Hotjar vs. FullStory: product overview and alternatives

Deciding which session replay tool to choose for your business can be challenging. Do you want to use Hotjar or FullStory? Both tools 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 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 show where users click on a page, and recordings of user sessions, which can be used to identify problems with a website's design. Its products are used by companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, who want to improve their website's user experience.

What is FullStory?

FullStory is a software company that provides tools for digital customer experience. Its products include session replay, which allows businesses to see how users interact with their website, and analytics, which helps businesses understand customer behavior. FullStory also offers tools for customer support and live chat. Its products are used by companies of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises that want to improve their digital customer experience.

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 customer experience and UX. Here is a comparison of both platforms' top features below.

Hotjar highlights

Some of the main features of the Hotjar include:

• Survey and Survey Templates: You can use Hotjar to create surveys and collect user feedback. You can also use the survey templates to create custom surveys that will resonate with your audience.
• Feedback: With integrative feedback forms, you can get insights from your users about their experience on your website. This can range from simple website pop-ups to more intricate forms.
• Recording: Similar to 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 being able to see 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. This helps businesses to track the activity of their users and show the level of interaction with elements along your website or program. This makes it easy to understand how your users interact with your site.
• Recordings: Recordings are a playback of user sessions on your site. This is different than heatmaps in that you can watch the recordings to see exactly what a user did on your site. This can help businesses understand how their users interact with their site and identify any areas where there may be confusion or any 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.
• Detect and find errors: FullStory allows you to detect errors that may occur on your site. Plus, you'll have full access to analytics based on customer behavior, which you can use to improve the customer experience. This is beneficial because it can help businesses fix any issues that their users are having, which can improve the overall experience for everyone. 
  

Pricing comparison

Hotjar offers a forever free package that includes the observe essentials 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.

On the other hand, FullStory does not have as transparent pricing listed on its page, as they only offer customized plans for enterprises and businesses. Businesses 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.

Target audience

The target audience for Hotjar is businesses of all sizes. They have a forever free plan that makes it easy for small businesses to get started with the software and see how it can benefit them. They also offer a wide range of features in their paid plans that are beneficial for larger businesses.

The target audience for FullStory is enterprises and businesses. This is because they offer a lot of customization and integrations that companies may need. They also have pricing that is based on the size of the business, which makes it more affordable for larger businesses.

Alternative to Hotjar and FullStory: Fullview

If your company has browsed both programs but has not found the perfect fit, we may have the answer. There are other options available that could be a better match for your company's specific needs.

Why not try Fullview — especially if you are looking for a tool specifically for customer support and troubleshooting?

Fullview is an end-to-end tool for technical customer support with products like session replays, cobrowsing and console logs.

It is an excellent alternative for businesses that want to level up their support game with live and asynchronous support. It is built around customer identity, so, once you install Fullview, all your users are pulled into your Fullview dashboard.

From here, you can see which users are online, offline or idle; watch recordings of their sessions within your product; see which users encountered errors and bugs with real-time console logs; and immediately start a cobrowsing session with them to gain control of their screen within your app and solve problems together.

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.

Wrapping it up

When it comes to user feedback tools, there are a lot of options available. However, two of the most popular platforms are Hotjar and FullStory. While both programs offer a variety of similar features, such as heatmaps and recordings, they each have their own unique benefits. If both programs don't fit your business needs, Fullview is a great alternative for live support, async support and troubleshooting with cobrowsing, session replays and console logs.

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