{
  "slug": "fullstory-alternative",
  "page_type": "alternative",
  "seo": {
    "title": "FullStory Alternative",
    "description": "Compare OpenPanel with FullStory: pricing, privacy, self-hosting, and features. OpenPanel offers product analytics with transparent pricing and self-hosting.",
    "noindex": false
  },
  "hero": {
    "heading": "FullStory alternative",
    "subheading": "Get powerful product analytics without FullStory's enterprise pricing. OpenPanel delivers funnel analysis, retention tracking, and user identification—fully open source and self-hostable with transparent pricing.",
    "badges": [
      "Open-source",
      "Self-hostable",
      "Transparent pricing",
      "Product analytics"
    ]
  },
  "competitor": {
    "name": "FullStory",
    "logo": "/logos/fullstory.svg",
    "url": "https://www.fullstory.com",
    "short_description": "Digital Experience Intelligence (DXI) platform known for pixel-perfect session replay and frustration signal detection.",
    "founded": 2014,
    "headquarters": "Atlanta, GA"
  },
  "summary_comparison": {
    "title": "OpenPanel vs FullStory: Which is right for you?",
    "intro": "Both platforms provide analytics and session replay, but FullStory focuses on visual debugging while OpenPanel emphasizes product analytics.",
    "one_liner": "OpenPanel is open source with transparent pricing for product analytics; FullStory excels at session replay with enterprise pricing.",
    "best_for_openpanel": [
      "Teams needing open source analytics for transparency",
      "Organizations requiring self-hosting for data sovereignty",
      "Budget-conscious teams seeking transparent pricing",
      "Product analytics focus over visual UX debugging",
      "Teams avoiding vendor lock-in"
    ],
    "best_for_competitor": [
      "Teams requiring pixel-perfect session replay",
      "Organizations needing sophisticated frustration detection",
      "Enterprise teams with budget for premium features",
      "UX teams requiring heatmaps and DevTools integration",
      "Companies needing AI-powered session summaries"
    ]
  },
  "highlights": {
    "title": "Key differences at a glance",
    "intro": "Here's how OpenPanel and FullStory compare on the factors that matter most.",
    "items": [
      {
        "label": "Open source",
        "openpanel": "Yes (MIT)",
        "competitor": "No (proprietary)"
      },
      {
        "label": "Self-hosting",
        "openpanel": "Yes, with Docker",
        "competitor": "No (cloud only)"
      },
      {
        "label": "Transparent pricing",
        "openpanel": "Public pricing, free tier",
        "competitor": "Sales-required pricing"
      },
      {
        "label": "Session replay",
        "openpanel": "Basic",
        "competitor": "Pixel-perfect with DevTools"
      },
      {
        "label": "Heatmaps",
        "openpanel": "Not available",
        "competitor": "Click, scroll, engagement"
      }
    ]
  },
  "feature_comparison": {
    "title": "Feature comparison",
    "intro": "OpenPanel focuses on product analytics; FullStory excels at session replay and visual debugging.",
    "groups": [
      {
        "group": "Core analytics",
        "features": [
          {
            "name": "Event tracking",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "FullStory uses autocapture"
          },
          {
            "name": "Funnels",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Retention analysis",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "FullStory on Advanced/Enterprise plans"
          },
          {
            "name": "User profiles",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Cohorts",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Custom dashboards",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Real-time data",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Visual analytics",
        "features": [
          {
            "name": "Session replay",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "FullStory's core strength"
          },
          {
            "name": "Heatmaps",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Rage click detection",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Frustration signals",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "FullStory's proprietary feature"
          },
          {
            "name": "DevTools integration",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "AI session summaries",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "StoryAI"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Advanced features",
        "features": [
          {
            "name": "A/B testing",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": false,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Autocapture",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Data export",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "FullStory Data Direct"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Privacy & compliance",
        "features": [
          {
            "name": "Self-hosting",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": false,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Open source",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": false,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "GDPR compliant",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Cookie-free option",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": false,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "SOC 2 certified",
            "openpanel": false,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": "Type II"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "group": "Integrations & data",
        "features": [
          {
            "name": "REST API",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Data warehouse sync",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          },
          {
            "name": "Mobile SDKs",
            "openpanel": true,
            "competitor": true,
            "notes": null
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "technical_comparison": {
    "title": "Technical comparison",
    "intro": "For developers evaluating analytics tools, here's how the implementations compare.",
    "items": [
      {
        "label": "SDK size (JS)",
        "openpanel": "~2.3 KB gzipped",
        "competitor": "~10+ KB (autocapture)",
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Supported platforms",
        "openpanel": [
          "JavaScript",
          "React",
          "Next.js",
          "Vue",
          "React Native",
          "iOS",
          "Android",
          "Node.js"
        ],
        "competitor": [
          "JavaScript",
          "iOS",
          "Android",
          "React Native",
          "Flutter"
        ],
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Open source",
        "openpanel": "Yes (MIT)",
        "competitor": "No",
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Self-hosted deployment",
        "openpanel": "Docker, simple setup",
        "competitor": "Not available",
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Database",
        "openpanel": "ClickHouse + PostgreSQL",
        "competitor": "Proprietary",
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "label": "Data retention",
        "openpanel": "Unlimited (self-hosted)",
        "competitor": "2-60 months depending on plan",
        "notes": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "pricing": {
    "title": "Pricing comparison",
    "intro": "OpenPanel offers transparent pricing. FullStory requires sales conversations with enterprise pricing.",
    "openpanel": {
      "model": "Event-based, transparent",
      "description": "Start at $2.50/month for 5,000 events. Self-host for free with unlimited events. All features included at every tier."
    },
    "competitor": {
      "model": "Session-based, sales-required",
      "description": "14-day trial with 5,000 sessions. Business/Advanced/Enterprise plans require custom quotes. Pricing reportedly starts at $12,000-50,000+/year for most teams.",
      "free_tier": "14-day trial (limited)",
      "pricing_url": "https://www.fullstory.com/pricing"
    }
  },
  "migration": {
    "title": "Migrating from FullStory to OpenPanel",
    "intro": "Switching means trading session replay features for open source, self-hosting, and transparent pricing.",
    "difficulty": "moderate",
    "estimated_time": "2-4 hours",
    "steps": [
      {
        "title": "Install OpenPanel SDK",
        "description": "Add the OpenPanel SDK to your application. The SDK is lightweight (~2.3KB) compared to FullStory's autocapture script."
      },
      {
        "title": "Map event tracking",
        "description": "FullStory uses autocapture for most events. With OpenPanel, you'll define explicit event tracking using track() calls."
      },
      {
        "title": "Transfer user identification",
        "description": "FullStory's identify() maps to OpenPanel's identify(). Transfer your user ID and custom user variables."
      },
      {
        "title": "Set up funnels and analytics",
        "description": "Recreate your FullStory funnels in OpenPanel. Build custom dashboards for key metrics."
      },
      {
        "title": "Remove FullStory script",
        "description": "Once verified, remove the FullStory snippet. Note: You'll lose access to session replay and heatmaps."
      }
    ],
    "sdk_compatibility": {
      "similar_api": true,
      "notes": "Both support similar identification and event tracking patterns. Main difference is autocapture vs explicit tracking."
    },
    "historical_data": {
      "can_import": false,
      "notes": "FullStory's session data is proprietary. Contact us if you need assistance with data migration."
    }
  },
  "use_cases": {
    "title": "Where OpenPanel is a better fit than FullStory",
    "intro": "OpenPanel excels when you need product analytics with data ownership and transparent pricing.",
    "items": [
      {
        "title": "Teams needing open source analytics",
        "description": "FullStory is proprietary with no source code access. OpenPanel provides full source code transparency under MIT license.",
        "icon": "code"
      },
      {
        "title": "Self-hosting requirements",
        "description": "FullStory is cloud-only. OpenPanel can be deployed on your servers for complete data control.",
        "icon": "server"
      },
      {
        "title": "Budget-conscious teams",
        "description": "FullStory's enterprise pricing (reportedly $12,000-50,000+/year) is prohibitive. OpenPanel offers transparent pricing starting at $2.50/month.",
        "icon": "dollar"
      },
      {
        "title": "Product analytics focus",
        "description": "If your primary need is product analytics—funnels, retention, cohorts—rather than visual debugging, OpenPanel provides these at a fraction of the cost.",
        "icon": "chart"
      },
      {
        "title": "Avoiding vendor lock-in",
        "description": "FullStory's proprietary platform creates vendor lock-in. OpenPanel's open source nature prevents dependency on a single vendor.",
        "icon": "lock"
      }
    ]
  },
  "faqs": {
    "title": "Frequently asked questions",
    "intro": "Common questions about switching from FullStory to OpenPanel.",
    "items": [
      {
        "question": "What will I lose switching from FullStory to OpenPanel?",
        "answer": "FullStory's core strengths are session replay, heatmaps, and frustration signals (rage clicks, dead clicks). OpenPanel has basic session replay but lacks heatmaps and FullStory's sophisticated frustration detection. If visual UX debugging is critical, consider keeping FullStory for that use case."
      },
      {
        "question": "Is OpenPanel as feature-rich as FullStory for product analytics?",
        "answer": "For pure product analytics (funnels, retention, cohorts, user profiles), OpenPanel offers comparable capabilities. FullStory bundles product analytics with its DXI platform, but many teams find they're paying for session replay features they don't heavily use."
      },
      {
        "question": "How does pricing compare?",
        "answer": "FullStory requires sales conversations with pricing reportedly starting at $12,000/year. OpenPanel offers transparent pricing: 10,000 events/month free, then $0.00005/event. Most teams will save 80-90% with OpenPanel."
      },
      {
        "question": "Can I self-host FullStory?",
        "answer": "No. FullStory is cloud-only SaaS. OpenPanel offers full self-hosting via Docker for complete data control."
      },
      {
        "question": "Is FullStory open source?",
        "answer": "No. FullStory is proprietary closed-source. OpenPanel is fully open source under the MIT license."
      },
      {
        "question": "Does OpenPanel have autocapture like FullStory?",
        "answer": "OpenPanel uses explicit event tracking rather than FullStory's autocapture. This means more intentional instrumentation but cleaner data without noise."
      }
    ]
  },
  "related_links": {
    "articles": [
      {
        "title": "9 best open source web analytics tools",
        "url": "/articles/open-source-web-analytics"
      }
    ],
    "alternatives": [
      {
        "name": "PostHog",
        "url": "/compare/posthog-alternative"
      },
      {
        "name": "Mixpanel",
        "url": "/compare/mixpanel-alternative"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ctas": {
    "primary": {
      "label": "Start with OpenPanel",
      "href": "https://dashboard.openpanel.dev/onboarding"
    },
    "secondary": {
      "label": "View on GitHub",
      "href": "https://github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel"
    }
  }
}