its own servers
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're staying free: 1,000 sessions a month and data kept for 7 days
- Pricey if you want Dedicated, at $199 a month before you pick a bigger VM
- Watch out: self-hosting means you handle storage, scaling and upgrades, and the open-source edition is listed for low traffic
- Watch out: Serverless costs $5.95 per 1,000 sessions a month, so busy sites climb quickly
How we grade them
| 3.2GPAMicrosoft ClarityVery good | 2.4GPAOpenReplayFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | CDedicated starts at $199 a month, billed hourly, and Serverless is $5.95 per 1,000 sessions. That's around the top quarter of analytics prices. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CFree cloud plan: 1,000 sessions a month, 2 users, 1 project and 7-day retention. The open-source edition is free but you host it, and the Dedicated trial is 7 days. |
| Features | 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. | BSession replay with network and console tools, product analytics, co-browsing, bug reports, data residency, an API and MCP server. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CNo store rating on record. You add the tracker to your app, or set up a server for self-hosting. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | BWeb only, with Sentry, Datadog, Jira and GitHub links and an API. |
| Best for | free recordings and heatmaps, no traffic cap | session replay you can host yourself |
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: Microsoft Clarity and OpenReplay. How we grade
Price against what you get
Microsoft Clarity has no paid plan and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. OpenReplay starts at $199 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Microsoft Clarity starts $199 a month lower. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than Microsoft Clarity for less, and none scores higher than OpenReplay 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
- OpenReplay is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Microsoft Clarity | OpenReplay | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $199 per month for a Dedicated instance, billed hourly |
| Free plan | 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 cloud plan: 1,000 sessions a month, 2 users, 1 project and 7-day data retention; the open-source edition is free to self-host. |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day trial of the Dedicated plan, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Microsoft | OpenReplay |
| Price read from | clarity.microsoft.com | openreplay.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
OpenReplay
- The free cloud plan stops at 1,000 sessions a month and keeps data 7 days.
- Serverless is billed at $5.95 per 1,000 sessions a month, with 30-day retention and unlimited users and projects.
- Self-hosting means you manage storage, scaling and upgrades; the open-source edition is listed for low traffic.
- Dedicated has no published cap on users or recordings, but its price rises with the VM size you choose.
Key features
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.
OpenReplay
- Session replay with developer tools
- Replays are paired with DevTools data such as network calls and backend logs pulled in from monitoring tools.
- Product analytics
- Funnels, heatmaps, journey analysis and web analytics sit alongside the replays, with mobile app support listed as well.
- Co-browsing and bug reports
- Co-browsing lets support staff view a customer's session live, and the Spot tool records bug reports for developers.
- Three ways to deploy
- Self-host the open-source edition, run a Dedicated instance in OpenReplay's cloud or yours, or use the usage-based Serverless cloud.
- Data residency
- The Dedicated plan lists 50 regions across AWS, GCP and Azure, plus bring-your-own-cloud, so data can stay in a chosen location.
- API and MCP server
- A REST API fetches sessions, users and events, and an MCP server is listed in the plan comparison. AI Agents are marked coming soon.
Plans
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity$0
Free forever with all features: recordings, heatmaps, rage and dead click insights, 40+ filters, Copilot and smart events.
OpenReplay
Free$0
On OpenReplay's cloud: up to 1,000 sessions a month, all core features, 2 users, 1 project, 7-day retention.
Open-Source$0
Free to self-host on your own infrastructure, with self-managed storage and community support through GitHub and Slack.
Dedicated$199
per month for a managed instance, billed hourly ($0.276/hr)
Dedicated VM managed by OpenReplay, with no limits on users, recordings or retention; the price is for the smallest size.
EnterpriseCustom
Self-hosted at scale with SAML and SCIM, audit trail, dedicated support and volume pricing on a multi-year contract.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Microsoft Clarity or OpenReplay?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Microsoft Clarity is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $199 a month for OpenReplay. Microsoft Clarity is free, and OpenReplay starts at $199 per month for a Dedicated instance, billed hourly.
Which has a free plan, Microsoft Clarity or OpenReplay?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Microsoft Clarity and OpenReplay have a free plan.
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.