How to vibe codeSmartlook
Qualitative digital experience and user behavior analytics platform
smartlook.com ↗Product Analytics
The verdict: can you vibe code Smartlook?
Build a personal subset for a side project rather than attempting a full enterprise analytics engine, as high-frequency event ingestion and DOM serialization pipelines involve non-trivial engineering.
Smartlook is an infrastructure-heavy observability product. While you can build a personal prototype that records DOM mutations on a sample site and plays them back in a timeline, achieving robust client-side PII masking, handling high-frequency network streams without crashing target web apps, and compressing massive JSON payloads will consume weeks of frustrating debugging.
Estimated effort: 6+ weeks of part-time engineering
What you can't replicate
- Enterprise compliance and data residency guarantees
- Native mobile app replay SDKs for iOS and Android
- Cisco/Splunk ecosystem telemetry correlation
Founded
2016
Raised
—
Team
Mid-sized (prior to Cisco acquisition)
Cheapest paid tier
$55/mo
What Smartlook does
Session recordings, heatmaps, conversion funnels, and crash reports for websites and mobile apps.
Core features
- Web DOM mutation recording and playback player
- Click and scroll heatmap generation
- Event tracking and conversion funnel analysis
- Session filtering by user actions and crashes
- Crash report context and log aggregation
The business
Pricing
- FreeFree
- Business$55/mo
Funding
Unknown / bootstrapped
Pay vs build, cumulative
Break-even at month 1 — after that, every month is money kept.
The hard parts of vibe coding Smartlook
- Client-side DOM sanitization to strip PII and sensitive fields without breaking target pages
- High-throughput event streaming ingestion and compressed storage pipeline
- Synchronized timeline player mapping DOM mutations, network requests, and console logs
How to vibecode Smartlook
Prerequisites
Node.jsfree
Runtime environment for building the Next.js frontend and ingestion server.
GitHubfree
Repository hosting and CI/CD deployment pipelines.
AI coding tools
Recommended stack
| Frontend | Next.js |
|---|---|
| Backend | Node.js with Express / WebSocket server |
| Database | ClickHouse |
| Auth | better-auth |
| Payments | None |
| Other | PostHog (reference pattern), Tailwind CSS |
Build guide
01Project Scaffolding and Database Setup
Initialize a Next.js project with Tailwind CSS and set up ClickHouse for storing high-frequency event logs and session payloads.
Scaffold a new Next.js 16 full-stack application using TypeScript, App Router, and Tailwind CSS v4. Set up a Docker Compose file locally containing a ClickHouse instance configured for structured event ingestion (tables for session metadata, DOM mutation batches, and console logs). Configure database connection utilities using native Node.js ClickHouse drivers.02Client-Side Recording SDK
Build a lightweight JavaScript tracking snippet that captures DOM mutations, mouse movements, clicks, and console errors while sanitizing PII.
Build a client-side JavaScript recorder script packaged as an embeddable bundle. Implement MutationObserver to capture DOM insertions, text modifications, and attribute changes. Add listeners for mouse clicks, movements (throttled), and window resize events. Ensure an automatic PII sanitization layer that masks input fields marked with password types or data-sensitive attributes before batching payloads.03Ingestion Pipeline and Storage Backend
Create a high-throughput backend ingestion endpoint that receives batched session payloads and writes them efficiently to ClickHouse.
Implement a high-throughput ingestion API route in Node.js that accepts compressed JSON arrays of DOM mutation batches and event telemetry. Validate session tokens, batch incoming records in memory briefly, and perform bulk inserts into ClickHouse tables. Handle CORS properly to allow cross-origin tracking snippets to transmit data securely.04Session Playback Engine Frontend
Develop a scrubbable replay player interface that reconstructs DOM states chronologically alongside user cursor movements.
Create a session replay player dashboard page in Next.js. Build a timeline scrubber component that fetches session event streams and DOM mutation batches from the backend. Implement a custom player engine that replays DOM mutations sequentially onto an isolated iframe sandbox, mapping mouse cursor positions and click indicators synchronously across the playback timeline.05Heatmaps and Funnel Analytics
Aggregate click and scroll coordinates to render visual heatmaps and calculate basic conversion funnel drop-off metrics.
Implement an analytics aggregation engine that queries ClickHouse event logs to generate click density maps and scroll-depth distribution percentages for specific URLs. Build a funnel analysis view where users define custom sequential steps (e.g., Page View -> Click Checkout -> Purchase) and view absolute conversion rates and drop-off counts.06Polish, Error Tracking, and Deployment
Add crash report filters linking errors to session playbacks and deploy the entire stack to production infrastructure.
Add error tracking integration that captures window.onerror and unhandledrejection events, tagging them with session IDs. Build a crash reports dashboard allowing filtering of sessions ending in errors. Finalize environment configurations and prepare deployment scripts for Fly.io (backend/ClickHouse) and Vercel (frontend).
Cost vs paying for Smartlook
What will you build it with?
Starting total with Claude Code$0 one-time
Starting costs (one-time)
- Domain registration$12
- AI coding credits$20
Total~$32 one-time
Ongoing costs (monthly)
- Fly.io hosting & ClickHouse storage$10/mo
- Vercel frontend hosting$0/mo
Total~$10/mo
Paying for Smartlook
$55/mo (Historical Business tier)
Your time to build
40-60 hours
AI tool credits
$20
Break-even
N/A (Smartlook is EoL; personal clone built for learning)
Vibe code Smartlook: FAQ
- Can you vibe code Smartlook yourself?
- Serious undertaking — 45/100 vibecodeable. Build a personal subset for a side project rather than attempting a full enterprise analytics engine, as high-frequency event ingestion and DOM serialization pipelines involve non-trivial engineering.
- How long does it take to vibe code Smartlook?
- 6+ weeks of part-time engineering — roughly 40-60 hours of hands-on time with an AI coding agent.
- How do you build your own Smartlook?
- Scoped to personal use: Next.js on the front, Node.js with Express / WebSocket server behind it, ClickHouse for data. Follow the 6-step build guide on this page — each step has a paste-ready prompt for an AI coding agent.
- How do you code your own Smartlook without being an expert?
- Use an AI coding tool (Claude Code or Cursor) and work in small steps: scaffold, data model, core screens, then deploy. Realistic effort: 6+ weeks of part-time engineering. The prompts on this page are written so the AI does the heavy lifting.
- How much does it cost to vibe code Smartlook instead of paying?
- About ~$32 one-time to start and ~$10/mo to run, versus $55/mo (Historical Business tier) for Smartlook. Break-even: N/A (Smartlook is EoL; personal clone built for learning).
- What stack should you use to vibe code Smartlook?
- Next.js; Node.js with Express / WebSocket server; ClickHouse; plus PostHog (reference pattern), Tailwind CSS.