Microsoft Clarity Alternatives for EU Shops (2026)
Most shops should keep Clarity. Here's when to switch: EU consent, data use, 30-day replays, no surveys or tests. 6 alternatives with checked prices.
By Joost BakkerPublished 12 min read
On this page
Keep Clarity if…
Be honest with yourself before you switch. Keep Clarity if all of these are true:
- You mainly need heatmaps and recordings. That's what Clarity does well, for free.
- You look at recordings within a month. Playback data is kept for 30 days. Recordings you label or favorite stay for 9 months, and so does click data (Clarity data retention).
- Your cookie banner passes consent to Clarity correctly. If it doesn't, fix that first; switching tools won't help (see Clarity and cookie consent in the EU).
- You're comfortable with Microsoft's terms. Read the next section.
- You don't need surveys or A/B tests in the same tool.
If one of these is false, read on.
What changed for EU visitors in October 2025
From October 31, 2025, Clarity enforces consent signals for page visits from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland (Microsoft Learn). In practice:
- Consent mode is on by default for visitors from those regions, and the consent state is "denied" until your banner says otherwise.
- No cookies without consent. If a visitor declines, Clarity deletes its existing first-party cookies.
- Cookieless data only. Without consent, Clarity still collects page views and basic interactions, but "sessions are fragmented, and certain features such as full session replays and user journey continuity are unavailable" (Clarity FAQ).
- It's about where visitors are, not where you are. A US shop with German customers needs to send consent signals too. Clarity uses IP-based location to decide.
- You pass consent through a supported consent platform, Clarity's consent API, or Google Consent Mode (Microsoft Learn).
Microsoft notes that this "does not introduce new consent requirements." It enforces rules that already applied. Any alternative in this list also needs consent before it records anyone in the EU. So switching tools doesn't get you more data from visitors who said no.
Data use and retention
Two things in Microsoft's documentation make some EU shops and agencies look elsewhere.
1. Who processes the data, and where. Clarity data is stored in Microsoft Azure. EU customers contract with Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, which has standard contractual clauses with Microsoft Corporation in the US for cross-border transfers. The FAQ also states that "Microsoft/Clarity has access to the data" and refers to Clarity's terms of use (Clarity FAQ). If ad_storage consent is granted, Clarity shares data with Microsoft Ads (Microsoft Learn). For some clients (health, finance, public sector), that's enough to say no.
2. Retention and deletion.
- Playback data: 30 days. Click data and labeled or favorited sessions: 9 months (Clarity data retention).
- To delete one user's data, "you need to delete the entire project" (Clarity FAQ). That can be awkward when someone asks you to erase their data.
None of this makes Clarity "not GDPR-compliant." Compliance depends on your setup, your privacy notice and your consent banner. It does mean you should read the terms and decide on purpose. This is not legal advice. Our GDPR guide for heatmaps, recordings and A/B tests goes deeper.
6 alternatives (short reviews)
1. Contentsquare (formerly Hotjar)
Better than Clarity at: surveys and longer data on paid plans.
- Free: 200k sessions a month; replays captured from 5% of sessions (max. 10k); one month of data; basic surveys (100 responses a month) (Contentsquare pricing).
- Growth: from $49/month billed monthly or $39 billed annually at 7k sessions; $279 a month at 60k sessions (monthly billing). Data access 13 months; replays 2 months.
- Data location: Free and Growth visitor data is hosted in Ireland, at AWS and Azure (Contentsquare sub-processors).
- Weaker than Clarity at: replay volume on Free.
Hotjar accounts can no longer be created; new users sign up for Contentsquare (Contentsquare). See Clarity vs Hotjar for the full comparison.
2. Mouseflow
Better than Clarity at: form analytics, interactive heatmaps and longer history.
- Plans (billed annually): Free with 500 sessions; Essential 25/month (5k sessions, 3 months data); Advanced 109/month (25k sessions, 6 months); Premium 319/month (100k sessions, 12 months) (mouseflow.com/pricing). The page shows amounts without a currency symbol.
- Surveys and interactive heatmaps from Advanced; form analytics, API and an MCP server from Premium.
- Data location: Mouseflow's sub-processor list says customer data for customers outside the regions it names separately is stored in the EU (Mouseflow sub-processors). Its help pages name different EU cities, so ask for the current DPA if this matters to you.
3. Lucky Orange
Better than Clarity at: surveys, live chat and a live visitor view in one tool.
- Plans: Build $32/month billed annually ($39 monthly) for 3,500 sessions; Grow $72/month annually for 10,000; Expand $199/month annually from 50,000 sessions (luckyorange.com/pricing).
- All features on all plans, including dynamic heatmaps and form analytics. Base storage starts at 60 days.
- No free plan; 7-day trial. We couldn't find a data-location statement on the pricing page, so check the DPA.
4. FullStory
Better than Clarity at: product analytics and 12 months of retention on its free plan.
- FullstoryFree: 30,000 sessions a month, 12 months of analytics retention. Paid plans are not public (quote only) (fullstory.com/pricing).
- Built for product and digital teams. A small shop will likely use a fraction of it.
5. Matomo with the Heatmap & Session Recording plugin
Better than Clarity at: keeping data on your own server.
- Paid plugin with click, move and scroll heatmaps and session recordings, with a 30-day trial. Pricing is tiered by user count; the amounts weren't shown on the plugin page we checked (Matomo plugin).
- You (or your host) run, update and secure the server. That's real work.
6. Varly
Disclosure: we build Varly. It's in private beta with a waitlist, so you can't buy it today.
Better than Clarity at: surveys, revenue per click and A/B testing in the same tool.
- Heatmaps (click, scroll, move; segments; compare), recordings with rage- and dead-click filters, AI summaries and a highlights feed, funnels with time to convert, saved segments, key clicks such as Add to cart detected without code (like Clarity's smart events), site speed and JavaScript errors, form analytics (where visitors give up in each form, without recording what they type), on-site surveys, click to revenue (orders, revenue or leads of visitors who clicked an element vs. those who didn't), an ideas backlog, and A/B tests including split URL and server-side tests.
- Privacy defaults: text masked on the visitor's device, checkout never tracked by default, nothing measured before consent. Data hosted by Hetzner in Germany; Cloudflare (a US company) is in front as CDN.
- Retention: recordings 30 days, favorites 13 months, click data 6 months, page views 13 months, orders and test results 25 months (Varly privacy help).
- Planned pricing at launch: €99 per website per month ($125 outside Europe), all features. May change before launch.
- Gaps: no mobile-app SDK, no fully interactive heatmaps, no US data residency, AI features need your own API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek or Mistral).
Comparison table
Prices checked on vendor sites on November 5, 2026. "—" means the vendor doesn't offer it; "not stated" means we couldn't find it on the pages we checked.
| Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Recordings kept (base) | Surveys | A/B tests | EU data storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Yes, no limits | — | 30 days (favorites 9 months) | — | — | Azure; EU contract with Microsoft Ireland, SCCs to US |
| Contentsquare | 200k sessions, replays from 5% | $39/mo annual | Free: 1 month; Growth: 2 months | Yes | Not on Free/Growth | Ireland (AWS, Azure) |
| Mouseflow | 500 sessions | 25/mo annual | 1–12 months by plan | Advanced+ | — | EU (per sub-processor list) |
| Lucky Orange | — (7-day trial) | $32/mo annual | From 60 days | Yes | — | Not stated |
| FullStory | 30k sessions | Quote only | 12 months (free) | — | — | Not stated |
| Matomo plugin | 30-day trial | Not shown | You decide | — | Separate plugin | Your server |
| Varly | Private beta | Planned: €99/mo per site | 30 days (favorites 13 months) | Yes | Yes | Germany (Hetzner); Cloudflare CDN |
When Varly is not the right choice
- You need a tool right now. Varly is waitlist-only during the private beta.
- Clarity already answers your questions. If you don't need surveys or tests, free beats €99.
- You need a mobile-app SDK. Clarity has Android and iOS SDKs (Clarity FAQ); Varly is web-only.
- You need fully interactive heatmaps or a live visitor view. Mouseflow and Lucky Orange cover these.
- You need US data residency. Varly only stores data in the EU.
Running Clarity next to another tool
You don't have to choose one. Common setups:
- Clarity + a survey tool. Clarity for recordings, a survey tool for the "why." Cheapest way to add voice-of-customer data.
- Clarity + a testing tool. Clarity finds problems; the testing tool proves fixes. Testing tools that evaluate tests in Google Analytics 4 and don't include heatmaps or recordings pair naturally with Clarity.
- Clarity during a trial of something else. Run both for 2–4 weeks and compare before you remove Clarity.
Three rules when you run two tools:
- Both need consent. Put both behind the same banner category, so a visitor who accepts gets both and a visitor who declines gets neither.
- Watch the weight. Each recording script adds JavaScript. We measured the standard Clarity tag at about 27 kB compressed on November 4, 2026 (method in our script weight study). Don't keep two recorders longer than needed.
- Mask in both. Masking settings don't carry over between tools. Check that checkout, account pages and form fields are masked or excluded in each.
FAQ
Is Microsoft Clarity GDPR-compliant? No tool is compliant on its own; your setup is. Clarity requires consent for EEA, UK and Swiss visitors and offers masking. You need a correct banner, a privacy notice that mentions Clarity, and you should be comfortable with Microsoft's terms.
Does Clarity work without consent in the EU? Only partly. It collects cookieless data, but sessions are split up and full replays aren't available.
How long does Clarity keep recordings? 30 days. Labeled or favorited sessions, and click data, are kept for 9 months.
What's the best free Clarity alternative? Contentsquare Free (200k sessions, basic surveys, one month of data) or FullstoryFree (30k sessions, 12 months of retention). Both are less generous with replays than Clarity.
Is there a Clarity alternative with A/B testing? Crazy Egg includes A/B testing on its Plus plan and higher (crazyegg.com/pricing). Varly combines research and testing too, but is in private beta. For dedicated testing tools, see VWO alternatives.
Should I use Clarity and Hotjar together? You can't sign up for Hotjar anymore. Clarity plus Contentsquare Free is possible, but keep it temporary.
For the bigger picture, see Hotjar alternatives for ecommerce and EU-hosted heatmap tools.
Varly brings heatmaps, recordings, surveys and A/B tests together, hosted in Germany, with privacy-first defaults. It's in private beta. Join the waitlist.