7 Free Website Visitor Recording Services

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Here are 7 free website visitor recording services to record session replays. They can automatically record mouse movements, clicks, scrolls, taps, pages visited, form fields filled, and so on. To record visitor sessions, all you gotta do is integrate these services into your website by placing a tracking script which you get after signing up. Apart from session recordings, they also offer other important features like heatmaps, filters, data retention, and more. Some of them even have unique features like funnels, form analytics, team collaboration, etc.

You can then use the built-in player to watch the recordings and analyze what can be optimized and improved on your website to make it more user-friendly. The recordings can help you understand what’s happening on your website, how the visitors interact with web pages, etc.

After watching the visitor session recordings, if you would like to chat with the visitors in real-time, then go ahead and start using any of the free live chat services.

Let’s get started with the website visitor recording services.

Smartlook:

Smartlook is probably one of the best free website visitor recording services. It automatically records all activities the visitors do on your website. The activities will be recorded from any device the visitor use for browsing your website like desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. You will be able to see various parameters on the session recordings like mouse movement, clicks, form fields filled by visitors, how long they browse a page/website, and much more.

You can simply setup Smartlook by signing up and then get the code script. After that, you can paste the script on your website’s <body> tag. Once done, it will start recording sessions automatically.

Some of the useful features of Smartlook are:

Visitor Recording: The free version of Smartlook can record up to 100,000 visitors per month. It will record 10 visitors at a time. Apart from that, the total page views for recording in the free version is also limited to 500,000. You will see the recording under the “Recordings” tab along with visitor information such as location, IP address, duration, pages, device, referrer, etc.
Recording Playback: It comes with a built-in video player using which you will be able to play the session recordings. The player comes with a playlist section, speed controller, and also lets you add notes to the recordings. You can only create 3 notes for free.
Heatmaps: You can create up to 3 heatmaps for free. It lets you create a heatmap just by entering a URL. It will automatically process the visitor activities and generate the heatmap after at least 5 pageviews. You can easily view the heatmap and also toggle it by click, movement, scroll, and devices. You will also see some additional information like the status, visits, page, etc. for each heatmap.
Filters: It also lets you filter the session recordings by visitor behavior, time period, number of visited pages, device type, duration (in seconds), visitor info, and tags. You can apply any of these filters to easily find the recording you’re looking for.
Retention Period: The free version of this website visitor recording service is limited to only 3 days of data retention.
Users: It also allows you to invite team members to your account for collaboration. There is no limit on the number of users you can invite.
IP Blocking: This feature allows you to block IP addresses for which you don’t want to record session replays.

Paid Features: There are many paid features available like visitor journey, chat support, API & integrations, unlimited recordings, and so on.

FullStory:

FullStory is another useful website visitor recording service which can automatically record the activities of the visitors on your website. It can record session replays, mouse movements, rage clicks, dead clicks, and more. This one can also record sessions on different devices like a desktop, mobile phone, etc. used by the visitors.

To setup FullStory, the first thing you needs to do is create a free profile and then it will provide you with a code snippet. You can now simply copy and paste it into your website. After that, it will start recording visitor’s sessions automatically.

Some of the important features of FullStory are:

Sessions: It can record up to 1000 sessions per month for free. Apart from the recording, you will also be able to see many other visitor information like the number of events, website usage time, pages visited, location, device, browsers, and more.
Recording Playback: This one also allows you to easily play the recording using the built-in player. To play a recording, all you gotta do is select it under the “FullStory” tab. The player has some additional option like speed control, auto-play next session, sharing, and more.
Filters: It automatically categorizes the recording into Everyone, Signed-Up, New this week, Rage clicked recently, and Mobile. Apart from that, you can also filter the recordings by email, name, total active time, average session length, signed-up status, and so on.
Graphs: It doesn’t have the option to create and view heatmaps, but you can still see various graphs regarding the visitor sessions. You will see the graph for users in a segment, device-based users, rage/dead based users, and more.
Funnels: It also has an option to create funnels and know why and where you’re losing website visitors and work on those pages.
Retention Period: The data retention period in the free version is up to 1 month. You can retain the session recordings data for up to 30 days.
Users: The free version offers only 3 seats for you to invite others for collaboration. That means you will be able to add 3 more participants to your account.
Integrations: It also supports third-party integrations which you can add to your account. The free version is limited to a few integrations including Slack, HipChat, etc.

Paid Features: Apart from more session recording and retention period, you also get many features including Go Live, Error Click Search, Domain Blocking, IP Blocking, and more in the paid version.

HotJar:

HotJar is also a free service which can help you record visitor sessions on your website. This one also records mouse clicks, mouse movements, pages visited, and so on. It can record sessions of visitors regardless of the device, browser, operating system, etc. used by the visitors. The heatmaps are also pretty useful for understanding your visitors.

For using HotJar, simply sign up and get the tracking code. After that, you just need to copy and paste this tracking code on your website to start using it for recording visitor sessions.

Some of the useful features of HotJar are:

Session Recordings: The free version of HotJar is limited to 300 recordings and a maximum of 2000 page views. After recording session, you can also see many details about the visitors like the location, device used, operating system, browser, pages visited, etc.
Play Recordings: You will see all the recorded sessions under the “Recordings” tab. From there, you can select any of the recordings to start playing it with the inbuilt player. The player also includes the options to control the playback speed, autoplay next recording, and so on.
Filters: You can search for session recordings by applying various filters like a visited page, landing page, exit page, visit duration, country, device, and more.
Heatmaps: Similar to Smartlook, this one also allows you to create heatmaps for visitor sessions. You can easily create heatmaps by entering the target URL and then you can view them to understand the behavior of your visitors on the website. It lets you toggle heatmaps by devices, click, move, scroll, and even allows you to download them as JPG files. There is no limit on the number of heatmaps which you can create.
Funnels: One of the unique features of HotJar is “Funnels’ which allows you to know where you’re losing your visitors on the website.
Forms: Analysing forms can help you check where the website visitors are dropping off. Doing so, you will also find out the fields which may be co0nfusing to the visitors.
Retention Time: The data retention time in the free version of HotJar is 3 months. That means you will be able to retain and access the session recordings data for up to 3 months.
Notes: While watching a session recording, you will also be able to add notes to the recording. This can come in handy for you to jot down important facts about your visitors’ activities. It even has the option to add tags.
Users: This one also allows you to collaborate with as many users as you want by inviting them to your team. The users will be able to see recordings, create heatmaps, and more.

Paid Features: Apart from more recordings, retention period, etc., it also has various paid features like page targeting, triggers, and more.

Mouseflow:

Mouseflow is another free website visitor recording service which can record session replays, mouse movement, clicks, scrolls, taps, inactivity, form interactions, etc. This one can record sessions no matter which device is used by the visitor. You can also see heatmaps to know the visitor activities and interactions on the website.

You can simply visit the homepage and sign up for a new account. Once done, it will show you a code which you need to place on your website for making this service to start recording visitor sessions.

Some of the important features of Mouseflow are:

Sessions: It allows you to record up to 300 sessions per month for free. Apart from the session replays, this one also displays additional visitor information including the location, referrer, entry page, last seen, duration, device used, operating system, etc.
Recording Playback: You can browse all the recordings on the dashboard and then play them instantly using the built-in player. While watching a recording, you can also speed up/down, add comments, tags, etc.
Filters: This one also allows you to filter the session recordings by the device, country, page count, duration, tags, navigation, traffic source, and more. Applying filters, you will be able to quickly find recordings you’re looking for.
Heatmaps: This service automatically creates heatmaps for you and categorizes them into Click, Movement, Scroll, attention, and Geo. You can easily browse these categories and view the associated heatmaps. Apart from that, you will also see additional details like views, visit time, engagement, render, and more.
Retention Period: The data retention period in the free version of Mouseflow is limited to 30 days. You can access the data within the retention period and then the data will be removed.
Funnels: You can also create funnels in Mouseflow. However, the free plan has a limit of only 1 funnel. The funnels can help you see where your visitors hesitate, convert, or dropout.
Forms: This one also lets you create form analytics to measure the performance of web forms on your website. You can only create one form in the free version.
Feedback: It even has the option to create feedback campaigns (only 1 in free plan) to get an opinion of visitors on any topic.
Exclude IP: This feature lets you block any IP address such that the sessions from that IP will not be recorded.
Integrations: It also allows you to integrate third-party services into your account to know more about visitor activities on your website.

Paid Features: There are many paid features available like you can invite multiple users, phone support, account manager, more sessions, more funnels, etc.

Inspectlet:

Inspectlet is also a pretty useful service that helps you easily record the session replays on your websites for visitors’ activities. You will be able to see the mouse movements, clicks, and more. It can record session replays even if the visitors are using different devices like a desktop, mobile phone, etc. to access your website. Apart from that, it also creates heatmaps to let you know where your visitors are looking, clicking, etc. on the website.

After you go to the homepage, the first thing you would need to do is create an account by selecting the free plan. Then it will show you the code snippet which you can place on your website’s <body> tag to start recording visitor sessions.

Some of the useful features of Inspectlet are:

Sessions: The free version of Inspectlet allows you to record up to 100 sessions per month and also approximately 1000 pageviews. With each recording, you will also see various visitor information like the device used, location, starting page, referrer, session length, etc.
Recording Playback: This one also lets you play the recordings on the website itself. You will also get the options to control the playback speed, add tags, see rage clicks, jot down notes, etc. in the built-in player.
Filters: This one also allows you to quickly find recordings by applying filters based on session time, device, interactions, traffic source, navigation path, visitor attributes, and so on.
Heatmaps: Similar to Mouseflow, this one also automatically generates heatmaps for visitor session. You can toggle the heatmap view by different heatmap types (eye-tracking, click, and scroll) and devices (desktop, tablet, and mobile).
Retention Period: The data can be retained only for 1 month in the free version of Inspectlet. After that, the session recordings data will be removed automatically.
A/B Experiments: One of the unique features of this service is “A/B Experiments”. You can use it to create a/b testing experiments for viewing the performance of different versions of your website.
Block IP: It also comes with an option to block IP addresses of visitors to avoid unnecessary session recordings. This service will stop recording for the blocked IPs.

Paid Features: You can use various features by upgrading to the paid plan like targeting control, download recordings, funnels, multiple users, API access, etc.

MouseStats:

MouseStats is another website visitor recording service which can record mouse movements, keystrokes, scrolls, and even clicks of the visitors. no matter which device is used by the visitors, it can always record the session replays and allow you to watch them with ease. It will also generate a heatmap to help you better understand your visitors and see how they interact with your website.

You can start using it by signing up for a new account. After that, it will generate a tracking script which you need to put in your website’s footer section. Once done, it will start recording visitor sessions automatically.

Some of the important features of MouseStats are:

Sessions: In the free version, it can only record up to 100 sessions. After recording visitor sessions, you will also be able to see various information about the visitors, like their location, pages visited, latest activity, operating system, browser, IP address, device, and much more.
Play Recordings: You can find all the recordings under the “Playbacks” tab. From there, you can choose any recording you want and play it using the MouseStats built-in player. You will also get some additional option to remove inactivity part from the recordings, add comments, zoom in/out, etc.
Filters: It lets you easily find recordings by filtering them using the browser, operating system, tag, country, date, duration, pageviews, etc.
Heatmaps: This service also generates the heatmaps by itself and allows you to view them in a separate section. You will also see the option to toggle the heatmap by clicks, moves, scroll reach, viewport overlap, attention, etc. It even has the option to export the heatmap as a PNG file. It supports only 2 heatmap projects and up to 100 heatmap updates per month in the free version.
From Analytics: You can create forms to know the performance of the web forms on your website and know how the visitors interact with the fields. The form analytics is also limited to only 1 project and 100 updates per month.
Micro Surveys: Similar to feedback in Mouseflow, this one allows you to create website surveys for the visitors to get their opinion. You can create unlimited surveys, but the responses are limited to 1,000,000, which is still a large number.
Exclude IPs: This one also has the option to block or exclude IP addresses from tracking and session recording.
Integrations: You can integrate other services to MouseStats using API access.

Paid Features: The paid version will allow you to record more sessions, create more heatmaps, more forms, and so on.

ScreenSquid:

ScreenSquid can also be used to record website visitors and session replays. It records clicks, mouse movements, scrolling, keypresses, form changes, and DOM changes. The attributes can be recorded for visitors who are using any device, browser, etc. Unlike other services explained in this post, it doesn’t have other features (like heatmaps, etc.)

You can simply browse the homepage and the create an account. Then it will provide you with a code which you would need to place on your website. When you’re done, ScreenSquid will start recording your website visitor sessions.

Some of the important features of ScreenSquid are:

Sessions: The free plan of ScreenSquid allows you to record up to 100 sessions per month. Along with the recordings, you will some visitor details including operating system, browser, pages visited, IP, and more.
Recording Playback: It does allow you to play the session recordings, but you would need the desktop client of ScreenSquid to do that. The download link will appear when you try to play a recording.
Filters: You can quickly search and find recordings by filtering them. It lets you filter recordings by referrer, landing page, device, duration, pages, and more.
Retention Period: The session recordings data can be retained within 1 month of creation. That means you can access the recording and related data for 30 days and then the data will be deleted automatically.
Users: You can invite up to 5 team members for collaboration. The invited members will also be able to watch the recordings and access other data.

Paid Features: The paid plan offers more sessions, more users, multiple domains, extended retention time, and so on.

Closing Words:

So, if you have been looking for services to record your website visitors and their activities, then using any of these services is probably the best choice for you. Personally, I like all these services as they do offer a decent free plan. However, if you require recording more visitor sessions, then I would suggest you use “Smartlook” as it offers more free session recordings.

Try them and let me know which service you liked in the comments below.