Free session replay tools: hosted, self-hosted, or build your own?

Three options at a glance

This is a focused comparison of three approaches, rather than an exhaustive ranking. TraceUX publishes this guide and is one of the options below. Product details were checked on September 29, 2026; review the linked documentation before choosing.

Microsoft Clarity: a managed starting point

Microsoft describes Clarity as a free service with session recordings and heatmaps and no traffic limits. Its FAQ says data is stored in Microsoft Azure. It is a practical option to evaluate if you want hosted behavior analysis without maintaining a replay server.

The decision is whether its hosted model and collection terms fit your site. Check the current documentation for masking, retention, supported content, and setup requirements. If your main question is where people interact across a page, its heatmaps may be useful alongside individual recordings.

TraceUX: replay and feedback on your server

TraceUX has no product license fee, per-seat bill, or vendor-enforced session quota for self-hosting. It runs as a Go binary with embedded SQLite. Alongside replays, it brings contextual feedback, threaded support tickets, announcements, browser and service logs, and backend performance into one product.

You provide and maintain the infrastructure. Capacity depends on traffic, event volume, storage, and retention. Include server costs and maintenance time in your comparison, even when the software fee is zero.

TraceUX is source-available under its Community Source License, rather than an OSI-approved open-source license. It is a fit to evaluate when owned replay storage and feedback context matter. It does not provide heatmaps, so a heatmap-focused workflow needs another tool.

rrweb: a library for a custom replay system

rrweb supplies recording and replay building blocks. Its documentation describes collecting page changes and interactions and reconstructing them in a player. A library can make sense if your team needs to integrate replay deeply into an existing application.

Using those building blocks still leaves product work: collecting events, storing sessions, controlling access, finding recordings, and maintaining the system. Estimate that engineering effort before comparing it with a ready-to-run dashboard. This option concerns the library, not any separately offered hosted service.

Test the same journey before deciding

Choose a task that matters to your site and run a small evaluation with dummy data. Test a completed journey, a failed attempt, and a mobile visit. Judge whether the replay gives your team enough context to act, rather than choosing from a feature count alone.

1. Check that navigation, dynamic content, and styling reconstruct correctly.
2. Verify that private input values and sensitive page text stay hidden.
3. Find the failed attempt and document how long it takes to investigate.
4. Confirm where events are stored and who can access them.
5. Estimate storage and maintenance alongside any software fee.

Choose around your constraints

Evaluate Clarity when managed recordings and heatmaps are the priority. Evaluate TraceUX when you want self-hosted replay connected to feedback and support. Evaluate rrweb when you are prepared to build and maintain a custom experience.

Whichever approach you choose, start with a narrow capture scope and a clear investigation. The most useful tool is the one your team can operate and use to resolve a real problem.