Is Captivate or FullStory better?

Neither clearly leads. Captivate starts at Free and FullStory at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Captivate or FullStory?

Captivate starts at Free and FullStory at Free.

Does Captivate or FullStory run on more platforms?

Captivate runs on Web. FullStory runs on Web, Mobile.

Can I use Captivate for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Captivate best used for?

Captivate is most often used for podcast hosting with unlimited shows on any tier, distribution to the major podcast directories, audience analytics by episode and platform, running several podcasts under one subscription. Of those, podcast hosting with unlimited shows on any tier and distribution to the major podcast directories are not what FullStory is typically brought in for.

What can Captivate do that FullStory cannot?

Captivate covers Unlimited hosting, AI analytics, Smart recommendations, Distribution. FullStory covers Session replay, Heatmaps, Conversion funnels, User journey mapping.

Podcast & Audio Publishing · head to head

Captivate vs FullStory

Captivate

Podcast & Audio Publishing

Smart podcast hosting with AI insights

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

FullStory

E-commerce

Digital experience intelligence platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Captivate tiers are download ceilings and nothing else: 30,000 a month on Personal, 150,000 on Professional and 300,000 on Business; FullStory free tier limited to 30,000 sessions per month, no 5,000+ monthly active user sites
They diverge on capability: Captivate covers Unlimited hosting, FullStory covers Session replay.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Captivate and FullStory actually diverge.

Attributes where Captivate and FullStory differ
Attribute	Captivate	FullStory
Pricing model	freemium	quote
Platforms	Web	Web, Mobile
Category	Podcast & Audio Publishing	E-commerce
Founded	2016	2014

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Captivate

Unlimited hosting
AI analytics
Smart recommendations
Distribution
Monetization
Audience insights
All podcast platforms
Social media

Only in FullStory

Session replay
Heatmaps
Conversion funnels
User journey mapping
Error tracking
Frustration signals
Search functionality
Custom events

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Captivate

Podcast hosting with unlimited shows on any tiernot FullStory
Distribution to the major podcast directoriesnot FullStory
Audience analytics by episode and platformnot FullStory
Running several podcasts under one subscriptionnot FullStory

FullStory

User experience analysisnot Captivate
Bug reproductionnot Captivate
Conversion optimizationnot Captivate
Customer supportnot Captivate
Product developmentnot Captivate

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Captivate

Tiers are download ceilings and nothing else: 30,000 a month on Personal, 150,000 on Professional and 300,000 on Business
A show that exceeds its allowance for two consecutive months is expected to move up a tier
Above 300,000 downloads a month the plan is quote-only
Prices are quoted in euros at the yearly rate

FullStory

Free tier limited to 30,000 sessions per month, no 5,000+ monthly active user sites
Personal email addresses cannot be used for signup; business email domain required
Paid plan pricing not publicly listed, requires sales contact for quotes
Free plan has no email support, only community-based assistance
Mobile app analytics requires a separate add-on purchase

Pricing, plan by plan

Captivate

Free

FreeFree
- 3 hours storage
- Basic hosting
- Limited analytics
Professional$19/month
- Unlimited hosting
- AI analytics
- Full distribution

FullStory

Free

FreeFree
- 1,000 sessions/month
- 14-day data retention
- Basic analytics
Business$undefined/month
- Custom sessions
- 3-month retention
- Advanced analytics
Enterprise$undefined/month
- Unlimited sessions
- Custom retention
- Advanced privacy controls

Which should you pick?

Choose Captivate if

You need unlimited hosting.
You want to start without paying.
You also want ai analytics.

Captivate review

Choose FullStory if

You need session replay.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Mobile.
You also want heatmaps.

FullStory review

Questions people ask

Is Captivate or FullStory better?: Neither clearly leads. Captivate starts at Free and FullStory at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Captivate or FullStory?: Captivate starts at Free and FullStory at Free.
Does Captivate or FullStory run on more platforms?: Captivate runs on Web. FullStory runs on Web, Mobile.
Can I use Captivate for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Captivate best used for?: Captivate is most often used for podcast hosting with unlimited shows on any tier, distribution to the major podcast directories, audience analytics by episode and platform, running several podcasts under one subscription. Of those, podcast hosting with unlimited shows on any tier and distribution to the major podcast directories are not what FullStory is typically brought in for.
What can Captivate do that FullStory cannot?: Captivate covers Unlimited hosting, AI analytics, Smart recommendations, Distribution. FullStory covers Session replay, Heatmaps, Conversion funnels, User journey mapping.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

FullStory: What does FullStory's free tier include?

30,000 sessions per month, 10 user seats, 5,000 server-side events per month, 1 year of session replay retention, and 1 year of product analytics retention. Session capture pauses when you exceed the monthly limit, though existing sessions remain accessible.

Source

FullStory: What features are excluded from the free plan?

Dashboards, configurable form privacy, Go-Live functionality, Streams, client-side rate hooks, mobile app analytics, and StoryAI are not available on the free tier. Email support is also unavailable; only community-based help is provided.

Source

FullStory: Can I use a personal email to sign up for FullStory's free plan?

No. FullStory requires a business email domain for signup; personal email services like Gmail cannot be used for free plan registration.

Source

FullStory: How does FullStory integrate with Slack?

FullStory's Slack integration allows individual users to send noteworthy sessions to Slack channels. Advanced and Enterprise plans can configure Alerts to receive notifications in Slack when user metrics exceed defined thresholds.

Source

FullStory: What analytics platforms does FullStory integrate with?

FullStory integrates with Segment, Mixpanel, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Salesforce, HubSpot, and others. These integrations allow you to attach FullStory session URLs to events in your analytics platform for cross-platform correlation.

Source

Captivate vs FullStory

Captivate

FullStory

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Captivate

Only in FullStory

What people use each for

Captivate

FullStory

Where each one falls short

Captivate

FullStory

Pricing, plan by plan

Captivate

FullStory

Which should you pick?

Choose Captivate if

Choose FullStory if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Captivate

More on FullStory

Keep looking

Other head to heads