Heatmap and session recording tools show where visitors click, how far they scroll and what they did before leaving, so you can see why a page doesn’t convert instead of guessing. Microsoft Clarity is the obvious starting point because it’s free with no traffic limit, though since October 2025 it needs a consent signal for visitors in Europe and the UK. Hotjar, now part of Contentsquare, adds surveys and feedback alongside recordings, with legacy paid plans from $32 a month.
Beyond those two, the right tool depends on who’s watching the recordings. Marketers optimising landing pages lean towards Mouseflow, Crazy Egg or Plerdy. Product and engineering teams get more from PostHog, LogRocket or FullStory, which tie recordings to analytics and errors. Mobile apps need an app-specific tool like UXCam, and banks and insurers can look at Glassbox. Smartlook is being retired by Cisco, so avoid it for new projects.
TL;DR: Where to Start
| If you want | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recordings and heatmaps for free | Microsoft Clarity | No traffic cap, no paid tier |
| To ask visitors why they left | Hotjar | Surveys and feedback alongside replays |
| Funnels and form drop-off on a budget | Mouseflow | Friction Score and form analytics from €25 a month |
| Replays tied to product analytics | PostHog | 5,000 free recordings, then pay per recording |
| To watch what broke for a user | LogRocket | Replays with console logs and errors |
Heatmap and Session Recording Tools Compared
| Tool | Heatmap types | Free allowance | Paid from (USD) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Click, scroll, area | Unlimited | Free | Any site starting out |
| Hotjar (Contentsquare) | Click, move, scroll | 35 sessions a day (legacy Basic) | $32/month (Plus) | Recordings plus surveys and feedback |
| Mouseflow | Six types, incl. attention and geo | 500 sessions a month, 1 month retention | €25/month billed yearly | Funnels, forms and friction scoring |
| Crazy Egg | Click, scroll, confetti | Limited free plan | $29/month billed yearly | Heatmaps and A/B tests for marketers |
| Lucky Orange | Dynamic heatmaps | Unclear, check vendor | $32/month billed yearly | Small ecommerce stores, live chat |
| PostHog | Click, rage click, scroll depth | 5,000 web recordings a month | About $0.005 per extra recording | Product teams wanting analytics too |
| FullStory | Click, scroll | Free plan with limits | $199/month billed yearly | Large sites, digital experience teams |
| LogRocket | Click, scroll | 1,000 sessions a month, 1 month retention | $69/month (Team) | Developers debugging front-end errors |
| Amplitude | Click, scroll | 10,000 replays a month | Usage-based | Teams already on Amplitude analytics |
| Plerdy | Click, scroll, hover | 500 recordings, 1 month storage | $21/month billed yearly | Small businesses wanting CRO, pop-ups and SEO checks |
| Inspectlet | Click, scroll, eye-tracking | 5,000 replays a month, 3 sites | $39/month (Micro) | Freelancers and agencies with several sites |
| Zoho PageSense | Click, scroll, attention | 5,000 visitors a month, 1 month retention | Check vendor | Small businesses already on Zoho |
| UXCam | Mobile app heatmaps | None published | Quote | Mobile app teams |
| Glassbox | Interaction heatmaps | None | Quote | Banks, insurers and regulated industries |
| Contentsquare | Zone-based (revenue per area) | None | Quote | Large ecommerce and enterprise sites |
Pricing and features as of November 2026, in US dollars unless stated, before tax. Plans in this category change often, and Hotjar’s are changing as it merges into Contentsquare, so check each pricing page before buying.
What 10,000 Recordings a Month Costs
The headline price matters less than what a realistic volume costs. Here’s what a site recording 10,000 sessions a month would pay on each tool that publishes enough detail to work it out:
| Tool | Monthly cost for about 10,000 recordings | How |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | $0 | No cap |
| Amplitude | $0 | Within the 10,000 free replays |
| PostHog | About $25 | 5,000 free, then about 5,000 × $0.005 |
| Inspectlet | $39 | Micro plan, 10,000 replays |
| Plerdy | $42 | Scale plan billed yearly, 10,000 recordings |
| LogRocket | About $69 | Team plan, 10,000 sessions (sources vary) |
Hotjar, Mouseflow and Crazy Egg count sessions, pageviews or daily limits differently, so compare them on their own pricing pages at your traffic level.
How We Compared These Tools
We used vendor pricing pages, our software profiles, and independent price trackers to compare free recording limits, what happens when you hit them, heatmap types, extras like surveys, funnels, and error logs, and EU and UK consent requirements.
The Heatmap Tools and Session Replay Software in Detail
Microsoft Clarity: Best Free Heatmap Tool
Clarity records sessions and builds click, scroll and area heatmaps at no cost, with no traffic limit, and flags rage clicks, dead clicks and quick backs. Its Copilot feature summarises sessions in plain language. The catch is Europe: since 31 October 2025, visitors from the EEA, UK and Switzerland need a consent signal, or each page view counts as a separate session and funnels break.
Hotjar (Contentsquare): Best for Recordings Plus Surveys
Hotjar pairs heatmaps and recordings with on-site surveys and feedback widgets, so you can see what visitors did and ask them why. Its pricing page now redirects to Contentsquare, where plans are being renamed as accounts migrate. Legacy Observe plans start at $32 a month for 100 daily sessions, and Contentsquare’s Growth plan is reported from about $49. Surveys are priced separately.
Mouseflow: Best for Funnels and Form Analytics
Mouseflow’s Friction Score rates each session by rage clicks, dead clicks, errors and U-turns, so you watch the worst recordings first. It adds six heatmap types, conversion funnels, form analytics and feedback surveys triggered by friction or exit intent. Essential costs €25 a month billed yearly (€39 monthly) for 5,000 sessions. See our Mouseflow profile.
Crazy Egg: Best for Heatmaps and A/B Testing
Crazy Egg is built for landing-page work: click, scroll and confetti heatmaps, with A/B testing from Plus. Recordings are tight, at 50 a month on Starter, and billing is annual only; tracking pauses at the cap instead of charging overages. Starter costs $29 a month billed yearly, Plus $99 and Pro $249.
Lucky Orange: Best for Small Ecommerce Stores
Lucky Orange bundles dynamic heatmaps, recordings, funnels, surveys and live chat, with every feature on every paid plan. Build costs $32 a month billed yearly for up to 3,500 sessions. Sources disagree on whether a free plan still exists.
PostHog: Best for Product Teams
PostHog connects session replay to product analytics, feature flags, experiments and surveys, so a team can jump from a funnel drop-off to the recordings behind it. It includes 5,000 web and 2,500 mobile recordings free each month, then charges from $0.005 per recording, falling at volume. Setup is more technical than Clarity.
FullStory: Best for Large Websites
FullStory lets digital experience teams search and segment sessions at scale, with AI summaries on higher plans. Business is published from $199 a month billed yearly, while enterprise deployments are reported at $50,000 to $150,000 a year. Mobile capture is quoted separately.
LogRocket: Best for Developers Debugging Errors
LogRocket pairs replays with console logs, network requests and JavaScript errors, so an engineer sees exactly what a user saw when something broke. The free plan covers 1,000 sessions a month; Team is quoted from $69 for 10,000, though figures vary by billing term.
Amplitude: Best for Teams Already on Amplitude
Amplitude’s free plan includes 10,000 session replays a month alongside 2 million analytics events. If your funnels and retention reports already live in Amplitude, adding replay there avoids a second tool.
More Heatmap Tools for Small Businesses
Plerdy: Best Budget All-in-One
Plerdy bundles heatmaps and recordings with pop-up forms, A/B testing and an on-page SEO checker, which saves a small business paying for three tools. Startup costs $21 a month billed yearly for 5,000 recordings, and the free plan includes 500.
Inspectlet: Best Free Plan for Several Sites
Inspectlet’s free plan records 5,000 sessions a month across three websites, generous enough for freelancers and small agencies. It adds eye-tracking heatmaps, form analytics and error logs, and pauses recording at the limit rather than charging overages. Micro costs $39 a month.
Zoho PageSense: Best for Zoho Users
PageSense bundles heatmaps, recordings, funnels, form analytics, A/B testing and pop-ups, and connects to Zoho CRM. Forever Free covers 5,000 tracked visitors a month on one project; paid plans scale to 1 million visitors, priced in several currencies on the PageSense pricing page.
Heatmap and Session Replay Tools for Specific Industries
UXCam: Best for Mobile Apps
UXCam records native iOS, Android and Flutter apps, with app heatmaps, frustration signals, crash tracking and UI freeze detection. It doesn’t publish prices; Vendr contract data puts the median at about $21,000 a year. PostHog and LogRocket are cheaper starting points for apps.
Glassbox: Best for Banks and Regulated Industries
Glassbox is built for compliance-heavy environments. It captures sessions without manual tagging, lets support agents co-browse with customers, and flags irregular activity for review. Pricing is by quote; review its Trust Center documentation before a pilot.
Contentsquare: Best for Large Ecommerce Sites
Contentsquare, Hotjar’s parent, sells an enterprise platform whose zone-based heatmaps show revenue and engagement for each area of a page, plus journey analysis and AI insights. It’s priced by quote for retailers with large traffic and a dedicated analytics team.
A Note on Smartlook
Cisco announced Smartlook’s end of life on 31 March 2026. New sales ended on 31 May 2026, renewals closed on 31 August 2026, and support ends on 31 August 2027. Existing users should plan a move now.
Which Heatmap Tool Fits Your Industry?
| Business type | First pick | Also consider |
|---|---|---|
| Small business or local service | Microsoft Clarity | Plerdy, Zoho PageSense |
| Ecommerce store | Lucky Orange | Mouseflow, Contentsquare at scale |
| SaaS product | PostHog | Amplitude, FullStory |
| Mobile app | UXCam | PostHog, LogRocket |
| Bank, insurer or fintech | Glassbox | FullStory |
| Agency managing client sites | Inspectlet | Mouseflow |
| Content publisher or blog | Microsoft Clarity | Crazy Egg |
Head-to-Head Heatmap Tools Comparisons
Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar
| Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | From $32/month |
| Traffic limit | None | Daily session limits by plan |
| Surveys and feedback | No | Yes, priced separately |
| EU consent | Consent signal required since October 2025 | Consent setup required |
| Pick it if | You want recordings and heatmaps at no cost | You also want to ask visitors why |
Most small sites should start with Clarity and add Hotjar only when they need on-site surveys.
Mouseflow vs Crazy Egg
| Mouseflow | Crazy Egg | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €25/month billed yearly | $29/month billed yearly |
| Recordings on entry plan | 5,000 sessions | 50 recordings |
| Funnels and form analytics | Yes | No |
| Billing | Monthly or yearly | Yearly only |
| Pick it if | You want to find where visitors struggle | You want heatmaps and page tests |
PostHog vs FullStory
| PostHog | FullStory | |
|---|---|---|
| Free allowance | 5,000 web recordings a month | Free plan with limits |
| Pricing model | Per recording | Annual plans from $199/month |
| Also includes | Product analytics, flags, experiments | Search, segmentation, AI summaries |
| Pick it if | You’re a product or engineering team | You’re a large site with a dedicated DX team |
Getting Useful Answers From Recordings
Heatmaps show behaviour, not reasons: a cluster of clicks on an image could mean interest or confusion. Watch recordings around one question at a time, such as “why do mobile users leave the pricing page?”, and pair them with a short survey before redesigning. For traffic numbers without cookies, see our guide to Google Analytics alternatives without a cookie banner, and to see which companies visit, our website visitor identification tools roundup.
Privacy Checklist for Session Recording
- Get consent from EU and UK visitors before recording.
- Mask form fields, payment details and personal data.
- Exclude logged-in account pages unless you need them.
- Check where recordings are stored and for how long.
- Name the tool in your privacy policy.
