Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar for Shopify: Is Free Enough?
Hotjar is now Contentsquare, and both tools have a free plan. For most Shopify stores the free camera is plenty. You pay when you need the buyer to talk back.
You don't need to pay anyone to watch your buyers leave.
That's the short answer to the Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar question for a Shopify store. Clarity is free, with no traffic limits, and it records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day. Hotjar, the tool most founders remember, no longer takes new signups at all. It's now Contentsquare, and its free plan gives you 200,000 sessions a month but only 10,000 replays.
So here's my verdict. For most Shopify stores doing $10K to $100K a month, free is enough, and Clarity is the free tool to start with. Pay for Contentsquare when you need buyers to answer questions at volume, keep data longer than a month, or run a team around the findings.
Every feature, limit and price below comes from Microsoft's and Contentsquare's own pages, checked on October 3, 2026. These plans move. Check again before you pay.
Is Hotjar still Hotjar in 2026?
Not really. And most comparison posts haven't caught up.
Type hotjar.com into your browser and you land on a Contentsquare page that says "Hotjar is now Contentsquare." The same page says it's no longer possible to create a new account on Hotjar. Existing users can still log in. New users sign up on Contentsquare.
The old Hotjar free plan everyone quotes, 35 sessions a day, is gone for new accounts. The Contentsquare pricing page now lists a free Experience Analytics plan with 200,000 monthly sessions, 10,000 replays, heatmaps, funnels, error monitoring and basic surveys.
That changes the fight. This used to be free vs paid. Now it's two free plans with very different ceilings.
Clarity is the security camera. Hotjar's surveys are the microphone. Most stores need the camera first.
How do Microsoft Clarity and Hotjar compare side by side?
| Microsoft Clarity | Hotjar (now Contentsquare) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever, no paid tier | Free plan; Growth from $49/mo for 7,000 sessions |
| Traffic limit | "No traffic limits," no sampling | 200,000 monthly sessions on Free |
| Session recordings | Up to 100,000 sessions per project per day | 10,000 replays a month on Free; Growth caps at 20,000 between 25,000 and 120,000 sessions |
| Heatmaps | Yes, up to 100,000 page views per heatmap | Yes; zone-based heatmaps on Growth |
| Data kept | Recordings 30 days; favorites and a sample up to 9 months | Growth: 13 months of data, 2 months of replays |
| Surveys and feedback | None | Free: up to 100 responses a month; Voice of Customer Growth from $99/mo for 500 |
| AI | Copilot chat, session and heatmap summaries, free | Sense chat and AI summaries on Growth |
| Shopify install | Free first-party app, 4.6 stars from 2,295 reviews | Not checked for this post |
| Shopify checkout | Tracked on Shopify Plus only, through Shopify's Pixel | Not verified for this post |
| Billing | $0 | Monthly, no annual contract; 20% off when paid annually |
Clarity's numbers come from its FAQ, its Shopify setup guide and its App Store listing. Contentsquare's come from its pricing page.
What does Clarity actually show you on a Shopify store?
More than enough to find the leak.
Install the free Microsoft Clarity app by Microsoft, toggle the Clarity script on, and give it a few hours. You get click and scroll heatmaps, session recordings, and Clarity's flags for rage clicks (someone hammering the same spot) and dead clicks (a tap that does nothing). On a product page, those two flags are gold. A rage click on a swatch that won't load is a buyer telling you exactly where the page broke.
The AI layer is real too. Clarity's Copilot overview lists a chat you can question in plain English, summaries of single recordings and groups of recordings, and heatmap summaries across all three device types. That last one matters. Nobody watches 400 recordings. You'll read a summary of 40 and then watch the 5 it points to.
Now the honest caveats, because the "native checkout tracking" line you'll see in older posts is only half true:
- Checkout is a Shopify Plus feature. Microsoft's Shopify guide says checkout and post-checkout pages are tracked through Shopify's Pixel for Plus accounts. The FAQ says the Checkout Abandonment report is Plus only. The Purchases report works on any Shopify store.
- Recordings expire. 30 days, unless you favorite them. Favorite the good ones.
- No surveys. Clarity watches. It never asks.
That last gap is the whole case for paying.
When is Hotjar worth paying for?
When watching isn't enough and you need the buyer to talk.
Here's the thing. A recording shows a shopper scrolling to your price, pausing, then leaving. It can't tell you whether they left because of the price, the shipping time or a doubt about sizing. A one-question survey can. That's the microphone.
The free Contentsquare plan gives you 100 survey and feedback responses a month. For a store with 900 orders a month, that runs out fast if you ask every buyer a post-purchase question. Paid survey plans start at $99 a month for 500 responses.
The second reason is history. Contentsquare's Growth plan keeps 13 months of session data. Clarity keeps recordings for 30 days. If you want to compare this Black Friday's behavior to last Black Friday's, Clarity can't help you unless you saved the sessions.
The third is the team. If a designer, a copywriter and a media buyer all work from the same findings, the paid tooling around projects, zones and filters starts to earn its fee.
Here's the math on a store like this, a hypothetical. 60,000 sessions a month. On Contentsquare Free, that's 10,000 replays, so 1 session in 6 is watchable. Growth at 60,000 sessions lists at $279 a month and still caps replays at 20,000. Clarity records all 60,000 for $0.
Clarity limit is 100,000 sessions per project per day; it notes recordings may not be available for every session. Contentsquare figures from its pricing page, Oct 3, 2026.
Pay for the microphone when you have a question worth asking. Never pay for a bigger camera you aren't watching.
Is a free heatmap tool enough to grow revenue per visitor?
The tool is enough. The watching usually isn't.
I'll be blunt about the pattern I see in profit audits. A founder installs a session recording tool, watches 20 sessions, feels productive, and changes nothing. Six months later the heatmap is still showing the same cold spot under the fold.
Clarity and Hotjar both find leaks. Neither one fixes the page.
And here's the math on why that matters. Take a hypothetical magnesium sleep gummy store with those 60,000 sessions. Conversion rate 1.5%, average order value $68. That means revenue per visitor is $1.02. That's 900 orders and $61,200 a month.
Say Clarity's rage clicks show buyers stabbing at a "Which dose is right for me?" link that goes nowhere. You fix it, answer the question on the page, and conversion moves to 1.7% at the same $68. That's 1,020 orders, $69,360 a month, and $1.16 per visitor. $8,160 more a month, found by a free tool.
Now look at what a full rebuild does. Real client numbers, not typical results, and not a promise of what your store will do: our Adjustable Pillows page went from a 1.0% conversion rate at a $125 average order value, $1.25 revenue per visitor, to 4.4% at $152, or $6.68 per visitor. On 10,000 visitors that's $12,500 against $66,800. The full before and after numbers are on our results page.
The heatmap didn't do that. The page did. This is why I judge every change on revenue per visitor instead of conversion rate. A recording can tell you where buyers stall. Only a better page gets them to buy more, at a bigger order.
A heatmap is a diagnosis. Revenue only moves when someone rewrites the page.
Which one should you pick in the Microsoft Clarity vs Hotjar decision?
Answer three questions.
- Are you on Shopify Plus? If yes, Clarity sees your checkout for free. If no, both tools see your storefront, and Clarity still costs $0.
- Do you need buyers to answer questions? More than 100 responses a month means paying Contentsquare, or running a post-purchase survey somewhere else.
- Do you need more than 30 days of history? If you compare seasons or report to a team, Contentsquare Growth earns its fee.
Three no's? Install Clarity today and stop shopping.
Then put what you see to work. If recordings show buyers skimming past a spec list, read why clarity beats features on a product page (a different kind of clarity, same lesson). If they bounce before the fold, start with why your Shopify product page isn't converting. When you have a fix worth proving, test it with the store owner's guide to ecommerce A/B testing and how to A/B test a Shopify product page, or pick a tool from the best Shopify AB testing apps.
What to do next
Install Clarity on your best-selling product page today. In 7 days, open the mobile heatmap and the rage click filter, and write down the single spot where buyers stall. That one sentence is worth more than any paid plan.
Book Your Profit Audit
Clarity will show you where buyers stall, for free. Book a profit audit and Ishan Soni's team at RevenueFlows AI will show you what that stall costs in revenue per visitor, then how to rebuild a high-converting product sales page in less than 15 minutes.
Or go here to check it out → revenueflows.ai
P.S. The camera is free. The microphone costs extra. Neither one rewrites the page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Clarity better than Hotjar for Shopify?
For most Shopify stores, yes. Clarity is free with no traffic limits, records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day and installs from the Shopify App Store. Hotjar, now Contentsquare, wins when you need surveys, longer data history or team workflows.
Is Hotjar still free in 2026?
Hotjar no longer takes new signups. New users sign up on Contentsquare, whose free plan includes 200,000 monthly sessions, 10,000 replays, heatmaps, funnels and up to 100 survey and feedback responses a month.
Does Microsoft Clarity track the Shopify checkout?
Only on Shopify Plus. Microsoft's docs say checkout and post-checkout pages are tracked through Shopify's Pixel for Plus accounts, and the Checkout Abandonment report is Plus only. The Purchases report works on any Shopify store.
How long does Clarity keep session recordings?
30 days from the time of recording. Recordings you mark as favorites, plus a random sample, are kept for up to 9 months, so favorite the sessions you want to show your team later.
What is the best free Hotjar alternative for a Shopify store?
Microsoft Clarity is the obvious one. It covers heatmaps, session recordings, rage and dead click detection and AI summaries at $0, with a free first-party Shopify app. It has no on-site surveys, so pair it with a simple post-purchase question if you need the why.