Free alternatives to Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is free forever with no traffic cap, which is hard to beat on price. People leave it for what it costs in other ways. Recordings are kept only 30 days (as of July 2026), it uses cookies so your consent banner stays, and your visitors' behavior goes to Microsoft with no option to self-host the backend. If retention, ownership, or privacy is the sticking point, these replay and heatmap tools are the ones to weigh.
Facts checked as of July 2026Read our Microsoft Clarity review
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PostHog
Best Free Alternative ToMicrosoft ClarityFree session replay tied to real product analytics, with data you can export and query, not hand to Microsoft
PostHog is the strongest move off Clarity when you want replay you actually control. You get 5,000 web session replays a month free, plus heatmaps that do not count against your bill, and every recording sits next to funnels, retention, and feature flags. Unlike Clarity, you can export and query your own data with SQL rather than sending it to Microsoft. The catch is that the free replay is capped where Clarity's is unlimited.
- Free plan (as of July 2026)
- United States
- Open source (MIT (with a proprietary ee/ directory))
United States- Best for:
- Product teams who want replay attached to analytics and owned data
- The catch:
- Free replay stops at 5,000 web recordings a month against Clarity's unlimited, it uses cookies too, and it is a much heavier tool to learn.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: Replay tied to funnels, retention, and feature flags
- Advantage: Export and query your own data, not locked inside Microsoft
- Advantage: Heatmap data is explicitly excluded from billing
- Tradeoff: 5,000 free replays a month, where Clarity is unlimited
- Tradeoff: Much heavier to set up and learn than Clarity
- Tradeoff: Uses cookies as well, so the consent banner stays
The original replay, heatmap, and survey product with 13-month data access, far past Clarity's 30 days
Hotjar is the tool Clarity was built to undercut, and it is still more complete on surveys and feedback. Its Growth tiers keep 13 months of data, against Clarity's 30-day recording window, which is the single clearest reason to pay. The free tier now allows 10,000 session replays a month on one project. Note that Hotjar is part of Contentsquare now, so pricing and product names have shifted from the Basic and Plus plans people remember.
- Free plan, paid from $49/month (as of July 2026)
- Malta
Malta- Best for:
- CRO teams who need surveys, feedback, and long data retention with support
- The catch:
- The free tier caps at 10,000 replays, the paid Growth ladder climbs from $49 to $739 per month, and there is still no self-hosting.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: 13-month data access on Growth, versus Clarity's 30-day recordings
- Advantage: More mature surveys and feedback widgets than Clarity
- Advantage: Established CRO tooling with real support behind it
- Tradeoff: Free tier caps at 10,000 replays, where Clarity is unlimited
- Tradeoff: Paid ladder from $49 to $739 per month, while Clarity is free
- Tradeoff: Also third-party hosted and cookie-based, with no self-host option
Session recordings and heatmaps on your own server, so the behavior data never leaves the building
Matomo is the answer when the real problem with Clarity is that the data goes to Microsoft. The self-hosted On-Premise edition can do session recordings and heatmaps alongside full web analytics, all on infrastructure you control, with retention you decide rather than a fixed 30 days. For public sector, healthcare, and EU teams, that ownership is the whole point. The trade is that these behaviour features are premium plugins and you run the server.
- From €29/month (as of July 2026)
- New Zealand
- Open source (GPL-3.0)
New Zealand- Best for:
- Regulated teams that cannot send recordings to a third party at all
- The catch:
- Recording and heatmap plugins are paid on the self-hosted edition, you administer a PHP and MySQL server, and Matomo Cloud has no free tier.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: Recordings and heatmaps stay on infrastructure you control
- Advantage: Retention is yours to set, not fixed at 30 days
- Advantage: Full web analytics included, which Clarity does not do
- Tradeoff: Replay and heatmaps are paid plugins on self-hosted Matomo
- Tradeoff: You run and maintain a server, where Clarity is hosted and free
- Tradeoff: Setup is far more involved than dropping in Clarity's script
Cookieless analytics with light replay and heatmaps, so one free tool covers traffic and behavior
Umami added session replay in version 3.1 and heatmaps in 3.2, which makes it a one-tool option for small sites that also wanted their traffic numbers. It is cookieless, so unlike Clarity it does not bring back your consent banner, and it has a free hosted plan plus a free MIT self-host. The replay is thinner than Clarity's, so this suits sites that want a light behaviour picture attached to real analytics, not a dedicated replay tool.
- Free plan (as of July 2026)
- United States
- Open source (MIT)
- Best for:
- Small sites that want analytics and light behaviour data in one cookieless tool
- The catch:
- The replay and heatmap features are recent and much thinner than Clarity's, and Umami does not publish its Cloud limits.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: Cookieless, so it does not require Clarity's consent banner
- Advantage: Bundles real traffic analytics with the behaviour view
- Advantage: Free hosted plan plus a free MIT self-host you control
- Tradeoff: Replay and heatmaps are far thinner than Clarity's
- Tradeoff: Cloud replay allowances are unpublished
- Tradeoff: Not a dedicated behaviour tool, so less depth on recordings
Free funnel and drop-off reporting at any volume, the numbers half people run next to Clarity
GA4 does not record sessions or draw heatmaps, so it does not replace what Clarity does. It earns a spot because most teams run Clarity next to their analytics, and if that analytics was the thing you actually wanted, GA4 gives you funnels and drop-off at any traffic level for free. Pair it with a replay tool, or use it to decide which pages are worth recording in the first place.
- Free plan (as of July 2026)
- United States
- Best for:
- Teams who used Clarity for funnels and drop-off more than for recordings
- The catch:
- It has no session recordings or heatmaps at all, it uses cookies, and explorations sample above 10 million events per query with 14-month retention.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: Free funnel and drop-off analysis at any traffic volume
- Advantage: Google Ads and Search Console integration Clarity lacks
- Worth knowing: Pairs naturally with a replay tool
- Tradeoff: No session recordings or heatmaps whatsoever
- Tradeoff: Uses cookies and needs GDPR handling, like Clarity
- Tradeoff: Explorations sample above 10M events per query and retention caps at 14 months
Cookieless and EU-hosted, so it removes the consent banner Clarity keeps, if privacy was your reason
Plausible is here for one specific reason to leave Clarity: privacy. Clarity uses cookies and sends behaviour to Microsoft. Plausible sets no cookies, keeps data in the EU, and collects only aggregate numbers, so it removes the banner Clarity brings back. It does not record sessions or draw heatmaps, so it is not a like-for-like swap. Free means self-hosting the AGPL edition, since Plausible Cloud is a paid product.
- From $9/month (as of July 2026)
- Estonia
- Open source (AGPL-3.0)
Estonia- Best for:
- Privacy-driven teams who left Clarity over cookies and the Microsoft data flow
- The catch:
- It has no session replay or heatmaps at all, and Plausible Cloud has no free tier, just a 30-day trial and then $9 per month.
Compared to Microsoft Clarity
- Advantage: Cookieless and EU-hosted, removing the banner Clarity keeps
- Advantage: Aggregate-only data, so no behaviour handed to a third party
- Advantage: Sub-1 KB script with a clean single-page dashboard
- Tradeoff: No session replay or heatmaps, so it does not do Clarity's job
- Tradeoff: No free cloud, unlike Clarity which is free forever
- Tradeoff: Self-hosting needs both PostgreSQL and ClickHouse
How to choose
For most teams that want replay they can control, PostHog's free tier gives you 5,000 recordings a month tied to real product analytics, with data you can export and query. If you want the original heatmap-and-survey product with proper support, Hotjar is it, though the free tier caps at 10,000 replays and the paid ladder climbs fast. If the recordings genuinely cannot leave your servers, self-host Matomo. Clarity is still the right pick if unlimited free recording matters more than keeping the data.