Why track session recordings?
Continuously improving your online presence is essential if you want to effectively grow traffic and conversion rate. Session recordings don't just help you see how visitors move around the site — these tools provide a real foundation for decisions.
- Identifying problems — Analysing interactions makes it easy to discover where visitors get stuck, so you can intervene quickly
- Data-driven decision-making — When Google Analytics shows a decline, recordings give a precise picture of which step needs improvement
- Cross-platform verification — Testing on different devices ensures the site works properly for every user
Hotjar vs. Microsoft Clarity — Which should you choose?
Both tools offer session recordings and heatmaps, but the differences are significant, especially at the free tier.
Hotjar free version
- Can only record user behaviour for limited periods and data volumes
- Fewer details are available beyond the basic features, making deeper analysis more difficult
- Advanced features (e.g. funnel analysis, form analytics) require a paid plan
Microsoft Clarity — Completely free
- Unlimited data collection — Website performance can be continuously tracked without restriction
- Detailed heatmaps — Click, scroll and movement heatmaps immediately reveal weak points
- Session recordings — You can replay how individual users navigated the site
- GA4 integration — Directly connectable to Google Analytics 4 for deeper analysis
- Simple installation — A few clicks, also available via Google Tag Manager
Unlimited recordings, heatmaps and AI-powered summaries — completely free, with no time limit.
Practical benefits of recordings in website development
- Fast debugging — After launching new features, bugs and usability issues become immediately visible
- Improving user experience — Detailed analysis of visitor behaviour improves navigation, which directly impacts conversion rate
- Fine-tuning marketing campaigns — Recordings show how visitors arriving from ads behave on the landing page
Getting started tip: Install Clarity via Google Tag Manager — this way you can update settings at any time without touching the website's code. You can create a project in 5 minutes at clarity.microsoft.com.
Summary
Microsoft Clarity is an effective, completely free tool that provides detailed insight into website user behaviour. With unlimited data collection, detailed analytics and easy integration, it's an ideal solution for anyone looking to optimise their website's performance — whether for SEO, Google Ads landing pages or general UX improvement.
If you need help with installation or interpreting the data, I'm happy to assist in a short consultation.