Live Cursor Tracking for Your Own Website
Updated
TL;DR
Live cursor tracking for your own website means that when you open your site, you see each current visitor's cursor moving on the page in real time, with a fading trail behind it and a ripple wherever they click. whoisbrowsing does this with one script tag under 4 KB gzipped, draws it on your real page, and stores nothing about your visitors.
Two things people mean by "live cursors"
The search results mix two very different products.
| Visitors see each other | The owner sees visitors | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Visitors, as a fun feature | You, the site owner |
| Example | Cursor widgets in the Framer marketplace, such as Cursor Crowd | whoisbrowsing |
| Purpose | Make a page feel populated | Understand who is on your site now |
If you want a social cursor effect for visitors, a component like that is the right fit. If you want to know what real visitors are doing on your site, read on.
Tools that show visitors' cursors live
| Tool | What you watch live | Kept afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Inspectlet Live | One visitor's screen at a time: "their cursor, their scroll, their typing" (Inspectlet) | Recordings (plans) |
| Microsoft Clarity | Live recordings of "mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, navigation, and more" (Clarity docs) | Recordings and heatmaps (overview) |
| Lucky Orange Live View | Where visitors "click, scroll and engage", in real time (help) | Recordings and heatmaps (pricing) |
| whoisbrowsing | Every current visitor drawn together on your real page | Nothing about your visitors |
The first three are recording products with a live mode. whoisbrowsing is only the live part, which is why it can keep nothing. For a fuller list, see best live visitor tools.
What you see
Open your own site while watching and every current visitor is drawn on the live page:
- Cursor and trail. A coloured cursor with a fading trail, so you see where they came from as well as where they are.
- Click ripples. Each click appears as a ripple at the exact spot.
- Scroll arrows. Visitors scrolled out of your view get an arrow at the edge pointing toward them.
- Phone and tablet bands. Touch devices have no pointer to track, so they appear as a see-through band over the part of the page they are looking at. See watching phone visitors live.
- A side panel. Live counts per page (busiest first) and one line per person: page, source, approximate city, device, browser and operating system, time on site, pages this visit.
Install
<script src="https://live.whoisbrowsing.com/s.js" data-site="YOUR_SITE_ID" defer></script>
The script is under 4 KB gzipped and never changes how your page looks. To see it working, open your site in a Chrome Incognito or Safari private window (your own regular browser is not counted), then move your mouse and click. Start with no sign-in at /try.
What is sent, and what is not
Your visitors' browsers send the page, pointer position, clicks, scroll, device type, source, browser and operating system, and time on site. Never keystrokes, form values or page text. Nothing about your visitors is stored on our servers. No cookies on your visitors. Visitors from the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland, and browsers with Global Privacy Control, are never shown. Read the full privacy page; this describes what we do and is not legal advice.
That is the main difference from tools built around recording. Inspectlet's live feature, for example, lets you "see their cursor, their scroll, their typing" (Inspectlet). whoisbrowsing never captures typing.
Why watch cursors at all
- See what draws attention. Does the cursor go to your pricing, or hover over text that is not a link?
- Spot confusion. A cursor circling or hovering over something that is not clickable tells you something is unclear.
- Check a launch. Watching the first visitors use a new page is faster than waiting for a report.
A cursor is a hint, not proof of attention. People read without moving the mouse, so treat what you see as a prompt for questions rather than a conclusion.
When whoisbrowsing is not the right tool
whoisbrowsing is live only: no recordings, no replays, no history, no heatmaps over time. If you want to review a session after it ends or aggregate where everyone clicked, use a session-replay or heatmap tool such as Microsoft Clarity or Contentsquare (which Hotjar is now part of). The live view vs session replay article explains when to pick which.
Next
Common questions
Will visitors notice anything? The script is under 4 KB gzipped, loads with defer and does not change how your page looks. Visitors see no overlay; only you, in your own live view, see the cursors.
Do I see what people type? No. Keystrokes, form values and page text are never sent. You can see that a cursor reached a form, not what went into it.
Can I test it alone? Yes. Your regular browser is never counted, so open the site in a Chrome Incognito or Safari private window and move the mouse. You will see your own cursor, trail and click ripples.
Does localhost work? Each website is separate, so localhost and production never mix. Create a site for each, or use /try to start quickly.