The recoil is greater than an AK47, yes. But what bothered me is that it takes you off target, not the shove so much as the necessity to reacquire your target.
So I had Mike Six at Hickman Rifles here in Colorado Springs install a heavy buffer and a Cooley muzzle brake from JPRifles dot com. Now it pushes straight back, but it doesn't move me nearly so much off target.
I might offer the comparison of the slant brake on the AK vs. the plain muzzle. The recoil is not objectionable, but it is sufficient to move your muzzle away from what you are shooting. Only the Cooley brake is more refined than the slant brake, the latter of which seemed to over compensate somewhat. The Cooley just keeps the muzzle on target shooting the 308 with bullets as heavy as 168 grains.
The heavy buffer I'm glad I have. I don't know that I would get another had I to do it over again, but it seems to change the character of the recoil impulse to where it seems more of a shove than a kick. It is a subtle difference, so in truth there may be no difference really at all.
The Magpul stock which has a rubber buttpad or the standard G3 stock with the rubber buttpad also helps.
Altogether I'm glad I had these modifications made to the rifle, but then I like to tinker with rifles. I don't know that any single modification would have satisfied me, but if I were to pick only one, it would be the muzzle brake. The mods together make it quite a manageable piece.
As for the FAL, some people really like the FAL. I guess I am ambivalent to it mostly. I had a pre dealer sample G1 which was a nice rifle, but whoever designed that stamped metal forend had his head in a dark and smelly place. That thing would get so hot after a couple of magazines that you couldn't hold it. This was IMO, a poor design. The PTR91 with the wide forend does a much better job of heat isolation from the shooter.
YMMV.