Frictions – Checkout Session Replay for WooCommerce

See what happened at checkout. Frictions is a WooCommerce checkout session replay plugin for reviewing eligible visits inside WordPress. Watch protected checkout recordings, find observed errors and inspect the steps around them.

Supports Classic checkout and Checkout Blocks. No Frictions account, paid recording allowance or trial deadline.

Find the steps worth investigating

Review validation errors, field interactions and steps before a visit ended or a linked order was placed. Compare mobile/desktop visits. No observed order is not proof of abandonment.

Included in Free

• Protected visual replay: recorded page layout, supported styling, visible page text, selections, local images and fonts. Text-field masking is On by default.
• Find recordings: replay-reference search, sorting, quick date ranges and visible filters for device, browser, checkout layout, outcome, issue, duration and watch status.
• Review tools: bookmarks, watched state, page selection, bulk review actions and explanations of incomplete recordings.
• Local order shortcuts where a valid association exists.
• Setup and diagnostics, including a real-recording check and the latest receipt among retained shopper recordings.
• Controls: pause, delete, retention and storage budget.

New recordings preserve the checkout page’s supported visual appearance, including layout, colors, typography and approved local logo/product images. Visible page text, selected labels and checkbox/radio states remain visible in either masking mode. Text-field masking defaults On; owners can turn it Off to include ordinary typed values. Page text and selections may already contain personal information, even with text-field masking On. Payment regions, passwords, security fields and explicitly private regions stay protected in either mode; payment-like card and IBAN text is omitted. Replay is inert and makes no external asset requests. Visual capture requires CSS Typed OM computed sizing; other browsers use a labelled structural fallback. Unsupported assets, SVG/canvas, shadow DOM and some CSS effects may not reproduce; this is not pixel-perfect video. Older recordings remain structural because their original appearance was never captured.

Set up recording your way

Local image copies require PHP GD; without it, image regions stay masked while supported layout and local fonts remain available.

Recording starts disabled. Choose a mode and use Save and start recording, or save your setup without starting. No separate consent plugin is required for the built-in choices:

• Built-in prompt: visitors allow or decline; no other banner plugin needed.
• Consent integration: supported CookieYes, Cookiebot or custom bridge.
• Owner-controlled: explicitly acknowledged recording without asking first, with visitor opt-out.

Built-in controls cover Frictions only. Consent modes require affirmative permission. Owner-controlled is not visitor consent or a compliance exemption. Refusal, opt-out, GPC and Do Not Track stop capture in every mode. Existing settings are preserved.

Recording privacy is an optional inline link, off by default. Enable it in Settings or place [frictions_privacy_link] manually. Hiding it never grants consent: the built-in prompt still appears when needed. Owner-controlled panels never open automatically. Consent integrations keep their own controls.

Free and optional Pro

Separate Pro adds guided review, saved views, notes, developer briefs and opt-in WordPress-mail notifications. First licence activation is required; activated tools continue after ordinary support expiry.

Fictional previews unlock nothing and make no Frictions request. Hide sidebar examples with Pro previews. Both editions retain safety limits.

Privacy and local storage

Replay stays in private WordPress tables: random IDs, protected page structure and appearance, visible page text and selections, local asset copies, coarse device/browser categories, events/timing and eligible order associations. The supplied recorder omits ordinary textbox values when masking is On. A modified browser client can mislabel text as visible content; the server cannot establish its origin or guarantee removal of all personal data. Data is compressed, not database-encrypted. Secure hosting, access and backups; no anonymity or compliance guarantee.

Defaults: 7 days, 256 MiB; configurable 1–365 days/16–10,240 MiB. Capture pauses at the budget; bookmarks expire. Each recording is limited to 32 MiB uncompressed, one hour active and 30 minutes idle. These limits do not measure total hosting space.

Order associations expire within the selected retention from their creation and never later than their replay. Shorter retention caps existing replay and association expiry; increasing it does not extend them. Upgrade also caps older associations. Separate short-lived replay-deletion safeguards prevent delayed uploads from restoring removed recordings.

Order accepted means WooCommerce accepted an order, not that money was collected. Order marked completed reflects WooCommerce’s completed status, not independent settlement proof. Payment confirmed reflects a WooCommerce payment-complete signal. Later eligible signals update retained, associated recordings; historical outcomes are not backfilled.

Withdrawal/opt-out stops capture and requests deletion, with retries on other site pages without recording them. Completion needs the matching WooCommerce session and a request reaching the store; offline visits, cleared storage or ended sessions cannot guarantee it. Accepted withdrawal revokes access before deletion; failures remain retryable.

Expired replays are unavailable. Cleanup and Action Scheduler order delivery need working workers. Backups/exports are not erased. WordPress privacy tools cover associated accounts/orders, including registered abandoned checkouts; anonymous unassociated visits need a replay reference.

Full privacy, browser-storage and access details: bundled privacy-and-controls.txt.

Optional external service

Setup and Settings → Communication offer separate unchecked opt-ins, independent of recording:

• Compatibility: domain, WordPress/WooCommerce/PHP/Frictions Free versions and language, on save and at most weekly.
• Email: chosen email for Frictions tips/releases; email-only signup omits installation/domain details. New subscriptions require confirmation. Articles/offers are separate preferences; existing preferences are preserved.

Endpoint: https://frictions.com/newsletter-api/v1/frictions-welcome/

Requests include a random connection ID, credential and consent version; the service receives times/network address. No replay, checkout, order, customer data or plugin list is sent. Viewing/skipping or choosing neither sends nothing. Check status requests an update, not delivery proof.

Stop in Communication; retry unconfirmed withdrawal. Stopping a signup created here cancels it or unsubscribes all its Frictions newsletter topics. Existing subscriptions need their own unsubscribe link; account mail is unaffected. Uninstall makes no remote request: stop first or unsubscribe by email.

Compatibility details expire after 90 days without reports. Further retention details: privacy-and-controls.txt and privacy policy. Service terms. Consent providers may contact their own services.

Related plugins from Plugins.shop

Optional tools from the same publisher:

• Cartdini — Add checkout questions and keep answers with the order.
• OrderFloor — Set minimum orders, quantity limits and pack rules with shopper notices.
• Logged.ai — Review supported site/WooCommerce changes when investigating checkout problems.

Separate plugins, not requirements or automatic integrations. Check each listing’s features and requirements.

Source and builds

PHP: root and includes/. Browser scripts: assets/. TypeScript, instructions and pinned lockfile: source/. With Node 24.21.0, run npm ci --ignore-scripts then npm run build in source/ to reproduce the three bundles. No remote executable-code loader.