StoriesIG shows you what a public Instagram account posted today, for free. DolphinRadar records what one public account does over weeks, for a monthly fee. StoriesIG (storiesig.com) is an ad-supported website with no sign-up. DolphinRadar (dolphinradar.com) is a subscription tracker with plans from $4.49 a month, one tracked account per plan. Neither one puts your name in the story viewer list, so the choice comes down to a single question: do you want to look once, or keep watching?

This comparison is about that decision, and about what storiesig.com showed us when we tested it on 29 October 2026. DolphinRadar’s full price list, refund rules, terms and our test of its free viewer are in the DolphinRadar review, so we only repeat the parts that matter for the choice.

Look once, or keep watching?

StoriesIG is built for a single anonymous look at public content. You paste a username or link into one search box on storiesig.com, and the site loads that account’s current stories, Highlights, Reels and posts, each with a download button. Its FAQ says there is “no fixed daily limit for normal, personal use,” no app, and no premium tier. There is nothing to set up and nothing to cancel. For a walkthrough, see how to use StoriesIG.

DolphinRadar is built for watching one account over time. You create an account, pay, and enter one public username. The first report arrives after about a week, according to the DolphinRadar Help Center, and after that you get weekly reports on public likes, follows and unfollows, plus a daily archive of stories and Highlights. Quarterly and annual plans add AI modules that guess at a personality type, lifestyle and locations.

Put simply, StoriesIG answers “what did this account post today?” and DolphinRadar answers “what has this account been doing for the last few months?”

For most people who search “storiesig dolphin,” the first question is the real one. If you want to see a story once without being seen, a subscription with a one-week wait and a locked tracked account is far more tool than the job needs. DolphinRadar makes sense in a narrower case: you need an ongoing, dated record of a public brand or creator account, and $32.99 a year is cheaper than your time.

The two side by side

	StoriesIG (storiesig.com)	DolphinRadar (dolphinradar.com)
What it is	Free story viewer and downloader	Paid activity tracker, plus a story viewer
Price	$0, funded by Google ads	Tracker from $4.49/month; $32.99/year on the annual plan
Accounts	Unlimited lookups	1 tracked account per subscription
Sign-up	None	Email and password, Google or Apple
Instagram login	Never	Never
Private accounts	No	No
History over time	Current stories and Highlights only	Daily story archive and weekly reports from your start date
Data it keeps about you	Request logs (IP, user agent, username searched) up to 30 days	Account email, IP and device data, tracked usernames, Stripe billing records (7 years)
Operator named	No	SESHAT LAB PTE. LTD., Singapore

What storiesig.com showed us on 29 October 2026

StoriesIG loaded, but it did not return stories to our test browser that day. We used an automated browser, which some sites block on purpose, so we cannot say whether a normal visitor would have had the same result. Here is the sequence:

Our first visit, at about 11:55 UTC, got a Cloudflare “Error 522”, meaning the site’s server did not respond.
By 12:08 UTC the homepage loaded.
Lookups for two large public accounts, at the address pattern storiesig.com/en1/stories/<username>, both returned “An error has occurred. Please try again later.”
The page loads Google reCAPTCHA, which may have flagged our browser.

The ads were easier to check than the stories. The results page ran Google AdSense and Google Analytics scripts, with six ad slots. StoriesIG’s privacy policy (last updated May 28, 2026) says it does not use “persistent advertising identifiers,” and it does not name either Google service. Read that as “ad-funded like most free viewers,” not as “no tracking at all.”

We also found no company name anywhere on storiesig.com. That is common for free viewers, and it means the privacy policy has no named operator behind it.

If StoriesIG shows “No stories” for you, its own FAQ lists the usual causes: no story in the last 24 hours, a private account, or a changed username. Our StoriesIG not working guide covers the fixes.

Same anonymity, different data trail

Neither tool puts your name in the target’s story viewer list, since both fetch public data from their own servers instead of through your account (the mechanism is in how anonymous story viewers work). Instagram shows a story’s owner the accounts that viewed it (Instagram Help Center), and a server request from either service is not one of them.

What each service knows about you is a different matter. StoriesIG’s privacy policy says it receives your IP address, browser user agent and the username you search, and keeps those request logs “typically no longer than 30 days.” There is no account, so there is no name or email to tie them to.

DolphinRadar holds more. Its privacy policy lists your account email, IP address, device details, every username you track, and billing records kept for seven years. A paid tracker has to know who you are to bill you. That is not sinister, but it is a real difference if privacy is why you came.

What it costs

StoriesIG is free. DolphinRadar’s cheapest real tracking costs $32.99 a year for one account. Two DolphinRadar rules raise that number in practice:

Each subscription covers one Instagram account, so a second person means a second subscription.
The Help Center says you cannot change the tracked account during an active subscription.

StoriesIG’s cost is ads and nothing else. There is no card to enter, so there is no renewal to forget.

If you are leaning toward DolphinRadar, read its terms before you pay, because they limit where and how you may use it. Our DolphinRadar review walks through those clauses, and DolphinRadar alternatives lists other options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is StoriesIG the same as DolphinRadar?

No. StoriesIG (storiesig.com) is a free, ad-supported website that shows a public Instagram account’s current stories, Highlights and posts with no sign-up. DolphinRadar is a paid service from a Singapore company that tracks one public account over time and sends weekly reports on its likes, follows and stories. They are separate products run by different operators, and they solve different problems.

Does StoriesIG or DolphinRadar notify the person?

No. StoriesIG and DolphinRadar both fetch public Instagram data from their own servers, and neither uses your Instagram account, so your name never appears in the story viewer list and the account owner gets no alert. Each service can still see your IP address. DolphinRadar also has your email and billing details, because it is a paid subscription.

Is DolphinRadar worth paying for if StoriesIG is free?

Only if you need a record over time. On 29 October 2026, DolphinRadar’s tracker cost $32.99 a year for one account and gave weekly reports plus a daily story archive. To look at a public story once, StoriesIG or another free no-login viewer does the job at no cost, with no account to create and no subscription locked to one username.

Can either tool see private Instagram accounts?

No. StoriesIG’s FAQ states that only public profiles can be viewed, and DolphinRadar’s terms say it does not access private accounts, messages or stories. Instagram keeps private content behind its follower approval, and no outside website can get past that. If a site promises a private account’s stories, close the tab.

Which one to pick

Start with StoriesIG, or any free viewer that asks only for a username, if all you want is a quick, anonymous look at today’s stories. It keeps request logs for about 30 days and asks for nothing else. Move to DolphinRadar only if you find you need weeks of dated reports on one public account, and accept what that costs: an account, a card, billing records kept for seven years, and a subscription locked to one username. Neither tool can see private accounts, whichever you choose.