# Smartlook

> Smartlook is a behavior analytics tool that records every session on a website or mobile app, builds heatmaps and funnels from that capture, and lets teams define events retroactively without code. Founded in the Czech Republic and now part of Cisco, it is known for treating native mobile apps as a first-class recording surface rather than an afterthought, and for a free plan that includes real recording volume.

- Category: CRO & Experimentation (https://saastracker.org/categories/cro-experimentation)
- Website: https://www.smartlook.com
- Starting price: Free for around 3,000 monthly sessions; paid plans from roughly $55 per month
- Free plan: Around 3,000 monthly sessions with recordings, heatmaps, and events on a short retention window
- Free trial: Free plan plus trial access to paid features
- Founded: 2016, HQ: Brno, Czech Republic, Ownership: Acquired by Cisco (2023)
- Profile last reviewed: 2026-08-22
- Canonical profile: https://saastracker.org/products/smartlook

## Overview

Smartlook occupies the practical middle of the behavior analytics market: more analytical than a pure heatmap tool, considerably cheaper than the enterprise experience platforms, and unusually strong on mobile. Where most session replay products bolted an app SDK onto a web-first architecture, Smartlook built native iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and game engine support alongside the web recorder, which is why it shows up so often in the stack of a company whose product is an app rather than a site.

The analysis model pairs recordings with events. Any click, form submission, or page visit can be turned into a named event through a no-code picker, and because capture is continuous, defining that event applies to sessions already recorded. Funnels built from those events show drop-off, and each drop-off step links directly to the recordings of the people who abandoned it, which is the loop that makes the product useful rather than merely interesting.

Cisco acquired Smartlook in 2023, folding it into a broader observability portfolio. For buyers the practical consequences have been continuity rather than upheaval: the self-serve motion, the free plan, and the pricing structure remain, with the usual questions any acquisition raises about long-term roadmap independence. The tool remains a reasonable default for teams that need replay on both web and app without an enterprise contract.

## How it works

1. Installation is a script for web or an SDK for each mobile platform. Recording begins immediately and runs continuously up to the plan's monthly session allowance, with no requirement to define what to track first.

2. Events are created after the fact by pointing at an element in a recorded session or by matching selectors, page visits, and text. Because Smartlook stores the underlying interactions, a newly defined event is populated with historical data rather than starting from zero.

3. Funnels chain events into a path with conversion and drop-off rates per step. Any step can be expanded into the list of sessions that failed to advance, so an abstract percentage becomes a set of specific replays to watch.

4. Heatmaps aggregate clicks and scroll depth per page, and on mobile the equivalent shows tap distribution over app screens. Filters across recordings, funnels, and heatmaps share the same segmentation, including custom user identifiers passed from your application so an account or plan tier can be isolated.

## Best for

Product and growth teams with a mobile app, or with both a web and app surface, that want continuous recording, retroactive events, and funnels without paying enterprise experience analytics prices.

## Not the right fit for

- Teams that need A/B testing built in, which Smartlook does not provide.
- Marketing-only use cases on a content site, where cheaper or free heatmap tools cover the need.
- Organizations requiring deep frontend error and performance diagnostics as the primary purchase.
- Very high-volume sites where per-session pricing outpaces the value of full capture.
- Buyers who want a fully independent vendor, given the tool now sits inside a large parent company's portfolio.

## Features

### Recording

Continuous capture across web and native app surfaces.

- **Always-on session recording**: Every session is captured up to the plan allowance rather than sampled, so the specific visit you need to see is usually there.
- **Native mobile SDKs**: First-class iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter recording including gestures, screen transitions, and app crashes, plus game engine support.
- **Crash and error linkage**: App crashes and JavaScript errors are attached to the sessions they occurred in, turning a stack trace into a reproducible story.
- **Session filtering**: Narrow by device, country, referrer, app version, custom user attribute, session length, or events fired during the visit.
- **Sensitive data masking**: Automatic input suppression with configurable element and view-level masking on both web and mobile.

### Events and funnels

Turning captured behavior into measurable steps.

- **No-code event picker**: Define an event by pointing at an element in a recording, no engineering ticket and no tagging plan required.
- **Retroactive event data**: New events populate with historical sessions, so a metric defined today has a back catalogue rather than starting empty.
- **Funnel drop-off analysis**: Multi-step conversion paths with per-step drop rates, segmented by device, source, or custom attributes.
- **Recordings from any funnel step**: Click a drop-off number and watch the sessions behind it, closing the loop between quantitative and qualitative.
- **Custom API events**: Server-side or in-app events pushed programmatically for things a DOM picker cannot see, such as a payment confirmation.

### Heatmaps and analysis

Aggregate views across both surfaces.

- **Click and scroll heatmaps**: Standard aggregate maps per page and device with segment filtering, generated from the continuous capture rather than separate tracking.
- **Mobile tap maps**: Screen-level tap and gesture distributions for native apps, a view most web-first competitors cannot produce.
- **Dashboards**: Saved metrics and event trends collected into shareable views for recurring reporting.
- **Segment comparison**: Compare behavior between cohorts, such as new versus returning or one app version against another.
- **Retention and usage trends**: Lightweight product analytics that show whether defined events repeat over time rather than only converting once.

### Platform and administration

Integrations, access, and the operational surface.

- **Integrations**: Connections to analytics, support, and workflow tools including Google Analytics, Slack, Zendesk, Intercom, and Zapier.
- **User identification**: Pass user IDs, emails, plan tiers, and custom properties to make recordings findable by account rather than by chance.
- **Team access and roles**: Multiple team members with permissioned access to recordings, which matters given how sensitive replay data is.
- **Data retention settings**: Configurable retention windows by plan, controlling how far back an investigation can reach.
- **Free plan with real volume**: A permanent free tier including thousands of monthly sessions, unusual in a category where free tiers are usually token gestures.

## Use cases

- **Mobile app product manager investigating churn after an update**: Ratings drop after a release and reviews mention a crash nobody can reproduce internally. Outcome: Sessions filtered to the new app version with crash flags show the failing sequence on a specific device class, and the fix ships with confidence rather than guesswork.
- **Growth lead auditing an onboarding funnel**: Signup completion is below target across both web and app, and the two surfaces are measured differently. Outcome: One funnel definition covers both surfaces, drop-off is isolated to a verification step on mobile, and the recordings explain why users abandon there.
- **Ecommerce team diagnosing checkout abandonment**: Cart abandonment is high but analytics offers no explanation beyond the number. Outcome: Retroactive events on each checkout stage produce a funnel from data already collected, and replays of abandoning sessions reveal an unexpected shipping cost reveal as the trigger.
- **Support team reproducing customer complaints**: A customer describes a problem imprecisely and support cannot reproduce it. Outcome: The session is located by the user identifier passed at login, replayed with events and errors visible, and escalated with a link rather than a description.

## Pricing

Subscription priced by monthly recorded sessions, with a free tier and paid plans adding volume, retention, and advanced features. Web and mobile capture are covered by the same session-based model.

- **Free**: $0 per month. Roughly 3,000 monthly sessions; Recordings, heatmaps, events, and funnels; Short data retention window.
- **Pro**: From about $55 per month. Higher session volumes with retention measured in months; Full event and funnel capabilities plus integrations; Custom user identification and segmentation.
- **Enterprise**: Quoted annual. Large session volumes and extended retention; Advanced security, access control, and support; Dedicated onboarding.

Billing notes:

- Sessions are metered across web and mobile together, so an app launch consumes the same pool as website traffic.
- Retention is the quiet differentiator between tiers; the free plan's short window limits investigation of anything historical.
- Prices as published August 2026 and subject to change following the acquisition; confirm current tiers before budgeting.
- Annual billing carries a discount, and higher volumes move to quoted agreements.
- Because capture is always-on rather than sampled, allowance planning should assume every visit counts.

Value assessment: Smartlook's pitch is coverage per dollar: continuous recording rather than sampling, mobile and web on one meter, and retroactive events so nothing has to be tagged in advance. For an app-first company that would otherwise buy a mobile analytics tool and a web replay tool separately, the consolidation is worth real money. For a content site with no app, cheaper or free alternatives cover the same ground, and the mobile strength that justifies the price goes unused.

## Strengths

- Genuine first-class support for native mobile app recording, including gestures, screen flows, and crashes.
- Always-on capture rather than sampling, so the session you need is usually available.
- Retroactive no-code events mean analysis is never blocked by a missing tag.
- Funnels link directly to the recordings behind each drop-off, closing the quantitative and qualitative loop.
- A free plan with meaningful volume rather than a token allowance.
- One meter and one interface covering both web and app surfaces.

## Limitations

- No A/B testing or personalization, so validation of fixes needs another tool.
- Web-only teams get less differentiated value than the mobile story suggests.
- Retention on lower tiers is short enough to constrain historical investigation.
- Roadmap independence is a fair question following acquisition by a large parent company.
- Product analytics depth is lighter than dedicated analytics platforms for cohort and retention work.
- Session-based pricing scales directly with growth, with app usage often consuming allowance faster than web visits.

## Comparisons

- **Smartlook vs Hotjar**: Hotjar is the better choice for a marketing team on a website, with stronger survey and feedback tooling and a well-known free tier. Smartlook is the better choice the moment a native mobile app is in scope, since Hotjar does not record apps at all. On web alone the two are close, with Hotjar ahead on qualitative research and Smartlook ahead on retroactive events and funnels.
- **Smartlook vs Microsoft Clarity**: Clarity is free with unlimited sessions and covers web heatmaps and recordings competently, so for pure web replay it undercuts everything. Smartlook justifies a paid subscription through mobile SDK support, retroactive event definition, funnels, and custom user identification, none of which Clarity matches. Web-only teams with tight budgets should start with Clarity and only move if analysis depth becomes the constraint.
- **Smartlook vs LogRocket**: LogRocket is the engineering-oriented option, with deeper error, network, and performance instrumentation aimed at frontend teams debugging their own code. Smartlook is aimed more at product and growth roles, with easier no-code event definition and stronger native mobile coverage relative to price. Teams whose main pain is bug reproduction lean LogRocket; teams whose main pain is funnel drop-off lean Smartlook.

## Implementation

- Setup time: Web installation is under an hour. Mobile SDK integration takes longer, since it requires an app release cycle, and masking sensitive views should be configured before that build ships.
- Learning curve: Low. The no-code event picker is the main concept to learn, and funnels follow naturally from it. Teams accustomed to event-based analytics adapt quickly.
- Onboarding: Self-serve with documentation, in-app guidance, and support. Enterprise agreements include structured onboarding.
- Migration: Recorded history does not port between vendors. When moving in, define user identification consistently from day one, and when moving mobile SDKs remember that removing capture requires another app release, so plan the transition around your release cadence.

## Platform, API & security

- Platforms: Web (JavaScript), iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity and game engines
- API: REST API for session and event data, server-side custom event ingestion, SDK methods for user identification and property passing, and webhook support.
- Compliance: GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, ISO 27001
- Data residency: EU and US data center options.
- SSO: Single sign-on available on higher tiers.
- Security notes: Input fields are suppressed by default with configurable masking by element on web and by view on mobile, plus consent gating and retention controls appropriate to European deployments.

## Support

- Channels: Email support, In-app chat, Documentation and help center
- Documentation: Clear implementation documentation for each SDK platform, with particular attention to mobile masking and event configuration.
- Community: A modest but active user base, with strongest presence among European product teams and mobile-first companies.

## Company

- Founded: 2016
- Headquarters: Brno, Czech Republic
- Ownership: Acquired by Cisco (2023)
- Employees: ~100 (est. 2026)
- Funding: Raised venture funding before acquisition.

Timeline:

- 2016: Founded in Brno as an always-on session recording tool for websites.
- 2019: Adds native mobile SDKs, differentiating from web-only replay competitors.
- 2021: Expands into events, funnels, and retroactive analysis, moving beyond pure replay.
- 2023: Acquired by Cisco and folded into its observability portfolio while retaining self-serve pricing.
- 2026: Continues as the mid-market option combining web and mobile replay under one session meter.

## Integrations

Google Analytics, Slack, Zendesk, Intercom, Zapier, Segment, Jira, Mixpanel, Shopify, WordPress

## FAQ

### What is Smartlook?

Smartlook is a behavior analytics tool that continuously records website and mobile app sessions, generates heatmaps, and lets teams define events and funnels without code. Because it captures interactions continuously, events defined later apply to sessions already recorded.

### Is Smartlook free?

Yes, there is a permanent free plan covering roughly 3,000 monthly sessions with recordings, heatmaps, events, and funnels on a short retention window. Paid plans start around $55 per month and mainly increase session volume and how long data is kept.

### Does Smartlook record mobile apps?

Yes, and this is its main differentiator. Native SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, and game engines record gestures, screen transitions, and crashes, all metered against the same session allowance as web recordings.

### What are retroactive events?

Events you define after data has been collected. Because Smartlook records all interactions rather than only pre-tagged ones, naming a new event today populates it with historical sessions, so a funnel can be built from the past instead of waiting weeks for new data.

### Smartlook vs Hotjar: which should I choose?

Choose Hotjar for a website-only marketing use case, particularly if you want surveys and feedback widgets. Choose Smartlook if a native mobile app is involved, or if retroactive events and funnel analysis matter more than qualitative research, since Hotjar does not record apps and does not offer funnels of the same depth.

### Who owns Smartlook?

Cisco, which acquired the company in 2023. Smartlook was founded in Brno, Czech Republic in 2016 and continues to operate with its own product, self-serve pricing, and free plan inside the parent portfolio.

### How does Smartlook handle sensitive data?

Input field contents are suppressed by default, and elements on web or views in mobile apps can be masked or excluded explicitly. Consent gating and configurable retention support European deployments, and mobile masking should be configured before shipping the SDK in a release since changing it requires a new app build.

### Does Smartlook do A/B testing?

No. It explains behavior but does not run experiments, so validating a change requires a testing platform alongside it, or an inference from before-and-after event data, which is considerably weaker evidence.

### How long does Smartlook keep recordings?

Retention depends on the plan, with the free tier keeping data for a short window and paid tiers extending to months. This is often the practical reason to upgrade, since investigating a problem reported weeks after it started requires the recordings still to exist.

### Does Smartlook slow down my app or website?

The web script loads asynchronously and the mobile SDKs are built to minimize overhead, but any capture layer has some cost. On mobile the more relevant consideration is app size and battery impact, both modest in practice; on web, test Core Web Vitals with and without the tag if page speed is a ranking or revenue factor for you.

## Editorial verdict

Smartlook is the sensible choice for teams whose product spans both a website and a native app, because it treats the app as a real recording surface instead of a checkbox and puts both on one session meter. Always-on capture with retroactive event definition removes the most frustrating limitation of event-based analytics, and the funnel-to-recording link is exactly the workflow that turns a drop-off percentage into a fix. The gaps are predictable: no experimentation, lighter product analytics depth than dedicated tools, and retention windows on cheaper tiers that limit historical work. Web-only teams on a budget should test free alternatives first; app-first teams will find the price fair.

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Source: SaaSTracker (https://saastracker.org), an independent editorial project. This profile is compiled from public information, carries no peer reviews or paid placement, and was last reviewed 2026-08-22. Awards are judged on published criteria: https://saastracker.org/methodology