Heap vs PostHog
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Heap and PostHog.
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Verdict: PostHog wins
PostHog scores 4.4/5, edging out Heap at 3.8/5. Engineering-led product teams that want analytics, session replay, flags and error tracking in one open-source platform and are willing to configure event design and sampling deliberately.
Heap Capture every user interaction automatically without code changes | PostHog Product analytics platform with built-in session replay and feature flags | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 3.8 (1 review) | 4.4 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | Product and UX teams that want questions answered retroactively without instrumentation planning and accept sales-gated pricing plus add-ons to complete the stack. | Engineering-led product teams that want analytics, session replay, flags and error tracking in one open-source platform and are willing to configure event design and sampling deliberately. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tierteam featuresapi access | free tieropen sourceapi access |
| Visit Heap → | Visit PostHog → |
Heap
Pros
- + Retroactive event definitions over auto-captured data: I defined a virtual event against existing interactions and it populated historically — no instrumentation ticket, no waiting for the next release
- + A real free plan covers evaluation properly: up to 10K monthly sessions with core charts, six months of history and SSO, where I built a working funnel and retention chart
- + Enrichment joins third-party firmographic data into captured events, and the free plan lists unlimited enrichment sources
- + The Sense assistant (Growth+) quantified impact on a conversion step I was investigating, cutting the manual comparison work
- + Contentsquare integration lets teams jump from a Heap funnel into zoning, replay and frustration signals in the parent platform
Cons
- - Session replay, error analysis and heatmaps are a paid add-on (Experience Analytics) rather than included, while Mixpanel and Amplitude bundle 10K replays on free plans
- - Auto-capture noise is structural: the first sessions I analyzed were mostly event-sorting overhead before the data became legible
- - No published pricing beyond the free plan — Growth shows a signup estimate and Pro/Premier are sales conversations, which I could not verify to a current number
- - Free plan caps at 6 months of data history and 10K monthly sessions; sessions are also the wrong billing unit for high-traffic content sites
- - EU data residency and region-specific storage are Premier-only, which rules out the lower tiers for some European buyers
PostHog
Pros
- + Free tier resets monthly and covers real work: 1M events, 5K recordings, 1M flag requests and 100K exceptions per month, with every feature available and no credit card
- + Funnel-to-replay-to-error-trace in one timeline replaced a three-tool debugging loop I used to run across separate user IDs
- + Self-hosting under MIT keeps event data inside your own infrastructure — the practical answer I recommend for regulated teams
- + No seat-based pricing at all; adding engineers, PMs and analysts to my projects never changed the bill
- + Billing limits are hard caps you set yourself, so a runaway autocapture config stops at your ceiling instead of at a surprise invoice
Cons
- - Session replay, not analytics, became the largest cost line in my test project once traffic passed the 5K free recordings
- - The interface packs nine-plus products into one navigation; new users I onboarded needed a full day before finding the right tool consistently
- - Self-hosting is a genuine ops burden (ClickHouse, Kafka, Postgres) and the self-hosted build lacks SAML SSO and granular permissions
- - Identified events cost nearly 4x anonymous events in the first paid band, so user-identification choices move the bill more than event volume does
- - Past a billing limit PostHog drops data until the next period — cost control comes at the price of visibility
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Heap or PostHog?▼
PostHog scores higher at 4.4/5 vs 3.8/5 for Heap, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Heap and PostHog?▼
Heap: Heap, part of Contentsquare, automatically captures every click and page view on a site or app, so behaviour can be analysed without defining events in advance. PostHog: PostHog is an open-source product analytics platform that combines event analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing and error tracking in one tool for product and engineering teams.
Is Heap or PostHog more affordable?▼
Heap starts at €0/mo, PostHog starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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