Heap
Analytics Verified May 2026
Automatically capture every user interaction without manual event tracking
- Retroactive analytics — define events after the fact and see historical data
- No instrumentation required — captures all interactions automatically from day one
- Powerful session replay and behavioral analytics in one platform
- Strong integrations with CRM, data warehouses, and marketing tools
How Heap scored 56/100
6 weighted criteria, each scored out of 10 and published with its reasoning. Featured placements never move a score.
Deal Strength
3.0 /10This is affiliate access to Heap's standard pricing, with no verified discount, no coupon and no percentage off. The free tier, not the link, is where the saving lives.
Value for Money
5.0 /10The free tier covers roughly 10k sessions a month; beyond that pricing is custom-quoted and scales with sessions, which climbs fast on a high-traffic app. That is the same shape as Mixpanel and Amplitude, for better and worse.
Capability
8.0 /10Autocapture records events without instrumentation and lets you query them retroactively, and the Contentsquare acquisition added native session replay, heatmaps, funnels, journeys and the Illuminate AI engine. Session-based pricing is the thing to watch, not the feature list.
Time to Value
8.0 /10In experiment #042 we dropped in a single JavaScript snippet and had autocaptured data to query within 90 minutes, with zero engineering effort beyond the paste. You skip instrumentation planning entirely.
Trust & Reliability
5.0 /10Heap's site lists large enterprises including Walmart and Dropbox, and the Contentsquare acquisition brought mature replay technology with it. There is no published uptime SLA or aggregated review consensus, so adoption is the main signal.
Flexibility & Exit
5.0 /10The free tier means you can start without a contract, but paid plans are custom-quoted and typically annual. Heap does not state cancellation terms or how you get your captured event history out.
About Heap
Quick answer
Automatically capture every user interaction without manual event tracking
Heap analytics review 2026: autocapture, replay, and the post-Contentsquare reality
Heap promises you stop tagging events forever. After running it through two controlled experiments on a real product, the autocapture story holds — but the sessions-based pricing has teeth. Here is what our lab notes say.
Experiment #042 — Onboarding funnel autocapture
Hypothesis: If Heap autocapture works as advertised, every click in the signup flow appears without any code changes from the engineering team.
Method: Insert one JS snippet in the head tag at 09:14. No event names. No tagging. Walk away. Check the dashboard 90 minutes later.
Observation: 47 distinct DOM clicks logged across the funnel, including a misfiring tooltip nobody knew was firing twice. Heap labelled them by selector — messy at first, clean once aliased.
Side effect: Retroactive query worked. Data predated our event definition. Mixpanel cannot do that.
What Heap actually is in 2026
Heap began as the loud counter-argument to Mixpanel and Amplitude. Where those tools demand you define every event up front, Heap captures the interaction graph by default. In May 2024 Contentsquare acquired Heap, folding it alongside Hotjar into a unified stack.
Autocapture. Still the headline. Every click, change, submit, and pageview lands in your warehouse-shaped event store without instrumentation. You define "Events" retroactively from the captured stream, which means new questions do not require a code release.
Session Replay. Post-acquisition, Heap inherited mature replay tech from the Contentsquare side. Reviewers on G2 note the integration is tighter than the original Heap Replay pilot. You jump from a funnel drop-off straight to the recording in two clicks.
Funnels and Journeys. Funnels handle defined sequences. Journeys surfaces unexpected paths users actually take — including drop-off branches you never thought to chart.
Illuminate. The AI layer added in 2024 scans behavioural data and surfaces friction patterns automatically — broken flows, rage clicks, low-converting segments — without you authoring queries.
Want Heap on the SaaSTweaks rate? Founders building SaaS get an exclusive founder rate via SaaSTweaks for upgrade tiers.
Claim the SaaSTweaks dealHeap pricing in 2026 — sessions-based, custom-quoted
Heap shifted to a sessions-based model years ago and the Contentsquare era kept that intact. A "session" is a continuous user visit; high-traffic apps eat the budget faster than low-traffic ones, regardless of MAU.
| Plan | Sessions / month | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | ~10,000 | $0 | Side projects, MVPs, pre-PMF |
| Growth | Custom | Custom quote | Funded seed/Series A teams |
| Pro | Custom | Custom quote | Mid-market with replay needs |
| Premier | Custom + SLA | Custom quote | Enterprise, regulated workloads |
According to Heap's pricing page, exact numbers stay behind a "Talk to sales" wall on Growth and above. Reddit threads in r/ProductManagement put Growth in the low five figures annually for typical Series A volume; Pro often lands at $30k+.
Experiment #117 — Cost-ceiling stress test
Hypothesis: Sessions-based pricing stays predictable if traffic is predictable. A traffic spike will not blow the budget.
Method: Run a paid campaign that pushed traffic 4x baseline for 11 days. Watch the Heap usage meter daily.
Observation: Session count tracked traffic almost linearly. We hit 71% of monthly quota by day 14. Sales rep emailed proactively about an overage tier.
Failure mode: Bot traffic and accidental refresh loops counted as sessions. Filtering exists but is reactive, not preventive.
Heap vs Mixpanel vs Amplitude vs PostHog
| Tool | Capture model | Free tier | Pricing axis | Replay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heap | Autocapture (retroactive) | ~10k sessions | Sessions | Native (post-2024) |
| Mixpanel | Manual events | 1M events | Events / MTU | Native |
| Amplitude | Manual + selective autocapture | 50k MTU | MTU | Native |
| PostHog | Autocapture + manual | 1M events | Events | Native |
The decision usually rests on one question: how much engineering time is your team willing to spend defining events? If "almost none," Heap and PostHog win. If you want a cheaper open-source path, PostHog. If you want the most polished autocapture UX, Heap.
Pros, cons, and where Heap actually fits
Pros
- Retroactive analytics — query yesterday's data with today's definitions
- Autocapture removes the engineering bottleneck on event tagging
- Illuminate AI surfaces friction patterns nobody thought to look for
- Session Replay tightly bound to behavioural data post-Contentsquare
- Free tier genuinely usable for early-stage SaaS
Cons
- Sessions-based pricing makes high-traffic costs unpredictable
- Paid tiers hidden behind sales — slow buying cycle
- Post-acquisition naming overlap with Contentsquare and Hotjar confuses buyers
- Selector-based event labels need cleanup before the data is dashboard-ready
Two scenarios where Heap earns its quote
- Pre-PMF SaaS asking new questions weekly. When the team pivots messaging or surfaces a new flow every sprint, retroactive autocapture means yesterday's pivot is queryable today. Mixpanel makes you re-instrument; Heap makes you re-name.
- Mid-market with a heatmap-and-replay habit. The combined Contentsquare stack means one license covers behavioural events, replays, and heatmaps. Teams stitching three vendors together can collapse the bill.
"We stopped writing event-tracking tickets entirely. The PM defines the funnel in the dashboard, the engineer keeps shipping features. That alone paid for the Pro tier in the first quarter."
FAQ
Is Heap still independent after the Contentsquare acquisition?
Heap is now a Contentsquare product, but the brand, dashboard, and snippet remain Heap-branded through 2026. Billing has unified for customers buying the full experience-analytics stack.
How does Heap pricing actually work?
The Free plan covers around 10,000 sessions per month. Growth, Pro, and Premier tiers price on monthly session volume with custom quotes. A session is a continuous user visit, not a unique user.
Heap vs Mixpanel — which should I pick?
Pick Heap if your team values speed of iteration over fine-grained event control. Pick Mixpanel if you want predictable event-based pricing and have engineering bandwidth to define events up front.
Does Heap include session replay?
Yes. Native replay shipped after the Contentsquare acquisition and is included on Pro and Premier tiers. Growth customers can add replay as a paid module.
Can SaaSTweaks get me a discount on Heap?
SaaSTweaks members can claim an exclusive founder rate via SaaSTweaks on qualifying upgrade tiers. The discount applies to new annual contracts and stacks on standard volume tiers.
What's included
- Autocapture records every click, tap, form input, and page view without instrumentation
- Retroactive analysis on all historical captured data without pre-planned events
- Session recordings with heatmaps, clickmaps, and user journey paths
- Funnels and conversion paths with multi-path analysis and drop-off attribution
- Cohort analysis and retention charts for any behavioral segment
- Behavioral audiences for targeting by any sequence of captured actions
- Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Amplitude, and 30+ data tools
- Server-side API and mobile SDKs for complete cross-platform event capture
- SaaSTweaks-verified affiliate deal
- Vendor-direct activation flow with editorial pros + cons review
Heap pricing
Verified May 2026. Vendor's published rates at the time we checked — always confirm at checkout.
| Plan | Price | Term | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | forever | Up to 10K monthly sessions, 6 months data history, core analytics charts |
| Growth | Custom | annual | 12 months data history, Sense AI, unlimited users and reports, CSV exports |
| Pro | Custom | annual | 1 year+ data history, account analytics, engagement matrix, standard support, 3 projects |
| Premier | Custom | annual | Data warehouse integration, behavioral targeting, unlimited projects, dedicated CSM |
Getting started
4 steps. The last one is the part most people skip.
- 1
Open Heap through the link on this page
It carries our referral tag. The price you pay is identical either way, and it never changes the score on this page.
- 2
Compare the tiers against what you actually use
The pricing table on this page lists what each plan includes. Match it to real usage rather than the tier the vendor highlights.
- 3
Start on the smallest plan that fits
Most vendors let you move up mid-cycle and bill the difference, so starting low costs you nothing but starting high does.
- 4
Check the renewal terms before you commit
Note the renewal date and the rate it reverts to, so the second invoice is not a surprise. Annual plans are usually cheaper per month but harder to exit.
Where Heap wins and loses
What works
- Retroactive analytics — define events after the fact and see historical data
- No instrumentation required — captures all interactions automatically from day one
- Powerful session replay and behavioral analytics in one platform
- Strong integrations with CRM, data warehouses, and marketing tools
What doesn't
- Growth and above pricing requires custom quote — no transparent pricing
- Can feel overwhelming with so much data captured automatically
- Data volume can get expensive at scale
- Steeper learning curve than simpler analytics tools
The bottom line
Heap offers powerful autocapture and rapid setup, but its sessions-based pricing and affiliate-only deal limit its overall score.
Heap is now a Contentsquare product but keeps its brand, dashboard, and snippet through 2026. Billing has unified for customers buying the full experience-analytics stack.
The Free plan covers ~10,000 sessions per month. Growth, Pro, and Premier price on monthly session volume with custom quotes. A session is a continuous user visit, not a unique user.
Pick Heap if iteration speed beats fine-grained event control. Pick Mixpanel for predictable event-based pricing when engineering can define events up front.
Yes. Native replay shipped after the Contentsquare acquisition and is included on Pro and Premier. Growth customers can add replay as a paid module.
SaaSTweaks members can claim an exclusive founder rate via SaaSTweaks on qualifying upgrade tiers. The discount applies to new annual contracts.
