Heatmaps vs. Session Replay

Heatmaps aggregates clicks, element interactions, and scroll depth from many web sessions into one color-coded view of a single page. Session Replay records individual sessions and plays each one back next to its event timeline. Use Heatmaps to find out where users engage on a page. Use Session Replay to find out what one user did and why they struggled.

Amplitude includes a third option that overlaps with both. Zoning Insights measures named regions that you draw on a page, so you can report on a banner, a form, or a navigation bar as a unit. Use it when neither the whole page nor a raw selector is the thing you want to measure.

Compare Heatmaps, Session Replay, and Zoning Insights

Choose by the question you're asking

• Where do users click on this page: Use a click map. Warmer colors mark busier areas, and clicks on non-interactive elements show where users expect a link that doesn't exist.
• Which elements draw the most engagement: Use a selector map, which ranks the clickable elements on a page in descending order of clicks.
• How far down the page do users read: Use a scroll map for the whole page, including the average fold. Use Zoning Insights scroll reach when you need that percentage for one region instead of the whole page.
• Why did this user abandon checkout: Use Session Replay. A heatmap shows that a step loses clicks. A recording shows the hesitation, error, or misread label behind it.
• Which errors and frustration signals reach real users: Use Session Replay. Error analytics exposes console logs and failed network requests, and frustration analytics surfaces rage clicks and dead clicks.
• Does the hero banner outperform the sidebar promotion: Use Zoning Insights. Zones let you measure regions that you name, and you can compare two overlays side by side.
• How does engagement differ across devices or segments: Use Heatmaps or Zoning Insights. Both apply a segment and a device view to the same page.

How Heatmaps and Session Replay work together

Heatmaps runs on Session Replay capture, so the two aren't alternatives. They read the same data at different levels of detail, and a typical investigation moves from one to the other.

Start with a click map or selector map to find an area that draws unexpected traffic. Highlight that area to open Microscope, then move from the hotspot to the events behind it, to the replays of the users who produced them, or to a cohort of those users. On a scroll map, select Watch Replays to open the sessions that scrolled at least that far.

The reverse works too. If a replay shows one user struggling with a control, build a heatmap for that page to find out whether the behavior is widespread or a single incident.

What each product requires

Heatmaps and Zoning Insights read different instrumentation, so enabling one doesn't enable the other.

Heatmaps needs Session Replay capture on web, with the Session Replay Browser SDK Plugin at 1.7.0 or later, or the Session Replay Standalone SDK at 1.14.0 or later. Maps appear after Amplitude collects enough data, which is roughly 10 pages with about 500 tracked replay clicks each. A replay sample rate below 100% limits the interactions available to a heatmap and reduces its accuracy. For the full list of requirements, go to Create a heatmap.

Session Replay isn't on by default. Install Session Replay for your platform, then choose a session matching option so replays line up with the sessions in your charts.

Zoning Insights needs autocapture page views and element interactions rather than Session Replay. Because those are ordinary analytics events, turning Zoning Insights on raises your event volume. For setup across the Browser SDK, Google Tag Manager, Tealium iQ, and Segment, go to Zoning Insights instrumentation.