Analytical Tools: Our Experience with Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, and PostHog

Lately, we've been experimenting with three tools: Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, and PostHog. Each has its pros and cons and caters to specific audiences and use cases. We want to share our experience and help you decide which tool might work for you.

1. Hotjar

We initially used Hotjar as a complement to Google Analytics' quantitative data. It offers:

• Recordings
• Heatmaps
• Funnels
• Feedback (surveys and interviews)
• Interviews

We used it for a couple of weeks on several projects. Our goal was to find a tool that would support quantitative data (see where users click, what frustrates them, watch session recordings) we have in GA4, and Hotjar was the first product that came to mind.

However, Hotjar had too many features not relevant to our goals, which they actively promote both inside the product and in their emails.

Then we discovered that Microsoft Clarity offers similar features for free, compared to Hotjar's freemium model (which promotes paid tiers to get full value).

Verdict: We don't see any reason to use Hotjar. If you already have Google Analytics 4 and only need qualitative data like recordings and heatmaps without product analytics, then Microsoft Clarity is a better choice.

2. Microsoft Clarity

We discovered this tool randomly on Reddit. It's completely free, so we moved all clients' projects there.

Clarity has all the features Hotjar offers, minus feedback integrations (which we don't think are worth paying for). Clarity does have a one-way integration with Google Analytics, but we haven't tried it and never felt the need to do so.

Their features look quite spartan compared to Hotjar, which was a massive plus and a significant boost to our clarity and productivity.

Also, their automatically generated dashboard is quite comprehensive. It effectively uses colors, combines different types of charts, and metrics to provide a good overview of the main metrics.

I didn't experience the same aha moment with Hotjar. Their default dashboard just looks... normal. Like a random report in GA4, which doesn't bring you either excitement or clarity.

In terms of the main features' effectiveness, I didn't notice a big or noticeable difference between the two products. Both provide heatmaps and session recordings with good quality and hide all personal data.

Verdict: A handy tool for conversion rate optimization, boosting landing page performance, and gathering qualitative data. Being completely free makes it the best choice if you don't need advanced features and product analytics.

3. PostHog

PostHog is the clear leader and the tool we liked the most due to its robust features, open-source nature, and future direction.

It offers everything the other tools have:

• Quantitative web and product data analytics
• Session recordings
• Heatmaps
• Experiments (A/B Tests)
• Surveys and feedback

Plus:

• Bi-directional data flow and integration with third-party tools
• Both client and server-side integration (similar to Measurement Protocol but more robust)
• Data warehouse

All of that comes with a generous free tier, which is enough for most websites. We use it for several websites, and it is more than enough for us. PostHog even states that 90% of their customers use it for free.

PostHog has indicated that they aim to become a Customer Data Platform, similar to Segment. Hopefully, they will make it more affordable, as we know of cases where companies wanted to move to Segment but didn't because of the high price.

Also, they provide server-side tracking (aka Reverse Proxy). This means that events are less likely to be intercepted by tracking blockers. You'll be able to capture more data. We've already written about what server-side tracking is in more detail - you can check it out here.

Final Verdict

If you only need qualitative data to complement your quantitative data, Microsoft Clarity is ideal. It's a simple and easy tool to get started with optimization and experimentation.

If you're a startup with a product, PostHog is the best tool on the market. You'll get solid web and product data, qualitative data, a data warehouse, custom integrations, and a generous free tier.

Need help or have some questions? Feel free to contact us!