Pendo and FullStory compared

Pendo and FullStory are both behavioral analytics platforms that help businesses understand user sentiment and optimize digital experiences.

While Pendo focuses on product adoption and in-app guidance, FullStory emphasizes session replay and predictive modeling to surface user sentiment and identify areas for improvement.

What is Pendo?

Pendo is a comprehensive product experience platform that empowers companies to optimize their digital experiences for customers and employees. With a suite of AI-powered tools, Pendo enables product, marketing, customer success, and IT teams to drive more efficient R&D, grow revenue, increase retention, and create more effective employees.

Pendo's core offerings include:

• Product analytics: Data Explorer, Paths and Funnels, Retention analysis, and Product Engagement Score (PES) to understand user behavior

• In-app guides: Deliver targeted messages or announcements to influence user navigation and adoption

• Feedback collection: Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys and feature request management to gather user sentiment

• Roadmapping: Plan and prioritize product initiatives based on user insights and feedback

Pendo's platform caters to a wide range of industries and use cases. Product teams utilize Pendo to gain insights into user behavior, deliver targeted in-app guidance, gather user feedback, and prioritize product roadmaps. Organizations also employ Pendo to drive digital adoption, accelerate productivity, and ensure compliance across their business-critical applications.

What is FullStory?

FullStory is a behavioral data analytics platform that helps businesses understand user sentiment by capturing and analyzing customer interactions with their digital products. The platform provides a comprehensive picture of the customer experience, enabling companies to build better personalization, improve user experiences, and drive revenue.

FullStory's core offerings include:

• Session replay: Watch real-time replays of user sessions across web and mobile applications

• Product analytics: Utilize tools like funnels, dashboards, and user segmentation to measure key metrics

• Data integrations: Sync behavioral data with existing data warehouses to leverage insights across the organization

FullStory's platform is geared toward product managers, engineers, and data teams focused on optimizing user experiences. It caters to companies in various industries, including retail, travel, finance, SaaS, gaming, and food, aiming to help businesses increase conversions, build customer loyalty, and minimize fraud.

Pricing comparison

Pendo offers a user-based pricing model with custom plans based on the number of monthly active users (MAU). The pricing is designed to scale with the growth of a company's customers, employees, or business partners.

Pendo provides four main plans: Base, Core, Pulse, and Ultimate. The Base plan is suitable for companies just starting their product experience journey, while the Core plan is the most popular and provides essential solutions.

Pendo offers a free plan for up to 500 MAU, which includes basic features such as retroactive product analytics, in-app guides, net promoter score (NPS), and roadmaps. As a company's MAU grows, they can upgrade to a paid plan for advanced features.

FullStory's pricing model is based on the volume of sessions captured and the features included in each plan. The plans range from a free option with limited sessions and features to enterprise-level plans with advanced capabilities.

FullStory's Business, Advanced, and Enterprise plans offer increasingly sophisticated features, such as product analytics, mobile analytics, role-based permissions, and premium support. The exact pricing for these plans is not publicly available, and interested customers must request a demo for more information.

When comparing the two, Pendo's pricing appears to be more scalable and transparent, with a clear free plan and pricing based on MAU. FullStory's pricing is less transparent, requiring a demo request for exact costs.

Considerations and limitations: Pendo

Pendo is an ideal platform for organizations focused on optimizing their digital product experiences. Its comprehensive suite of tools, including analytics, in-app guidance, user feedback, and roadmapping, makes it well-suited for teams looking to gain insights into user behavior and drive product improvements. Pendo's low-code solutions also make it accessible to both technical and non-technical teams, enabling collaboration across the organization.

However, Pendo's pricing model may not be suitable for smaller organizations or startups with limited budgets. The platform's all-in-one nature could also lead to potential vendor lock-in, as teams become reliant on Pendo's ecosystem. Additionally, while Pendo offers a wide range of features, it may have limited customization options compared to more technical platforms, which could be a drawback for teams with specific requirements.

• TL;DR: Pendo is better suited for organizations prioritizing digital product experience optimization, but may not be the best fit for smaller teams with budget constraints or those requiring extensive customization options.

Considerations and limitations: FullStory

FullStory is well-suited for businesses that prioritize user experience optimization and conversion rate improvement. The platform's powerful session replay and behavioral data analysis capabilities enable teams to gain deep insights into user interactions and identify areas for improvement. FullStory is an excellent choice for companies with technical resources to leverage its advanced features and integrate behavioral data into their existing tech stack.

However, FullStory may lack some of the comprehensive product analytics and roadmapping tools offered by platforms like Pendo. While FullStory excels at capturing and analyzing user behavior, it may not provide the same level of guidance and in-app messaging capabilities as dedicated product experience platforms. Additionally, FullStory's pricing model, which is based on session volume, could become costly for high-traffic websites.

• TL;DR: FullStory is better suited for businesses focusing on user experience optimization and conversion rate improvement, but may not offer the same level of product analytics and guidance as dedicated product experience platforms.

An alternative: Statsig

Statsig is an all-in-one platform that offers product analytics, session replay, and more. It's a great option for companies of all sizes, from startups to enterprises like Notion, Atlassian, and OpenAI. Sign up for free to get started, or contact us for a demo to see how Statsig can help you build better products.