Most teams don’t struggle because they lack data. They struggle because they can’t always trust what they’re seeing or move fast enough when something breaks. When conversion dips, tickets spike, or a feature underperforms, getting from “something’s off” to “here’s what actually happened” often takes longer than it should.
Amplitude is built to measure what teams plan to track. Fullstory is built to show what actually happened.
That difference matters.
Fullstory captures real, exhaustive user behavior by default, so teams can investigate problems retroactively, see friction in context, and act while the moment still matters. Instead of waiting for new instrumentation or hoping the right events exist, teams already have the answers in front of them.
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Fullstory vs. Amplitude at a glance
Most analytics platforms tell you what you planned to measure. Fullstory shows you what actually happened.
That difference shapes everything below.
What teams need | Fullstory | Amplitude |
|---|---|---|
Data capture & depth | Fullcapture automatically captures interactions, so teams can analyze retroactively, see frustration signals, and understand context. | Primarily event-driven. Optimally performs with a stable tracking plan. Autocapture, session replay, and heatmaps are also available. |
Analysis | Complete: Deep product analytics. Replay, heatmaps, Rage Clicks, frustration signals, and error detection are built in. | Complete: Charts, funnels, and cohorts are powerful, with qualitative context. Replay and heatmaps are available. |
Speed to insight | Often within minutes. Retroactive queries and AI summaries surface answers quickly. | Achieving rapid insight may involve careful consideration of new questions, instrumentation, and data-collection processes. |
Cost & scalability | Session-based plans with unlimited seats. Scales across teams and use cases. | MTU and event pricing can scale and be optimized to align with analytical needs. |
AI assistance | StoryAI surfaces funnel drop-offs, session summaries, and hidden opportunities proactively. With Ask StoryAI, teams can use a conversational interface to ask immediate, data-backed questions about user behavior. | AI Agents monitor metrics and recommend next steps, like experiments or guides. |
Privacy & security | Private-by-default capture, auto-masking, and robust compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, HIPAA, PCI). | Enterprise-ready, with data privacy and governance effectively supported through implementation and tagging practices. |
Setup & maintenance | One snippet. Data flows immediately. Designed for minimal ongoing engineering; teams can layer in custom events as needed. | Typically involves an upfront tagging strategy and configuration, complemented by event management to optimize data accuracy. |
Integrations | Connects behavioral data to warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks), support tools, bug trackers, and personalization platforms | Broad martech ecosystem. Native Activation module syncs cohorts to ad and messaging platforms for campaigns. |
Feature comparison
Amplitude is an event-first analytics platform. It works well when teams know exactly what they want to track and can maintain that structure over time. It’s like shining a flashlight in the dark–great but inherently limited.
Fullstory is built for reality. It’s like turning the lights on in a dark room–it captures everything.
It captures real user behavior by default, so teams can ask new questions later, investigate unexpected problems, and understand friction in context, without rebuilding their tracking every time something changes.
More comprehensive data sets enable teams to find the needle in the haystack, often leading to decreased user friction, shorter time to resolution, improved funnel performance, and more.
Why teams choose Fullstory
Teams don’t switch for more charts. They switch because something feels broken and they need answers fast.
With Fullstory, teams stop dealing with:
Re-instrumentation cycles just to investigate new questions
Event mismatches that require hours of debugging
Insight bottlenecks that only analysts can unblock
Guessing what broke and hoping the right data exists
And start operating with:
Answers in minutes
Full visibility into real user behavior
Fewer stitched-together tools
Confidence that the data is already there when something goes wrong
Support, product, and marketing teams can work from the same source of truth, see friction in context, and move from investigation to action without waiting for new tags or new data to catch up.
Data capture: Fullcapture vs. manual tagging
Event-first tools assume teams can predict what they’ll need later. Most teams can’t.
With Fullstory, every interaction is already captured. Teams can investigate issues retroactively, explore unexpected patterns, and see friction in context without waiting for new tags.
With Amplitude, new insight usually requires new instrumentation and time to accumulate data. Teams wait for answers instead of acting on them.
Learn more about Fullcapture ➜
AI capabilities
Fullstory: StoryAI
StoryAI solves the critical problem of information overload by acting as a personal analyst for every user. Instead of watching long session replays or manually analyzing data across dashboards, it instantly synthesizes complex behavioral data into clear insights paired with recommended actions. Teams can pinpoint critical user moments, understand why they’re happening, and get guidance on what to do next, turning insight into confident, in-product decisions in seconds, not hours.
Amplitude: AI Agents
Amplitude AI monitors predefined metrics and recommends optimizations. It’s effective for known growth loops, but limited when something unexpected happens.
Enterprise readiness
Fullstory captures data privately by default. Masking and compliance are built into the platform.
Amplitude meets enterprise standards, but privacy and data accuracy depend more heavily on how carefully teams govern and maintain tagging over time.
The verdict
When Fullstory becomes your system of record, teams stop operating in the dark.
Instead of debating what happened or rebuilding instrumentation for every new question, they have a complete view of real user behavior ready the moment something feels off.
Amplitude measures what teams planned to track. Fullstory shows what actually happened.
That difference is what turns reactive teams into confident ones.
