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Mouseflow vs Microsoft Clarity is not only a paid vs free web analytics comparison. Microsoft Clarity is a strong free heatmap and session recording tool for finding rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll issues, and basic user behavior problems. Mouseflow goes deeper into funnels, form analytics, feedback surveys, journey analytics, and friction detection for teams that need more control. In this Microsoft Clarity vs Mouseflow comparison we look at features, real prices, reviews, data retention, privacy and data ownership, mobile app support, the Microsoft Clarity Live Extension, and where Plerdy can be a better fit for CRO, SEO, and ecommerce analysis. Every figure below was checked against the vendors' own documentation in 2026.
Choose Microsoft Clarity if you need a free web analytics tool with heatmaps, session recordings, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll maps, and basic funnel analysis. It is a good choice for small websites, early UX checks, and teams that want to review user behavior without a paid plan. Choose Mouseflow if you need deeper paid analytics: form analytics, surveys, customer journey analysis, advanced segmentation, friction detection, and longer data retention. Choose Plerdy if you want heatmaps, session recordings, SEO checks, pop-ups, A/B testing, ecommerce analytics, and conversion tracking in one platform.
One thing to settle before the details, because it decides the choice more often than any feature: Clarity keeps playback data for 30 days, and only labeled or favorited sessions, heatmaps and click data survive for 9 months. After that Microsoft deletes it from its servers and backups, and it cannot be recovered. Mouseflow keeps session data for 1 to 12 months depending on plan. If you need to look back at what users did last quarter, that single line matters more than any feature checkbox.
Heatmaps
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Pop-up Forms
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Feedback & NPS
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Session recording
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Conversion Funnels
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
SEO-checker
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Google Search Console integration
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Event / Goals Tracking
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Sales Performance
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
A/B Testing tool
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Macro conversion
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Other settings
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Pricing
Mouseflow
Microsoft Clarity
Plerdy
Mouseflow is rated 4.6 out of 5 on G2 from roughly 689 reviews, checked 2026. That is the largest review base of the three tools compared here, and reviewers consistently name form analytics and friction scoring as the reasons they pay for it rather than staying on a free tool.
I like seeing how visitors navigate and interact with my website. Based on the information I received from Mouseflow, I could identify and resolve issues quickly. I like the interface, and I like that it provides information that I can understand. I tried using Google Analytics in the past, but it needed to be clearer and more helpful.
Lisa G. Owner
The forms' function is unique. We're currently running a forms sprint, and it's been extremely useful in measuring our ongoing KPIs. Dropouts at each stage of interaction are also extremely useful.
Emma D. Senior User Experience Researcher
Mouseflow is incredibly stable and has conveyed to me a precise meaning of the instruments and the virtues of the monitoring processes, all of which help me enormously in my statistical analyses.
Hanna L. Head Of Solutions
Microsoft Clarity is rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from roughly 55 reviews, checked 2026. The small review count relative to its install base is worth noting: Clarity is used far more widely than it is reviewed, because most users never had a purchase decision to justify.
The user interface is initially perplexing, but it grows on you as time passes. What I like best about the service is the data it provides; I demonstrated it to my client and it works flawlessly. Plus, points for your help!
Michael Z. Quality Control Manager
Microsoft Clarity has assisted me in identifying key areas on the website where users click and where I can place CTAs. Their video recording feature is unrivaled. The user's location on the website is easily discernible.
Bhavik N. Marketing Manager
The best part is that you can connect clarity with analytics tools to investigate sessions and bounce rates and check user behavior on the website with an easy-to-use heatmap.
Saba N. Sr. SEO Executive
Mouseflow is a paid behavior analytics platform for teams that have moved past "let's see what people click" and need to explain why a funnel leaks. It is web-only — there is no native mobile app SDK — and it bills on recorded sessions rather than traffic. Here is what you actually get:
Beyond these four, Mouseflow adds friction detection that scores every session automatically from unhappy to happy, journey analytics that maps step-by-step paths and exit points, feedback surveys, and Mina AI for querying session data in plain language. Its heatmaps page lists six types — click, movement, scroll, attention, live and geo — with friction heatmaps sold as part of the paid Friction Insights add-on. None of that exists in Microsoft Clarity.
Microsoft Clarity is a free web analytics tool from Microsoft that helps teams understand how users interact with a website. It includes heatmaps, session recordings, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll maps, filters, AI summaries and chat, and funnels. Microsoft states it is "a free service forever" with no traffic limits, no sampling, no cap on projects, and up to 100,000 recorded sessions per project per day — limits generous enough that most sites will never reach them. It also ships mobile SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native, Cordova and Ionic, which Mouseflow does not offer at all. This makes Microsoft Clarity useful for quick UX checks, landing page reviews, native app analytics, and finding obvious behavior problems without paying for a monthly plan.
There are two real limitations, and neither is about features. The first is depth: Clarity has no form analytics, no feedback or survey tools, no journey mapping, and no SEO, pop-up, A/B testing or ecommerce revenue analysis. The second is that "free" describes the invoice, not the arrangement. Clarity is GDPR- and CCPA-compliant as a data controller, not as a processor working on your behalf — Microsoft determines the purposes of processing for its own account. Microsoft's own sample privacy-policy wording for site owners reads: "We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services." Microsoft states plainly that Clarity does not sell data, and for most marketing sites this is an acceptable trade. For a healthcare portal, a bank, or anything under an NDA, it is the reason to pay for a processor-model tool instead.
Microsoft Clarity Live Extension lets users view heatmaps and recent recordings directly on a live website where the Clarity tracking code is installed. It is useful when you want to check clicks, scroll depth, area maps, popups, dropdowns, and other interactive elements without opening a separate report first. For teams comparing Mouseflow vs Clarity, this is one of the strongest free features from Microsoft Clarity. Mouseflow's equivalent is its Live Heatmaps report, but it opens inside the Mouseflow dashboard rather than as an overlay on the live page — so for a quick check during a design review, the Clarity extension is genuinely faster.
Mouseflow and Microsoft Clarity both help teams understand user behavior, but the overlap is narrower than the marketing suggests. Clarity wins outright on four things: it is free with no traffic limits, it applies no sampling, it supports native mobile apps through SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native, Cordova and Ionic, and its Live Extension shows heatmaps directly on the page. For a solo founder, a blog, or an app team, that combination is hard to argue with.
Mouseflow wins on five things, and they are the ones that matter once a site earns money: form analytics down to field-level hesitation and abandonment, feedback surveys, journey mapping, automatic friction scoring across a wide set of events, and data retention measured in months rather than 30 days. It also lets you download recordings, which Clarity does not. The trade-off is that recording stops when you hit your monthly session cap, so on high-traffic sites bot filtering and IP exclusions stop being hygiene and become budget management.
The simple answer: Microsoft Clarity is better for free behavior analytics and for native apps. Mouseflow is better for deeper paid UX, form and funnel analysis, and for keeping your data longer under a processor relationship. Plerdy is better when the conversion problem is not only a UX problem — when you also need SEO checks, pop-ups, A/B testing, and ecommerce tracking in the same platform as the heatmaps and session recordings. Many teams also run Clarity and a paid tool side by side — Clarity for broad always-on coverage, the paid tool for the pages where revenue actually happens.
Microsoft Clarity pricing is the simplest in this category: there is no paid tier at all. Microsoft describes it as "a free service forever" with no traffic limits, no sampling, no cap on the number of projects, and up to 100,000 recorded sessions per project per day. There is no upgrade to buy and no trial to expire. The cost sits elsewhere — in the 30-day retention window and in Clarity operating as a data controller rather than a processor.
Mouseflow publishes every tier. Free is $0 for 500 sessions per month, one site, one funnel and one month of retention. Essential is $25 per month for 5,000 sessions and three months of retention. Advanced is $109 for 25,000 sessions, two sites, five funnels and six months. Premium is $319 for 100,000 sessions, five sites, ten funnels, twelve months of retention, API access and SSO. Enterprise is quoted on request. Annual billing saves up to 35%, unlimited team members are included on every plan, and the 14-day trial unlocks session replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics, feedback, journey analytics and friction detection with no credit card. Getting started takes one JavaScript snippet or a tag manager container, and recording begins as soon as traffic arrives.
Plerdy publishes everything too, and its free plan is permanent rather than a trial: 100 heatmaps, 500 video sessions, 5,000 SEO audits, 100 pop-ups and unlimited A/B testing. Paid plans run $32 per month for Startup, $64 for Scale, $108 for Thrive, and $149 to $390 across three Enterprise tiers, with roughly 35% off on annual billing — Scale drops to about $42. See current plans on the Plerdy pricing page. The arithmetic is the point: Mouseflow Advanced at $109 plus a separate SEO tool plus a testing tool clears $200 a month, while Plerdy's Scale plan covers all three jobs at $64.
One caveat on all of the above: the units are not directly comparable. Mouseflow counts recorded sessions against a monthly cap, Clarity counts nothing at all, and Plerdy sets separate quotas for heatmaps, sessions, SEO audits and pop-ups. There is no reliable public benchmark for how these models behave on an arbitrary site, and anyone quoting one is guessing. Install Clarity — it is free and takes five minutes — and run a paid trial over the same two weeks of your own traffic. Comparing what each dashboard actually captured is the only measurement that transfers.
Plerdy can be a better fit when a team does not want to use separate tools for heatmaps, session recordings, SEO checks, pop-ups, ecommerce analytics, and A/B testing. Microsoft Clarity is strong as a free behavior analytics tool. Mouseflow is strong for paid session replay, funnels, forms, and surveys. Plerdy is useful when CRO, SEO, and ecommerce analysis need to work together inside one platform.
Microsoft Clarity is better if you need a free web analytics tool with heatmaps, session recordings, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll maps, and basic funnel analysis. Mouseflow is better if your team needs deeper paid analytics, form analytics, feedback surveys, journey reports, and more advanced CRO workflows.
Yes. Microsoft describes Clarity as "a free service forever" with no traffic limits, no sampling, no cap on projects, and up to 100,000 recorded sessions per project per day. There is no paid tier to upgrade to. The trade-offs are not on the invoice: playback data is deleted after 30 days, and Clarity is GDPR- and CCPA-compliant as a data controller rather than as a processor acting on your behalf. Microsoft states that Clarity does not sell data.
Clarity retains playback data for 30 days. Labeled or favorited sessions, heatmap data and click data are kept for 9 months. After the retention period Microsoft deletes the data from its servers and backups, and it cannot be recovered. Mouseflow retention runs from one month on the free plan to three months on Essential, six on Advanced and twelve on Premium, with custom terms on Enterprise. If you need to compare this quarter against the same quarter last year, Clarity alone will not do it.
Yes, Microsoft Clarity supports funnels. It helps teams see how users move through key steps on a website, where they drop off, and how many sessions convert. Still, Mouseflow and Plerdy may be better options when a team needs more detailed conversion funnel analysis and CRO workflows.
Mouseflow can be stronger for advanced analytics because it includes form analytics, feedback surveys, journey analytics, friction detection, heatmaps, and session replay features for paid CRO work. Microsoft Clarity is stronger when a team wants a free and simple way to check user behavior on a website.
Microsoft Clarity does, through SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter, React Native, Cordova and Ionic, with sessions uploaded when the device reconnects. Mouseflow is web-only and has no native mobile app SDK. If you need session replay and heatmaps inside a native app rather than a mobile website, Clarity is the only one of the two that can do it — and it is free.
The main difference is depth and pricing. Microsoft Clarity is a free tool for heatmaps, session recordings, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll maps, and basic funnels. Mouseflow is a paid analytics platform with more advanced features such as form analytics, feedback surveys, friction detection, journey analysis, and deeper segmentation.
Mouseflow has a free plan at $0 for 500 sessions per month, one website, one funnel and one month of data retention. Paid plans are Essential at $25 per month for 5,000 sessions, Advanced at $109 for 25,000, Premium at $319 for 100,000 with API access and SSO, and Enterprise on request, with up to 35% off annual billing. The 14-day trial unlocks every feature with no credit card. Compared with Clarity, which is free at any volume, Mouseflow's free tier is a sampler rather than a working plan.
Installation is one JavaScript snippet or a tag manager container, and Mouseflow starts recording as soon as traffic arrives — no goals, funnels or hypotheses to configure first. The 14-day trial is full-feature with no credit card and includes session replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics, feedback, journey analytics and friction detection. After the trial you either drop to the free 500-session plan or pick a paid tier from $25 per month. Clarity needs the same one-snippet install but skips the trial question entirely, since there is nothing to buy.
Microsoft Clarity Live Extension lets users view click maps, scroll maps, area maps, and recent recordings directly on a live website where the Clarity tracking code is installed. It is useful for checking user interaction with buttons, popups, dropdowns, and other dynamic page elements.
Microsoft Clarity has an open-source behavioral analytics library, but the hosted Microsoft Clarity product is still a cloud-based analytics service from Microsoft. So it is more accurate to say that parts of Clarity are open source, not that every website owner can self-host the full Microsoft Clarity product as a complete replacement.
Microsoft states that Clarity is GDPR- and CCPA-compliant, but with an important qualifier: it is compliant **as a data controller**, not as a processor acting solely on your instructions. Most paid behavior analytics tools, Mouseflow included, operate under a processor model where you remain the controller. Microsoft's own sample privacy disclosure for site owners names Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising together as partners capturing behavioral metrics, heatmaps and session replay. Site owners still need a correct cookie banner, consent mode, data masking and privacy policy for visitors from the EEA, UK and Switzerland. For most marketing sites this is a fair trade; for regulated data it is the reason to choose a processor-model tool.
Microsoft Clarity is one of the best free Microsoft web analytics tools for behavior analysis. It helps teams review heatmaps, session recordings, rage clicks, dead clicks, scroll depth, and basic funnel data. For traffic attribution, revenue reporting, or deeper marketing analytics, it is often used together with GA4 or other analytics tools.
Yes, Plerdy can be an alternative to Mouseflow and Microsoft Clarity if a team needs more than heatmaps and session recordings. Plerdy combines website heatmaps, session recordings, SEO checks, pop-ups, A/B testing, ecommerce tracking, event tracking, and conversion analysis in one platform.
Plerdy allows you to see how users interact with your site, where they spend the most time on it, and what interests them the most. One of the best features is the heat map, which accurately represents which content draws attention from visitors based on their clicks or interactions within a browser window. Plerdy's session recordings and replay functions, which allow viewers to access live footage afterward, are another great tool for gaining insights into user behavior.
Our only regret was not taking advantage of the early lifetime deal on Appsumo in 2020. We frequently 'take a chance' on intriguing-looking tools and software, and while we liked the look and feel of Plerdy, we could see that it wasn't quite as mature as we would have liked. Oh, how we rue that now. Plerdy support has always been excellent, but the service enhancements and new features added over the last two years, as well as improvements in speed and security, have transformed this platform into a fantastic platform.