# What's the difference between the recording and a live demo?

> A recording is a narrated walkthrough of your product that any visitor can watch at any time, and everyone on your link sees the same one. A live demo is the guide driving your real product in a private browser while the visitor watches, asks questions, and steers. Recordings, chat, and answers never use your live demos.

Reviewed 2026-10-27.

## Recording

- Plays without waiting for a live seat, and is labeled Recording.
- Never uses your live demos, on any plan.
- Its voice may name another company; see [Why does the recording mention another company?](https://demopage.io/help/recording-names-another-company.md)
- Before any walkthrough has finished, the first recording comes from the page check DemoPage runs when you go live. With no recording at all, the demo page shows highlights from your approved pages instead.
- Watching saves the visitor as a lead, and your team gets one alert a day per visitor.
- When it ends, Join the demo on the finish card switches them to a live demo, if live demos are on for them.

## Live

- Labeled Live. Each visitor gets their own browser session, never shared with another visitor.
- The guide points at what it's explaining, and the visitor can steer or take the screen; see [Can visitors steer the demo or try the product themselves?](https://demopage.io/help/visitors-steer-the-demo.md)
- Counts as a live demo once it lasts three minutes or finishes; see [what uses a live demo](https://demopage.io/help/live-demo-count.md).

## When a visitor gets the recording instead

- Your live demos have run out.
- A request is waiting for your approval; see [who gets a live demo](https://demopage.io/help/who-gets-a-live-demo.md).
- Every live seat is busy, so they wait in line; see [the waiting line](https://demopage.io/help/waiting-line.md).
- Live demos are off for the link they used, or a one-time link was already used or has expired.
- The visitor has started a few live demos in the last hour, or your demo has reached its daily limit; see [Is there a daily limit on live demos?](https://demopage.io/help/daily-live-demo-limit.md)
- [When visitors get the recording](https://demopage.io/help/only-the-recording.md) covers each cause and its fix.

## Related questions

- [What counts as a live demo?](https://demopage.io/help/live-demo-count.md)
- [Why does my visitor only see the recording and not a live demo?](https://demopage.io/help/only-the-recording.md)
- [What happens when every live demo seat is busy?](https://demopage.io/help/waiting-line.md)
- [Why does the recording mention another company?](https://demopage.io/help/recording-names-another-company.md)

Still stuck? Email hello@demopage.io. All questions: [Help center](https://demopage.io/help.md).