The Ultimate Guide to the Best Free Heatmap Tools in 2025 (In-Depth Reviews)

You’ve meticulously designed your website, written compelling copy, and driven traffic to your pages. But a critical question remains: what are your visitors actually doing? Where do they click? How far do they scroll? What crucial elements are they ignoring completely? Answering these questions is the key to unlocking higher conversion rates, but without the right tools, you're just guessing.

This is where heatmap software becomes an indispensable part of your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) toolkit. Heatmaps provide a powerful, visual representation of user behavior, turning anonymous clicks and scrolls into actionable data. They show you the "hot" and "cold" areas of your pages, revealing exactly what captures attention and what causes frustration.

The good news? You don't need a hefty budget to get started. The market is filled with powerful heatmap tools that offer robust free plans. This guide cuts through the noise to provide an in-depth review of the best free heatmap tools available today. We'll analyze their features, uncover the limitations of their free plans, and help you choose the perfect tool to start turning user behavior into revenue.

What to Look For in a Free Heatmap Tool

Before diving into the reviews, it's important to understand the core features that make a heatmap tool valuable. When evaluating your options, look for a combination of these capabilities:

• Click Maps: These are the most common type of heatmap. They visualize where users click on a page, using a color scale (typically red for hot, blue for cold) to show the most frequently clicked elements. They are invaluable for identifying if users are clicking on non-clickable elements or ignoring your primary calls-to-action (CTAs).¹

• Scroll Maps: A scroll map shows you how far down a page your visitors scroll. This is crucial for understanding if users are seeing your most important content and CTAs, which are often placed "below the fold".¹

• Move Maps (or Hover Maps): These track where users move their mouse on the screen, which is often a strong indicator of where they are looking. This helps you understand which elements are drawing attention, even if they don't result in a click.²

• Session Recordings (or Replays): While not technically a heatmap, this feature is often bundled with them. Session recordings are video playbacks of individual user sessions, allowing you to watch a user's entire journey on your site, including their mouse movements, clicks, and form interactions. They are the ultimate tool for diagnosing specific usability issues.¹

• Free Plan Limitations: This is the most critical factor. Pay close attention to the limits of the free plan. Common limitations include a cap on daily or monthly sessions, limited data storage/retention (e.g., data is deleted after 30 days), and restricted access to advanced features like segmentation or integrations.⁵

The Definitive Review of the Best Free Heatmap Tools

We've analyzed the top contenders to identify the tools that offer the most value on their free plans. Here are our in-depth findings.

1. Microsoft Clarity: Best for Unlimited Insights at Zero Cost

Overview: Microsoft Clarity is a game-changer in the analytics space because it's a powerful, enterprise-grade behavioral analytics tool that is 100% free, forever, with no traffic limits.³ This isn't a limited free trial; it's the full product at no cost, making it the undisputed best choice for anyone on a budget.

Key Features on the Free Plan:

• Unlimited Heatmaps: Generate click maps and scroll maps for any page on your site with no limits.⁸

• Unlimited Session Recordings: Watch as many user sessions as you need to. Clarity captures all traffic.⁴

• Rage Click & Dead Click Detection: Automatically identifies moments of user frustration, like repeatedly clicking an element that doesn't respond (rage clicks) or clicking on non-interactive elements (dead clicks).⁴

• Advanced Filtering: Segment your data by a wide range of conditions, including traffic source, device, country, user actions, and more.⁴

• Google Analytics Integration: Seamlessly connects with Google Analytics to provide a richer context to your data.
  

Pros:

• Completely free with no traffic limits or paid tiers.⁸

• Incredibly easy to set up and use.⁹

• Provides both heatmaps and session recordings, a combination often reserved for paid plans.

• Backed by Microsoft, ensuring reliability and data privacy (GDPR & CCPA compliant).⁸

Cons & Free Plan Limitations:

• There are virtually no limitations, which is its biggest strength. Some advanced users may find the feature set slightly less comprehensive than specialized paid tools like FullStory, but for the vast majority of users, it's more than enough.
  

Verdict: For small businesses, startups, bloggers, and marketers starting with CRO, Microsoft Clarity is the best and most logical starting point. The value it provides for free is unmatched in the industry.

2. Hotjar: Best All-in-One Platform (with Limitations)

Overview: Hotjar is one of the most well-known and popular names in behavioral analytics. It offers a polished, all-in-one platform that bundles heatmaps, recordings, surveys, and user feedback widgets.¹⁰ While its free plan has become more limited over time, it's still a great way to experience a premium tool.

Key Features on the Free Plan (Observe Basic):

• Automatic Data Capture: Tracks user actions to build heatmaps and recordings.

• Unlimited Heatmaps: Create click, scroll, and move maps for any page.

• Limited Session Recordings: The free plan is capped at 35 daily sessions.⁵ This means if your site gets more than 35 visits a day, Hotjar will only record a sample.

Pros:

• User-friendly and intuitive interface.¹⁰

• Combines multiple tools (heatmaps, recordings, surveys) into one platform.

• Strong brand reputation and reliability.
  

Cons & Free Plan Limitations:

• The 35 daily session limit is very restrictive for any site with even modest traffic, leading to sampled data.⁵

• Data retention on the free plan is limited (e.g., 30 days).⁶

• Advanced filtering and integrations are reserved for paid plans.⁶

• The pricing structure is fragmented into three separate products (Observe, Ask, Engage), which can become complex and expensive if you need more features.⁷
  

Verdict: Hotjar is excellent for those who want to try a premium, all-in-one tool and whose website traffic falls within the low session limit. It's a great way to learn the ropes, but be prepared to upgrade as your traffic grows.

3. Smartlook: Best for Mobile App and Website Analytics

Overview: Smartlook is a robust analytics solution that provides heatmaps and session recordings for both websites and mobile applications.¹² Its ability to generate heatmaps retroactively is a standout feature.

Key Features on the Free Plan:

• Three Heatmap Types: Includes click, move, and scroll heatmaps.²

• Retroactive Data: Smartlook records all sessions by default, allowing you to generate heatmaps for any page later, even if you didn't set it up in advance.²

• Session Recordings: The free plan includes access to session recordings.

• Cross-Platform Support: Works with websites and native mobile apps (iOS, Android, React Native, etc.).¹³
  

Pros:

• Excellent for businesses with both a website and a mobile app.

• Retroactive heatmap generation is a huge convenience.

• Provides detailed device segmentation to compare user behavior on desktop vs. mobile.²
  

Cons & Free Plan Limitations:

• The free plan has session limits and data retention constraints (though specific numbers can vary).

• Some advanced filtering and sharing options are only available on paid plans.¹⁴
  

Verdict: Smartlook is the ideal choice for product managers and marketers who need to analyze user behavior across both web and mobile platforms. The retroactive data feature makes it a flexible and powerful tool.

4. Mouseflow: Best for a Variety of Heatmap Types

Overview: Mouseflow stands out by offering six different types of heatmaps, giving you more ways to visualize user data than most competitors.¹⁵ It also includes powerful features like form analytics and conversion funnels.

Key Features on the Free Plan:

• Six Heatmap Types: Click, Scroll, Attention, Movement, Geo, and Live heatmaps.¹⁶

• Session Recordings: The free plan includes 500 recordings per month.⁷

• Form Analytics: Analyze how users interact with your forms to identify fields that cause drop-offs.

• Conversion Funnels: Build funnels to see where users drop off in key conversion paths.
  

Pros:

• The widest variety of heatmap types on a free plan.

• Includes valuable features like form analytics and funnels, which are often paid extras.

• Generous monthly recording limit on the free plan.
  

Cons & Free Plan Limitations:

• The free plan is limited to one website and has a 1-month data storage limit.¹⁷

• The interface can be more complex than simpler tools due to the number of features.
  

Verdict: Mouseflow is perfect for data-driven marketers and UX analysts who want to go beyond standard heatmaps. If you want to analyze forms, funnels, and geographic data without paying, Mouseflow's free plan is an excellent choice.

5. FullStory: Best for Deep Digital Experience Analytics

Overview: FullStory is a premium Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) platform used by many large companies. It goes beyond simple heatmaps by automatically capturing every user interaction and making it searchable.¹⁸ While its paid plans are enterprise-level, its free plan offers a taste of its power.

Key Features on the Free Plan:

• Session Replays: The core of FullStory is its powerful session replay functionality.

• Basic Heatmaps: Includes click maps and scroll maps derived from its autocaptured data.¹⁸

• Frustration Signals: Automatically identifies rage clicks, dead clicks, and error clicks.

• Advanced Search: Search and filter sessions based on a huge range of events and user attributes.
  

Pros:

• Extremely powerful session replay and search capabilities.²⁰

• Autocapture technology means you never have to worry about manually tagging events.¹⁸

• Provides deep, granular insights into the user experience.
  

Cons & Free Plan Limitations:

• The free plan is limited in session count and data retention. The platform is designed to encourage upgrading to its powerful (and expensive) paid plans.¹⁹

• Can be more complex and overwhelming for beginners compared to other tools.

• The primary focus is on session replay, with heatmaps being more of a secondary feature.
  

Verdict: FullStory is best for product managers, engineers, and support teams who need to diagnose complex user issues and bugs. Its free plan is a great way to experience a top-tier DXI tool, but it's less of a pure "heatmap tool" than the others on this list.

Comparison at a Glance: Which Free Heatmap Tool is Right for You?

Tool	Key Free Features	Session Limit (Free Plan)	Data Retention (Free Plan)	Best For...
Microsoft Clarity	Unlimited Heatmaps, Unlimited Recordings, Rage/Dead Clicks, Advanced Filters 4	Unlimited	30 days of full activity data 8	Anyone starting with CRO; getting maximum value for zero cost.
Hotjar	Unlimited Heatmaps, Surveys, Feedback Widgets 10	35 daily sessions	30 days 6	Trying a polished, all-in-one platform with low traffic.
Smartlook	Click, Move & Scroll Maps, Retroactive Data, Mobile App Support 2	Limited (varies)	1 month 21	Businesses with both a website and a mobile app.
Mouseflow	6 Heatmap Types, Form Analytics, Funnels 16	500 recordings/month	1 month 17	Marketers needing advanced analysis like form and funnel tracking.
FullStory	Powerful Session Replay, Searchable Events, Frustration Signals 18	Limited (e.g., 5,000/month trial) 19	Limited	Product & engineering teams diagnosing complex UX issues.

Your Next Step: From Insight to Action

Choosing and installing a heatmap tool is just the first step. The real value comes from turning those colorful blobs into concrete improvements. Start by installing your chosen tool on your most important pages—your homepage, key service pages, and landing pages.

Let the data collect for a week or two, then dive in. Look at your scroll maps: are people seeing your main call to action? Look at your click maps: are they clicking on things you didn't expect, or worse, ignoring the buttons you want them to press?

Every insight is an opportunity. An ignored CTA might need a new color or position. A "hot" but unclickable image might be a great candidate for a new internal link. By systematically observing, hypothesizing, and testing, you can begin the process of truly optimizing your website for your users.

Sources

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