Glossary · Friction · also session recording
What is session replay?
Session replay reconstructs one visitor’s session as a watchable recording of pages, pointer movement, clicks and scrolling. It shows what happened in that session in detail, but not why it happened, how often it happens across sessions, or what it costs; those answers need aggregation and analysis on top.
- Reviewed 6 October 2026
In more detail
Replay’s strength is confirmation. When funnel data has given you a hypothesis, a few recordings settle it faster than any amount of argument.
Its weakness is as a discovery tool. Watching recordings to find problems is open-ended work with no point at which it is finished, so the tool keeps recording while the habit of watching tends to lapse.
Hosted checkouts cannot be replayed. A tool marketing checkout replay on Shopify is describing the pages before checkout, or something other than the checkout itself.
Key points
- Good for confirming a hypothesis; poor as a discovery method.
- Gives no frequency, no cost and no cause on its own.
- Hosted checkouts, Shopify’s included, cannot be recorded.
How Liftable relates
Questions
Is session replay worth installing?
Session replay is worth installing as a confirmation instrument, because a few recordings settle a specific hypothesis quickly. It is a poor discovery tool: watching recordings to find problems has no natural stopping point, and teams that rely on watching tend to stop.
Related terms
Guides that go deeper
- Diagnosis · 3 minSession replay explained: what it shows, and when to stop watchingWhat session replay shows, what it structurally cannot show, and why so many teams stop watching soon after they install it. With how to use it well.Read
- Diagnosis · 6 minSession recording vs heatmaps: which to use whenA heatmap tells you where. A recording tells you why. Using them in the wrong order is how a week of investigation ends in a strong feeling and no conclusion.Read
- Buying CRO · 6 minCan you try conversion tools for free first?Much of this category can be tried free, with a hidden cost that reorders every comparison. What is free, what free plans hold back, and a two-week trial.Read
Last reviewed against the product on 6 October 2026.
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