In-depth: PostHog vs Heap
Contents
Heap is a product analytics platform known for its comprehensive autocapture – it starts collecting clicks, pageviews, and form submissions the moment you install it, no manual instrumentation required.
PostHog also supports autocapture, but goes much further – combining product analytics with session replay, A/B testing, feature flags, surveys, error tracking, and more in one developer platform.
In this guide, we break down how PostHog and Heap compare across analytics, session replay, experimentation, pricing, and compliance – so you can decide which is the better fit for your team.
How is PostHog different?
1. We're built for engineers
What does this mean?
- It means we ship fast and iterate based on user feedback.
- It means engineers do support – all product teams have a weekly support hero.
- It means we have extensive public and private API endpoints, and a powerful SQL query builder.
- It means we built SDKs for all popular (and many unpopular) client-side, backend, and mobile languages and frameworks.
- It means we make it easy to test in production, conduct phased rollouts, run beta programs, and so much more.
2. We're an all-in-one platform
Heap is mainly focused on product analytics. This means you need to adopt additional tools for things like feature management, experiments, and surveys. They're all built into PostHog – we even have a built-in data warehouse that integrates with Stripe and Hubspot. You can replace half a dozen tools with PostHog, save money, and get more from your data.
3. We're totally transparent
- How much will PostHog cost? Use our pricing calculator.
- What are we working on? It's on our public roadmap?
- How does sales work? We have a whole page on it.
- What do we care about? We explain everything in our public company handbook.
- How do we make money? That's in the handbook, too.
Oh, we're open source, too. Go take a peak at our code if you like on our GitHub repo.
Comparing PostHog and Heap
Platform
💡 Good to know: PostHog can replace multiple tools, such as Hotjar, Google Analytics, and LaunchDarkly. This makes it a lot easier to extract usable insights, since you don't have to constantly switch between tools. Running PostHog on both your product and website makes it easier to understand how marketing activity influences signups and usage, too.
Product analytics
💡 Good to know: Every PostHog user gets 1 million events for free each month. You can also save money by sending us anonymous events for non-identified users, which are up to 80% cheaper than identified product analytics events. Anonymous events are ideal for tracking behavior on marketing websites, or mobile apps with large consumer audiences. See our docs on anonymous vs identified events for more.
Session recordings
💡 Good to know: Session replays are an essential tool for understanding how people use your product, especially for early-stage companies searching for product-market fit. Both Heap and PostHog offer session replay, though Heap lacks many developer-facing features like a DOM explorer, performance monitoring, and network events, which are useful for fixing bugs and performance issues.
Feature flags
💡 Good to know: Feature flags make it easy to roll out features to specific users or groups, and safely test in production. Our feature flags are also tightly integrated with other features so you can target session replays, surveys, and more using existing feature flags. See our guide on the benefits of feature flags for more.
Experiments
💡 Good to know: Our experiments integrate seamlessly with our feature flag product. This means you can easily deploy the winning variant of an experiment with a single click from the experiment UI.
Security and compliance
💡Good to know: Additional compliance features, such as HIPAA Business Associate Agreements, advanced permissions, and audit logs are available on our some of our platform packages, which also includes our managed reverse proxy and white labelling for surveys and shared dashboards.
When to choose PostHog vs Heap
Choosing the right product analytics tool depends on what your team needs beyond basic analytics. Here's a quick guide:
- Want to understand user behavior, debug issues, and ship experiments – all without switching tools? Go with PostHog.
- Need comprehensive autocapture with minimal engineering effort and a simple, low-density UI? Heap is a solid choice.
Recommendations by team type
For engineering-led product teams
- PostHog – SQL access, public APIs, SDKs for every major platform, and tight integration between analytics, feature flags, and experiments, error tracking, logs, LLM analytics, and more. Built by engineers, for engineers.
For non-technical product managers
- Heap – Autocapture and a visual event editor mean you can define and track events without writing code. The low-density interface is designed for PMs who want insights without complexity.
For growth and experimentation teams
- PostHog – Run A/B tests, roll out features incrementally with feature flags, and measure impact on conversion and retention – all in one workflow.
For marketing and CRO teams
- Heap – Multi-touch attribution and analysis suggestions help surface friction points and optimize conversion funnels. Its Contentsquare integration adds deeper ecommerce and marketing analytics.
For teams building AI products
- PostHog – Native LLM analytics for tracking model performance, token costs, and user interactions. Heap doesn't offer AI observability.
For privacy-conscious and regulated organizations
- Both are SOC 2 certified and GDPR-ready. PostHog is also HIPAA-ready, offers EU hosting, and provides raw data access via its built-in data warehouse. Heap does not currently offer EU data residency.
For early-stage startups
- PostHog – One platform that scales from first users to product-market fit without swapping tools as you grow. The generous free tier includes 1 million events, 5,000 replays, and 1 million feature flag requests per month. Startups can also qualify for $50k in free credits.
Frequently asked questions
What's the main difference between PostHog and Heap?
PostHog is an all-in-one platform that combines product analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, surveys, error tracking, LLM analytics, and more in one environment. Heap focuses on product analytics and session replay, with autocapture as its core differentiator. If you need more than analytics and replay, PostHog means fewer tools and less context-switching.
Both have autocapture – what's the difference?
Both PostHog and Heap automatically capture clicks, pageviews, and form submissions. The key difference is that Heap's visual event editor lets non-technical users tag and define events retroactively without code. PostHog's autocapture works similarly but is designed more for engineering teams, with tighter integration into feature flags, experiments, and session replays.
Can I migrate from Heap to PostHog?
Yes. See the Heap to PostHog migration guide for step-by-step instructions on exporting your Heap data and importing it into PostHog, including historical events and user properties.
How long does it take to deploy PostHog?
Minutes. Use the onboarding wizard to connect your app, or just add the tracking snippet directly and autocapture starts collecting events immediately. Enable session replays, feature flags, and other features from your project settings.
Does Heap have feature flags or A/B testing?
No. Heap doesn't offer native feature flags or experimentation. You'd need a separate tool like LaunchDarkly or Optimizely. PostHog includes both feature flags and A/B testing natively, tightly integrated with analytics so you can measure experiment impact on funnels, retention, and revenue.
Does Heap have error tracking?
No. Heap doesn't offer error tracking or crash monitoring. PostHog includes native error tracking that connects exceptions and stack traces directly to session replays, user behavior, and feature flag changes.
Which has better session replay?
Both offer session replay, but PostHog's is more developer-focused. It includes console logs, network request monitoring, a DOM explorer, and performance metrics. Heap's replay is simpler and more suited to PMs who want to watch user sessions without the technical detail.
What are the best product analytics tools in 2026?
The top product analytics tools in 2026 include:
- PostHog – Best all-in-one platform combining product analytics with web analytics, session replay, A/B testing, feature flags, and more
- Heap – Best for teams wanting comprehensive autocapture with minimal engineering effort
- Amplitude – Best for enterprises wanting warehouse-native analytics and a built-in CDP
- Mixpanel – Best for self-serve product teams wanting fast, flexible analytics
- Pendo – Best for product managers who also need in-app guides and user onboarding
- Google Analytics – Best for marketing teams already invested in the Google ecosystem
Can PostHog replace Google Analytics?
Yes. PostHog includes web analytics for tracking pageviews, bounce rate, traffic sources, and UTM campaigns. You can integrate it using Google Tag Manager. See the PostHog vs GA4 comparison and intro for Google Analytics users for more.
How can I estimate my PostHog usage?
The easiest way is to sign up, integrate the snippet, then check the projection on your billing page after a few days. Alternatively, multiply your monthly active users by 50–100 events per user as a starting point. See Estimating usage & costs for more detail.
What about ad blockers?
We recommend deploying a reverse proxy, which sends events to PostHog Cloud using your own domain. This makes them less likely to be intercepted by tracking blockers. We offer a managed reverse proxy on Team plans, plus setup guides for AWS CloudFront, Cloudflare, Netlify, Vercel, and more.
Does PostHog offer EU hosting?
Yes. PostHog offers EU-hosted cloud with data stored exclusively in the EU. PostHog is also SOC 2 certified, GDPR-ready, and HIPAA-ready.
Can I use PostHog with a CDP like Segment or Rudderstack?
Yes. PostHog integrates with both Segment and Rudderstack. See Using PostHog with a CDP for setup instructions.
It also includes a built-in CDP that lets you import, transform, and export data without needing a separate tool. See our docs on using PostHog with a CDP for setup instructions, or browse our comparison of the best customer data platforms for developers if you're evaluating options.
Can you use PostHog on e-commerce websites?
Absolutely. PostHog is easy to integrate with Shopify and WooCommerce. You can easily install PostHog on other e-commerce platforms using our Javascript snippet – see our guides to setting up Webflow analytics and Wordpress.
How does PostHog compare to Amplitude and Mixpanel?
Amplitude and Mixpanel offer similar product analytics features to Heap. Read the PostHog vs Mixpanel and PostHog vs Amplitude comparisons for details. You can also see the most popular Heap alternatives for a broader view.
PostHog is an all-in-one developer platform for building successful products. We provide product analytics, web analytics, session replay, error tracking, feature flags, experiments, surveys, LLM analytics, data warehouse, CDP, and an AI product assistant to help debug your code, ship features faster, and keep all your usage and customer data in one stack.