Heatlens vs Microsoft Clarity
Facts about Microsoft Clarity checked on 9 October 2026, from Microsoft's own pages listed below.
Microsoft Clarity is a free cloud service for heatmaps and session recordings. Heatlens is a paid plugin that adds heatmaps to the Matomo you already host. They answer the same question, where people click and how far they scroll, with opposite choices about where the data goes.
| Heatlens | Microsoft Clarity | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €299 excl. VAT, once, per Matomo instance, for any number of users | Free |
| Where the data is stored | In your own Matomo database, on your server | In the Microsoft Azure cloud |
| Who controls the data | You. Coderise never receives it | You and Microsoft, as independent controllers |
| Use of the data by the vendor | None: Heatlens makes no connection to our servers | Microsoft may use personal data to improve its products and to create user profiles, including for advertising |
| Consent in the EU | Required by default, follows Matomo's consent functions | Consent signals required for visitors from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland since 31 October 2025 |
| Masking | Form fields and marked elements, plus emails and long digit sequences, masked in the browser | Input boxes always masked; numbers and emails masked in the default mode |
| Session recordings | No | Yes |
| Self-hosting | Yes, on Matomo On-Premise 5.14.1+ or 6 | No |
| Retention | You choose, per campaign and in Matomo | Recordings kept 30 days; favourites and a sample up to 9 months |
When Clarity is the better choice
- You want session recordings, not only heatmaps.
- You don't run Matomo, or you don't want to run any server.
- Your budget for this is zero, and you are comfortable with Microsoft acting as an independent controller of the data.
When Heatlens is the better choice
- You already run Matomo On-Premise because your analytics data must stay with you.
- Your policy, your clients or your sector (public bodies, health, finance) rule out sending visitor behaviour to a third-party cloud.
- You want one tool, one consent flow and one place for GDPR requests: Matomo's GDPR tools also delete heatmap data.
- You need it to run on a server with no internet access.
Sources
- Clarity FAQ, updated 8 September 2026: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/clarity/faq
- Clarity Terms of Use, consulted 9 October 2026: clarity.microsoft.com/terms
- Clarity Consent Mode, updated 5 December 2025: learn.microsoft.com/…/consent-mode
- Clarity masking: learn.microsoft.com/…/clarity-masking
Microsoft Clarity is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Heatlens is not affiliated with Microsoft. Something out of date? Tell us at contact@coderise.fr and we will correct it.