Heap
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About Heap
Heap is a product analytics platform that pioneered 'auto-capture' analytics — automatically recording every user interaction (clicks, form submissions, page views, gestures) without requiring engineers to manually instrument events. Founded in 2013 in San Francisco by Matin Movassate, Heap's core insight was that product teams should be able to analyze any user behavior retroactively, even if they didn't think to track it when building the feature. This retroactive analysis capability eliminates the frustrating cycle of asking engineers to add tracking, waiting for data to accumulate, and only then being able to answer product questions. Heap was acquired by Contentsquare in 2023, the same company that owns Hotjar. The platform serves companies including Microsoft, Twilio, and Slack. Core features include Funnels, Retention, Engagement Matrix, Journey Maps, and Account-level analytics for B2B. Heap Illuminate uses machine learning to surface signals in behavioral data automatically. The free plan supports up to 10,000 sessions/month. Growth pricing is on a quote basis. The auto-capture approach significantly reduces the time-to-insight compared to manually instrumented tools like Mixpanel and Amplitude.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes Heap different from Mixpanel?
Heap auto-captures every user interaction automatically — you don't need to add tracking code before collecting data. Mixpanel requires you to manually instrument (define) events before they're tracked. This means with Heap you can answer product questions retroactively about events that happened before you thought to track them, while Mixpanel only has data from events you instrumented in advance.
Is Heap free?
Heap has a free plan supporting up to 10,000 sessions/month. Beyond that, pricing is quote-based depending on session volume and feature requirements. Heap's pricing is generally comparable to Mixpanel and Amplitude — positioned as an enterprise product with corresponding enterprise pricing.
Who is Heap best for?
Heap is best for product teams at growth-stage and enterprise companies who want to analyze user behavior without relying on engineers to instrument every event. It's particularly valuable for teams that frequently discover 'we should have been tracking that' — Heap's auto-capture solves this problem by recording everything from day one.
Top Alternatives to Heap
Mixpanel
More mature, manual tracking gives more control
Amplitude
Better for enterprise governance and warehouse integration
PostHog
Open-source, combines analytics + feature flags + recordings
FullStory
Similar retroactive capture philosophy for session intelligence
Hotjar
Better for qualitative heatmaps and user feedback
Google Analytics
Free, better for marketing attribution
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