Session replay software, a.k.a. session recording software is tool that produces a recreation of a user’s activity on your website. And while it looks like a video, it’s really not. With the help of DOM (Document Object Model) and capturing everything that occurs in it, session replay becomes an exact reproduction of all the interactions users have with your web, including clicks, scrolls, mouse movements, and any other dynamic changes.
If you want to dive deeper into the process of session replay, make sure to check out our article on the topic.
How does session replay software work?
Being one of the best user analysis tools, session replay software truly deserves the hype it gets. That’s because it basically allows you to watch your real users navigate your website. You see what they click, scroll, and if they eventually end up exactly where you want them to.
The results of such sessions provide you with tons of useful information.
Here are some things you will find out after analyzing your study:
- How users interact with your menu
- Whether your CTAs are attractive enough
- How long does it take for the website to load and if everything works like it should
- If it takes users too long to complete a certain action
- How users move around your page, where do they get lost or confused
- If all the important elements are clickable and easy to find
- Where user’s attention rises, where it drops
As you can see, session replay is really one of the most effective tools for user behavior analysis. And trying it out yourself will help you make sure of this.
But first, you have to choose the software. There is a wide range of session replay tools so it may seem quite overwhelming. However, not all of them are considered to be effective and user-friendly. In this article, we’ve gathered the best of the best session replay tools that will help you conduct user research and improve your website to the point of perfection.
Top 10 Session Replay Software:
- UXtweak
- Hotjar
- Smartlook
- Fullstory
- Crazy Egg
- Mouseflow
- VWO
- LogRocket
- Dynatrace
- Plerdy
- Lucky Orange
- cux.io
UXtweak
A great session replay tool, which allows you to track all the user’s interactions with your site in a simple user-friendly manner. The biggest advantage of the UXtweak session recording tool is its SmartSearch filters. One of the challenges UXers face with session replays is that it’s extremely difficult and time-consuming to analyze a large number of visitors. UXtweak allows you to only filter out sessions that are, for example: from the USA, browsing from mobile, clicking the specific button, etc.
Features:
- Activity tracking
- SmartSearch with over 40 filters
- Heatmap analysis and page speed metrics
- Detailed user profile
- You can skip inactivity, take notes, adjust playback speed or share the recording with a secret URL
- Easy 3-clicks implementation with Google Tag Manager
Pricing:
Free unlimited plan is available.
Pro plan starts at $80/month.
Hotjar
One of the giants on the market, which makes the tool quite pricey. Hotjar offers classical session replay features that will help you identify issues on the spot. They have a pretty nice UI, though analytics could be a little bit more advanced.Hotjar also allows you to voice record the testers and add notes at the specific time in the video.
You can also share the video with other project stakeholders to get their feedback. The testers’ sessions are than automatically converted into an srt file, which can be used for further analysis or as input for screencasting tools.
Features:
- Autoplay
- Voice recordings
- Filters
- Quick installation
- Heatmap analysis
Pricing:
A free plan is available.
Prices range from $39/month to $389/month, depending on the number of pageviews
Smartlook
Smartlook helps with recording and analyzing your user’s behaviour from a website or a mobile app. They offer advanced heatmap analytics and an always-on recording feature, which means they record every single user. Smartlook is a great tool with advanced analytics, however, some of the users claim scroll recordings to be of low quality and not very informative, so keep that in mind.
Features:
- Easy installation and nice UI
- Heatmap analysis
- Deep analytics with funnels
- Always-on recording
- Filters
Pricing:
Free plan available.
Startup plan is €31 and Business is €79.
Fullstory
Fullstory is another great platform to get to know your users better. Session replay is the only thing they offer, which means that analytics are quite deep towards this feature. However, you might wanna consider some other platforms if you want it to include such things as heatmap analysis etc.
Features:
- Advanced session replay analytics
- Indexing frustration signals: Rage Clicks, Error Clicks, Trashing Cursor
- All-users recording
- URL and event based funnel setup
Pricing:
A free plan and a free trial are available.
Pricing upon request.
Crazy Egg
A user-friendly platform designed to help website owners optimize their UX. It shows all the actions visitors take on your site, just like the other softwares. It has a pleasant UI, the analytics, however, are not so deep. Crazy Egg also does not offer a free plan, but they have an A/B testing tool you can use in complex with session replay.
Features:
- Heatmap analysis
- Tagging
- Filters
- Ability to save favourites
Pricing:
There is no free plan, but a free trial is available.
Paid plans range from $24/month to $249/month.
Mouseflow
One of the oldies on the market. Designed primarily for marketing teams, Mouseflow is another great software for session replays and user research. The only disadvantage of Mouseflow is that every page visitor views is shown in a separated video file, which may be a little time-consuming.
Features:
- Filters and segments
- 6 types of heatmaps
- Funnels
- Heatmap analysis
- Easy installation
Pricing:
A free plan is available.
Paid plans range from $24/month to $299/month
VWO
VWO is a little bit more pricey choice that allows you to follow visitor’s interactions with your website and gain more insights on user behavior. It captures everything including the bugs, errors and confusing moments on the way. Some users claim VWO to not be very intuitive, so it is not the best choice for a beginner. Other than that it’s a great platform for getting insights on your UX.
Features:
- Custom tagging
- Filters
- Visitor segmentation
- You can add observations and time-stamps
Pricing:
Pricing upon request.
LogRocket
LogRocket’s modern session replay and monitoring technology provides engineering and product teams with irrepressible access to how a person interacts with their product and perspective on how to optimize each and every user experience. LogRocket is simple to set up and use. They also provide a number of integrations that make it simple to integrate with existing software.
Features:
- Exclusion of sensitive data
- No performance impact
- Components/Shadow DOM
- Filters and search
Pricing:
A free plan is available.
Prices range from $99/ per month
Dynatrace
Dynatrace is designed to ensure that software works flawlessly. To provide solutions and intelligent automation of data, this platform combines broad and profound observability, consistent runtime application security, and advanced AIOps. This allows creators to restructure and automate cloud processes, deliver software more quickly and securely, and provide flawless digital experiences.
Features:
- Issue Tracking
- Uptime Monitoring
- Dashboards and Visualizations
- API Monitoring
Pricing:
Free Trial is available.
Prices range from $11/ per month.
Plerdy
Plerdy is a useful software tool for monitoring and identifying oddities in user behavior on specific websites. Discover the precise user interaction that visitors have to go through in order to reach their destination (for example: searching for a specific service). The documented session replay data aids in website troubleshooting, improving UX design and conversion rate.
Features:
- Click Tracking
- Mouse Movement
- Frustration Tracking
- Monitoring
Pricing:
A free trial of Plerdy is available.
Prices range from $29/ per month.
Lucky Orange
Lucky Orange can assist you in determining why your website receives traffic that does not result in sales or leads. A lot of websites around the world have relied on their conversion rate optimization tools to obtain insight into what visitors are doing on their webpage.
Features:
- Segmentation
- Dynamic Heatmaps
- Conversion Funnels
- Form Analytics
Pricing:
Free Trial is available.
Prices range from $18/ per month
cux.io
By pre-analyzing experiences and identifying behavioral patterns, CUX enables you to quickly increase conversion, convert frustrated users into happy users, and gain a significant market advantage. Quantifying UX, benchmarking, and personalized segmentation is all you need to improve your user experience and boost sales.
Features:
- Customer Data Analysis
- Goal-Oriented
- Target Analysis
- Heatmaps
Pricing:
Free Trial is available.
Prices range from $79/ per month
Session replay software is a game-changer
As you can see, there are a lot of platforms to choose from. So don’t hesitate and start the journey of improving your website right now. Everybody who uses session replay will tell you the same thing – it’s one of the most effective and insightful methods of UX research. So be prepared! Implementing the results of session replay may lead to increased conversions and lowered abandonment rate!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published on May 21, 2021 and was updated to stay relevant and comprehensive.
