Short answer
Pick Microsoft Clarity for free recordings and heatmaps, Lucky Orange for a Shopify-native toolkit with surveys and chat, or Contentsquare (which Hotjar is now part of) for deep analysis by a team. All three leave the conclusions to you or to an AI you ask. Shopsicle is built to investigate on its own and tie each finding to your products, with confidence and follow-up.
Key takeaways
- Clarity: free, no traffic limits, official Built for Shopify app, Copilot when you ask.
- Lucky Orange: Built for Shopify, free tier plus paid plans from $19/month on Shopify, Discovery AI.
- Hotjar is now Contentsquare: free plan and Growth from $49/month on Shopify, Sense AI on paid plans.
- None of the three lists catalog context, confidence levels or follow-up after a change. Shopsicle is built around all three.
We make Shopsicle, so read our take on it with that in mind. Every fact about the other three comes from their own pages and Shopify App Store listings, checked on September 30, 2026, and linked below. First, how the three compare with each other; then what all three leave to you.
Price
- Clarity is free, with no paid tier and no traffic limits (Clarity FAQ).
- Hotjar / Contentsquare lists a free plan of up to 20k monthly sessions on Shopify, then Growth from $49/month for 7k sessions up to $409/month for 100k (Shopify App Store).
- Lucky Orange on Shopify: free for 100 sessions a month, then $19, $39 and $89 a month for 500, 3,500 and 10,000 sessions (Shopify App Store).
Setup on Shopify
All three have official Shopify apps. Clarity’s has the Built for Shopify badge and replaces the old theme snippet (Microsoft Learn). Lucky Orange says install needs no tracking code or developer (Lucky Orange). Contentsquare’s app deploys through a theme integration and web pixels, and checkout replay needs Shopify Plus (Contentsquare Help).
AI features
- Clarity Copilot chats about your data and summarizes the sessions and heatmaps you open; Microsoft notes it can misinterpret data (Copilot overview).
- Contentsquare Sense (paid plans) recommends next actions, and the Sense Analyst agent was announced in beta (Contentsquare).
- Lucky Orange Discovery AI gives plain-language answers with links to the recordings behind them (Lucky Orange).
Privacy and consent
Clarity masks page content by default and turns Consent Mode on by default for visitors from the EEA, UK and Switzerland (Clarity consent mode). All three describe masking of sensitive fields. Whichever you use, make sure it respects your store’s consent banner.
What all three leave to you
All three answer “what happened in these sessions?”. A merchant’s question is “what should I change first, on which product, and did it work?”. That’s the question Shopsicle is built to answer:
| ShopsicleEarly access | Microsoft Clarity | Contentsquare (Hotjar) | Lucky Orange | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where you start each day | A short, ranked list of findings about your store | Recordings, heatmaps and dashboards; Copilot answers when you ask | Analytics suite; Sense AI on paid plans | Recordings, heatmaps and funnels; Discovery AI answers questions |
| Investigates without being asked | Runs on its own across your sessions and store data | Copilot runs when you ask or open a session | Sense Analyst, announced in beta | Discovery AI surfaces insights when you log in |
| Ties behavior to your catalog: variant, stock, price | Each finding names the product and variant, and whether it was in stock | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Says how sure it is, what else could explain it, and how to check | Confidence, other possible causes and a way to verify on every finding | Not listed (Microsoft notes Copilot can get things wrong) | Not listed | Not listed |
| Follows up after you make a change | Mark a finding done and it keeps watching that step and those shoppers | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
| Learns from what you dismiss | Dismiss a finding with a reason and the next investigation uses it | Not listed | Not listed | Not listed |
- It investigates without being asked. Most AI in this category answers when you ask: Microsoft describes Copilot as a way to “ask questions” and summarize the session you open (Clarity Copilot). Shopsicle is built to run on its own across all your eligible sessions and bring you the few things worth your time, ranked.
- It knows your catalog, not just your pages. Recording tools see clicks on a page. Shopsicle is built to see what was on that page for that shopper: the product, the variant they picked, whether it was in stock, the price. So a finding can point to a sold-out size, a variant with no photo or a price change on one product, instead of “people leave the product page”.
- It shows its work. Every finding is designed to state how sure it is, what else could explain the pattern, and how to check it. Microsoft itself notes that Copilot can misinterpret data (Clarity Copilot), and none of the AI features compared here list a confidence level.
- It checks back after you act. Mark a finding as done and Shopsicle is built to keep watching that step and those shoppers, then tell you what the evidence shows, with a before and after labeled as a hint, not as proof.
- It learns from you. Dismiss a finding with a reason (“we already have a size chart”) and the next investigation is designed to use it, so you don’t get the same generic advice twice.
Which one to pick
| If you want… | Pick |
|---|---|
| To be told what to change, tied to your products, and checked after you act | Shopsicle |
| Free recordings and heatmaps to watch yourself | Microsoft Clarity |
| One Shopify-native app with surveys and chat | Lucky Orange |
| A deep analytics suite for an analyst or agency | Contentsquare (Hotjar) |
Questions
- Is Microsoft Clarity better than Hotjar?
- On cost, yes: Clarity is free with no traffic limits. Hotjar, now part of Contentsquare, goes deeper on paid plans. Both leave the conclusions to you or to an AI you ask.
- Is Lucky Orange worth it over free Clarity?
- If you want surveys, live chat and a Shopify-native toolkit in one app, it can be. If you only need recordings and heatmaps, Clarity covers that for free.
- Can I use Clarity and Lucky Orange together?
- You can, but each adds a script and records the same visits. Pick one recording tool unless you have a specific reason for two.
- How is Shopsicle different from Clarity, Hotjar and Lucky Orange?
- It’s built to investigate on its own instead of waiting for questions, tie each finding to the product, variant and stock involved, state how sure it is and how to check, and follow up after you make a change.
Sources
- Microsoft Clarity: AI Insights (Shopify App Store)Shopify App Store, 2026-09-30
- Clarity FAQ (pricing, limits, retention, masking)Microsoft Learn
- Clarity Copilot overviewMicrosoft Learn
- Clarity consent modeMicrosoft Learn
- Contentsquare Analytics (Shopify App Store)Shopify App Store, 2026-09-30
- Enhanced Contentsquare plansContentsquare, 2025-12-11
- Hotjar is now part of ContentsquareHotjar
- Contentsquare rolls out AI agent Sense AnalystContentsquare, 2025-09-30
- Lucky Orange Heatmaps & Replay (Shopify App Store)Shopify App Store, 2026-09-30
- Discovery AILucky Orange
- Lucky Orange for ShopifyLucky Orange