AnyReplay vs Microsoft Clarity
AnyReplay vs Microsoft Clarity
AnyReplay and Microsoft Clarity compared: a free heatmap and replay tool versus translated replay, React Native recording, in-browser masking and self-hosting.
Updated · 5 min read
Microsoft Clarity is generally known for being free: heatmaps, session recordings and a handful of behaviour signals with no usage fee. That changes the comparison. Against a free product the question is not whether AnyReplay is cheaper, but whether the things it does that Clarity does not are worth paying for: translated replay, React Native recording, masking applied in the browser with a floor no option turns off, a script-free player and a self-hosting path.
For many marketing sites the honest answer is that Clarity is enough. For a product with users in several languages, a mobile app, or a privacy review that asks where the data lives, the answer changes.
What Microsoft Clarity is known for
Clarity is generally known as a free behaviour analytics tool from Microsoft offering click and scroll heatmaps, session recordings, and signals such as rage clicks and dead clicks, with integrations into Microsoft's wider advertising and analytics products. Its appeal is the price and the ease of getting started; it is a hosted service. For the current feature set and any limits, check their site for current pricing and limits.
Where AnyReplay is different
Translation of the recorded interface
AnyReplay translates the rrweb event stream before replay. Strings are extracted with their role, hashed after whitespace normalisation, and cached per organisation in a translation memory. The same interface strings recur across every session of one application, so after a handful of recordings almost everything is already cached and costs nothing. Corrections a human marks as reviewed are never sent to a model again.
Mobile through the element tree
Clarity is generally known as a web tool; check their docs for mobile support. AnyReplay's React Native SDK records the committed element tree as semantic elements, with no native module or rebuild, and works in Expo Go on SDK 52+. Frames are small and the text is real, so mobile sessions translate like web ones. The limits are documented: videos are boxes, FlatList records only rendered rows, custom native components are unknown boxes.
A privacy model you can point to
The web SDK masks what visitors type by default; maskAllInputs: false records field values and maskAllTyping: true masks rich-text editors as well. Masked values replay as asterisks of the same length and the original never leaves the page. Under both switches is a floor no option turns off: passwords and one-time codes, payment card fields, IBANs and sort codes, any value of 13 to 19 digits that passes the card-number check, and a half-typed card number past its sixth digit. type="email" and type="tel" inputs are not on that floor. ar-mask masks an element's text or a single field's value, and ar-block removes an element from the recording entirely. With requireConsent: true the SDK records nothing until your page calls anyreplay('consent', true). Retention defaults to 14 days per organisation, is enforced in the API, and deleting a session deletes its recording. The privacy page and session replay under GDPR cover the rest.
Where the data lives
With a free hosted tool your recordings live with the vendor. AnyReplay documents a single-host deployment on Ubuntu 24.04: PostgreSQL, the API, ingest and the dashboard as three systemd services behind nginx, with recordings on disk under a path you own. Backups are encrypted with gpg on the host before upload, shipped daily, and verified weekly by restoring the newest one into a throwaway database and counting rows.
A player that cannot run your scripts
Script bodies are replaced with a placeholder at record time, rebuilt as <noscript> on replay, and the player iframe is sandboxed without allow-scripts. A test fails the build if that changes. Recorded pages cannot execute code in a reviewer's browser.
Side by side
| AnyReplay | Microsoft Clarity | |
|---|---|---|
| Web recording | Yes, rrweb-based; SDK 34.8 KB gzip | Yes, recordings and heatmaps |
| React Native recording | Yes, semantic element tree; no native module | Check their docs |
| Session translation | On demand, with an organisation translation memory | Check their docs |
| Input masking | Every field masked by default; passwords and payment fields never recorded | Check their docs |
| Replay sandbox | Iframe without allow-scripts; script bodies never recorded | Check their docs |
| Self-hosting | Documented single-host deployment; encrypted, verified backups | Hosted service; check their docs |
| Free tier | Free plan: 1 project, 500 sessions per month | Generally known to be free; check their site for current limits |
| Dashboard languages | English, Turkish, German, Spanish, French | Check their docs |
When Microsoft Clarity is the better fit
- Your budget for this is zero and a hosted tool is acceptable. Clarity is free; AnyReplay's Free plan is one project and 500 sessions a month, with paid plans on the pricing page.
- You want heatmaps. AnyReplay does not build them; see what a heatmap does and does not tell you.
- You run a marketing site with no login, no forms carrying sensitive data, and a single-language audience.
- You already use Microsoft's advertising and analytics products and want the integrations.
When AnyReplay is the better fit
- Your reviewers need to read sessions recorded in languages they do not speak. See the customer support use case.
- You ship a React Native app.
- Your data protection review requires the data on infrastructure you control, with an audit trail and configurable retention.
- Your dashboard users work in Turkish, German, Spanish or French as well as English.
What is session replay is a good starting point if you are new to the category.
Frequently asked questions
Is AnyReplay free?
There is a Free plan with 1 project and 500 sessions per month. Beyond that, plans are described on the pricing page. Clarity is generally known to be free; check their site for current limits.
Does AnyReplay have heatmaps like Clarity?
No. AnyReplay is session replay with translation, React Native recording and self-hosting. It flags rage clicks per chunk but does not aggregate clicks into heatmaps.
Can I run Clarity and AnyReplay together?
Yes. They record independently. A common split is a free heatmap tool on the marketing site and AnyReplay on the authenticated product, where masking and translation matter.
Does AnyReplay detect rage clicks and dead clicks?
Rage clicks, yes: three clicks within 1000 ms inside a 30 px radius, flagged on the chunk. The chunk flags are hasError, hasRageClick and pageCount; there is no dead-click flag.
Looking beyond these two? Microsoft Clarity alternatives and free session replay tools cover the rest of the field, including what free plans usually leave out.
Microsoft Clarity is a trademark of its owner. AnyReplay is not affiliated with or endorsed by it. Feature descriptions are general and may be out of date; check their site for current details.