OpenReplay

OpenReplay is an open-source session replay and product analytics suite you can self-host on AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean or Kubernetes — making it the most credible privacy-first alternative to LogRocket, FullStory and Hotjar. We rate it 78/100 — the right choice for engineering teams that want to see exactly what their users did without shipping that data to a third party.

What is OpenReplay?

OpenReplay is a self-hostable session replay platform that captures everything a user does in your web or mobile app — clicks, scrolls, network calls, console logs, JavaScript errors, Redux/Vuex/Pinia state, GraphQL queries and 40+ performance metrics — and lets you replay the session as if you were sitting next to them. It was founded in 2018 by Mehdi Osman (CEO) under the company Asayer, Inc., went through Y Combinator's S19 batch, and pivoted from a closed-source SaaS to an open-source product in 2020. The company has raised $6M+ from Y Combinator, Runa Capital, Expa and Kima Ventures.

As of May 2026 the GitHub repository sits at roughly 12,000 stars and 737 forks, with the latest stable release being v1.26.0 (shipped February 28, 2026). The pitch is simple: every commercial session replay tool charges per session and lives on someone else's servers — OpenReplay lets you replay every single session, keep raw recordings inside your own VPC, and pay nothing if you're willing to operate it yourself.

Key Features of OpenReplay

• Session replay with full DevTools context: every recording includes the network waterfall, console output, JavaScript exceptions, store mutations and 40+ web-vitals metrics — so reproducing a bug usually takes one click instead of an email thread.
• ~26 KB tracker: the JavaScript snippet is roughly 26 KB Brotli-compressed and sends data asynchronously, so adding OpenReplay to a production site has minimal Core Web Vitals impact.
• Spot — Chrome extension for bug reports: teammates record a 30-second video that automatically attaches the full network/console context developers need to fix the issue.
• Assist (cobrowsing): built-in WebRTC means support agents can see a user's live screen and start a call without screen-share software or a third-party tool.
• Product analytics: funnels, heatmaps, journey analysis and web analytics on the same event stream, so you don't need a separate analytics tool to understand drop-off.
• Plugins for popular state stores: Redux, Vuex, MobX, NgRx, Pinia and Zustand are first-class — replays show exact state mutations alongside the UI changes.
• Backend log integrations: Sentry, Datadog, CloudWatch, Stackdriver and Elastic so you can correlate a frontend session with the matching backend trace.
• Mobile capture (preview): SDKs for iOS, Android and React Native are available, though native replay is less mature than the web product.
• kAI assistant and MCP server: a 2026 addition that lets engineers ask natural-language questions about sessions and exposes recordings to AI agents over the Model Context Protocol on Enterprise.

What Users Say About OpenReplay

On Hacker News and Reddit's r/webdev, OpenReplay consistently surfaces as the recommended self-hosted replay tool whenever someone asks for a LogRocket alternative. The most cited praise is data ownership — teams in healthcare, fintech and EU regions repeatedly mention that being able to keep raw session data in their own AWS or GCP account simplified their compliance review. Independent comparisons from Better Stack, Statsig and PostHog's own blog all rank OpenReplay as the top open-source competitor in the category.

Recurring complaints, however, are equally consistent. The self-hosted stack ships with ClickHouse, Kafka, Redis and PostgreSQL — running it well at scale needs real DevOps experience, and several Reddit threads describe spinning up an O3 instance only to spend a weekend tuning storage. The free Cloud plan has tight session limits compared with LogRocket's Free tier, native mobile replay is still labelled preview and does not yet match the web experience, and the AI/analytics features — while improving — are less mature than dedicated tools like PostHog or Amplitude.

OpenReplay Pricing

OpenReplay is one of the few category leaders that publishes a fully-free tier with no session cap — provided you host it yourself. The managed Dedicated tier moved away from the old per-session model in 2025 and now bills hourly per VM size, so cost is bounded by infrastructure rather than by traffic.

Plan	Price	Key Limits
Open-Source	$0	Self-hosted, all core features, community support, full data ownership
Dedicated	From $179/mo ($0.25/hr)	Managed VM in 50+ AWS/GCP/Azure regions, BYOC option, SSO, custom retention, 7-day free trial
Enterprise	Custom (multi-year)	SAML/SCIM, RBAC, audit trail, MCP server, dedicated support, on-prem at scale

Who Should Use OpenReplay?

Best for: Engineering teams at SaaS, fintech, healthcare, govtech and EU companies that need full session replay and product analytics but cannot send raw user behavior to a US SaaS vendor. Solo developers and indie hackers who want unlimited sessions for free and don't mind running Docker Compose. Support and CX teams that want cobrowsing without buying a separate Pylon-style tool.

Not ideal for: Teams without any DevOps capacity who want a one-line install — LogRocket or FullStory will be smoother. Teams whose primary need is event analytics, feature flags, surveys and A/B testing under one roof — PostHog covers more of that surface. Mobile-first teams that need a fully GA native iOS/Android replay product today.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Truly open source: self-host on AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Scaleway, OVHcloud or Kubernetes with no feature throttling.
• Replay quality is competitive with LogRocket — full DOM snapshots, network, console, errors and state mutations in one timeline.
• Tracker is small (~26 KB Brotli) and asynchronous, so it doesn't tank Lighthouse scores.
• Dedicated tier prices by VM-hour rather than per session, so heavy-traffic apps don't get punished by usage-based billing.
• Built-in Spot extension and Assist cobrowsing remove the need for two extra tools (Loom-style bug capture and Pylon-style support video).

Cons:

• The self-hosted stack (ClickHouse + Kafka + PostgreSQL + Redis) genuinely needs DevOps competence to run reliably at scale.
• Free Cloud tier has tight session limits — for hosted use the practical entry point is the $179/mo Dedicated plan.
• Native mobile session replay is still in preview and feels behind FullStory's mobile product.
• Analytics and AI features (kAI, journey analysis) are less mature than purpose-built tools like PostHog or Amplitude.
• Documentation is split between the open-source editor docs and the Cloud product docs, which can feel scattered.

Alternatives to OpenReplay

PostHog is the closest all-in-one alternative — also open source, with replay, analytics, feature flags and surveys, but without OpenReplay's cobrowsing and with a more analytics-first UX. Sentry added session replay in 2023 and is a better fit if your team already lives inside Sentry for error monitoring. LogRocket and FullStory remain the polished commercial options if data residency isn't a constraint and you want zero ops.

Verdict: Is OpenReplay Worth It?

If you can run a managed Postgres and a small Kubernetes cluster — or pay $179/mo for the managed VM — OpenReplay is the obvious answer for self-hosted session replay in 2026. It is the most actively maintained open-source project in the category, the replay quality is competitive with the commercial leaders, and the per-VM Dedicated pricing makes it the cheapest credible option for high-traffic apps. The honest caveat is that this is a real distributed system: pick LogRocket if you want a one-line install and an account manager, pick PostHog if analytics matter more than replay, and pick OpenReplay if data ownership is non-negotiable. We rate it 78/100.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OpenReplay free?

Yes — the open-source edition is free forever and self-hosted, with no session, retention or feature limits. The fully managed Dedicated plan starts at $179/month ($0.25/hour) and includes a 7-day free trial without a credit card.

Is OpenReplay open source?

Yes. The full session replay, DevTools, analytics and cobrowsing stack is open source on GitHub with roughly 12,000 stars as of May 2026. You can deploy it on AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Scaleway, OVHcloud or Kubernetes.

How does OpenReplay compare to LogRocket?

Both capture full DOM snapshots, network calls, console logs and state mutations. LogRocket is purely SaaS and bills per session; OpenReplay can be self-hosted for free or run on a Dedicated VM from $179/mo with no per-session limits, which is usually significantly cheaper at scale and the right answer when data residency or compliance matters.

What platforms does OpenReplay support?

OpenReplay has SDKs for any modern web app (React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, Next.js, vanilla JavaScript) and preview SDKs for iOS, Android and React Native. The backend deploys on AWS, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean and Kubernetes.

Does OpenReplay support GDPR and SOC 2?

OpenReplay Cloud is SOC 2 Type II compliant and the platform offers fine-grained privacy controls (input redaction, element obscuring) so personal data never reaches your servers. Self-hosting puts data in your own region and account, which is the usual route for GDPR-regulated workloads.