Heap Review
Autocapture product analytics that records every user interaction automatically, so you never miss data from before you knew what to track.
Heap solves one of the most frustrating problems in product analytics: the data you wish you had from six months ago does not exist because no one thought to add that tracking event at the time. Its autocapture approach records every user interaction from day one, and you can define retroactive events from that history at any point. The Contentsquare acquisition brings session replay and heatmaps into the same platform, making it a more complete experience analytics tool. Pricing requires a conversation with sales beyond the free tier, which makes evaluation harder for teams shopping on a tight timeline.
Pros and cons
- Autocapture records every click, pageview, form submission, and interaction automatically from a single code snippet, with no event taxonomy planning required upfront
- Retroactive event definition means you can analyze user behavior from before you knew what to track, which is unavailable in manual-instrumentation tools
- Heap Illuminate uses data science to automatically surface the user behaviors most correlated with conversion and retention, without requiring analysts to know what to look for
- Over 100 integrations with tools across the modern data stack including Salesforce, Marketo, Intercom, and data warehouses
- Acquired by Contentsquare alongside Hotjar, adding session replay, heatmaps, and AI-powered insights (Sense) into the same platform
- Growth, Pro, and Premier pricing all require contacting sales, making it impossible to self-serve a paid plan without a sales conversation
- Autocapture generates a very large event volume that can be overwhelming for teams who prefer a clean, intentional event taxonomy
- Session replay and heatmaps are add-ons on Pro and Premier rather than included, adding cost for teams that need both analytics and qualitative tools
- Free tier caps at 10,000 monthly sessions, which is too low for most production applications
- Enterprise focus on Pro and Premier means smaller teams often feel the product and support model is not designed for their scale
What is Heap?
Heap is a product analytics platform built around the concept of autocapture: a single code snippet added to your product records every user interaction automatically without requiring developers to manually instrument individual events. This approach inverts the traditional product analytics workflow, where you define what you want to track before you have any data, and replaces it with one where you have all the data first and define what matters later.
Used by over 10,000 companies, Heap is particularly strong in SaaS and digital products where understanding the full user journey matters for conversion and retention. The platform includes funnel analysis, journey mapping, retention charts, engagement matrices, and Heap Illuminate, a data science feature that automatically identifies which user behaviors most strongly predict conversion, retention, or churn. Sense Chat, powered by Contentsquare AI, lets analysts ask questions about user behavior in natural language and get answers without building reports manually.
Heap was acquired by Contentsquare in 2023, alongside Hotjar, as part of Contentsquare's move to build a comprehensive experience intelligence platform. The acquisition means Heap users now have access to session replay and heatmap data from the Contentsquare platform as add-ons, and the AI tooling (Sense) is shared across both products. The roadmap is converging toward a unified platform, which benefits teams that need both quantitative product analytics and qualitative behavior understanding.
Core features
Autocapture and Retroactive Events
A single script tag starts recording every user interaction from the moment it is added. No event planning, no developer tickets for new tracking, no gaps in historical data when you decide to add a new metric. You can define virtual events retroactively from the complete interaction history, which means the data from six months ago can answer questions you ask today. This is Heap's most distinctive capability and the primary reason teams choose it over Mixpanel or Amplitude.
Heap Illuminate
An automated data science engine that analyzes your full behavioral dataset and surfaces the user interactions most correlated with your key conversion and retention outcomes. Instead of analysts manually building hypothesis-driven funnels, Illuminate shows you which paths and behaviors matter most before you ask the question. It identifies friction points, unexpected drop-off locations, and alternate paths users take to reach conversion.
Funnels, Journeys, and Retention
Standard product analytics reporting: define a conversion funnel and see where users drop off, map the full paths users take from entry to exit, and measure retention at any time interval. Heap's advantage over traditional implementations is that every funnel can be built retroactively without tracking gaps, and journey maps show all paths users actually took rather than only the predefined ones you built in advance.
Sense Chat and AI Assistant
Ask questions about your product data in natural language and get generated charts, summaries, and follow-up suggestions. Sense Chat is part of the Contentsquare AI layer available across Heap and Hotjar. It reduces the analyst bottleneck for non-technical product managers and marketers who need answers but cannot build reports independently. Available on Growth and above.
Integrations and Data Warehouse Sync
Over 100 integrations connect Heap to CRM tools, marketing automation, customer success platforms, and data warehouses. Heap Connect (an add-on on Pro, included with Premier) syncs raw behavioral data to Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift for teams that want to combine Heap events with other data sources in their warehouse. This enables SQL-based analysis and integration into broader data pipelines.
Pricing
| Feature | Free $0 | Growth Contact sales | Pro Contact sales | Premier Contact sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly sessions | Up to 10k | Custom | Custom | Custom |
| Data history | 6 months | 12 months | Custom | Custom |
| Core analytics charts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Funnels and journeys | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited users and reports | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSV exports | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sense AI assistant | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Account-based analytics | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Engagement matrix | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Session replay (add-on) | ✗ | ✗ | Add-on | Add-on |
| Heatmaps (add-on) | ✗ | ✗ | Add-on | Add-on |
| Data warehouse sync (Heap Connect) | ✗ | ✗ | Add-on | ✓ |
| Behavioral targeting (Heap Activate) | ✗ | ✗ | Add-on | ✓ |
| Unlimited projects | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Dedicated CSM | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Who it is for
Product managers and growth teams at software companies who need to understand how users move through their product, where they get stuck, and which behaviors predict conversion from trial to paid or from active to churned. The autocapture model means you always have data from the first day of a new feature launch, even if no one planned tracking for it.
Teams running continuous experimentation who need behavioral data to identify hypotheses, segment users for experiments, and measure impact on the full funnel. Heap's retroactive event definition lets you analyze pre-experiment behavior without having instrumented everything upfront, making it easier to construct proper control groups after the fact.
Analytics engineers and data teams who want raw behavioral event data in their data warehouse alongside other business data. Heap Connect syncs the full event stream to Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift, enabling SQL-based analysis and the ability to join Heap behavioral data with CRM, billing, and support data.
Verdict
Heap's autocapture approach is genuinely differentiated for product teams tired of missing behavioral data because the tracking was never set up. Illuminate and the Contentsquare integration add analytical depth that goes beyond standard product analytics. The pricing opacity on paid plans is a barrier, and the free tier is too limited for production apps. The platform rewards investment: teams that embed it deeply get insights that are hard to replicate elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
How is Heap different from Mixpanel and Amplitude?
Mixpanel and Amplitude use manual event instrumentation: developers define events and properties in code, and the analytics platform only has data for what was explicitly tracked. Heap autocaptures everything from day one, allowing retroactive analysis of events that were never planned. This is a fundamental workflow difference. Mixpanel and Amplitude require disciplined event taxonomies upfront; Heap trades that rigor for completeness and flexibility.
What does autocapture actually collect?
Heap automatically captures every click, pageview, form change, and form submission on your web or mobile app. For each interaction, it records contextual properties: the text of a button, the URL, the user's device, the referrer, and any user identity you pass via the identify API. It does not capture sensitive input values like passwords or payment numbers by default, and you can configure additional masking for any element.
Is Heap part of Contentsquare?
Yes. Heap was acquired by Contentsquare in 2023. The Heap brand and product continue to exist, but the platform is now part of a larger experience intelligence suite that includes Hotjar. Users get access to Contentsquare AI (Sense) and the roadmap is converging toward a unified platform. Session replay and heatmaps are available as add-ons through the Contentsquare product.
Can Heap handle mobile apps, not just websites?
Yes. Heap has native iOS and Android SDKs that bring the same autocapture model to mobile. This is a meaningful advantage for companies with both web and mobile products, as you get behavioral data from both surfaces in the same platform without separate instrumentation schemes.
How does Heap Illuminate work?
Illuminate runs statistical analysis across your full behavioral dataset to identify which user interactions most strongly correlate with the outcome you care about, typically conversion or retention. It surfaces these findings automatically rather than requiring analysts to hypothesize and manually build funnel reports. The goal is to find insights you would not have thought to look for, particularly alternate conversion paths and unexpected friction points.