Best Heatmap for Website 2025 – Why Microsoft Clarity Leads the Pack

Why Heatmaps and Session Recordings Matter in 2025

In 2025, user experience is king. Heatmaps and session recordings have become go-to resources for understanding user behavior. Heatmaps visually represent where users click, scroll, or move their cursors on a page, revealing which sections draw attention and which are ignored. Session recordings let you replay real visitor sessions to see exactly how people navigate your site. Together, these tools help uncover UX issues and opportunities that traditional analytics (like Google Analytics pageview counts and bounce rates) might miss.

For example, a heatmap might show that an important call-to-action button is rarely clicked because it’s located too far down the page, or a recording might reveal users repeatedly clicking an element that isn’t actually a button (a sign of frustration). These insights are invaluable for optimizing conversion rates, improving content placement, and enhancing overall usability. Marketers and small business owners can use them to make data-driven changes that increase engagement and sales.

In today’s competitive environment, having a heatmap tool is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity for continuous website improvement. The question is: which heatmap tool is the best choice in 2025? Let’s dive into the contenders.

Microsoft Clarity: A Free Powerhouse for Website Analytics

Microsoft Clarity has quickly emerged as a powerhouse in the world of heatmap and session recording tools. Launched by Microsoft as a completely free service, Clarity provides robust features that rival (and in some cases exceed) those of paid competitors. Here’s an overview of what makes Microsoft Clarity so compelling:

• Price: Microsoft Clarity is entirely free to use, no matter the size of your site or traffic volume. There are no premium tiers – all features are available to everyone. This is a game-changer for budget-conscious businesses because many competitors charge significant fees for similar capabilities.
  
  
• Unlimited Data Capture: Unlike some tools that sample data or cap the number of recordings, Clarity puts no hard limits on the number of user sessions recorded or heatmaps generated. You get data from all your visitors (up to very high thresholds, effectively making it unlimited for most small and medium sites), ensuring an accurate picture of user behavior without missing out on heavy traffic periods.
  
  
• Heatmaps and Session Recordings: Clarity automatically generates click heatmaps, scroll heatmaps, and more for your pages. You can see where users click (or try to click) and how far they scroll down each page. It also records user sessions, so you can watch replays of visitors using your site. The interface makes it easy to toggle between heatmaps and recordings for a holistic analysis.
  
  
• Behavioral Insights: Clarity comes with built-in indicators for user behavior patterns, such as “rage clicks” (when a user rapidly clicks an element multiple times, indicating frustration) and “dead clicks” (clicks on non-interactive page areas). It highlights these automatically, so you can quickly spot where users might be getting annoyed or confused. This helps you zero in on UX problems, like a broken link or an element that looks clickable but isn’t.
  
  
• Filtering and Segmentation: One of Microsoft Clarity’s standout features is its advanced filtering capabilities. You can filter session recordings and heatmaps by a wide range of criteria, including device type, browser, country, scroll depth, and more. Most impressively, you can filter by traffic source or channel – for example, isolating sessions from organic search visitors versus those from paid advertising campaigns. This level of segmentation is incredibly useful. It allows you to observe how different audiences behave on your site. Are your Google Ads visitors clicking different elements than your organic visitors? Do social media referrals scroll further down the page than email newsletter visitors? With Clarity, you can answer these questions by simply applying a filter.
  
  
• Ease of Use and Setup: Clarity is designed to be user-friendly. Installation is straightforward – you just add a small script to your website (or deploy it via Google Tag Manager or your CMS). The dashboard interface is clean and fairly intuitive, making it accessible even if you’re not a developer. Microsoft provides helpful documentation, and because Clarity is widely used, there are many tutorials available. In short, getting started with Clarity is quick, and you can begin seeing data almost immediately after setup.
  
  
• Integration with Google Analytics: Another benefit is that Microsoft Clarity can integrate with Google Analytics (GA4). By connecting the two, you can link your GA data with Clarity’s qualitative insights. For instance, from within Google Analytics you might jump directly to a Clarity session replay for a specific user journey or page. This integration bridges the gap between quantitative data (GA’s numbers and charts) and qualitative data (Clarity’s visual session replays and heatmaps), giving you a more complete understanding of what users do and why.
  
  
• Data Privacy and Compliance: Clarity captures user interactions, but it masks or filters out sensitive information (like password fields) by default. It is GDPR compliant as long as you disclose usage in your privacy policy and obtain any necessary consents. However, it’s worth noting that by using Clarity, you agree to Microsoft’s terms which allow it to use collected data to improve its services. The data is anonymized, but organizations in highly regulated industries (healthcare, financial, government) might have restrictions or concerns here (more on this later). For most standard websites, Clarity’s data practices are acceptable and similar to other analytics tools, but transparency with users is always advised.
  
  

Impressed by Microsoft Clarity’s capabilities but not sure how to implement it on your site? Need help getting MS Clarity implemented on your website? Contact us. Our team at Canvas Marketing Solutions can handle the setup and configuration so you can start gathering these valuable insights without any hassle.

Microsoft Clarity vs. Hotjar

Hotjar is one of the most popular names in heatmap and session recording tools, and many marketers have either heard of it or used it. It offers a robust set of features beyond just heatmaps, but it comes at a cost. How does Microsoft Clarity compare to Hotjar in 2025? Let’s break it down:

1. Pricing and Data Limits

• Hotjar: Hotjar operates on a freemium model. It has a Free Forever plan, but that plan is limited – it records a maximum of around 35 sessions per day and stores data for a short period. To unlock more sessions or longer retention, you need to upgrade to a paid plan. Hotjar’s paid tiers can become expensive for high-traffic sites or for accessing advanced features. Essentially, the free plan is good for small sites or initial trials, but serious usage typically requires payment.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity is completely free with no licensing cost at any level of usage. It allows a very generous amount of data collection (tens of thousands of sessions per day, far above what most sites will ever hit) without charging. There’s also no sampling of data – every user interaction can be recorded. This means even on a busy day, Clarity will capture all sessions, giving you a full dataset. For budget-conscious users or small businesses, Clarity’s cost advantage is clear: you get enterprise-level analytics without spending a cent.
  
  

2. Features and Functionality

• Hotjar: Over the years, Hotjar has evolved into a suite of user experience tools. It offers heatmaps and session recordings comparable to Clarity’s, as well as additional features like feedback polls, surveys, and even user interview recruitment. Hotjar also provides basic conversion funnel analysis and form drop-off analytics, helping you see where users abandon a process (for example, a multi-step signup form). A notable strength of Hotjar is the ability to connect qualitative and quantitative insights – you can see something odd in a heatmap or recording, then use Hotjar’s dashboards to gauge how widespread that behavior is. Hotjar also has collaboration tools like highlights and commenting, so teams can easily share findings within the platform.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity focuses on its core strengths: heatmaps and recordings. It does not natively include on-site survey widgets or feedback polls. So, if gathering user feedback directly on the site is important, Hotjar has an edge there (though you could always use Clarity for behavior and deploy a separate free survey tool for feedback if needed). Clarity also doesn’t explicitly provide funnel analysis in the same way; it has a user journey feature, but detailed funnel reports might be better done in Google Analytics or a dedicated CRO tool. In essence, Clarity is a more streamlined tool centered on behavioral analytics, whereas Hotjar is a broader toolkit for UX research.
  
  

3. User Interface and Ease of Use

• Hotjar: Hotjar’s interface is polished and user-friendly, but some have found it has become more complex as features were added. You might need to navigate between different sections (Observe, Ask, etc., in Hotjar’s menu) to access all tools. Initial setup is straightforward – similar to Clarity, it involves adding a tracking script. Hotjar also offers good onboarding guides and a knowledge base, plus customer support even on the free plan (albeit with slower response times).
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity’s interface is clean and focused since it has fewer tool categories. Many users find Clarity very easy to navigate for viewing heatmaps or filtering recordings. Installation is as simple as Hotjar’s. One difference is support: Clarity being free does not come with dedicated support channels or an account manager, whereas Hotjar provides support (and more prompt assistance on higher paid tiers). However, Microsoft’s online documentation and community forums for Clarity are usually sufficient for troubleshooting common issues.
  
  

4. Performance and Impact on Site

Both Hotjar and Clarity run via a script on your site, which can potentially affect page load performance. In practice:

• Hotjar: If set to record a lot of sessions or if you have many features active (like polls and forms), there’s a possibility of slight slowdowns or an increase in load time. Hotjar has worked to minimize this, but some developers have noted that heavy use of Hotjar’s script can add overhead, especially if you’re on the free plan with continuous session captures that reset daily.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity’s script is generally lightweight, but since it records every session by default, the continuous data streaming could introduce some latency. Clarity currently does not allow disabling session recordings alone – meaning if Clarity is on, it’s tracking interactions. For most sites this performance impact is negligible, but extremely performance-sensitive projects might want to test both tools. In general, neither Hotjar nor Clarity should significantly slow down a typical site when used properly, but it’s wise to monitor your site speed after implementation.
  
  

5. Privacy and Data Usage

• Hotjar: Hotjar positions itself as a “privacy-first” analytics suite. It provides features to respect user consent (like not recording if a Do Not Track setting is detected, honoring cookie consent tools, etc.). Hotjar also doesn’t use the data it collects for its own purposes beyond providing the service to you. This makes it compliant for a wide range of websites, including those handling more sensitive user data, as long as you configure it correctly and get user consent where required.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Microsoft’s privacy policy for Clarity states that the data collected can be used by Microsoft to improve its services. All data is anonymized and cannot identify individuals directly, but it’s something to be aware of. Additionally, Microsoft has restrictions on using Clarity on certain types of sites – for example, websites related to healthcare, financial services, or government may have terms that prevent using Clarity due to the sensitive nature of those user interactions. In short, for most standard commercial or content websites, Clarity is fine, but extremely privacy-sensitive projects might lean towards other options or ensure they have proper compliance measures in place.
  
  

Which to choose – Hotjar or Clarity? For many marketers and small businesses in 2025, Microsoft Clarity offers more than enough functionality at an unbeatable price (free), making it the best choice for heatmaps and session recordings. You get the essential insights without a budget hit. However, Hotjar remains a strong option if you specifically need its extra features like on-page surveys, and are willing to pay for those. Also, if you value having customer support on call or need integration with team tools (Hotjar’s Slack, Jira, etc. integrations), Hotjar might justify its cost.

Most of our clients find that starting with Clarity covers their needs. In fact, the cost savings from using Clarity can be invested in other areas of marketing. If down the line you find you need advanced capabilities Hotjar offers, you can always add it or switch – but it’s telling that Clarity’s feature set has closed much of the gap for the typical use cases.

Still unsure whether Hotjar or Clarity is the right fit for your website? Our experts can help you assess your needs and even implement the solution for you. Contact Canvas Marketing Solutions for a free consultation on optimizing your site’s user experience with the right tools.

Microsoft Clarity vs. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is another well-known player in the website analytics space, famous for pioneering heatmap visualizations over a decade ago. It’s a paid tool that offers heatmaps, recordings, and some unique features like A/B testing assistance. How does Crazy Egg stack up against Microsoft Clarity in 2025?

1. Pricing and Commitments

• Crazy Egg: Unlike Hotjar’s monthly SaaS model, Crazy Egg often requires an annual subscription commitment. This means you typically pay for a year upfront. Its plans have varying levels based on the number of pageviews or recordings you want to capture. For small businesses, the cost can be a hurdle – even the basic plan is a significant monthly expense, and scaling up for more traffic can increase the cost substantially. Another aspect is that Crazy Egg’s plans come with limits on monthly unique visitors. If your traffic exceeds the plan’s limit, the data might be sampled or you’ll need to upgrade. This cap means you might not see every single visitor’s behavior if you hit the limit.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Once again, Clarity’s free, unlimited usage stands in contrast. There are no contracts or subscriptions needed. You simply use the tool as long as you want. There is effectively no cap on the number of unique users or pageviews (practically, up to extremely high limits per day as noted before). Also, no sampling is enforced by Clarity due to a traffic cap – you get the full dataset of all users on your site. For any organization worried about committing to an expensive year-long contract, Clarity provides freedom and flexibility.
  
  

2. Heatmaps and Data Visualization

• Crazy Egg: Crazy Egg offers various types of heatmap visualizations: the classic heatmap, a scroll map, and a unique “Confetti” map. The Confetti view in Crazy Egg is particularly interesting – it shows click data differentiated by segments like referral source, search terms, etc., by using colored dots (hence confetti). This means Crazy Egg can visually break down where different types of traffic are clicking. For example, clicks from Google might show in one color and clicks from Facebook in another. This feature is very useful for segmenting behavior directly on the heatmap. Crazy Egg also allows you to take screenshots of pages and will overlay click data on the screenshot. If your site has dynamic content or requires login, you can use their browser plugin (Page Camera) to capture those pages for analysis.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity provides standard click heatmaps and scroll depth maps for each page, but it doesn’t have a confetti-style visualization out of the box. However, Clarity achieves a similar goal through its filtering: you can filter the heatmap by certain criteria (e.g., show heatmap only for “UTM Source = Facebook” traffic). While it might not be as visually immediate as Crazy Egg’s confetti, you can still get segmented heatmap insights with a couple of clicks using Clarity’s filters. For most straightforward needs, Clarity’s heatmaps are excellent. They automatically capture your pages and even handle single-page applications or dynamic content reasonably well by updating heatmaps as the page changes. Where Clarity is less flexible is in manually controlling screenshots – you rely on Clarity to capture the page at the time it records. If it misses a state or doesn’t render a part of your page correctly in the heatmap view, there isn’t a manual override (whereas Crazy Egg allows manual screenshot capture to ensure accuracy). That said, such issues are not very common for typical websites.
  
  

3. Session Recordings and Analytics

• Crazy Egg: Crazy Egg includes session recordings (sometimes called “Recordings”) similar to Clarity and Hotjar. You can watch what users do on your site. These recordings count against your plan’s monthly visitor quota. Crazy Egg also offers some additional analytics like error tracking (to catch JavaScript errors affecting users) and basic user segmentation for recordings. They have a feature for snapshots comparison, useful if you run an A/B test: you can set up separate snapshots for each variant and compare heatmaps.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity’s session recordings are unlimited and have the same filtering ability mentioned earlier. One limitation is data retention: Clarity stores recordings for 30 days by default. You can “favorite” certain recordings to keep them up to 13 months, but broadly, the pool of recordings refreshes every month. Crazy Egg, on paid plans, may store data for longer (up to a year or two). If you need to look back at historical user recordings beyond a month, Clarity would require you to proactively save them or they’ll be gone. Many small businesses are primarily concerned with recent data, but it’s a consideration if you want long-term archives of user behavior.
  Additionally, Clarity has introduced an AI-powered feature that can auto-generate summaries of user sessions or suggest insights (leveraging Microsoft’s AI, sometimes called “Clarity Copilot”). While this is an innovative touch, currently these AI summaries tend to be quite general and not as actionable as one might hope. So, it’s a neat feature to experiment with, but most marketers will still prefer to manually analyze the provided data for real insights.
  
  

4. A/B Testing and Additional Features

• Crazy Egg: One differentiator for Crazy Egg is its lightweight A/B testing tool. Crazy Egg enables you to create simple A/B tests by modifying content or design directly in their interface (like changing a headline or image) and then splitting traffic to see which version performs better. It’s not as powerful as dedicated A/B testing platforms (and complex changes can be tricky to implement there), but it’s a convenient add-on for those who want to experiment with minor tweaks without coding. Also, as mentioned, Crazy Egg’s heatmap comparison for A/B tests is top-notch – you can ensure each test version has its own heatmap, which is something Clarity doesn’t do natively. Crazy Egg also has survey and feedback tools (similar to Hotjar’s polls) built in, so you can ask visitors questions and gather feedback within the same platform.
  
  
• Microsoft Clarity: Clarity currently does not have built-in A/B testing capabilities. If you run A/B tests (say using another tool like Google Optimize or Optimizely), Clarity will track all variants together unless you use some custom workaround (like tagging sessions by variant via JavaScript). This means you can’t easily separate heatmap data for version A vs version B of a page in Clarity. For organizations heavily into conversion rate optimization with constant A/B tests, this could be a limitation. You might use Clarity more for qualitative insights on the overall user experience, and use the A/B testing platform’s own analytics for measuring specific test results. Also, Clarity lacks built-in survey tools, so you’d need external solutions if you want to collect user feedback on the site.
  
  

Bottom line – Clarity or Crazy Egg? Microsoft Clarity covers the fundamental needs of heatmaps and recordings for free, making it extremely attractive. Crazy Egg offers some niche advantages: better support for A/B testing visualization, the confetti heatmap segmentation, and integrated surveys. But those come at a financial cost and possibly more setup complexity. For most small businesses or marketers focusing on understanding general user behavior, Clarity provides 90% of the value at 0% of the cost. If your team frequently runs design experiments or you require long-term storage of user interaction data, you might consider Crazy Egg despite the cost. Often, we recommend starting with Clarity – master the insights from it – and only if you hit a specific roadblock (like “I wish I could differentiate heatmaps for my two A/B variants”) then evaluate if a paid tool like Crazy Egg is justified for that requirement.

Interested in leveraging Microsoft Clarity’s insights but overwhelmed by the idea of setup or analysis? Contact Canvas Marketing Solutions – we can implement Clarity for you and even help interpret the data to improve your website.

Other Notable Heatmap Tools (Lucky Orange, FullStory, and More)

While Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar, and Crazy Egg are among the most discussed tools, there are several other heatmap and session replay tools in the market as of 2025. Each has its own twist or specialty. To be thorough, here are a few others you might hear about, and how they compare in brief:

• Lucky Orange: An affordable tool popular with small businesses, Lucky Orange includes heatmaps and session recordings like the others, and also offers live chat and chat transcripts, conversion funnels, and polls. It’s like a hybrid of analytics and customer support tool. Lucky Orange is a paid service (with a free trial), and its pricing is relatively moderate. It’s a good all-in-one solution if you specifically want the live chat feature alongside heatmaps. However, its interface can feel a bit dated compared to Hotjar or Clarity, and some features overlap with what you might already have (for example, if you already use Intercom or another live chat, you might not need Lucky Orange’s chat).
  
  
• Mouseflow: Mouseflow provides heatmaps (including click, scroll, movement heatmaps) and recordings, and is known for its form analytics. It can show where users hesitate or drop off in filling out forms on your site. Mouseflow is a paid tool with a tiered pricing based on number of recordings per month. It also has funnel analytics and user feedback widgets. It’s quite powerful for conversion optimization professionals. Compared to Clarity, Mouseflow offers more depth in specific areas (forms, funnels) but of course, at a cost. Clarity plus separate free form tracking (e.g., using Google Analytics events) can achieve similar insights if set up properly, which is a route some prefer to save budget.
  
  
• Smartlook: Smartlook is another platform that offers a free-forever tier (with limits) and paid plans. It provides session recordings, heatmaps, and events tracking. One of its selling points is the ability to tie recordings to specific user events or API calls, which is useful for product teams debugging an app. In terms of direct comparison, Smartlook’s free tier is more limited than Clarity’s (since Clarity has no limits). But if someone wanted an alternative free tool with a bit of event depth, Smartlook might be considered. Overall, if you’re already committed to Clarity, Smartlook doesn’t offer a compelling reason to switch for most standard use cases.
  
  
• FullStory: On the high end, FullStory is an enterprise-grade digital experience analytics platform. It goes beyond simple heatmaps and recordings, offering powerful analysis tools, segmentation, and error analysis for web and mobile apps. FullStory can even capture the DOM of your site to reproduce what users see in detail and has robust developer integration for debugging. However, FullStory is expensive and typically used by larger companies with dedicated UX analytics teams. It’s likely overkill (and not cost-effective) for a small business or a marketing team on a tight budget. Microsoft Clarity, while not as advanced in analytics horsepower, covers the basics that most organizations need without the steep cost.
  
  
• ContentSquare (and others): ContentSquare is a major enterprise UX analytics tool, and interestingly, it’s the company that acquired Hotjar in late 2021. ContentSquare itself is geared towards very large businesses with deep analytics needs (and budgets). Other names you might come across include SessionCam, Decibel Insight, UXtweak, and more. Each has its niche strengths, but for the scope of a small-to-medium business looking for the best website heatmap tool in 2025, these are generally beyond the needed scope once you consider Clarity or Hotjar.
  
  

In summary, there are plenty of options out there. Each tool might carve out a specialty or cater to a specific market segment, but Microsoft Clarity stands out by covering the most critical features at no cost. For a majority of website owners and marketers, Clarity either meets their needs outright or serves as a perfect starting point before considering any paid upgrade.

(Not sure which tool is right for you, or need help migrating to a new analytics platform? Contact us at Canvas Marketing Solutions – we can analyze your requirements and handle the setup to ensure you get the insights you need.)

Segmenting Visitor Behavior by Channel: Clarity’s Unique Advantage

One of the biggest benefits of Microsoft Clarity – and a key reason we argue it’s the best heatmap tool for websites in 2025 – is how easily it lets you segment and analyze traffic by source or channel. This capability is incredibly useful for marketing insights and is typically either limited or paid-only in other tools.

Imagine you run multiple marketing campaigns: Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and also get organic search traffic. You notice from overall analytics that the conversion rate on your site differs between these sources. The next step is to understand why. This is where Clarity’s filtering by channel comes into play:

• In Clarity’s dashboard, you can apply filters such as “Referrer = Google” or “UTM Medium = CPC” (to isolate pay-per-click ad traffic) or “Traffic Source = Organic”. By doing so, all the heatmaps, recordings, and analytics you see will now be specific to that segment of visitors.
  
  
• For example, you can compare a heatmap of your homepage for organic visitors versus a heatmap for paid visitors. Perhaps you find that paid visitors click on your pricing page more often (since they arrived with a shopping intent from an ad), whereas organic visitors explore your blog links more. These insights allow you to tailor content: maybe the homepage shown to ad visitors should have a clearer call-to-action for purchasing, while you might surface more educational content for organic visitors. Without a tool like Clarity, you’d be guessing at these behaviors or trying to infer from page paths in Google Analytics. Clarity shows you the actual clicks and scrolls, segmented by channel.
  
  
• With session recordings, the benefit is equally powerful. You can filter recordings to only watch sessions from, say, “Facebook Ads campaign X”. As you watch a few of those, you might observe a pattern – perhaps many of these users try to click an image that isn’t linked, or they quickly scroll past your top banner. That might indicate the messaging from the Facebook Ad needs to be carried through better on the landing page, or that something on the page is confusing that particular audience. Now you have actionable input: you could update the landing page design or content to better suit the expectations of Facebook-driven traffic.
  
  
• If you run an email marketing campaign, you could filter by “UTM Campaign” parameter to see how those email visitors behave compared to general traffic. Let’s say your email campaign visitors are spending less time on the site – recordings might show they’re quickly looking for a specific product mentioned in the email. If they don’t find it immediately, they leave. Realizing this, you might adjust the landing page to mirror the email content or provide a clear prompt to direct these users.
  
  

Many paid tools like Hotjar do offer some filtering, but often the ability to segment by custom campaign parameters or specific channels is restricted to higher-tier plans. With Clarity, all users get this ability. For a small business, this means you can do quite sophisticated user behavior analysis that ties directly into your marketing efforts without needing to pay for an enterprise tool.

From a marketer’s perspective, analyzing by channel is essential for attribution and optimization. You may already be segmenting conversion metrics by channel in Google Analytics – pairing that with Clarity’s qualitative insights completes the picture. It helps answer “what are my users doing differently?” not just “which channel brought more conversions?”.

To maximize this feature:

• Define your key channels and campaigns in Clarity’s filters. Spend time exploring each one’s heatmaps and top user behaviors.
  
  
• Pay attention to differences in scroll depth by channel. Often, users from certain channels (like social media) might have shorter attention spans – Clarity could show they barely scroll half the page. That might prompt you to rearrange content for those visitors or create shorter, more to-the-point landing pages.
  
  
• Look at click patterns by channel. Perhaps organic search visitors click on a “Learn more” link often (indicating they seek information), whereas referral visitors from a partner site immediately click “Sign up” (they come primed to act). Align your site’s messaging with these intents.
  
  
• Use Clarity’s “rage click” or “quick back” signals by segment: if one channel’s users are triggering a lot of rage clicks on a particular element, you can pinpoint a frustration that might be specific to that audience source.
  
  

In our experience, these granular observations lead to concrete improvements. We’ve seen businesses boost their conversion rates by creating variant pages tailored to different channels after discovering behavior differences via Clarity. This is a level of optimization that was previously only feasible with expensive suites – now it’s accessible to anyone with Clarity.

Want to unlock these kinds of insights for your own website? If you need guidance on how to filter and interpret traffic by channel using Microsoft Clarity, don’t hesitate to contact Canvas Marketing Solutions. We can help set up the right filters and teach you how to read the data to inform your marketing strategy.

Pros and Cons Recap: Is Microsoft Clarity the Best Heatmap Tool in 2025?

We’ve covered a lot of ground comparing Microsoft Clarity with Hotjar, Crazy Egg, and others. To recap, let’s summarize the key pros and cons of Clarity, especially in relation to the competition:

Microsoft Clarity – Key Advantages:

• Free & Unlimited: No cost regardless of traffic volume, with no data sampling. This removes the budget barrier and data limits that you’d face with most other tools.
  
  
• Rich Heatmaps & Recordings: Provides all core functionalities (click heatmaps, scroll maps, session replays) at a quality on par with paid tools.
  
  
• Advanced Filtering: Allows segmentation of sessions by various attributes, notably traffic source/channel, device, user actions (like rage clicks), etc., enabling deeper analysis easily.
  
  
• Ease of Use: Simple installation and a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to non-technical users. Integrates with Google Analytics to connect behavioral data with traditional metrics.
  
  
• Insights for Improvement: Automatically surfaces things like rage clicks or dead clicks, helping even novice analysts spot potential website issues quickly.
  
  

Microsoft Clarity – Limitations to Consider:

• No Built-in Feedback Tools: Unlike Hotjar or Crazy Egg, Clarity doesn’t include on-page surveys, polls, or feedback widgets. You would need a separate solution for gathering qualitative feedback from users.
  
  
• Limited Support & Community: Clarity users rely on documentation and community forums. There’s no dedicated support team or representative (which paid tools often provide).
  
  
• Data Retention: Session recordings are only kept for 30 days by default (with an option to save specific ones up to 13 months). If you need to analyze user sessions from many months ago, Clarity might not have that data readily available unless you saved it.
  
  
• Fewer Integrations: Clarity has basic integration with Google Analytics and can output data to certain analysis tools, but it doesn’t have the wide array of integrations (e.g., direct Slack or Jira integration, CRM linking) that some paid platforms boast. Teams that rely on those might miss them in Clarity.
  
  
• Privacy Constraints: As discussed, very privacy-sensitive projects should double-check Clarity’s terms. If you cannot allow any third-party to potentially use anonymized interaction data, or if you operate under strict compliance rules, you might need to opt for a different tool or ensure you configure Clarity in a compliant way.
  
  

Now, weighing these points, is Microsoft Clarity the “best heatmap for website 2025”? For a vast number of use cases, yes, it likely is. The value it provides relative to the cost (free) is unparalleled. It empowers small businesses and organizations with tight budgets to gain UX insights that were once only available to those who could afford premium tools. Even for larger companies, Clarity can cover the basics extremely well and can be an augment to other analytics.

Hotjar and Crazy Egg are excellent products with more bells and whistles, but those extras come at a price and may not be necessary for everyone. If your goal is to understand user behavior and improve your website accordingly, Clarity gets you there in most scenarios. It’s telling that even some agencies and large enterprises use Clarity as a first line of insight gathering because it’s quick to deploy and doesn’t require procurement.

Of course, the “best” tool also depends on your specific needs:

• If you must have on-site surveys and a one-stop-shop for all UX research, and budget is available, Hotjar could be your best fit.
  
  
• If you run a lot of A/B tests or need long-term heatmap tracking, Crazy Egg might edge out in that niche.
  
  
• If you require enterprise-level analytics, team collaboration, and support, a higher-end solution might be considered.
  
  

But for the majority in 2025 who ask “What is the best heatmap tool I can use on my website?”, we find ourselves recommending Microsoft Clarity more often than not. Its development is ongoing (being improved by Microsoft regularly), and the community around it is growing.

Actionable Insights for Marketers and Site Owners

Using any heatmap tool effectively means not just collecting data, but acting on it. Here are some actionable insights and tips as you leverage Microsoft Clarity (or any similar tool) on your website:

1. Identify UX Issues: Pay attention to rage clicks and quick back navigations in session replays – these often highlight frustration points. For instance, if several users from a recording segment keep clicking an image expecting it to enlarge or link somewhere, consider making that image clickable or clarifying it. If users try to scroll within a map or a static frame (indicated by repeated attempts), maybe the design is misleading. Small fixes gleaned from these observations can dramatically improve user satisfaction.
   
   
2. Optimize Content Placement: Use scroll heatmaps to determine how far down your pages people typically get. If important content or calls-to-action are placed lower than the average fold for most users, they may never be seen. Consider moving key elements (sign-up forms, purchase buttons, contact links) higher on pages where Clarity shows a significant drop-off in scrolling. Additionally, if a large portion of users are reaching the bottom of your content wanting more, that’s a good sign to perhaps extend the page or provide a next step (like a footer CTA or recommended content).
   
   
3. Compare New vs Returning Visitors: Another segmentation strategy is to look at behavior differences between new visitors and returning visitors. New visitors might be more likely to flounder or click navigation elements, while returning users might go straight to specific pages (like login or account areas). Tailoring the experience (perhaps through personalized content or simply by optimizing navigation menus) can help each group. Clarity can filter by this attribute easily.
   
   
4. Test Changes and Monitor: When you make a change based on what you saw in a heatmap or recording, use the tool to verify the impact. For example, if you moved a button higher on the page, check subsequent heatmaps to see if its click rate increased. Or if you fixed a broken link that users were rage-clicking, see if those rage clicks disappear from future session recordings. This creates a feedback loop where the tool isn’t just diagnosing issues, but also confirming your solutions are working.
   
   
5. Educate Your Team: Share interesting recordings or heatmap snapshots with your team. Sometimes seeing actual user behavior can be eye-opening for stakeholders (it’s often said that “watching one user struggle on your site for 2 minutes can be more persuasive than any amount of static analytics data”). Microsoft Clarity, even without built-in collaboration, allows you to favorite and share session links. Use these in team meetings to advocate for changes or to illustrate user pain points. It helps build a user-centric mindset in your organization.
   
   

By following these practices, you can turn the information from Clarity or any heatmap tool into tangible improvements on your website. The goal is to create a smoother, more engaging experience that ultimately drives better results – whether that’s higher sales, more sign-ups, or greater content engagement.

Ready to take your website to the next level using insights from heatmaps and user session analysis? If you’d like expert assistance in setting up Microsoft Clarity, interpreting the data, or integrating findings into your marketing strategy, contact Canvas Marketing Solutions today. We’re here to help you harness these tools to drive real results for your business.

Conclusion

In the quest for the best heatmap for website 2025, Microsoft Clarity stands out as an outstanding choice. Its combination of robust features and a zero price tag is hard to beat. Clarity empowers anyone – from a solo website owner to a marketing team at a mid-size company – to peek into the behavior of their audience and make informed improvements. By comparing it with other major tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg, we’ve seen that while each platform has its merits, Clarity covers the core needs exceptionally well and introduces powerful segmentation abilities that give marketers a new level of insight (like filtering by traffic channel).

Ultimately, the “best” tool is one that meets your specific requirements and fits your budget. For many in 2025, Microsoft Clarity will be that tool. It democratizes access to user behavior analytics. If you have a website and haven’t yet tried a heatmap or session recording solution, Clarity is a logical first step. And if you have been paying for a tool but find yourself only using basic heatmaps and replays, switching to Clarity could free up resources in your budget without sacrificing insight.

As Patrick McKenna Walsh at Canvas Marketing Solutions, I always emphasize to our clients the importance of understanding your customers. Tools like Clarity are not just about fancy visuals – they are about listening to your users’ actions. Every click, scroll, or hesitation is telling you a story about what works and what doesn’t on your site. By choosing the right tool and using it wisely, you can continually refine your website to better serve your visitors and achieve your business goals.

Need help getting started with Microsoft Clarity or optimizing your website based on user behavior data? Contact Canvas Marketing Solutions to see how we can assist. We’re passionate about turning data into actionable strategies and would love to help you make the most of the best heatmap tool of 2025. Let’s transform your website’s user experience together, one heatmap at a time.