Microsoft Clarity vs Open Web Analytics comparison

Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.

Which platform fits your needs?

Choose Microsoft Clarity if

Website owners, marketers, and product teams that need free session replay and heatmaps

Capabilities only listed for Microsoft Clarity

GDPR compliant CCPA compliant Free plan App analytics Audience insights Session recordings AI insights Cross-device tracking

Important considerations: Clarity is vendor-hosted and uses cookies. Teams must review consent and data policies; it emphasizes qualitative behavior analysis rather than replacing a complete first-party analytics stack.

Choose Open Web Analytics if

Tech-savvy users who want a free, self-hosted analytics solution

Capabilities only listed for Open Web Analytics

Self-hosted Open source E-commerce tracking Revenue tracking Data ownership Custom reports Retention analytics

Important considerations: Community-maintained software requires self-hosting and technical upkeep; official product documentation and release communication are less active than major alternatives.

Shared capabilities

Real-time data Event tracking Behavior analytics User segments Heatmaps Goals Data export Integrations

Attribute	Microsoft Clarity	Open Web Analytics
Overview	Microsoft's free behavior analytics service for websites and mobile apps, with always-on session recordings, click and scroll heatmaps, smart events, frustration signals, and Copilot-powered summaries.	A GPL-licensed, self-hosted web analytics framework with pageview and event tracking, conversion goals, funnels, segmentation, click heatmaps, visitor paths, and WordPress support.
Pricing	Free forever with no traffic limits; unlimited heatmaps, websites, and team members are included	Free, open source
Deployment	Vendor-hosted cloud	Self-hosted
Best for	Website owners, marketers, and product teams that need free session replay and heatmaps	Tech-savvy users who want a free, self-hosted analytics solution
Operator	Microsoft Corporation Independent public company	Open Web Analytics project Independent project
Company base	Redmond, United States · United States	Distributed organization
Organization scale	228,000 employees · operator, as of 30 Jun 2025	No comparable official organization-size figure was publicly disclosed.
Recent direction	marketing attribution Recent official evidence shows a focus on marketing attribution.	operational reliability Recent official evidence shows a focus on operational reliability.
Key features	Always-on session recordings Click, scroll, area, and conversion heatmaps Rage-click and dead-click insights Smart events Session and heatmap summaries Web and mobile app capture Google Analytics integration 40+ filters	Self-hosted GPL software Pageview and event tracking Conversion goals and funnels Visitor segmentation Click heatmaps Visitor paths Ecommerce tracking WordPress integration
Important considerations	Clarity is vendor-hosted and uses cookies. Teams must review consent and data policies; it emphasizes qualitative behavior analysis rather than replacing a complete first-party analytics stack.	Community-maintained software requires self-hosting and technical upkeep; official product documentation and release communication are less active than major alternatives.
Integrations	Google Analytics, Google Ads, WordPress, Shopify	WordPress
Fact check	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08.	We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08.

Capability matrix

This matrix shows capabilities recorded in our catalog. Not listed means we have not confirmed the capability here. Check the linked vendor sources for plan, deployment, and usage limits.

Attribute	Microsoft Clarity	Open Web Analytics
AI insights	Listed	Not listed
App analytics	Listed	Not listed
Audience insights	Listed	Not listed
Behavior analytics	Listed	Listed
CCPA compliant	Listed	Not listed
Cross-device tracking	Listed	Not listed
Custom reports	Not listed	Listed
Data export	Listed	Listed
Data ownership	Not listed	Listed
E-commerce tracking	Not listed	Listed
Event tracking	Listed	Listed
Free plan	Listed	Not listed
GDPR compliant	Listed	Not listed
Goals	Listed	Listed
Heatmaps	Listed	Listed
Integrations	Listed	Listed
Open source	Not listed	Listed
Real-time data	Listed	Listed
Retention analytics	Not listed	Listed
Revenue tracking	Not listed	Listed
Self-hosted	Not listed	Listed
Session recordings	Listed	Not listed
User segments	Listed	Listed

Full details: Microsoft Clarity Full details: Open Web Analytics