When it comes to understanding user behavior on your website, Microsoft Clarity stands out as a compelling choice. Unlike many premium analytics tools, Clarity offers a robust set of features—heatmaps, session recordings, and real-time insights—at no cost. Designed with performance, privacy, and usability in mind, it provides a seamless way to analyze user interactions without slowing down your site. While it may lack some advanced features found in paid competitors, its strengths make it an excellent option for businesses looking to enhance their website experience without the added expense.
Main features of Microsoft Clarity
User actions and conversion funnels can be analyzed to identify bottlenecks or interruptions. AI can be used to automatically generate relevant insights and recommendations, e.g. on angry clicks (multiple clicks due to frustration), dead clicks (clicks without a response) or JavaScript errors. Clear dashboards with key figures such as sessions, page views, origin of users, device types, etc.
Why is a mousetracking tool useful?
For me personally, it is also very important to have quantitative figures in order to work on optimizing a digital product. Regardless of whether it is B2B or B2C, it is always useful to see which pages are well visited, what the user flows look like and where an exit occurs. I've often heard the argument that mouse tracking tools are too expensive. And yes, of course, my favorite Contentsquare, which I've worked with for years, is really all-encompassing and not exactly cheap.
But now everyone has the ability to be data-driven because MS Clarity is free and can do a lot for you. Sure, it has weaknesses and isn't perfect, but you can learn so much about users - so I give it a clear recommendation.
I can say that it has been a long and hard road for me, data security as well as ISO and cloud applications have really frayed my nerves. But it was worth it, I'm closer to my goal of introducing a mouse tracking tool!
Data security issues are annoying, but they are part of the process. In my particular case, some places need to be masked so they can't be read by MS Clarity.
Excerpt from some of the questions that need to be clarified first:
Data Storage & Processing: Where is user data stored, and how is it processed?
Compliance: Does Clarity comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other relevant data protection regulations?
Retention & Deletion Policies: How long is data retained, and what options exist for data deletion?
Here you can find most of the relevant answers in one PDF:
Introducing a new tool in the company and clarifying everything is one thing. But the other is to ensure that the tool is used sensibly, that there are structures in place and that it provides those involved with a quick and easy overview. It is often not so easy to understand the background and problems, especially if you are not so deeply involved in the topic. With the help of the course and the resources presented there, I wanted to give an overview of what is possible with the tool and what is not. The development teams should be taken by the hand so that they can also see what is explicitly possible within their responsibility.
Often the problem is that you don't even know how to start such a project. I found it very helpful to refer to Vitaly Friedman's course to get ideas on how to set up such an overview in a meaningful way. So I started writing down everything I could find and then sorted out what I couldn't currently measure. What remains are the KPIs that I can find out with Microsoft Clarity!
Integration to UXR Repository to get an sustainable solution
When introducing a new tool, it is particularly important to me that it is used and brings benefits to those involved. So how do you ensure that it is connected to the existing universe?
In addition to the topic of mouse tracking, I also initiated the topic of the UXR repository and implemented it in Confluence. Not perfect, because other tools such as Notion, Dovetail or Condens would probably be better suited, but a Confluence database also fulfills its purpose of providing a good overview of current research topics. It is therefore important for me that the integration takes place and that the tool is available.
To anchor the method, it is important that it is combined. For this reason, I have also considered carrying out a top task analysis for the next survey in order to prioritize the various points in the store. Especially with regard to the UX KPIs, it makes sense to set priorities and analyze the tasks of the users.
Microsoft Clarity is a powerful, free tool for analysing user behaviour on websites and applications. It provides visual and data-driven insights to help improve the user experience and remove barriers to conversion. Clarity is a valuable addition to traditional web analytics solutions, especially for companies, agencies and website operators who value usability and data-driven optimisation.
However, Clarity does have some limitations:
Overall, Microsoft Clarity stands out as a powerful, free alternative to paid analytics tools, making it an attractive option for companies looking to understand user behaviour and improve website performance.
Of course, the Clarity tool has some drawbacks compared to the paid tools. I've used contentsquare before and it's much easier and more convenient to use, there's no question about that. Also, some things like flyout navigation don't work with MS Clarity. But the question is, if you are a UX researcher who is pragmatic and frugal and weighs costs and benefits, then this is a very good alternative if you don't have mouse tracking otherwise.
Sources:
Microsoft Clarity:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/setup-and-installation/about-clarity
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/
https://clarity.microsoft.com/case-studies/
https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/10-reasons-to-use-clarity/
Example of a Client project (https://whimsical.com/client-project-WkFZCzgHDaTVwUEdYxZdqy)
In: Friedman, Vitaly (2024): How to measure UX and Design Impact (https://measure-ux.com/) (Checked: 24.04.2025)