7 Best OpenReplay Alternatives in 2026
OpenReplay has a clear use case. If you want session replay and product analytics with full control over your data, it is one of the strongest self-hosted options available. Its open-source codebase, co-browsing for live support, and developer-focused DevTools make it technically competitive with many commercial platforms.
However, those strengths come with trade-offs. Self-hosting requires real DevOps resources to deploy and maintain at scale. The cloud version exists, but the free plan has tight session limits compared to most competitors. Native mobile replay is still in preview and does not yet match the web experience. Its AI and analytics features are improving, but they are less mature than some dedicated commercial tools.
This guide highlights seven OpenReplay alternatives to consider in 2026, with verified pricing and a clear breakdown of where each option stands out.
7 best OpenReplay alternatives in 2026
| Tool | Best for | Session replay | Heatmaps | Self-host | Free tier | Pricing starts at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostHog | Open-source all-in-one with self-hosting | Yes | Yes | Yes | 5,000 recordings/month | Usage-based, free tier |
| LogRocket | Developer debugging with AI-assisted analysis | Yes | Yes | No | 1,000 sessions/month | $69/month |
| Microsoft Clarity | Free behavioral analytics with no session cap | Yes | Yes | No | Unlimited sessions, free forever | Free |
| Smartlook | Web and mobile analytics with retroactive events | Yes | Yes | No | 3,000 sessions/month | $55/month |
| FullStory | Enterprise behavioral intelligence with AI | Yes | Yes | No | 30,000 sessions/month | Custom (contact sales) |
| Hotjar | Feedback and surveys alongside session replay | Yes | Yes | No | Limited (see pricing) | Contact sales |
| Sentry | Error monitoring with session replay context | Yes | No | Yes | 5,000 errors/month | $26/month |
1. PostHog
PostHog is an open-source developer platform that covers session replay, product analytics, feature flags, A/B experiments, surveys, and error tracking in a unified stack. It is the most direct alternative to OpenReplay for teams whose primary motivation is data ownership and open-source infrastructure, because PostHog's self-hosted deployment under the MIT license gives teams the same full control over user data as OpenReplay's self-hosted option.
The practical differences between the two tools come down to scope and maturity. PostHog's product analytics suite is considerably broader than OpenReplay's, including retention cohorts, experiment results, LLM analytics, and a data warehouse layer. The free cloud tier at 5,000 web recordings per month is five times more generous than OpenReplay's. Mobile session replay with native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter is included in the free allocation. PostHog does not include co-browsing, which remains OpenReplay's most distinctive feature.
π Key features
- Session replay with synchronized network activity, console logs, DOM events, and JavaScript errors
- Full product analytics: conversion funnels, retention cohorts, user path analysis, and raw SQL access
- Feature flags and A/B experiments integrated with the same user data as session replay
- Mobile session replay for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter included in the free tier
- In-app surveys with targeting rules and conditional logic
- JavaScript error tracking linked to session recordings
- Self-hosting via Docker Compose under the MIT license for full data ownership
- LLM analytics for teams building AI-powered products
β Pros
- Self-hosting is production-ready and MIT-licensed, making it the closest substitute for OpenReplay on data ownership grounds
- The free cloud tier of 5,000 web session recordings per month is substantially more generous than OpenReplay's 1,000 session cloud free plan
- Mobile session replay coverage for iOS and Android is more mature and broader than OpenReplay's mobile capabilities
- Feature flags, experiments, and surveys are integrated in the same platform as session replay, reducing the number of separate tools a team needs to manage
β Cons
- PostHog does not include co-browsing for real-time user support, which is OpenReplay's most unique capability
- Production-scale self-hosting beyond a basic Docker Compose setup requires significant infrastructure effort and is not covered by a service-level agreement
- Usage-based billing across multiple product meters makes monthly cost estimation difficult for fast-growing products
- The interface is oriented toward engineering teams and may require meaningful onboarding for non-technical product or marketing stakeholders
π² Pricing
PostHog's free tier includes 5,000 web session recordings per month, 2,500 mobile recordings per month, 1 million product analytics events per month, 1 million feature flag requests, and 1,500 survey responses. Paid web replay starts at $0.005 per recording between 5,000 and 15,000 recordings per month, with step-down rates at higher volumes. Product analytics events beyond the free million start at $0.00005 per event. PostHog is free to self-host under the MIT license.
2. LogRocket
LogRocket is the most direct commercial alternative to OpenReplay's developer tooling focus. Where OpenReplay combines session replay with console logs, network monitoring, and performance metrics for debugging purposes, LogRocket builds the same capability into a polished SaaS platform and extends it with Galileo AI for automated issue detection and prioritization. Every session recording is automatically paired with JavaScript errors, network request waterfalls, Redux state, and page performance data, giving engineers the full diagnostic context without switching between tools.
The key trade-off compared to OpenReplay is that LogRocket offers no self-hosting on standard plans, so data residency requirements that drove the choice of OpenReplay will not be satisfied here. For teams whose evaluation of OpenReplay was primarily about debugging capability and developer tooling rather than data ownership, LogRocket is the natural comparison.
π Key features
- Session replay with synchronized console logs, JavaScript errors, Redux state, and network activity in a single view
- Galileo AI for automated user struggle detection, issue severity scoring, and recommended engineering fixes
- Performance monitoring with page load times, memory usage, and Core Web Vitals alongside session data
- Product analytics including funnels, user path analysis, cohort retention charts, and dashboards
- Click heatmaps, scroll maps, and rage click detection (Professional plan)
- Native mobile session replay for iOS and Android
- Conditional Recording to capture sessions only when specific events or errors occur, reducing session volume costs
- Error tracking with grouping, deduplication, and direct session replay links
β Pros
- The depth of developer context available alongside session replay (console logs, network data, store state) rivals OpenReplay's DevTools integration in a fully managed SaaS environment
- Galileo AI surfaces friction issues and suggests engineering priorities automatically, reducing the manual session review burden that OpenReplay places on teams
- Conditional Recording reduces session consumption and cost by capturing only sessions that meet specific criteria, such as those containing errors or specific user actions
- No infrastructure to operate or maintain, which eliminates the DevOps cost that OpenReplay's self-hosted option incurs
β Cons
- No self-hosting option on standard plans, which removes the data sovereignty use case that is OpenReplay's primary selling point
- Co-browsing for real-time user support is not available, unlike OpenReplay's Assist feature
- The free plan includes only 1,000 sessions per month with three seats and one month of data retention, limiting meaningful evaluation against real production traffic
- Heatmaps and product analytics are gated behind the Professional plan, which requires an annual commitment and is custom-priced for web
π² Pricing
LogRocket's Developer plan is free and includes 1,000 sessions per month, 1 month of retention, and 3 seats. The Team plan starts at $69 per month for 10,000 web sessions (monthly), with a $139/month tier for 25,000 sessions. The Professional plan starts at $295 per month for 10,000 sessions on an annual commitment and adds AI-powered struggle detection, product analytics, heatmaps, and scrollmaps. Mobile pricing is separate. Enterprise pricing is custom and includes self-hosting, unlimited seats, audit logs, and RBAC.
3. Microsoft Clarity
Microsoft Clarity is Microsoft's free behavioral analytics tool that captures all sessions and generates heatmaps with no monthly cap and no paid tier. For teams evaluating OpenReplay partly because of the cloud free tier's session restrictions, Clarity resolves the constraint entirely: there is no quota to manage, no credit card, and no pricing tier.
Clarity Copilot batch-processes up to 250 recordings and returns AI-generated summaries of friction patterns, drop-off behavior, and interaction anomalies. The mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native match or exceed OpenReplay's current mobile coverage. The key gap is that Clarity offers no self-hosting, limited product analytics depth compared to OpenReplay, and no developer tooling or co-browsing.
π Key features
- Session recordings with no monthly volume limit and no sampling across any traffic level
- Click heatmaps, scroll heatmaps, and area engagement heatmaps across all instrumented pages
- Clarity Copilot for batch AI analysis of up to 250 recordings with behavioral pattern summaries
- Rage click, dead click, and excessive scroll detection with automatic tagging and filter shortcuts
- User segment analysis by device, browser, geography, and referral source
- Direct integration with Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads for connecting behavioral data with campaign attribution
- Mobile SDK support for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native
β Pros
- Zero cost with no session limits is the sharpest contrast with OpenReplay's 1,000-session cloud free tier; Clarity charges nothing regardless of traffic volume
- AI batch session analysis surfaces behavioral patterns across a recording set without manual review queues
- Mobile SDK coverage for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native is broader than OpenReplay's current mobile offering
- Google Analytics integration connects session replay data with traffic attribution with no additional development work
β Cons
- No self-hosting option; all session data is stored on Microsoft's infrastructure, which is a compliance blocker for organizations with strict data residency requirements
- No co-browsing, DevTools, developer debugging context, or application state capture alongside recordings
- Recording retention resets at 30 days; only manually favorited sessions persist for up to 13 months
- No product analytics beyond basic segment filtering; funnels, cohort retention, feature flags, and A/B experiments require a separate platform
π² Pricing
Microsoft Clarity is free with no session limits and no paid tier. All features including Clarity Copilot, all heatmap types, mobile SDK access, and Google Analytics integration are available at no cost with no credit card required.
4. Smartlook
Smartlook is a qualitative analytics platform covering session recordings, heatmaps, event tracking, and funnel analysis across web and native mobile apps. Now part of Cisco, Smartlook records all sessions from the moment the snippet is installed with no manual configuration required. Events can be defined retroactively using a no-code picker, meaning teams can answer behavioral questions about past sessions using events that were defined after the fact.
For teams evaluating OpenReplay as a cross-platform tool that covers both web and mobile apps, Smartlook is the most direct alternative. Its native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Unity are more mature than OpenReplay's mobile capabilities. The trade-offs are that Smartlook is cloud-only with no self-hosting, the session-based pricing model can scale costs quickly, and it lacks developer tooling depth.
π Key features
- Always-on session recording covering 100% of sessions without sampling from the moment of installation
- Retroactive event creation: define an event today and Smartlook surfaces all historical instances from previously recorded sessions
- No-code event picker for defining click, input, and navigation events without developer involvement
- Heatmaps, scroll maps, and clickmaps generated directly from session recording data
- Funnel analysis with step-level breakdowns by device, country, and browser
- Cross-platform Journey tracking for users moving between mobile app and web
- Native mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Unity
- Integrations with Mixpanel, Zendesk, Slack, Salesforce, and Jira
- Crash reports linked directly to affected session recordings
β Pros
- Cross-platform mobile coverage via mature native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and Unity is stronger than OpenReplay's current mobile support
- Retroactive event analysis means teams never lose behavioral data from before a feature was instrumented, which is a capability OpenReplay does not offer
- No-code event picker reduces the engineering involvement required for day-to-day analytics queries
- All core features including heatmaps and funnels are available on the free plan, not gated behind paid tiers
β Cons
- No self-hosting: all session data is stored on Smartlook's infrastructure, which removes the data sovereignty use case that motivates many OpenReplay evaluations
- Session-based pricing can escalate quickly on high-traffic applications; engaged users generate multiple sessions per day, burning through monthly allocations faster than session counts suggest
- No co-browsing, DevTools, console log capture, or application state monitoring alongside recordings
- Data retention on the free plan is 1 month; meaningful longitudinal analysis requires a paid plan
π² Pricing
Smartlook's free plan covers 3,000 sessions per month with heatmaps, events, and funnels included. The Pro plan starts at $55 per month (billed annually) for 5,000 sessions per month, with session volume customizable beyond that. The Enterprise plan covers high-volume use cases and is custom-quoted. A 30-day free trial of the Pro plan is available with no credit card required.
5. FullStory
FullStory is a behavioral intelligence platform targeting enterprise product and engineering teams. Its Fullcapture technology records every user interaction without manual event configuration, which means teams can answer retroactive behavioral questions about interactions that were never explicitly tagged in advance. StoryAI surfaces friction anomalies, generates session summaries, quantifies the revenue impact of identified problems, and identifies patterns across session volumes that would require extensive manual review to surface otherwise.
FullStory's free tier, launched in 2025, is the most generous session allocation in this category at 30,000 sessions per month with 12 months of retention. Paid plans require a sales conversation, making FullStory more appropriate for enterprise product teams with budget for a commercial relationship than for small teams or developers evaluating tooling independently.
π Key features
- Fullcapture autocapture records every user interaction without pre-configured event tagging
- Session replay with retroactive analysis: data captured before a question is asked can still be queried retroactively
- StoryAI for anomaly detection, session summarization, and revenue impact modeling of identified friction
- DX Data product analytics with funnels, frustration scoring, and user segments
- Journey mapping showing aggregate user paths across the product
- Heatmaps, click maps, and scroll maps
- Native mobile session replay for iOS, Android, and React Native
- Enterprise compliance including SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA-ready configurations
β Pros
- The free tier includes 30,000 sessions per month with 12 months of replay and analytics retention, far above OpenReplay's 1,000-session cloud free plan
- Fullcapture eliminates the engineering cost of maintaining an event taxonomy and enables retroactive behavioral queries that OpenReplay's structured event model does not support
- StoryAI models the revenue impact of friction, helping teams justify engineering prioritization by business outcome rather than frequency alone
- Enterprise compliance and data governance features are built into the core platform rather than requiring additional configuration
β Cons
- No self-hosting option; FullStory is cloud-only, which immediately disqualifies it for teams whose evaluation of OpenReplay was driven by data residency requirements
- Paid plans are entirely opaque: no public pricing, no published session tiers, and a sales conversation required before any cost estimate is available
- Platform complexity and cost are calibrated for enterprise teams; small product teams or individual developers will find the pricing and procurement process disproportionate to their needs
- No co-browsing for live user support, which is OpenReplay's most distinctive capability
π² Pricing
FullstoryFree includes 30,000 sessions per month, 12 months of replay retention, 12 months of analytics data retention, and up to 10 users, with no credit card required. All paid plans are custom-quoted through the sales team based on session volume, data retention, and team size. Reported median annual contracts from enterprise procurement data run in the tens of thousands of dollars.
6. Hotjar (now Contentsquare)
Hotjar has been the default behavioral analytics entry point for non-technical teams since it popularized session replay and heatmaps for marketing and UX workflows. Its defining feature is the breadth of feedback coverage: session recordings and heatmaps are paired with in-app surveys, feedback widgets, and user interview scheduling in one subscription. Hotjar merged into Contentsquare in July 2025 and is being migrated onto the Contentsquare platform.
For teams evaluating OpenReplay primarily for web behavioral analytics and who do not need developer tooling, self-hosting, or mobile session replay, Hotjar's simplicity and feedback integration make it a practical alternative. It covers a meaningfully different use case: where OpenReplay is built for engineering teams debugging technical problems, Hotjar is built for marketers and UX researchers collecting qualitative feedback.
π Key features
- Session recordings with rage click, u-turn, and dead click detection
- Click heatmaps, scroll heatmaps, and move heatmaps across all instrumented pages
- In-app surveys with conditional logic, targeting rules, and response analysis
- Feedback widgets for continuous passive visitor input
- User interview scheduling and participant recruitment via the Engage product
- Funnel tracking with step-level drop-off analysis
- Integration with Google Analytics, Segment, HubSpot, and most major marketing platforms
β Pros
- The combination of session replay, surveys, and user interview scheduling in one platform addresses the feedback collection layer that OpenReplay does not include
- No-code setup with a simple snippet means marketing and CX teams can start capturing data without developer involvement
- Hotjar has the largest library of third-party tutorials, integrations, and documentation of any tool in this category, which reduces onboarding friction for new teams
- Unlimited user seats on all plans removes per-seat cost anxiety for cross-functional teams
β Cons
- No self-hosting: Hotjar is cloud-only, which rules it out for teams with data residency requirements
- No developer tooling: console logs, network activity, application state monitoring, and co-browsing are not available, making it unsuitable as a debugging tool
- No native mobile session replay; Hotjar covers web only
- The Observe, Ask, and Engage products are priced separately under the Contentsquare umbrella, which can result in significantly higher total cost for teams wanting full functionality
π² Pricing
Hotjar's pricing is no longer publicly listed following the Contentsquare merger. The Contentsquare free plan covers 200,000 sessions per month with core session replay, heatmaps, and basic funnels (updated December 2025). The Growth plan starts at $40 per month (billed annually) and adds advanced filtering, 13 months of data access, zone-based heatmaps, journey analysis, and AI-powered Sense insights. Ask and Engage products are priced separately. Pro and Enterprise plans are custom-quoted.
7. Sentry
Sentry is an application monitoring platform built around error tracking, performance monitoring, and code-level debugging. Session replay was added to the platform in 2023 and is tightly integrated with Sentry's error data: when an exception fires in production, the session replay for the user who encountered it is automatically linked, providing the full interaction context for the error without any additional investigation. Sentry is self-hostable via its open-source edition, which is one of the few parallels to OpenReplay's deployment model among the tools in this list.
The critical difference in scope is that Sentry starts from the error side and adds session context, while OpenReplay starts from the session side and adds error context. For teams whose primary use case is debugging production errors rather than analyzing user behavior patterns, Sentry's session replay integration is the more targeted fit. Teams that need heatmaps, funnel analysis, or retroactive behavioral queries will need additional tooling alongside Sentry.
π Key features
- Session replay automatically linked to error events, capturing the user interaction that triggered an exception
- Error tracking with stack traces, breadcrumbs, source maps, and release-based regression detection
- Performance monitoring for page load times, database queries, API latency, and distributed tracing
- Code coverage and test impact analysis to identify which errors affect the most users
- AI Autofix for generating code-level fix suggestions for identified errors
- Profiling for identifying performance bottlenecks in frontend and backend code
- Mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter
- Self-hostable via the open-source edition under a Fair Source license
β Pros
- Session replay linked directly to error events provides debugging context that requires no additional filtering or search; the recording is already associated with the exception
- AI Autofix generates code-level fix suggestions for identified errors, reducing the time from error detection to resolution
- Sentry's performance monitoring covers distributed traces across frontend and backend, which OpenReplay's session replay does not cover
- Self-hosting is available via the open-source edition, partially satisfying data residency requirements without a fully proprietary deployment
β Cons
- Session replay in Sentry is a complement to error monitoring rather than a standalone behavioral analytics tool; it does not offer heatmaps, conversion funnels, or retroactive event analysis
- No co-browsing for live user support
- The Fair Source license for Sentry's open-source edition is more restrictive than OpenReplay's open-source license for commercial use cases
- Session replay UI is less mature than replay-first tools: navigation and filtering capabilities are simpler than what LogRocket, PostHog, or OpenReplay offer
π² Pricing
Sentry's Developer plan is free and includes 5,000 errors per month and 1 user. The Team plan starts at $26 per month (billed annually; $29/month on monthly billing) and includes 50,000 errors per month, 5M spans, 50 session replays, 5 GB logs, and unlimited users. Additional replays beyond the 50 included are available at pay-as-you-go rates starting at $0.003 per replay. The Business plan starts at $80 per month (billed annually) and adds SSO/SAML, longer data retention, audit logs, and advanced quota management. Sentry is self-hostable under the Fair Source license. Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted.
Final thoughts
Choosing an alternative to OpenReplay comes down to what you value more: full data control or operational simplicity.
If self-hosting and open-source flexibility are essential, PostHog is the closest match. It offers a similar deployment model while expanding into product analytics, experiments, and feature flags, which makes it a strong long-term replacement.
If you would rather avoid managing infrastructure and want a fully managed experience, LogRocket is a strong upgrade for developer-focused teams. It combines session replay with technical diagnostics and AI-driven issue detection, without the DevOps overhead of self-hosting.
In short, pick PostHog if ownership is non-negotiable. Choose LogRocket if you prefer convenience and deeper debugging in a SaaS model.
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