Amplitude excels in product analytics with advanced behavioral cohorts and multi-touch attribution, while Heap focuses on automatic session replay and requires no implementation code. Amplitude suits data-driven product teams, whereas Heap serves companies prioritizing ease of deployment and user session understanding.
Amplitude vs Heap — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Product analytics platform specializing in behavioral cohorts, funnels, and multi-touch attribution modeling.
Digital analytics platform with automatic session capture and visual session replay for zero-code implementation.
Implementation Approach. Session Replay Capability. Behavioral Cohorts & Segmentation. Multi-Touch Attribution. Starting Price (Monthly). Data Retention Period. API Event Volume Limit
Choose Amplitude if your team has strong data engineering capabilities and needs sophisticated cohort analysis, multi-touch attribution, and long-term data retention for product optimization. Choose Heap if you want immediate insights without implementation complexity, value session replay for user behavior understanding, and need a faster time-to-value with lower upfront costs.
Amplitude: Third-party integration only | Heap: Yes, all plans
Amplitude: No, requires manual setup | Heap: Yes, core feature
Amplitude: Advanced ML models (churn, LTV, propensity) | Heap: Basic forecasting
Amplitude: Yes, unlimited | Heap: Yes, with limits
Amplitude: No (requires export) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Advanced multi-step with drop-off attribution | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 0 (custom setup required) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Advanced with curves & LTV | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: SOC 2 Type II only | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Requires third-party integration | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: ML-powered predictive cohorts + behavioral | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 500,000 events/month | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 7–14 days (event tracking setup) | Heap: N/A
Setup Time (implementation to first insights)
Amplitude: 100M events/month standard | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Enterprise only ($50K+/year) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Email, chat, phone (enterprise), dedicated CSM | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 4+ regions (US, EU, Asia-Pacific, China) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Web | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Real-time (0-5 seconds) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 10 million events | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 3.2% of analytics market | Heap: 0.4%
Amplitude: Not included (add-on required) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 200+ integrations | Heap: 50+
Amplitude: 700+ custom events | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Unlimited (paid plans) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Limited (basic analytics only) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Available (via Amplitude Experiment add-on) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Advanced nesting (unlimited filters) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: $995 base + $0.75/user | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Requires integration | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 200+ custom properties | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Yes, native experimentation platform | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Churn, LTV, propensity scoring, retention forecasting | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Deep retention & behavioral cohorts | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 1,440+ minutes (2-4 weeks) | Heap: 15 minutes
Amplitude: 13 months (with extended) | Heap: 12 months
Amplitude: 200+ integrations | Heap: 80+ integrations
Amplitude: Not included | Heap: 10,000 (Pro)
Amplitude: ML-powered churn & propensity models | Heap: Basic segmentation only
Amplitude: 100% (required) | Heap: 0% (fully automatic)
Amplitude: $4,995/month (Enterprise) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Multi-event behavioral cohorts with retention curves | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 350+ integrations | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Plugin-based only | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Third-party integration required | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Unlimited multi-dimensional | Heap: Basic 2-3 dimensions
Amplitude: iOS/Android analytics only | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 120-180 minutes (requires dev team) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: $995 (Growth tier) | Heap: $600/month
Amplitude: Multi-step funnels with granular drop-off analysis | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Yes, via Amplitude Audiences | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: $100-200 per million | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: No (requires integration) | Heap: Yes (native)
Amplitude: No (requires external tool) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Ready (In Progress) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 5+ (curves, cohort, churn prediction, survival) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 9.2 (native, event-rich) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: 14-30 (requires data modeling) | Heap: N/A
Amplitude: Custom rules only | Heap: N/A
Average Setup Cost (Professional Services)
Amplitude: 100+ million | Heap: 10+ million
Amplitude: Add-on/Limited | Heap: Core Feature
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: No - Analytics-only, no replay
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Yes - Fully automatic without coding
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Standard analytics without advanced AI
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Limited - Behavioral focus only
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Yes - Primary strength
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Automatic capture (no code)
Session Recordings Per Month (Basic Plan)
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Advanced plan only
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Yes (all interactions)
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Advanced SQL-like interface
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Zero sampling, 100% capture
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Basic cohort view
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: 1-2 weeks (auto-tracking)
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: 8/10 (visual, intuitive)
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Up to 100M events
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Limited (web-first)
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: Basic cohorts only
Amplitude: N/A | Heap: iOS, Android, React Native
How to choose between Amplitude and Heap
Amplitude vs Heap — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Amplitude vs Heap. Contains 182 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Amplitude vs Heap — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Amplitude vs Heap.
Do I need a data engineer to set up Amplitude?
Yes, Amplitude requires manual event instrumentation, meaning a technical team (data engineer or product engineer) must define and implement events in your code. Setup typically takes 4-8 weeks. Heap, by contrast, automatically captures all user interactions without code changes, making it accessible to non-technical users within 24 hours.
Which platform is better for understanding why users drop off?
Heap excels here because of its visual session replay—you can watch user recordings to see exactly where they get stuck. Amplitude requires you to manually instrument events and analyze funnel data, which is more technical but provides deeper statistical insights into user behavior patterns at scale.
Can I use Amplitude data for multi-touch attribution?
Yes—Amplitude has native multi-touch attribution with 7+ models (first-touch, last-touch, linear, time-decay, etc.), making it ideal for understanding which marketing channels and product touchpoints drive conversions. Heap lacks robust attribution features and is better suited for session-level analysis rather than cross-channel attribution.
Amplitude retains data for 25 months, allowing you to run year-over-year comparisons and analyze long-term trends. Heap retains data for 12 months, which limits historical analysis but reduces storage costs. This favors Amplitude for long-term product strategy decisions.
Which platform scales better for high-traffic applications?
Amplitude is engineered for high-volume event ingestion and handles 100M+ events/month with dedicated infrastructure. Heap handles up to 10M+ events/month at enterprise levels. If you operate a high-traffic platform (500K+ daily users), Amplitude's scalability and performance are superior.
How to Choose Between Amplitude and Heap
Implementation Approach: Amplitude has Manual event instrumentation required, while Heap has Automatic data capture (no code).
Session Replay Capability: Amplitude has Limited/add-on feature, while Heap has Built-in core feature.
Consider: Behavioral Cohorts & Segmentation
Behavioral Cohorts & Segmentation: Amplitude has Advanced multi-dimensional cohorts, while Heap has Basic segmentation options.
Multi-Touch Attribution: Amplitude has Native attribution modeling, while Heap has Limited attribution features.
Starting Price (Monthly): Amplitude has $995 for starter plan, while Heap has $420 for starter plan.
Data Retention Period: Amplitude has 25 months standard, while Heap has 12 months standard.
API Event Volume Limit: Amplitude has 100M+ events/month at scale, while Heap has 10M+ events/month at scale.