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Comparison · Analytics
Highlight vs OpenReplay
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Highlight and OpenReplay — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:self-hosted
Highlight vs OpenReplay: at a glance
What is Highlight?
Highlight grew from session replay into SQL-driven observability, then went quiet in August 2025.
Highlight is an open-source observability stack covering session replay, errors, logs, traces and metrics. Its last tagged self-hosted release, docker-v0.5.6, shipped in August 2025 with session-replay performance fixes and session restarts. Nothing has been tagged since.
What is OpenReplay?
OpenReplay's 1.27 line keeps producing Helm chart bumps and no product changes.
OpenReplay's recent releases are automated v1.27.0 backup tags that increment Helm chart versions for the alerts, chalice and frontend services. None has notes describing user-facing changes. The last substantive items were offline license tokens and a ClickHouse datetime fix.
Highlight vs OpenReplay: editorial side-by-side
Highlight
0.0ANALYTICS
Highlight grew from session replay into SQL-driven observability, then went quiet in August 2025.
◆ Current state
Highlight is an open-source observability stack covering session replay, errors, logs, traces and metrics. Its last tagged self-hosted release, docker-v0.5.6, shipped in August 2025 with session-replay performance fixes and session restarts. Nothing has been tagged since.
◆ Where it's heading
Through 2025 the releases added OpenTelemetry metrics ingest, a SQL editor and builder for graphs, SQL alerts and dashboards created from log and trace views. That pushed Highlight from a replay tool toward a general telemetry platform. The cadence then slowed from roughly monthly to a two-month gap before stopping.
◆ Prediction
The entries show no release in more than a year, so the self-hosted line's future is unclear. Any new tag would most likely be maintenance on session replay and OTel ingestion.
OpenReplay
5.0ANALYTICS
OpenReplay's 1.27 line keeps producing Helm chart bumps and no product changes.
◆ Current state
OpenReplay's recent releases are automated v1.27.0 backup tags that increment Helm chart versions for the alerts, chalice and frontend services. None has notes describing user-facing changes. The last substantive items were offline license tokens and a ClickHouse datetime fix.
◆ Where it's heading
The project's public release feed is now mostly deployment packaging churn on 1.27, which hides any product progress. There is no visible move toward a 1.28 release in these entries.
◆ Prediction
The entries don't show what's next; a tagged 1.27 or 1.28 release with real notes would be the first signal.
Alternatives to Highlight and OpenReplay
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Highlight or OpenReplay.
Tinybird
Tinybird makes Explorations shareable and tightens viewer and guest permissions.
OpenHouse
OpenHouse lays commit-time rule plumbing for column defaults and wires its catalog to Views.
Fulcrum
Fulcrum turns on Insights, its AI assistant for field data, for every customer.
Holistics
Holistics lets admins put a key dashboard on everyone's Home page.
ThingsBoard
ThingsBoard updates time zone data on three release lines for 2026 daylight saving changes.
See all Highlight alternatives → · See all OpenReplay alternatives →
Recent activity from Highlight and OpenReplay
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoOpenReplayAlerts Helm chart version bump (repeat)
- 3d agoOpenReplayAlerts Helm chart version bump
- 3d agoOpenReplayAlerts Helm chart version bump
- 3d agoOpenReplayAlerts Helm chart version bump
- 4d agoOpenReplayChalice API Helm chart version bump
- 4d agoOpenReplayv1.27.0-backup-20261023093535
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.6: session replay performance and session restarts
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.5: SQL alerts, log downloads, video in replays
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.4: SQL joins and graphed error metrics
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.3: dashboards and alerts from logs and traces
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.2: OTel metrics in the web SDK
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.1: SQL editor for graphs and OTel metrics export ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Highlight and OpenReplay?
Both compete on the same themes — self-hosted — within Analytics. OpenReplay is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Highlight better than OpenReplay?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. OpenReplay is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Highlight?
Top Highlight alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Highlight alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/highlight for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to OpenReplay?
Top OpenReplay alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "OpenReplay alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/openreplay for the full list with editorial commentary on each.