For most Shopify stores, Microsoft Clarity is the better starting point: it is free with no traffic limits, and it covers the two things you need most, heatmaps and session recordings. Pick Hotjar (now sold as Contentsquare) if you also want on-site surveys and longer data history, or if you are already paying for it. Many stores run Clarity first and only add a paid tool when they hit a specific gap.
One thing to know before you compare: Hotjar has merged into Contentsquare, and you can no longer create a new Hotjar account. Existing users log in to Contentsquare with the same credentials. So "Hotjar" in this article means the Contentsquare plans that replaced it.
We have not used either tool ourselves. What follows is drawn from vendor docs, pricing pages and public app store reviews, plus real tests from our database that started with heatmap or survey data.
Features: what each tool does for a store
Both tools record sessions and build click and scroll heatmaps. The differences are in what sits around those two core features.
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity's FAQ lists session recordings, heatmaps and machine-learning insights as its core features. It flags rage clicks (repeated clicks in one spot) and dead clicks (clicks that get no response), which are fast ways to find broken buttons and fake-looking links. It also supports funnels, and Copilot in Clarity can summarize heatmaps and answer questions about your dashboard. Microsoft notes that Copilot's takeaways shouldn't be treated as expert recommendations.
On Shopify, the official Microsoft Clarity: AI Insights app installs the script for you. It had a 4.6 out of 5 rating from 2,464 reviews when we checked. The FAQ warns that a theme change can remove the Clarity script, so check it after every redesign.
Hotjar (Contentsquare)
The Contentsquare free plan includes session replays, heatmaps, funnels, surveys and basic error monitoring. The paid Growth plan adds zone-based heatmaps, journey analysis and AI summaries. Surveys are the big feature Clarity's docs don't list, and they matter more than they look.
There is also a Contentsquare Analytics Shopify app that tracks the storefront and checkout. It launched in December 2025 and had no reviews yet when we checked, so there's little public feedback on how well it works on Shopify.
What the data turns into
Both tools only show you where to look. The value comes from the test you run afterward. Our database has several tests that started with heatmap data:
- Dave Diederen saw +6.23% conversion rate after changing the above-the-fold USPs to the points heatmaps showed buyers engaging with.
- Dave Diederen got +20% conversion rate by adding a countdown timer where heatmaps showed shoppers were focused on a collection page.
- Dave Diederen also turned a collection banner that drew attention into a clickable countdown timer, for +$161K in revenue.
- Peter Christensen saw +12.64% conversion rate after rearranging homepage sections based on scroll maps.
Click data works the same way. Dave Diederen moved the most-clicked category to the first homepage tab and saw +14.17% conversion rate. Any tool that shows clicks, free or paid, can surface a test like that.
@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen@DaveDiederen
@peterac_Why surveys matter
Heatmaps show what people do. Surveys show why. Some of the biggest wins in our database came from asking customers. Kasper Dolk added benefit bullets to the hero that answered survey objections, worth $763,679.14 extra profit per year. Oliver Kenyon added three survey-based reassurance lines above a collection grid and saw $44,890/month.
If you go with Clarity, you can still collect this data with a post-purchase survey app or email. Our customer research guide covers how.
Price (Clarity is free)
Clarity's FAQ says it is "a free service forever," with no traffic limits, no sampling and no paid tier to upgrade to. You can add unlimited projects and team members.
Hotjar's old free plan captured 35 sessions a day. The Contentsquare free plan that replaced it captures up to 200,000 sessions a month according to Contentsquare's Hotjar page. Paid plans, as of November 2026, per the Contentsquare pricing page:
| Plan | Price (as of November 2026) | Sessions | Data access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free | No traffic limits | Recordings 30 days (favorites and a random sample up to 9 months); heatmaps up to 9 months |
| Contentsquare Free | $0 | Up to 200k/month | 1 month |
| Contentsquare Growth | From $39/month billed annually, $49 monthly | 7k to 240k+/month, tiered | 13 months |
| Contentsquare Pro and Enterprise | Custom | 1M to unlimited | 13 months |
Surveys are priced separately under Voice of Customer: the free tier allows 100 responses a month across 3 surveys, and Growth starts at $79/month.
The real cost of Clarity is data history. With only 30 days of recordings by default, you can't go back and compare this Black Friday with last year's. If you need that, favorite the key recordings or pay for a tool with longer retention.
Privacy
This is where store owners selling into Europe need to slow down.
Clarity
- Consent is enforced in the EEA, UK and Switzerland. The Clarity FAQ says you must pass each visitor's consent status to Clarity. Without it, Clarity can't set cookies, sessions are fragmented page by page, and recordings and funnels are affected.
- Masking is on by default. Per the masking docs, the default "Balanced" mode masks numbers and email addresses, and input boxes and dropdowns are masked in every mode.
- Data goes to Microsoft. Data is stored in Azure, the FAQ says Clarity "operates as a data controller," and EU customers contract with Microsoft Ireland, with transfers to the US covered by standard contractual clauses.
On Shopify, consent apps such as CookieYes document how to send that signal through Clarity's Consent API.
Hotjar (Contentsquare)
- EU hosting by default. Contentsquare's privacy FAQ says Experience Analytics data for EU-based customers is hosted in Ireland by default.
- Automatic redaction. Its personal data docs describe automatic redaction of data types such as form field values and email addresses, on top of any masking you set.
- Shorter default retention of raw data. By default, IP addresses are deleted after 3 days and session replay data after 1 month.
Neither tool removes the need for a cookie banner in Europe. If most of your buyers are in the EU and your legal team is wary of US data transfers, Contentsquare's EU hosting is a real point in its favor. If you sell mainly in the US, the gap is small.
Verdict: which should your store use?
Choose Microsoft Clarity if you're a small or mid-size store, you want heatmaps and recordings at no cost, and your main goal is finding friction to test. That covers most Shopify stores.
Clarity is not for you if you need on-site surveys, more than 30 days of recordings, or EU-hosted data.
Choose Hotjar (Contentsquare) if you want surveys and recordings in one place, 13 months of history, or EU data hosting. The free plan's 200k monthly sessions is generous enough to try it properly.
Hotjar is not for you if you only need heatmaps and want to avoid a paid plan later. The free plan keeps just 1 month of data, and the new Shopify app has no public track record yet. Former Hotjar users should also expect some relearning, since the product now lives inside Contentsquare.
A third option: if you want heatmaps tied to revenue, Heatmap.com attributes revenue to page elements, starting at $199/month as of November 2026. That makes sense for larger stores, not for one just starting out. Our heatmap tools roundup and Hotjar alternatives list cover more options, including Lucky Orange and Crazy Egg.
Whatever you install, the tool is step one. Turn what you see into a hypothesis, run it in one of the A/B testing tools we compare, and check the tests database to see what has already worked for other stores.