What Is Smartlook and What Is It Used For?

Updated

Smartlook is a product analytics and digital experience tool for websites and mobile apps. It combines session recordings with event-based analytics so teams can see what users actually do, where they drop off, and why. The most important thing to know before evaluating it: Smartlook is being wound down as a standalone product after joining Cisco, with the End of Sale on 31 May 2026 and full platform decommissioning on 30 September 2027. New buyers should plan around its successor, Digital Experience Analytics within Splunk Observability Cloud, rather than a long-term Smartlook subscription.

What Smartlook does

Smartlook's core idea is pairing qualitative evidence (watching real sessions) with quantitative signals (events, funnels, flows). The capabilities listed on its site:

Capability What it answers
Session recordings What's wrong with my mobile app or website? Watch real user sessions; advanced filtering jumps to the crucial moment.
Events Do users do what you want them to? Track how often users perform actions that matter, and use events as recording filters.
Funnels Where and why do users drop off? Get recordings of all drop-offs in one click.
Heatmaps Which page elements matter most? See where users click and how far they scroll.
Behavior flows Where do you lose site and app users? See visually how users move through your site or app and whether your intended path works.
Crash reports What happened in the moments before a crash? Watch recordings to find the cause and fix it without QA reproduction.

Who it's used for

Typical users are product, UX, and engineering teams diagnosing concrete problems: a checkout step where users abandon, a mobile crash that's hard to reproduce, or a page where clicks land somewhere unexpected. The value comes from connecting a metric (drop-off rate, crash frequency) to the actual session where it happened.

For example, a team notices funnel drop-off on a signup form. In Smartlook they pull recordings of every drop-off at that step, watch where users hesitate or misclick, and use heatmaps to confirm which elements attract attention. That's the workflow the product is built around.

The lifecycle dates you need to plan around

Because Smartlook is transitioning into Splunk Observability Cloud, these dates from the official FAQ determine whether it's a viable choice:

  • 31 May 2026 — End of Sale: no new Smartlook subscriptions will be sold.
  • 31 August 2026 — End of Contract Renewals: no renewals or expansions for existing accounts; any paid subscription ends at the end of its current plan or next renewal date.
  • 31 August 2027 — Last Day of Support: all remaining paid subscriptions terminate.
  • 30 September 2027 — Platform Decommissioned: the platform is deactivated and all remaining customer data is securely deleted.

How to decide

  • If you're evaluating a new tool now: Smartlook is not a long-term option — new subscriptions stop on 31 May 2026. Look at Digital Experience Analytics in Splunk Observability Cloud, or compare other session-recording and product-analytics tools on the same dimensions above (recordings, events, funnels, heatmaps, flows, crash reports).
  • If you're an existing customer: you can keep using Smartlook until your plan ends, but plan your migration and data export before 30 September 2027, when all customer data is deleted. Confirm your specific contract end date with the vendor, since renewals stop after 31 August 2026.
  • If you mainly need crash diagnosis for mobile apps: the crash-report-plus-recording workflow is the standout use case; check that whatever replaces Smartlook for you covers it.

The site does not publish current pricing or plan details, so cost comparisons require contacting the vendor or checking the Splunk Observability Cloud offering directly.