Posthog Session Replay Portable Link

You can feed this JSON data into an open-source rrweb player embedded inside your own internal admin panel to watch the recording independently of PostHog. 3. Exporting Raw Data via Data Pipelines

Filter your pipeline to ensure it captures $snapshot events. In PostHog, $snapshot is the core event type containing raw rrweb recording data.

PostHog Session Replay Portable: Unlocking True Data Ownership and Mobility

When you watch a replay, the frontend player first queries ClickHouse to get the list of recordings. When you click play, the API retrieves the compressed snapshot data from the blob store, which the browser's JavaScript engine decompresses and plays back [12†L23-L25]. posthog session replay portable

How does PostHog achieve this portability without breaking a sweat?

It's important to note that the raw snapshot data is not a straightforward MP4 video file. It's a log of DOM mutations and events, which requires a compatible player (like the one built into PostHog) to view. However, the data itself remains accessible and portable.

iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. You can feed this JSON data into an

Secure industries often need to store user session recordings on their own private servers to comply with strict privacy laws.

provides the highest degree of sovereignty. You install and run PostHog on your infrastructure, such as a Hetzner or AWS box. You must manage the entire stack—including ClickHouse, Redis, and Kafka—yourself, which requires significant time and expertise. The official self-hosted version is identical to the cloud product, and you are free to directly access its file system and databases to create your own backup and archiving mechanisms [19†L5-L7]. This eliminates any API rate limits or feature gates for data extraction.

With an open architecture built on rrweb and blob storage, PostHog empowers you to , freeing it from the constraints of typical SaaS walled gardens. This ensures that your most valuable insights are never held hostage. In PostHog, $snapshot is the core event type

Developers often struggle to replicate edge-case UI bugs that happen in production. By running a portable, lightweight instance of PostHog locally on your machine, you can record your own development or QA sessions. This lets you inspect console logs, network events, and DOM mutations in real time without polluting production data. 4. Reduced Bandwidth and Cloud Egress Costs

Companies operating in the EU or with sensitive health/financial data need to know exactly where their data resides. Self-hosted PostHog lets you choose the region.