In short
Fullstory and Faintrail both record visits to a website so a team can watch them back. Fullstory is a behavioural-data platform for product and digital teams, with heatmaps, funnels, dashboards, mobile-app recording as an add-on, the StoryAI assistant and a free plan of 30,000 sessions a month; its paid prices are on request. Faintrail does one job for owners and marketers at small and mid-size businesses: it plays each visit beside a plain-words log, never records typed text, hides email addresses, phone and card numbers on the page, and keeps data in the EU, the UK or the US, as you choose. Faintrail has no heatmaps or funnels.
Fullstory and Faintrail side by side
| Faintrail | Fullstory | |
|---|---|---|
| What you see | Each visit replayed beside a plain-words log; rage clicks, unanswered clicks, unsent forms and errors marked for you | Session replay, heatmaps, funnels, product analytics and dashboards (dashboards need a paid plan); mobile apps as an add-on |
| Privacy defaults | Typed text never recorded; email addresses, phone and card numbers on the page hidden; pages you mark private left out; sets no cookies, though in "record unless they say no" mode it keeps a visit number in the browser's storage, which privacy rules can treat like a cookie | Form fields masked by default (accounts opened since 10 Nov 2021); masking all page text ("Private by Default") is turned on by request to Fullstory's support team |
| Where data is kept | Hosted by Faintrail in the EU, the UK or the US: you choose | US by default; an EU data centre (Google Cloud, Frankfurt region) can be chosen for an account. An existing account can't be moved between them |
| AI | Download up to 100 visits as one text file for the assistant you already use. Nothing is sent to an AI automatically | StoryAI: summaries, "Ask StoryAI" and AI agents, powered by Google's Gemini; listed as an add-on on the pricing page |
| How long visits are kept | Replays 30 days and logs 90 days by default, up to a year if you choose | 12 months on the free plan; paid plans not published |
| Price | Not set yet | Free plan: 30,000 sessions a month, up to 10 users. Paid plans: price on request |
| Set-up | One small script, pasted in once. Nothing to host | A snippet in the page's head, through your CMS, a tag manager or a code package; privacy settings are set up when the account is opened |
Sources, checked 15 November 2026: Fullstory pricing; Private by Default; Fullstory data residency; StoryAI; Installing the Fullstory script.
Why teams choose Faintrail
- Keep visits in the UK, if that's where you work. Fullstory offers a US or an EU data centre, chosen for the account. Faintrail lets you choose the EU, the UK or the US, and your visitors' data is never sold or shared.
- The private parts are hidden from the first visit. Fullstory masks form fields by default, and hides all page text if you ask its support team. Faintrail never records what visitors type, and hides email addresses, phone and card numbers shown on any page, without a request.
- Read a visit like a story. Every visit comes with a plain-words log, such as Opened /pricing or Clicked button "Book a call", with problems marked. You can skim a visit in seconds and watch only the moment that matters.
- Use the AI you already trust. Fullstory's StoryAI works inside Fullstory, on Google's Gemini. Faintrail gives you the visits as a text file, so you choose the assistant and can read exactly what it was given.
- One tool, one job. Fullstory spans analytics, data exports and workplace software. Faintrail is a list of visits you can open, filter and read, so the people who fix the page can use it without training.
When Fullstory is the better choice
Choose Fullstory if you need heatmaps, funnels or dashboards beside your recordings, if you record a mobile app as well as a website, or if a product team will analyse behaviour across many products and send it to a data warehouse. Its free plan is also generous today: 30,000 sessions a month, kept for 12 months, for up to 10 people. Faintrail has none of those analytics tools, records websites only, and has no prices yet.
Switching from Fullstory
- Add Faintrail beside Fullstory. Both scripts can run at once, so nothing goes dark while you compare.
- Set what to record again. Your private pages, the pages you always record and how many visitors to record are set in Faintrail; Fullstory's privacy rules don't carry over.
- Compare a week of visits. Check that Faintrail shows you what you opened Fullstory for.
- Keep what you need, then remove Fullstory. Recordings, segments and dashboards stay in Fullstory; Faintrail can't import them.
Questions people ask
Is Fullstory free?
There's a free plan. Fullstory says FullstoryFree includes 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of analytics, for up to 10 users, with no credit card. Dashboards and StoryAI need a paid plan, and paid prices are on request. Faintrail has no prices yet.
Is Fullstory GDPR compliant?
That depends on how it's set up on your site as much as on the tool: what's recorded, whether visitors are asked, and where the data is kept. Fullstory publishes its own guidance on using it under the GDPR, and offers an EU data centre. We don't judge another company's compliance. Faintrail is designed to collect less: no typed text, private pages left out, and data kept in the EU, the UK or the US, as you choose.
What is Fullstory used for?
Product and digital teams use Fullstory to study how people use their websites and apps: session replay, heatmaps, funnels and product analytics, with StoryAI to summarise what it finds. If what you mainly need is to watch visits and see where people get stuck, Faintrail does that one job.
Can I move my Fullstory recordings into Faintrail?
No. Faintrail starts recording from the day you add it. Run both for a while, and keep anything you need from Fullstory before you close the account.
Does Faintrail have heatmaps or funnels?
Not yet. Faintrail shows recordings, a plain-words log of each visit and the problems in it. If heatmaps or funnels are what you use most, Fullstory will suit you better for now.
Is there an open-source Fullstory alternative?
Yes: OpenReplay and PostHog both have versions you can run on your own servers, if you have developers to look after them. Faintrail is hosted for you, in the EU, the UK or the US, and can't be run on your own servers yet. If you need that, contact us.
