The short answer

  • Looking for Hotjar vs Clarity? Contentsquare says Hotjar merged into its group in July 2025; new customers cannot sign up for the legacy experience. Existing Hotjar customers should check their own transition notice and terms.
  • Contentsquare Free lists up to 200,000 monthly analytics sessions and a 5% replay capture rate, capped at 10,000. Microsoft says Clarity recordings may not be available for every session and documents a daily project cap. Neither statement tells you how many eligible form failures you can watch.
  • Choose based on your sites, consent setup, replay coverage, investigation needs and retention, not a promise of complete recordings. Microsoft says Clarity should not be used on sites or apps targeting people under 18.

Start with the same investigation

Assume one public landing page leads to a form, with 50,000 monthly eligible sessions after your own collection rules. The team wants to understand a validation error and abandonment across desktop and mobile. The eligible figure is a hypothetical input, not all visits or a forecast of consent.

Use the same dates, page scope, device mix and consent states in each evaluation. Count form views, starts, validation failures and confirmed submissions in your form or analytics system. A replay can expose a broken interaction, but it does not prove why someone abandoned or show every visitor.

Separate sessions from replay capture

Contentsquare defines sessions separately from replays. Its Free table lists up to 200,000 sessions a month and 5% replay capture, capped at 10,000. If all 50,000 hypothetical sessions are tracked and the displayed rate applies evenly, 5% is about 2,500 captured replays before exclusions and other conditions. This is an illustration, not a guarantee for a rare error or a specific visitor.

The same Contentsquare guide says Free and Growth collection pauses when the session allowance is reached. It describes calendar-month resets in the table but says annual subscriptions refresh monthly based on their start date elsewhere. Confirm the actual reset and plan terms before forecasting a coverage gap.

Microsoft’s FAQ says Clarity can record up to 100,000 sessions per project per day but recordings may not be available for every session. Do not apply Contentsquare’s 5% to Clarity or infer a Clarity replay total from these inputs. Consent, blocking, configuration and the site’s actual traffic can change what either product sees.

Find a replay while it still exists

Microsoft says recordings are kept for 30 days, then 1% or 10 recordings per day, whichever is higher, for up to nine months. Favorites can last up to nine months; its separate retention table distinguishes playback, labeled sessions and heatmap data. Confirm the exact availability for your project.

Contentsquare says shared replay links last for the plan’s retention period. Ask for the replay retention period, export options, access roles and terms for the precise edition. Do not assume a favorite or a shared link is a permanent archive.

Test masking and consent separately

Contentsquare’s web masking guide describes full masking as the default, with automatic redaction of specified sensitive values. Microsoft’s web masking guide describes Balanced as the default and says inputs and dropdowns are masked in every mode. Its FAQ separately describes default suppression more broadly. Check the actual project and mode rather than assuming these descriptions cover every implementation.

Masking is not a consent mechanism or proof of privacy compliance. Test synthetic names, URLs, form errors and dynamic content before any live rollout. Microsoft says masking changes are not retroactive and do not cover content in CSS or style tags. Avoid placing sensitive data there and verify the rendered output.

Microsoft says Consent Mode defaults on for EEA, UK and Swiss visitors, and the site must communicate valid consent signals. Its Consent API guidance describes limited cookieless tracking when consent is denied; do not equate no cookies with no collection.

Contentsquare’s separate replay opt-in is documented for Pro and Enterprise web projects, requires activation and a customer-provided consent interface, and does not stop behavioral analytics on its own. Ask how your chosen plan handles consent and verify accept, reject and withdrawal using a controlled setup.

Inspect the form without overreading the evidence

Contentsquare’s replay list documents path and device filters on Free and Growth, with behavior filters on Growth. Check whether the relevant error and segment are visible in the edition you are considering. For a rare validation error, sampled replay may miss the affected visit even when aggregate data is available.

Clarity’s heatmap guide limits each heatmap to 100,000 pageviews and documents dynamic-content limitations. Its FAQ also describes selecting dynamic elements in some heatmap views. Test the actual popup, validation message and page state; a missing visual element is not proof no one clicked it.

Run a synthetic successful submission, a validation failure, a consent denial and a repeat visit. Compare the observed form outcome with each dashboard and replay; check masking first. Give the owner a reproducible path and time window without exposing real customer information.

Buying today or moving from Hotjar

Contentsquare says Hotjar merged into its group on July 1, 2025, and its tools are now in Contentsquare. Its legacy-platform guide says insights.hotjar.com is unavailable to new customers. A new buyer should assess current Contentsquare plans, not assume a standalone Hotjar plan remains available.

Existing accounts can have different transition terms. Contentsquare’s guide for notified Hotjar customers describes a 30-day period and an account-owner opt-out before an automatic move. Review the actual notice, billing, data access and retention for that account instead of assuming every customer has already moved.

Contentsquare’s migration FAQ says Hotjar analytics history does not transfer, while survey and feedback data do. It describes 12 months of read-only access for that migration; the generic Hotjar service schedule describes a 90-day old-service access period. Confirm which terms and deadline apply to your account before relying on either period.

Choose with your own acceptance criteria

Consider Microsoft Clarity when the documented free service and its coverage meet the investigation, the site is eligible, and the team can manage consent and masking. Consider Contentsquare when its chosen edition, sampling and journey analysis fit the work and the quote covers required capabilities.

Also evaluate Mouseflow for its session allowance and form analysis. Use the form builder guide to assess the form itself, PostHog for an adjacent event-instrumentation decision, and the software trial guide to assign an owner and acceptance criteria.

Common questions

Does Contentsquare Free record every session?

No. Contentsquare lists a 5% session replay capture rate, capped at 10,000 replays, alongside up to 200,000 monthly sessions. Tracked sessions and watchable replays are different quantities.

Does free Clarity guarantee a recording for each visit?

No. Microsoft says recordings might not be available for every session and gives a daily project recording cap. Consent and implementation can also affect availability.

Is Hotjar still a separate option for new customers?

Contentsquare says the legacy insights.hotjar.com experience is unavailable to new customers. Existing customers should check their individual transition notice and terms.

Sources and scope

We read the linked vendor documentation on November 5, 2026. This is documentation-only research; we have not tested the products, capture, masking or consent behavior.

Inclusion and corrections are free; sponsorship does not determine our conclusions. Quillwell also builds Adswell, a paid-media product.

Session counts, privacy settings and contract terms vary. Validate the implementation and seek advice appropriate to your sites and jurisdictions.

Sponsorship does not buy an editorial ranking or a positive review. How we research.

Source references

  1. Contentsquare: Sessions, replays and plan limits

    Checked 2026-11-05. Monthly session and replay capture allocations and stop behavior.

  2. Microsoft Clarity: Frequently asked questions

    Checked 2026-11-05. Recording availability and daily cap, under-18 restriction and heatmap rendering.

  3. Microsoft Clarity: Recordings overview

    Checked 2026-11-05. Replay retention and sampled longer-term availability.

  4. Microsoft Clarity: Data retention

    Checked 2026-11-05. Playback, labeled sessions and heatmap retention.

  5. Microsoft Clarity: Masking content

    Checked 2026-11-05. Web masking modes, default, exceptions and non-retroactive changes.

  6. Contentsquare: Set up and manage data masking

    Checked 2026-11-05. Web masking defaults and automatic redaction.

  7. Microsoft Clarity: Heatmap features

    Checked 2026-11-05. Pageview cap and dynamic-content limitations.

  8. Contentsquare: Session Replay list view

    Checked 2026-11-05. Replay filters and plan-specific behavior filters.

  9. Contentsquare: Hotjar plans and pricing

    Checked 2026-11-05. Hotjar merger and current product suite.

  10. Contentsquare: Your new account for Hotjar customers

    Checked 2026-11-05. Migration period and opt-out for notified accounts.

  11. Contentsquare: Guide for insights.hotjar.com users

    Checked 2026-11-05. Legacy experience is not available to new customers.

  12. Contentsquare: Share a replay

    Checked 2026-11-05. Sharing options and plan retention.

  13. Microsoft Clarity: Clarity setup

    Checked 2026-11-05. Clarity free availability and child-targeted site restriction.

  14. Contentsquare: Moving from Hotjar FAQs

    Checked 2026-11-05. Phased migration, historical analytics and survey data, settings and account-specific terms.

  15. Contentsquare: Hotjar service schedule

    Checked 2026-11-05. Service schedule for the prior platform and access period.

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