💾 Strategy 2: Download and Export Recordings for Offline Use
: Don't wait for a crisis. Set up manual exports for your most critical user segments right away. Use the Export to JSON button in the replay player for any session that captures a rare bug or an executive user flow, and archive these files in a secure internal data lake.
This architecture is inherently portable because the raw snapshot files are stored in standard object storage. If you self-host, you can simply copy these files to back them up. If you use PostHog Cloud, the blob_v2 API gives you direct, temporary access to download the compressed blocks that compose the full recording. posthog session replay portable
In a standard web setup, PostHog connects directly to ://posthog.com . In a portable configuration, you point the api_host to your local proxy, an internal gateway, or a localized Docker container. javascript
Mutations, clicks, keypresses, mouse activity. Console Logs & Network Requests. 💾 Strategy 2: Download and Export Recordings for
Utilizing compressed JSON arrays or lightweight relational storage (like SQLite) instead of a massive ClickHouse cluster.
If you need – PostHog’s portable session replay is best-in-class among open source options. For pure SaaS ease-of-use, others are smoother, but you lose control. Evaluate your need for portability vs. convenience. This architecture is inherently portable because the raw
Second, and perhaps more importantly, is data portability. In a proprietary tool, a session replay is often a blob of unreadable, proprietary binary data that can only be decoded by the vendor’s specific player. PostHog treats session replay data as a first-class citizen in an open ecosystem. The event data that powers the replay—clicks, key presses, mouse movements, and network requests—is stored in a structured, accessible format. This allows engineering teams to export this data, integrate it with their own data warehouses, or feed it into machine learning models. It transforms the replay from a mere viewing experience into a dataset that can be analyzed programmatically.
Enter , the open-source product analytics platform. And at the heart of its flexibility lies a game-changing concept: Portability.
GET https://posthog.comproject_id/session_recordings/recording_id/snapshots/ Authorization: Bearer Use code with caution.