Datadog
FullStory
| Feature | Datadog | FullStory |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $15/mo | Free only |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | devops-teams, sre-teams, cloud-native-companies, enterprises | product-teams, ux-designers, enterprise-apps, conversion-optimization |
| Founded | 2010 | 2014 |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apm | ✓ | ✗ |
| Log Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Synthetics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Real User Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Security Monitoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Session Replay | ✗ | ✓ |
| Heatmaps | ✗ | ✓ |
| Product Analytics | ✗ | ✓ |
| Error Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Frustration Signals | ✗ | ✓ |
| User Journeys | ✗ | ✓ |
| Data Export | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Datadog Pros
- Unified platform for metrics, traces, logs, and security
- 750+ integrations with cloud services and tools
- Powerful dashboards and alerting system
- AI-powered anomaly detection
✗ Datadog Cons
- Per-host pricing becomes expensive at scale
- Complex pricing with many add-ons
- Data ingestion costs can be unpredictable
✓ FullStory Pros
- High-fidelity session replay with DOM rendering
- AI-powered insights surface frustration signals
- Combines qualitative and quantitative analytics
- Privacy-first with PII exclusion controls
✗ FullStory Cons
- Expensive for high-traffic sites
- Free plan limited to 1,000 sessions/month
- Can slow page performance with full recording
The Verdict
Datadog is built for devops teams and sre teams, with a focus on infrastructure-monitoring and apm. FullStory targets product teams and ux designers and leads with session-replay and heatmaps.
FullStory uses custom enterprise pricing, while Datadog starts at $15/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Datadog offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 7), while FullStory takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.