[Changelog](/changelog) September 3, 2025

# Explore Your Data by Sessions

Switch between hits and sessions to explore analytics by interaction or complete user journeys. All in Trackingplan's Data Explorer.

Released September 3, 2025 · 2 min read

![](/images/68dce8a5da1c4128fb2e7bcb_session-counter-desktop.avif)

## What’s New

You can now switch between viewing your analytics data by **hits** (every interaction sent to your analytics tool) or by ** sessions** (unique user journeys). And the best part? You can do it all within the same [** Data Explorer**](/docs/data-explorer) view you already know and love.

Until now, you could analyze your events at the hit level. That’s great when you want to zoom into every single interaction—clicks, pageviews, purchases, or any other tracked event. But sometimes, what you need is the bigger picture: understanding how those hits come together into **complete user sessions**.

With this update, Trackingplan gives you both perspectives—helping you explore data in the way that best fits your current question.

## Hits vs. Sessions: Two Ways to Look at Your Analytics

When it comes to digital analytics, not every metric answers the same type of question. Sometimes you need to zoom into the tiniest detail, while other times you need the full picture. That’s where **hits** and ** sessions** come in.

### Hits: The Microscope View

A *hit* is **every single interaction** sent to your analytics tool. This could be:

-   a click
-   a pageview
-   a purchase
-   or any other tracked event

Looking at data by *hits* is like putting your analytics under a microscope. You see every technical detail and micro-action happening on your site or app. Perfect when you need to **debug specific events** and confirm everything is firing as expected.

![](/images/68dce9d2fb029e33c1a9a632_hits-exploration.avif)

### Sessions: The Storytelling View

A *session* bundles multiple *hits* into **a single user journey**. It shows the narrative of how someone arrived, explored, interacted, and (hopefully) converted.

Analyzing at the session level helps you answer bigger questions:

-   Where are users dropping off in the funnel?
-   How do different events connect within a single visit?
-   What does a typical path to conversion look like?

It’s the difference between looking at individual frames and watching the whole movie.

![](/images/68dce9f1fd56fca3fd7406fe_unique-session-exploration.avif)

## Why It Matters

-   **User-centric insights**: Hits show you the fine-grained details. Sessions help you understand the flow of a user’s journey—how they arrive, interact, and convert.
-   **Smarter troubleshooting**: Spot whether a problem is isolated to a single hit (like a broken event) or affects an entire session (like a missing pageview disrupting the funnel).
-   **Flexible exploration**: Switch between hits and sessions depending on whether you need detail or context. No more forcing your analysis into one view.

## How It Works

-   In the [**Data Explorer**](/docs/data-explorer), select whether you want to see your data at the ** hit level** or ** session level**.

-   Use **hits** if you want to:  
    -   Debug specific events or parameters.
    -   Verify that all technical details are firing as expected

-   Switch to **sessions** when you want to:
    -   See the full story of a user’s visit.
    -   Understand drop-offs, funnel performance, or multi-event behaviors.

Whether you need precision or perspective, **Trackingplan now adapts to your workflow** —so you can get answers faster and with less back-and-forth.

On this page

1.  [*01*What’s New](#what-s-new)
2.  [*02*Hits vs. Sessions: Two Ways to Look at Your Analytics](#hits-vs-sessions-two-ways-to-look-at-your-analytics)
3.  [*03*Why It Matters](#why-it-matters)
4.  [*04*How It Works](#how-it-works)

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