Best Free Heatmap and Session Recording Tools in 2026: Sessions, Retention and Limits Compared
Eight heatmap and session recording tools compared on free monthly caps, recording retention, heatmap types and the cheapest paid step, checked on vendor pages in October 2026.
Microsoft Clarity is the best free heatmap tool in 2026 for most sites. It costs $0, its homepage prints no limit on traffic, and it gives you click and scroll heatmaps plus session recordings. Recordings are kept 30 days. If you need a bigger session allowance, Contentsquare Free captures up to 200,000 sessions a month with no card, and FullStory Free keeps 12 months of history on 30,000 sessions.
Hotjar no longer takes new accounts. Its own page says new users sign up for Contentsquare Free instead, and Hotjar's old free plan captured 35 sessions a day.
Key facts8 tools compared: Microsoft Clarity, Contentsquare Free (Hotjar's successor), FullStory Free…
- 8 tools compared: Microsoft Clarity, Contentsquare Free (Hotjar's successor), FullStory Free, PostHog, Crazy Egg, Mouseflow, Lucky Orange, Smartlook
- Contentsquare Free (Hotjar's successor) (best for: Heatmap users moving off Hotjar who want the largest printed free session allowance on this list): Free: 200,000 sessions a month, no card. Growth plan after a 15-day trial.
- FullStory Free (best for: Small teams that want the longest free history on this list and mainly need session replay): Permanent free plan: 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of retention, no card.
- PostHog (best for: Product teams that already track events and want recordings and feature flags in one tool): Free, no card: 1M events, 5,000 session recordings and 1M flag requests a month. Pay as you go above that.
Searching for a free heatmap tool returns three kinds of offer: a permanent free plan with a monthly cap, a free product with no traffic limit, and a trial that ends. Only the first two keep working after the trial, and the cap decides whether a free plan covers your site.
If your traffic runs past the cap, recordings stop partway through the month, and a heatmap built on a partial month can mislead.
This page compares the eight tools buyers search for most, using each vendor's own caps, retention and card rules.
Toolradar data: our heatmap ranking, which covers heatmap, session recording and user behavior tools, evaluated 12 tools and counts 9 of them (75%) with a free plan as of October 2026, so a free tier is common in this part of the market.
Toolradar's profiles for Microsoft Clarity, Mouseflow and PostHog sit beside the full heatmap ranking.
If you are weighing paid tools as well, our A/B testing tools guide covers the testing side, and the landing page builders guide covers where the pages you test get built.
For the analytics side of the same budget, our Similarweb review covers a traffic tool that answers a different question, and our Unbounce review covers one of the builders in that guide.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free forever, with no limit on traffic printed on its homepage. | Sites of any size that want heatmaps and recordings at no cost, and can work with 30-day recordings. |
| Contentsquare Free (Hotjar's successor) | Free: 200,000 sessions a month, no card. Growth plan after a 15-day trial. | Heatmap users moving off Hotjar who want the largest printed free session allowance on this list. |
| FullStory Free | Permanent free plan: 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of retention, no card. | Small teams that want the longest free history on this list and mainly need session replay. |
| PostHog | Free, no card: 1M events, 5,000 session recordings and 1M flag requests a month. Pay as you go above that. | Product teams that already track events and want recordings and feature flags in one tool. |
| Crazy Egg | Free plan, no card. Starter $29/mo for 5,000 tracked pageviews and 50 recordings. | Small sites that want instant heatmaps and surveys at no cost, and will upgrade for recordings. |
| Mouseflow | Free: 500 sessions a month and 1 website. Paid plans are printed without a currency. | Owners of one small site who want a free session recorder with a 500-session cap. |
| Lucky Orange | No free plan: 7-day trial, then Build at $32/mo paid annually for 3,500 sessions. | Teams that want to test heatmaps and recordings for one week before paying. |
| Smartlook | Being wound down: no new paid subscriptions since 31 May 2026. Platform off 30 September 2027. | Existing customers finishing a contract before the platform is switched off. |
Pricing read from each vendor's own published pricing page, checked Oct 2026. Every vendor here publishes a price.
Best for: Sites of any size that want heatmaps and recordings at no cost, and can work with 30-day recordings.
PricingFree forever, with no limit on traffic printed on its homepage.
Best for: Heatmap users moving off Hotjar who want the largest printed free session allowance on this list.
PricingFree: 200,000 sessions a month, no card. Growth plan after a 15-day trial.
Best for: Small teams that want the longest free history on this list and mainly need session replay.
PricingPermanent free plan: 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of retention, no card.
Best for: Product teams that already track events and want recordings and feature flags in one tool.
PricingFree, no card: 1M events, 5,000 session recordings and 1M flag requests a month. Pay as you go above that.
Best for: Small sites that want instant heatmaps and surveys at no cost, and will upgrade for recordings.
PricingFree plan, no card. Starter $29/mo for 5,000 tracked pageviews and 50 recordings.
Best for: Owners of one small site who want a free session recorder with a 500-session cap.
PricingFree: 500 sessions a month and 1 website. Paid plans are printed without a currency.
Best for: Teams that want to test heatmaps and recordings for one week before paying.
PricingNo free plan: 7-day trial, then Build at $32/mo paid annually for 3,500 sessions.
Best for: Existing customers finishing a contract before the platform is switched off.
PricingBeing wound down: no new paid subscriptions since 31 May 2026. Platform off 30 September 2027.
What it is
A heatmap tool shows where visitors click, scroll and stop on a page. A session recording tool replays single visits. Most products bundle both, and their free plans differ mainly by monthly session cap, pageview cap and how long recordings stay online.
How it works
We opened each vendor's own pricing page in October 2026 and quote only the caps, retention rules, card rules and prices it prints. Where a vendor prints no USD figure, the page says so and nothing is converted. Microsoft's retention figures come from its Learn documentation.
The Hotjar figures come from Contentsquare's Hotjar page. Nothing on this page comes from a hands-on test.
Our free rank trackers guide applies the same cap-first approach to SEO tools, and our free email marketing software guide does it for sender lists.
MarketingShot data: of the eight tools below, six keep a permanent free plan on their own sites.
Lucky Orange offers a 7-day trial and no free plan, and Smartlook is being wound down.
Why it matters
A free plan is only as good as its unit. Microsoft Clarity prints no traffic limit. Contentsquare Free and FullStory Free count sessions, PostHog's free tier counts recordings within a wider monthly allowance, and Crazy Egg's paid plans count tracked pageviews.
Put last month's traffic into the unit each vendor uses before you compare prices, because a cap set in sessions does not compare with one set in pageviews.
Retention decides what you can learn.
Clarity keeps recordings for 30 days and heatmap data for nine months, FullStory keeps analytics for 12 months, Mouseflow's free plan keeps data for one month, and PostHog's free plan keeps recordings for one month. Read the retention figure as carefully as the cap, because a heatmap that is gone in a month cannot support a quarterly review.
For the wider optimization stack, see our content optimization tools guide. Once a heatmap shows where visitors stall, follow-up emails can win some of them back, and our marketing automation software guide compares the tools that send them.
Key features to look for
Pricing
Prices and caps were read on each vendor's own page in October 2026, and nothing is converted from another currency. Microsoft Clarity's free terms come from its homepage and its data retention page.
The Contentsquare free plan and the Hotjar status come from the Hotjar page, now hosted by Contentsquare.
The other plan tables come from FullStory, PostHog, Crazy Egg, Mouseflow and Lucky Orange, and the Smartlook dates come from its site.
The lowest paid steps in dollars are Crazy Egg's Starter, then Lucky Orange's Build at $32 a month billed annually, with Grow at $72 a month billed annually as the next step up.
Contentsquare's Growth plan follows a 15-day trial with no card needed. PostHog bills pay as you go above its free allowance, at the per-unit rates listed on its pricing page.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free forever | No traffic limit printed, heatmaps and session recordings; recordings kept 30 days |
| Contentsquare Free | Free, no card | 200,000 sessions a month, heatmaps, session replay, attention maps, 10+ integrations |
| FullStory Free | Free, no card | 30,000 sessions a month, 12 months of analytics retention, session replay |
| PostHog Free | Free, no card | 1M events, 5,000 session recordings and 1M flag requests a month; 1 project |
| Crazy Egg Free | Free, no card | Instant heatmaps, web analytics, conversion analytics and surveys; caps not printed |
| Mouseflow Free | Free | 500 sessions a month, 1 website, 1 month of data retention |
| Crazy Egg Starter | $29/mo | 5,000 tracked pageviews, 5 heatmap reports and 50 recordings a month; 30-day trial |
| Crazy Egg Plus | $99/mo | 150,000 tracked pageviews, 75 heatmap reports and 1,000 recordings a month |
| Crazy Egg Pro | $249/mo | 500,000 tracked pageviews, 100 heatmap reports and 5,000 recordings a month |
| Lucky Orange Build | $32/mo, paid annually | 3,500 monthly sessions after the trial; no permanent free plan |
| Lucky Orange Grow | $72/mo, paid annually | 10,000 monthly sessions |
| Lucky Orange Expand | $199/mo, paid annually | 50,000 monthly sessions |
| Lucky Orange Scale | $839/mo, paid annually | 300,000 monthly sessions |
| Smartlook | Sales closed | No new paid subscriptions since 31 May 2026; platform off 30 September 2027 |
The bottom line
Start with Microsoft Clarity if you want heatmaps and recordings at no cost with no traffic cap. Move to Contentsquare Free if you want attention maps and its monthly session allowance, and to FullStory Free if you want 12 months of history.
Skip Lucky Orange unless you need its trial for a week of testing, and do not start a new project on Smartlook.
Whichever you pick, check the cap against last month's traffic before you commit, and keep the landing page builders and A/B testing tools guides in mind once the heatmap is telling you what to change.
Methodology: each price, cap and retention figure above was checked on the vendor page linked in the text in October 2026, and nothing here is a hands-on test.
Cite this: MarketingShot, "Best Free Heatmap and Session Recording Tools in 2026", October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Microsoft Clarity. It is free forever, its homepage prints no limit on traffic, and it provides click and scroll heatmaps with session recordings. Recordings are kept 30 days and heatmap data nine months, according to Microsoft's data retention page.
Not for new accounts. Hotjar's page says it is no longer possible to create a new account on Hotjar, and new users sign up for Contentsquare Free. Hotjar's old free plan captured 35 sessions a day, while Contentsquare Free captures up to 200,000 sessions a month with no card required.
Yes. FullStory Free includes 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of retention, and its page says no credit card is required. PostHog's free tier includes 5,000 session recordings a month, with recordings kept one month, and it needs no card to start.
The lowest printed dollar price for a paid plan in this list is Crazy Egg's Starter at $29 a month. Lucky Orange's Build is $32 a month billed annually. Mouseflow prints its paid prices without a currency, so no USD figure is quoted for it.
For a free start, Microsoft Clarity. It has no traffic limit on its free terms, while Hotjar no longer takes new accounts and Contentsquare Free has a monthly session cap. Choose Contentsquare Free if you want attention maps and a large session cap, and Clarity if traffic is the thing you cannot predict.
It sells no new paid subscriptions, after its end of sale on 31 May 2026. Its platform is due to be decommissioned on 30 September 2027, and its FAQ points users to Splunk's Digital Experience Analytics for the successor product.
Yes, with limits. The free plan covers 500 sessions a month and one website, with one month of data retention, according to Mouseflow's pricing page. Its paid plans are printed without a currency, so this page quotes no dollar figure for them.
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.
- PostHog pricingchecked Sep 2026
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.
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