Microsoft Clarity vs Session Recordings on a Wix site

Where Clarity is stronger

Clarity costs nothing, and Microsoft says you never hit traffic limits or have to upgrade¹. It makes heatmaps as well as replays, flags rage clicks, dead clicks and quick backs, and adds AI summaries through Copilot¹. You can also watch visits live, up to 100 live sessions⁷¹, and record Android and iOS apps with its free mobile SDKs⁸, which matters if you're replacing Smartlook in an app as well as on your site (see Smartlook alternatives for Wix). If you want the most data for no money, and heatmaps matter to you, it's hard to beat on price. Our guide to heatmaps on a Wix site covers Clarity's maps and the other free options.

Where Session Recordings is different

• Nothing recorded before consent. Visitors who haven't allowed analytics in your Wix cookie banner aren't recorded at all. More on how each tool handles consent below.
• Page text as shown. Both tools mask what visitors type into fields (Clarity in every masking mode⁶). Clarity's default Balanced mode also hides numbers and email addresses in page text⁶; Session Recordings records page text as the visitor saw it.
• Stars that last. Clarity keeps recordings for 30 days, with favorites and a sample kept up to 9 months¹. Session Recordings keeps replays for 30 days too, and a starred replay is kept until you erase the app's data.

Adding Clarity to a Wix site

Microsoft's Wix guide gives these steps²:

1. In your Wix site's dashboard, go to Apps > App Market and search for Microsoft Clarity.
2. Select Add to site.
3. In the Clarity app, select Sign in. Choose an existing Clarity project and select Connect, or select Add new project, enter its details and save.
4. Open Microsoft Clarity from your dashboard's left menu to see its dashboard, recordings, heatmaps and insights.

The same guide carries one note: Clarity "can only be used with registered account domains on Wix"². Microsoft doesn't say more than that, so after you add it, make a test visit to your published site and check that it shows up in Clarity before you rely on it.

Cookie consent

Microsoft says that once the Wix cookie banner is on, Clarity detects each visitor's consent status with no extra setup⁴. Since October 31, 2025, Clarity enforces consent signals for visits from the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland⁹. Without consent, Clarity gives each page view its own ID and sets no cookies⁵. Microsoft's FAQ says it still collects page views and basic interactions then, but sessions are fragmented and full session replays aren't available¹. Session Recordings doesn't record visitors who haven't allowed analytics at all. If your site has no cookie banner, it doesn't wait for consent: it records every visitor who clicks, taps or types.

Using both

Nothing stops you from running both: Clarity for heatmaps and its automatic flags, Session Recordings for replays you keep longer, with nothing recorded before consent. Each adds a script to your pages, so if you only use one for replays, remove the other. Our guide to recordings, heatmaps and analytics explains which questions each answers.