Microsoft Clarity vs FullStory
Feature checklists rarely decide anything. What decides it is the pricing metric, who has to write the tests, and which limitation you can live with.
Entry price
Free
FreeQuote on request
Quote onlyWhat drives the bill
The metric that actually scales your invoice.
Free with no traffic cap. Microsoft uses aggregated data to improve its products, which is the trade you are making.
Quote-based annual contracts priced by session volume. Among the more expensive tools in the category.
Free tier
Everything, unlimited, at any traffic level.
Free plan with limited monthly sessions.
Open source
Self-hostable
No-code authoring
Languages
Platforms
Fits teams
Adoption
Category standard
Microsoft · since 2020
Widely used
FullStory · since 2014
Strengths
- No cost and no sampling at any volume — nothing else in the category comes close on price.
- Rage-click and dead-click detection surfaces real usability problems immediately.
- Easy to install and reasonable default masking of sensitive fields.
- Retroactive analysis is a genuine capability difference, not a marketing angle.
- Excellent search: find the eleven sessions where a specific error occurred in checkout.
- Strong privacy controls with element-level exclusion rules.
Limitations
- Data goes to Microsoft, which is a real consideration for GDPR-sensitive deployments.
- Filtering and segmentation are shallower than paid tools.
- Support is community-based and the roadmap is not yours to influence.
- Expensive, with opaque quote-based pricing.
- Capturing everything raises data-governance questions that need answering up front.
- Meaningful learning curve to use the search language well.
Best for
Almost anyone starting with session replay, and anyone whose paid tool is mainly used for basic replay.
Product and support organisations that need to investigate specific user problems in depth.
Pricing last reviewed August 2026 and is indicative only — confirm on each vendor’s own page.