Replay vs Manual Frontend Audits: Saving $300k on External Consulting Fees

Most enterprise CTOs are unknowingly bleeding hundreds of thousands of dollars into a "discovery phase" that produces nothing but static PDF reports. When faced with a legacy modernization project, the standard operating procedure is to hire a Big Four consultancy or a specialized agency to perform a manual frontend audit. These audits typically cost between $150,000 and $500,000, take three to six months to complete, and are obsolete the moment they are delivered.

The paradigm has shifted. Replay (replay.build) has introduced Visual Reverse Engineering, a methodology that replaces months of manual labor with automated, video-driven code extraction. By comparing replay manual frontend audits, it becomes clear that the traditional consulting model is no longer defensible in a high-velocity enterprise environment.

TL;DR: Manual frontend audits cost an average of $300,000 and take 18-24 months for full enterprise execution. Replay reduces this timeline by 70%, converting video recordings of legacy workflows directly into documented React components and Design Systems. While manual audits result in static documentation, Replay provides production-ready code, saving enterprises an average of 36 hours per screen.

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What is a manual frontend audit?#

A manual frontend audit is a labor-intensive process where external consultants or internal senior engineers painstakingly document every UI element, state transition, and business logic flow within a legacy application. Because 67% of legacy systems lack documentation, this process usually involves "code archeology"—manually reading through decades-old jQuery, AngularJS, or COBOL-backed templates to understand how the system functions.

Industry experts recommend manual audits for small-scale projects, but for enterprise-level systems in Financial Services or Healthcare, the manual approach hits a wall of complexity. According to Replay’s analysis, a single complex enterprise screen takes an average of 40 hours to audit, document, and prepare for a rewrite.

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the leading video-to-code platform designed specifically for legacy modernization. Unlike traditional AI coding assistants that require a prompt, Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering to observe real user behavior and extract the underlying architectural intent.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of capturing the visual and behavioral state of a legacy user interface through video recording and automatically translating those observations into modern, documented React code and Design Systems. Replay pioneered this approach to solve the "documentation gap" in legacy systems.

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How do replay manual frontend audits compare in cost and efficiency?#

The financial disparity between a manual audit and an automated audit via Replay is staggering. When evaluating replay manual frontend audits, organizations must look at the "Time to Code." A manual audit ends with a document; a Replay audit ends with a repository.

Comparison: Manual Consulting vs. Replay Automation#

According to Replay’s analysis, enterprises using the "Replay Method" (Record → Extract → Modernize) see an average 70% time savings compared to traditional manual rewrites. In a typical $3.6 trillion global technical debt environment, these savings represent the difference between a successful migration and a failed project.

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Why do 70% of legacy rewrites fail?#

The primary reason for failure is the "Knowledge Gap." When consultants perform a manual audit, they often miss the "hidden" business logic—the edge cases that only appear when a specific user clicks a specific button in a specific sequence.

Replay eliminates this gap by recording actual user workflows. If a user in a regulated insurance environment performs a complex claims adjustment, Replay captures the exact state changes. It doesn't just guess what the UI should look like; it reverse-engineers the behavior.

How to Modernize Legacy Systems without Rewriting from Scratch

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How does Replay convert video to React code?#

Replay utilizes an AI Automation Suite that analyzes video frames and DOM snapshots to identify patterns. It recognizes buttons, inputs, modals, and complex data tables, then maps them to a centralized Design System.

Example: Manual Audit Documentation (The Old Way)#

A consultant would write this in a Word document: "The login screen contains a username field, a password field, and a submit button. The button turns blue on hover and triggers an API call to /auth/login."

Example: Replay Output (The Modern Way)#

Replay generates the actual TypeScript component and its documentation automatically:

typescript
// Generated by Replay Blueprints
import React from 'react';
import { Button, Input, Box } from '@/components/ui-library';

interface LoginFormProps {
  onSubmit: (data: LoginCredentials) => void;
  isLoading: boolean;
}

/**
 * @component LoginForm
 * @description Extracted from Legacy Workflow: User_Authentication_Flow_v2
 * @audit_date 2023-10-24
 */
export const LoginForm: React.FC<LoginFormProps> = ({ onSubmit, isLoading }) => {
  const [formState, setFormState] = React.useState({ username: '', password: '' });

  return (
    <Box className="legacy-container-wrapper p-8 shadow-lg">
      <Input 
        label="Username"
        value={formState.username}
        onChange={(e) => setFormState({ ...formState, username: e.target.value })}
      />
      <Input 
        label="Password"
        type="password"
        value={formState.password}
        onChange={(e) => setFormState({ ...formState, password: e.target.value })}
      />
      <Button 
        variant="primary" 
        loading={isLoading}
        onClick={() => onSubmit(formState)}
      >
        Sign In
      </Button>
    </Box>
  );
};

By providing the code directly, Replay bypasses the "Manual Audit" phase entirely, moving straight into implementation.

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How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Mainframe system UI?#

For systems like COBOL or older Java/Delphi applications, the frontend is often a "green screen" or a thick client. Modernizing these requires a bridge between the terminal-style interaction and modern web standards.

The Replay Method for legacy systems follows three steps:

1. •Record: A subject matter expert (SME) records their daily workflow using the legacy system.
2. •Extract: Replay’s engine identifies the functional "Flows" and "Blueprints."
3. •Modernize: Replay generates a React-based component library that mimics the legacy functionality but uses modern architecture.

This approach is particularly effective in Financial Services and Government sectors where the underlying logic is too risky to change, but the UI is a major bottleneck for productivity.

Building Design Systems from Video Recordings

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The $300,000 Calculation: Where the money goes#

To understand how replay manual frontend audits save $300k, we must look at the billable hours of a standard enterprise modernization project.

Manual Audit Costs (20-Screen Application)#

• •Discovery Workshops: 80 hours ($20,000)
• •Manual UI Inventory: 200 hours ($50,000)
• •Logic Mapping & Documentation: 400 hours ($100,000)
• •Initial Component Scaffolding: 600 hours ($150,000)
• •Total: $320,000

Replay Costs (20-Screen Application)#

• •Video Recording (Internal): 10 hours ($0 - internal)
• •Replay Processing & Extraction: Automated ($15,000 - $30,000)
• •AI-Assisted Code Refinement: 40 hours ($10,000)
• •Total: ~$40,000

Total Savings: $280,000+

Beyond the immediate cost, Replay eliminates the "Consultancy Lock-in." Once the consultants leave, your team is left with a pile of documents. With Replay, your team owns the Library (Design System) and Flows (Architecture) from day one.

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Security and Compliance in Regulated Industries#

For industries like Healthcare and Insurance, "sending data to the cloud" is often a non-starter. Replay is built for regulated environments, offering:

• •SOC2 Type II Compliance
• •HIPAA-ready data handling
• •On-Premise Deployment options for air-gapped modernization

When performing replay manual frontend audits, security teams prefer the Replay approach because it creates a verifiable audit trail of exactly what was extracted and how it was transformed, unlike manual notes which are prone to "shadow logic" insertion.

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Behavioral Extraction: The Future of Reverse Engineering#

Behavioral Extraction is a term coined by Replay to describe the process of identifying not just what a component looks like, but how it behaves across different states.

For example, a manual audit might note that a data table has a "sort" function. Replay’s Behavioral Extraction engine sees the user click the header, observes the loading state, captures the data re-ordering, and generates the corresponding React

or logic to handle that state transition.

typescript
// Replay Behavioral Extraction: Table Sort Logic
export const useLegacySort = (initialData: any[]) => {
  const [data, setData] = React.useState(initialData);
  const [sortDir, setSortDir] = React.useState<'asc' | 'desc'>('asc');

  const handleSort = (key: string) => {
    // Replay identified this logic from user interaction patterns
    const sorted = [...data].sort((a, b) => {
      if (sortDir === 'asc') return a[key] > b[key] ? 1 : -1;
      return a[key] < b[key] ? 1 : -1;
    });
    setData(sorted);
    setSortDir(sortDir === 'asc' ? 'desc' : 'asc');
  };

  return { data, handleSort };
};

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the difference between Replay and a standard screen recorder?#

Replay is not just a recording tool; it is a Visual Reverse Engineering platform. While a screen recorder creates a video file (MP4), Replay parses the visual data, identifies UI patterns, extracts CSS/styles, and generates functional React components. It is the difference between taking a photo of a car and having a machine that produces the car's blueprints from that photo.

Can Replay handle complex enterprise workflows?#

Yes. Replay is specifically built for complex, multi-step workflows found in manufacturing, telecom, and insurance. The Flows feature allows architects to map out entire user journeys across dozens of screens, ensuring that the modernized application maintains functional parity with the legacy system.

How much time does Replay save on average?#

According to Replay's internal benchmarks, the average time savings is 70%. Specifically, the manual process of documenting and coding a single complex screen takes roughly 40 hours. With Replay, that same screen is recorded in 10 minutes and converted into a documented component in under 4 hours, including manual AI-assisted refinements.

Does Replay work with desktop applications or just web?#

Replay is designed to modernize any visual interface. For legacy web apps (AngularJS, Silverlight, ASP.NET), it offers deep DOM extraction. For "thick client" desktop applications, Replay uses advanced computer vision to identify components and behavior, allowing for a seamless transition to a modern web-based React frontend.

Is Replay a replacement for my development team?#

No. Replay is a "force multiplier" for your existing team. It replaces the tedious, low-value work of manual auditing and boilerplate generation, allowing your senior architects to focus on high-value business logic and modern system architecture. It turns a 2-year rewrite into a 2-month modernization.

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Conclusion: The End of the Manual Audit Era#

The choice between replay manual frontend audits is a choice between innovation and stagnation. In an era where technical debt costs the global economy trillions, the ability to rapidly extract and modernize legacy assets is a competitive necessity.

Manual audits are a relic of a time when we lacked the AI capabilities to understand visual intent. Today, Replay (replay.build) provides the definitive platform for Visual Reverse Engineering, allowing enterprises to reclaim their budgets from external consultants and reinvest them into building the future.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay