Analytics tells you what people did on your site; WordPress heatmaps show you where they did it, which links they clicked, how far down the page they scrolled, and where they gave up. Once you can see that, fixing a page stops being guesswork.
I have set heatmaps up with several tools over the years, so in this guide I will walk through three that actually earn their place: two free and one premium. I will also tell you which one I reach for first, and why collecting the data is the easy part, reading it is where the value is.
Key Takeaways
- A heatmap turns invisible behavior into a picture: click maps, scroll depth, and the dead zones where attention drops off.
- Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic cap and adds session recordings, which makes it my default starting point.
- UserFeedback keeps heatmaps and on-site surveys together inside wp-admin, useful if you want behavior and opinions in one place.
- Aurora Heatmap stores its data in your own WordPress database, the privacy-friendly pick when you do not want visitor data leaving your server.
- The tool barely matters; what you change after reading the map is what moves conversions.
What a heatmap actually shows you
A heatmap overlays visitor behavior on top of your real page using color, warm reds and oranges where activity is high, cool blues where it is low. The three types you will use most are click maps (where people tap and click), scroll maps (how far down the page they reach before leaving), and move or attention maps (where the cursor lingers, a rough proxy for where eyes go).
One pattern worth watching for is the “phantom click”, a cluster of clicks on something that is not actually a link, like a bold heading or an image. That is your visitors telling you they expected it to be clickable, which is a cheap, obvious win once you spot it. To make sense of where to focus, it helps to read a heatmap alongside your page performance and Core Web Vitals, because a slow page changes behavior before any design choice does.
Method 1: Microsoft Clarity (free, my default)
Microsoft Clarity is the one I usually set up first, because it is genuinely free with no traffic cap and still gives you click, scroll, and area heatmaps plus full session recordings. For a tool that costs nothing, the depth is hard to argue with.
Setup is quick: create a free Clarity account, add your site as a project, then connect it to WordPress either by pasting the tracking code into your header or by installing the official Clarity plugin and authorising it. Once it is live, give it a day or two to collect sessions, then open the Heatmaps tab and pick the page you want to study.
The one trade-off is that your visitor data lives on Microsoft’s servers rather than yours. For most sites that is fine, but if you operate under strict privacy rules it is worth knowing before you commit, and it is exactly why the third option on this list exists.
Method 2: UserFeedback (free plugin, premium heatmaps)
UserFeedback, from the team behind MonsterInsights, runs entirely inside your WordPress dashboard. The base plugin is free for on-site surveys, and its Heatmaps addon sits on the paid plans, so this is the “premium” entry on the list.
You install the plugin from the repository, connect your license, then enable the Heatmaps addon and create your first heatmap for a chosen page. Because the reports render inside wp-admin, you never leave WordPress, and you can pair a click map with a short survey on the same page to learn not just where people clicked but why.
If you already gather visitor opinions, this is a natural fit; it pairs well with something like a “Was this helpful?” feedback form so behavior and sentiment live side by side. The cost is the obvious caveat: you are paying for convenience and the survey integration, not for heatmaps you could not get for free elsewhere.
Method 3: Aurora Heatmap (free, self-hosted)
Aurora Heatmap takes the opposite approach to Clarity: it stores all heatmap data right in your own WordPress database, so nothing about your visitors ever leaves your server. For a privacy-conscious site, or anyone who would rather not hand behavior data to a third party, that is a real advantage.
Install and activate it like any plugin, adjust the data and display settings (how many clicks to record, which devices, how the overlay looks), and the click heatmap starts building on your live pages. It is lighter than Clarity in features, with no session recordings, but for straightforward click tracking that you fully own, it does the job cleanly.
Quick comparison of the three tools
| Tool | Price | Where data lives | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Clarity | Free, no traffic cap | Microsoft servers | Most sites; heatmaps plus session recordings |
| UserFeedback | Free plugin, paid heatmaps addon | Vendor + your dashboard | Running heatmaps and on-site surveys together |
| Aurora Heatmap | Free | Your own WordPress database | Privacy-sensitive sites that want to own the data |
Don’t just collect heatmaps, act on them
The mistake I see most often is treating the heatmap as the finish line. Installing the tool is ten minutes; the value comes from the changes you make after reading it. If the scroll map shows almost nobody reaching your call-to-action, move it up. If clicks pile onto a non-link, make that element clickable or restyle it so it stops looking like a button.
Give each test a real window of data before you judge it, a few days of meaningful traffic at least, because a handful of sessions will lie to you. Heatmaps are a direction-finder, not a verdict; the trend across enough visitors is what you trust, not any single session.
So which heatmap tool should you use?
Honestly, for most people I would start with Microsoft Clarity, because it is free, has no traffic ceiling, and the session recordings give you context a plain click map cannot. If your priority is keeping visitor data on your own server, Aurora Heatmap is the one I would choose, and if you want heatmaps and surveys living together in wp-admin and do not mind paying, UserFeedback earns its keep.
None of the three is a wrong answer; they just serve different priorities of cost, ownership, and convenience. Pick the one that matches yours, then spend your real effort on what the map tells you to change.
Want help turning heatmap data into conversions?
If you would rather have a second pair of eyes on the data, work with us or email me. Reading behavior correctly is where the real lift comes from, so getting that part right is worth it.
Update Logs
27 Jun 2026
- Reworked into a clear three-tool comparison (Microsoft Clarity, UserFeedback, Aurora Heatmap) with a quick decision table and my own pick, plus a stronger note on reading the data rather than just collecting it.
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