Hotjar vs. FullStory: Product Overview And Alternatives

Deciding which session replay tool to choose for your business can be challenging. Both Hotjar and FullStory offer many features and benefits, but it can be hard to decide which is the best fit for your company. In this blog post, we will provide an overview of both Hotjar and FullStory, as well as one alternative you may want to consider if you are looking specifically for CX, customer support and product teams.

What is Hotjar?

Hotjar is a software company that provides tools for website optimization and user experience. Its products include heatmaps, which are graphical representations of where users click on a page, and recordings of user sessions, which can be used to identify problems with a website's design. Hotjar's products are used by companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, who want to improve their website's user experience.

Pros of Hotjar

• Understand user behaviour: Hotjar provides visual heatmaps to help understand user behavior patterns on a webpage
• See things in context: Hotjar allows companies to record and playback visitor sessions to identify issues or areas requiring optimization in context
• See how well your forms perform: Hotjar provides form analytics to analyze how visitors interact with forms on a webpage
• Measure the success of your conversion funnels: The conversion funnel feature allows you to measure the effectiveness of a funnel in driving conversions
• Collect customer feedback: Hotjar allows users to create customized polls and surveys to gather feedback from website visitors.

Cons of Hotjar

• Can be expensive: Hotjar's pricing may not be suitable for businesses with limited budgets, making it difficult to justify the $15 per month cost for the most basic plan.
• No predictive analytics: Unlike its competitors, Hotjar doesn't offer predictive analytics.
• Lack of demographic filters: Hotjar lacks preset demographic filters, which makes it challenging for businesses with specific audience targets to break down analytics by gender or age ranges. However, custom filters can be created for more detailed information on customers.

Hotjar pricing

Hotjar's free plan comprises 35 daily sessions that can be utilized for an array of services, including polls, surveys, recordings, and heatmaps. The paid subscriptions start at $32 per month, giving access to a maximum of 100 daily sessions.

Hotjar reviews

Hotjar has a 4.3-star rating with 292 reviews on G2.

What is FullStory?

FullStory is a software company that provides tools for digital customer experience. Its products include session replays, which allows businesses to record user sessions and see how they interact with their website, and analytics, which helps businesses understand customer behavior. Its products are mostly suitable for large enterprises that want to improve their digital customer experience.

Pros of FullStory

• See and analyze user behavior: FullStory provides in-depth user session replays, allowing you to see exactly how users interact with your website or app.
• Search your data: It offers powerful search capabilities, allowing you to quickly find specific sessions or events.
• Analytics: The software provides comprehensive analytics, including heat maps and conversion funnels, that can help you identify areas for improvement.
• Integrate with the tools you already use: FullStory integrates with a wide range of other tools and platforms, including Google Analytics, Slack, and Jira, among others.

Cons of FullStory

• Can be expensive: FullStory can be expensive, particularly for larger organizations or those with heavy website traffic.
• Too much information: The amount of data captured by the software can be overwhelming, making it difficult to focus on the most important insights.
• Complex software: The software can be complex to set up and use effectively, requiring some technical expertise.

FullStory pricing

FullStory doesn't provide transparent pricing on its website, but it does offer a free demo. If you decide to use the software, you'll need to contact them to get a custom quote. Prices are based on factors like the number of users and page views per month.

FullStory reviews

FullStory has a 4.5-star rating on G2 with 291 reviews.

Hotjar vs Fullstory feature comparison

When it comes to features, Hotjar and FullStory offer a lot of the same things. However, the main difference between the two is that Hotjar provides more features for feedback, while FullStory focuses more on customer experience and UX.

• Both FullStory and Hotjar offer heatmaps
• Both FullStory and Hotjar offer session recordings
• Hotjar offers customer feedback-gathering tools, while FullStory does not.

Here is a comparison of both platforms' top features.

Hotjar highlights

Some of the main features of Hotjar include:

• Survey and survey templates: You can use Hotjar to create surveys and collect user feedback. You can also use the templates to create custom surveys that resonate with your audience.
• Feedback: With integrative feedback forms, you can get insights from your users about their experience on your website. These can range from simple website pop-ups to more in-depth forms.
• Recording: Like FullStory, you can use Hotjar to record user sessions on your website. This is a great way to see how users interact with your site and identify any problems by seeing everything that the user does.
  

FullStory highlights

Some of the main features of the FullStory application include:

• Heatmaps: Heatmaps are a graphical representation of where users click on a web page. They can help businesses track their users' activity and show the level of interaction with elements on your website, making it easy to understand user flows and journeys.‍
• Recordings: Recordings are a playback of user sessions on your site. They differ from heatmaps because you can watch the recordings to see exactly what a user did on your site. Recordings can help businesses understand how their users interact with their site and identify any areas where there may be confusion or bugs that may be present. However, it's important to note that FullStory's recordings are anonymized, so you won't be able to see which user performed a session. This makes it impossible to reach out to them personally when you notice they have encountered a bug or error, making FullStory less than ideal for customer support teams. In those cases, a software like Fullview is a better bet.‍
• Detect and find errors: FullStory gives you the capability of detecting errors that may occur on your site. In addition to that, you'll have full access to analytics based on customer behavior, which you can then use to improve your customer experience.
  

Hotjar vs Fullstory pricing comparison

Hotjar offers a forever free package, which is a great way to test out the software and see how beneficial it is for your business. If you want more features or have a larger team, you'll want to check out their larger packages which go up to $80 per month.

FullStory, on the other hand, does not have transparent pricing listed on its page, as they only offer customized plans for enterprises and businesses. Some businesses on review websites have mentioned that packages are priced as low as $299, and they do offer a 14-day free trial to try out the entire platform to see if it's worth the investment. 

For businesses who are looking for a less expensive option, Hotjar is the way to go. However, if you're looking for a platform that offers more features and customization, then FullStory may be a better option for you.

Hotjar vs Fullstory use case comparison

When it comes to website analytics and user behavior tracking, Hotjar and FullStory are two of the most popular ones on the market. While both tools offer similar functionalities, they differ in certain aspects, such as UI, UX, marketing features, product analytics, and troubleshooting capabilities.

Target Audience

Hotjar caters to businesses of all sizes with a forever-free plan that enables small businesses to get started with the software and test its benefits. On the other hand, FullStory mainly targets larger enterprises and businesses due to its advanced customization options and integrations, which may be more relevant to bigger companies. Their pricing is also based on the size of the business, making it more affordable for larger businesses to use.

UI and UX

Hotjar has a simple and user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, even for beginners. Their heatmap feature allows users to quickly visualize how visitors are interacting with their website, while the survey tool enables them to collect feedback easily. FullStory's interface is also sleek and modern, with powerful search and filtering capabilities for comprehensive insights into user behavior.

Marketing Analytics

Hotjar offers a range of marketing features such as conversion funnel tracking, form analysis, and feedback polls that help businesses improve their website's performance and optimize the user experience. FullStory also offers conversion funnel tracking and feedback polls, but it also includes session replay and click maps for more in-depth analysis. Marketing teams can use both depending on whether they're more interested in analyzing user behavior in-depth (FullStory) or collecting feedback and having simpler insights to act upon (Hotjar).

Product Analytics

When it comes to product analytics, FullStory leads the pack with its robust event tracking and segmentation capabilities. It also allows users to create custom events and define their own metrics, making it easier to track specific goals and KPIs. Hotjar also offers basic event tracking and segmentation, but it's not as customizable as FullStory.

Troubleshooting

Both Hotjar and FullStory offer powerful troubleshooting capabilities, but FullStory's error tracking and console log integration make it easier for businesses to diagnose and fix issues quickly. Hotjar also offers error tracking, but it's not as advanced as FullStory's.

Hotjar vs Fullstory user satisfaction comparison

FullStory's customers really like that its user interface 'simplifies the process of showing insights about website visitor behavior'. Additionally, they love how FullStory's 'clean design and features mean users can effortlessly navigate through the platform and access the information they need.' However, some users have mentioned that the software is quite expensive for larger organizations or those with heavier website traffic.

Hotjar's customers rave about the fact that Hotjar has a 'versatile suite of tools included' and that 'between heat mapping, session replay, feedback surveys, and general surveys, Hotjar can fill multiple gaps in your website's ongoing optimization strategy.' Additionally, they mention that Hotjar's session recordings gives great insight into where customers are struggling with visibility of u-turns and rage clicks. However, customers have noted that 'the pricing increases very quickly for the next levels compared to what you get in terms of features' and that 'the tool can be difficult to learn, so it may take some time to fully understand the capabilities.'

Alternative to Hotjar and FullStory: Fullview

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If your company has considered both Hotjar and FullStory, but has not found the perfect fit, don't worry: you do have options.

Companies that are looking for better ways to understand customer and product issues in their web apps would do well to consider Fullview. Its feature set, include cobrowsing, session replays and console logs, makes it ideal for CX, support and product teams that want to create better customer experiences, cut support time in half and diagnose product issues to deploy fixes quickly.

Fullview is built around customer identity, so once you install it, all your users are pulled into your Fullview dashboard. From there, you can: 

• Automatically record user sessions in your app
• Play the recordings back to identify bugs, user steps, or signs of frustration like rage clicks
• Escalate to a cobrowsing call if you notice a user has encountered an error you want to help them solve proactively
• View console log information to see exactly what is happening on your user's side without having to quiz them endlessly

Fullview offers a forever free plan, as well as a 14-day free trial on all pro plans, so it is excellent for businesses of all sizes.

And because Fullview is a European company and stores all data within the EU, it is 100% GDPR compliant to use.

The combination of these features makes Fullview an excellent alternative for businesses that want a solution that is built for technical customer support, customer experience and product

‍Fullview features

Fullview has three main features, that work together to create a complete CX and support toolkit for diagnosing customer and product issues: 

• Session replays
• Cobrowsing
• Console logs

Session replays

Session replays are recreations of user sessions in your app that you can watch back like videos to see how a user's mouse moved on screen, what they clicked on, where they navigated within your app, and more. Here are some of the features and benefits of Fullview's session replays feature: 

• Set it and forget it: Once you've installed Fullview (which takes no more than a couple of minutes), you can set it to auto-record all user sessions in your app. Once you're close to reaching your plan's session recording limit, you can upgrade it to continue recording additional sessions.
• See who does what: Fullview is one of the few session recording software tools on the market that is built around customer identity. Because we only record user sessions in your app (as opposed to website visitors), you can actually see which user performed a session. You can even navigate to a user's page to see a list of all of all previous sessions that user performed.
• Filter and sort: To make it easy and quick to find the exact session (or set of sessions) you're interested in reviewing, Fullview has powerful segmentation and filtering abilities. You can sort sessions by user, data, role, organization or environment. You can also apply filters to find sessions with console errors, console warnings and rage clicks, all of which Fullview automatically detects. In addition to all of that, you can create custom labels (as many as you want!) and tag sessions for even more granularity.
• At your fingertips: You have the option of creating custom views with filter combinations that you use often. So, for example, if you frequently look for sessions by enterprise users that had rage clicks, instead of applying those filters each time, you can do so once and then create a custom view that is pinned to your dashboard and automatically populated with sessions that match those filters.
• Jump straight to issues on the progress bar: Fullview automatically detects and flags errors and issues on the video progress bar, so you can click to jump straight to those parts of the video. You can also choose to skip periods where they user didn't do anything at all for quicker viewing.
• Share with team members: If there's a session you want to share with a member of your team, you can click the share button, choose a timestamp, copy the link generated and then send it on its way! This helps keep everyone on the same page. It also means that agents don't have to describe customer issues or bugs to developers, they can simply share the relevant replays.
• Stay compliant: Fullview automatically blurs sensitive data during session replays so you can stay compliant with GDPR. Additionally, you have the option to choose which other types of data you want to censor during a session recording.

Cobrowsing

Cobrowsing — or collaborative browsing — lets two or more users browse and interact with the same browser window in real time using multi-cursor screen control. Here's what that means: 

• Start calls with users in your app: With a solution like Fullview, you can start a call directly with a user in your app, without having to ask them to join a meeting link or download a tool like Zoom. This makes it really convenient for both the agent and the user, and can help you increase customer engagement and response rates.
• Take control of a user's screen: Some customer support tickets are too complex to solve quickly over chat. With cobrowsing, you can request control of a user's screen and solve a tricky problem for them.
• See console data: In order to troubleshoot more efficiently, you can view console data such as errors, warnings, user journey, network and device information during a cobrowsing call to see exactly what is going on under the hood without having to ask you user to inspect anything.
• Annotation tools: You can draw and highlight on screen during a Fullview cobrowsing call.
• Video and audio controls: Agents and users can choose to have video/audio turned on or off during calls.

Console logs

In order to make troubleshooting easier, you can see relevant console logs during cobrowsing calls and session replays that give you more insight into what you are seeing on your end user's screen and what issues they may have encountered. You can see: 

• Device information, including what browser and operating system your user is on
• Network information
• Console errors
• Console logs
• User journey
• Rage clicks

And more. All these events are auto-detected by Fullview and you can jump directly to them during a session replay.

Pros of Fullview

• Designed for support and product teams: Fullview is specifically designed to cater to the needs of support and product teams. It provides them with a better way to manage customer support tickets and product analytics, which helps them improve their workflows and increase productivity.
• Improves support workflows: Fullview integrates with popular customer support platforms, such as Zendesk, Salesforce, and Intercom, giving you complete insight into user behavior and product issues when a support ticket comes in. This allows support teams to quickly resolve issues and respond to customers in a more efficient and effective manner.
• Decreases information silos: Fullview breaks down information silos by giving support and product teams a single source of truth so the same data 'flows' throughout the ticket escalation process. This means that support and product teams can access all the relevant information they need to do their job without having to switch between different systems or applications.
• 100% GDPR compliant: Fullview is fully compliant with GDPR. All data is stored on EU servers and sensitive data is automatically blurred out during cobrowsing calls and session replay recordings. Additionally, you can customize other data you want to censor.
• Easy to implement: Fullview is easy to implement and requires a few lines of code to be pasted into your app. The platform provides step-by-step instructions and guides to help support and product teams get started quickly.
• Affordable pricing with a forever free plan: Fullview offers affordable pricing plans that cater to businesses of all sizes. It also offers a forever-free plan that includes basic features and functionality to get started. This means that businesses can try out the platform before committing to a paid plan.

Cons of Fullview

• Not suitable for marketing: While Fullview is great for support and product teams, it isn't suitable for marketing teams. It does not have a heatmap feature or funnel analysis. It also doesn't have feedback gathering tools.
• Cannot be used on websites: Fullview is designed to be used in web apps and not on websites.

Fullview pricing

Fullview's session replay feature is available for free, with users able to record up to 1,000 sessions each month. For those who require more sessions, the pro plan starts at $71 per month for 10,000 recorded sessions and goes from there. Fullview also provides a free cobrowsing package that includes four calls per support agent each month. Paid cobrowsing plans begin at $39 per seat per month, providing greater flexibility and access to additional features. Either pro plan gives you access to the other free plan, i.e, if you sign up for the pro cobrowsing plan at $39 per seat per month, you'll also get 1000 session replays a month.

Wrapping things up

Deciding between Hotjar and FullStory for your business can be a challenging task. Both tools offer various features and benefits, making it difficult to determine which one is the best fit. Hotjar is a software company that provides tools for website optimization and user experience. It offers features like heatmaps, user session recordings, form analytics, and customer feedback collection. Hotjar is suitable for companies of all sizes but can be expensive for businesses with limited budgets. It also lacks predictive analytics and preset demographic filters.

On the other hand, FullStory is a software company focused on digital customer experience. It provides session replays, analytics, heatmaps, and integration with other tools and platforms. FullStory is primarily targeted towards larger enterprises and offers advanced customization options. While it offers comprehensive insights and powerful troubleshooting capabilities, it can be expensive and overwhelming due to the amount of data captured. FullStory's pricing is not transparent, and a custom quote is required.

If neither Hotjar nor FullStory seems to be the perfect fit for your business, you may want to consider an alternative like Fullview. Fullview is designed specifically for customer experience, support, and product teams. It offers features such as session replays, cobrowsing, and console logs. With Fullview, you can record user sessions, play them back to identify bugs or areas of improvement, escalate to a cobrowsing call to provide proactive support, and view console log information to diagnose and fix issues quickly. Fullview has a forever free plan and a 14-day free trial for its pro plans, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes.