FullStory and Hotjar are "experience platforms." They are magnificent tools, but they are prisons for your data. PostHog is the only major player that treats session replays as your asset, not their product.
If you are using PostHog Cloud, you already have session replays. Why go through the hassle of making them "portable"? Here are five critical use cases.
Traditional session recording tools stream massive amounts of DOM mutation data directly to third-party cloud servers. While convenient for production SaaS products, this model falls short during specific development stages and in tightly regulated industries. 1. Air-Gapped and High-Security Environments
Running analytics on a local system can eat up RAM. Configure your capture script to clear its browser storage buffers immediately after writing to the local backend, keeping the client-side footprint under 50MB. Privacy and Compliance in Isolated Replays posthog session replay portable
Building a resilient, data-driven organization requires a clear strategy. Consider this phased approach to portable session replay with PostHog.
Session Replay offers a wealth of benefits, including:
: Security teams working in isolated networks or restricted intranets cannot stream cloud media player links. Portable files can be moved securely via local media or internal file-shares. FullStory and Hotjar are "experience platforms
"PostHog Session Replay Portable" is not a separate product, but a strategy. By choosing to self-host PostHog and configuring its storage to use your own cloud infrastructure, you gain unparalleled control over your data, true portability, and full GDPR compliance. For companies that prioritize security and flexibility, it is the most reliable way to implement session recording. If you are interested, I can help you: Compare the cost of self-hosting vs. PostHog Cloud. Find the best Docker configuration for your needs.
: Because PostHog is open-source, the entire session replay infrastructure can be self-hosted (e.g., via Docker). This makes the tool "portable" across different cloud providers or private data centers, ensuring full data residency and security. Core Replay Features
Because this data is entirely text-based and structured, it is highly compressible, queryable, and inherently portable. Technical Roadmap to Exporting PostHog Replays Why go through the hassle of making them "portable"
Capture network requests, console logs, and even "touches".
To understand why portability matters, you must first understand the standard SaaS model.