FROM THE BLOG

Preview: Session replays

We’ve been adding a steady stream of improvements to heatmaps over the last few months, and one question kept coming up:

“Can AB Split Test replace Clarity or Hotjar completely?”

Heatmaps got us halfway there. Session replays finish the job.

Why We Built It

A lot of agencies use full replay tools to understand why users behave the way they do.
The problem is always the same:

  • Clarity slows down your site

  • Hotjar gets expensive fast

  • data gets shipped off to external servers

  • performance takes a hit

  • privacy gets… let’s say complicated

We wanted something simple that slots into your AB Split Test workflow and doesn’t turn into another monthly SaaS bill.

So we built session replays the same way we built heatmaps:

local data, lightweight tracking, and no impact on performance.

We now have a beta available, and this post walks through what it does, how it works, and why many of you have been waiting for it.

What it shows

The replay includes:

  • page-by-page navigation

  • a timeline of clicks, scrolls, and interactions

  • rage-click markers

  • page visits

  • conversion context

  • filters for tests, variations, and events

You can filter by all of these. More filters will roll out in the next release.

When you open a session, you get a clean timeline across the bottom and a breakdown of every page the user touched. It behaves like the tools you’ve used before, just with less noise and less load.

Data and performance

Replay scripts are usually heavy. We didn’t want that.

The new system stores the minimum required interaction data, links it to tests and variations when relevant, and processes it on your server. No remote calls, no external storage.

If you’ve used Clarity, you’ll know it can bring sites to a crawl on busy pages.
That doesn’t happen here.

The replay loads fast because the recording approach is different. It’s designed around CRO work, not around collecting every pixel-level detail forever.

Sessions recorded before today use the older, lighter dataset.
New ones will show the improved detail.

Availability

If you want to try the beta, reply to the email you received. We’ll add you to the testers.

The public release should be out within the next few weeks.

We’re keeping the Cyber November deal open for an extra day to mark the launch.

If you rely on CRO for client work, this will probably replace the replay tools you’ve been juggling.