Key differences
Both products combine automatic and explicit collection. Their center of gravity differs: Amplitude emphasizes governed analysis and connected product workflows, while Heap emphasizes a broad interaction record that can be defined later.
| Criterion | Amplitude | Heap by Contentsquare |
|---|---|---|
| Primary strength | Governed analytics plus testing and activation | Broad automatic capture and retrospective definition |
| Collection model | Explicit events plus current web/mobile autocapture | Smart Capture plus custom and server events |
| Core analytics | Stronger Advanced funnels, retention, cohorts, paths, and journeys | Strong funnels, retention, and Journeys over captured behavior |
| B2B accounts | Accounts/Group package | Account Analytics on eligible higher tiers |
| Replay | Plan allowances plus expanded package | Package dependent Experience Analytics |
| Experiments and flags | Native Feature and web experiments with flags | Analyze external assignments; no equivalent native delivery engine verified |
| Guides and surveys | Native platform capabilities | Adjacent Contentsquare capabilities; verify package |
| Billing unit | Events plus expanded packages | Sessions plus contract rules and add-ons |
| Main limitation | Suite breadth and governance add complexity | Selectors, definitions, privacy, and packaging still need ownership |
Define events first, or capture everything and define later
Amplitude
Governed product-intelligence suite
Shared capabilities
Heap
Autocapture-first product analytics
Semantic stability up front Historical flexibility up front
Both eventually need the same thing: a stable definition of what a meaningful action is. They differ in when you are forced to write it down.
Decision by scenario
| Scenario | Start with | Why | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mature product analytics team | Amplitude | Broader analytical workbench and governance | Implementation and suite ownership remain substantial |
| Autocapture-first discovery | Heap | Historical UI questions are central | Definitions and selectors need curation |
| B2B SaaS with several users per company | Evaluate both | Both offer account analysis on eligible plans | Capture active account context at event time |
| Experiment-heavy product team | Amplitude | Native experiments and flags connect to analytics | Confirm expanded package and governance |
| UX team using Contentsquare | Heap | Product Analytics can fit the experience workflow | Confirm which modules are included |
| Self-hosting required | Neither | Neither has a self-hosted product edition | Choose a self-hostable category |
| Simple public-site analytics | Neither | Both may exceed the job | Consider a focused web-analytics tool |
Instrumentation, historical analysis, and reliability
Heap is stronger for retrospective definition of eligible captured interactions; Amplitude is stronger when those events must feed a governed analytics and experimentation system.
| Question | Amplitude | Heap | Buyer implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is captured? | Explicit events plus eligible autocaptured web/mobile interactions | Broad UI evidence plus custom/server events | Choose an evidence volume you can govern |
| When is meaning defined? | Often before collection; visual labels can define captured behavior later | Retrospective definition is a central workflow | Work moves earlier or later, not away |
| Historical flexibility | Only for evidence collected after autocapture began and still retained | Stronger for retained eligible interactions | Neither recovers missing facts |
| Business outcomes | Use explicit server events | Use custom or server APIs | A click proves an attempt, not success |
| After a UI change | Semantic outcomes can remain stable | Definitions may need repair or versioning | Use stable product-owned selectors |
| Governance | Tracking plans, schemas, metrics, and ownership | Naming, categories, verification, history, repair, and cleanup | Assign owners in either system |
From an interaction to a metric you would defend
1
Interaction
A person clicks, types or submits something in the product
2
Capture
Automatic capture records the interaction; explicit instrumentation records the intent
3
Semantic definition
Someone decides which captured signal counts as the action
Redefining later changes every historical trend built on it
4
Server outcome and account context
Did it succeed, and which company was active at the time?
5
Governed metric
A named measure with an owner, plus replay to investigate exceptions
Autocapture shortens step 2 and can rebuild history at step 3. It does not supply the server outcome or the event-time company key, which have to be instrumented deliberately.
Analytics, B2B accounts, and session evidence
Amplitude generally offers the broader analytical workbench. Heap is strongest when a new funnel or journey can use interaction evidence that was already captured.
| Capability | Amplitude | Heap | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funnels | Advanced sequence, exclusion, segmentation, and window controls | Flexible funnels over captured or defined events | Amplitude stronger |
| Retention and cohorts | Advanced behavioral cohorts and retention | Retention, segments, and cohorts | Amplitude for breadth; Heap for historical flexibility |
| Paths and journeys | Pathfinder, Journeys, and sequence analysis | Journeys across user, session, and eligible account scopes | Similar job, different collection model |
| B2B accounts | Group identifiers and account-level reporting | Configured Account identity and properties | Higher tier/package |
| Replay and heatmaps | Plan allowances and expanded Session Replay package | Experience Analytics packaging | Confirm volume, retention, and masking |
| Experiments | Native feature and web experiments | Analyze external assignments | Amplitude if delivery must be native |
| Warehouse and activation | Exports, APIs, integrations, cohort syncs, and expanded Activation | Heap Connect and Activate depend on tier/add-on | Verify with vendor |
For B2B analysis, put the active company or workspace key on relevant events. A current user profile cannot reliably reconstruct a historical account when users switch workspaces. Group support also does not answer adoption breadth, user penetration, or activity concentration by itself. (Amplitude account setup; Heap funnel analysis)
Where each product leans, without pretending to score them
Time to a first answer
Reanalysing past behaviour
Stable event meaning
Metric governance
Privacy review effort
Data volume to manage
Ongoing maintenance
Leans Amplitude Leans Heap
Editorial positioning from reviewed documentation. Bars show direction of lean, not measured performance, and a lean is not a recommendation.
Pricing and customer ratings
The free plans use different units. Model your own events per session, replay volume, account analysis, data history, exports, and expanded modules before comparing cost.
Amplitude pricing
Amplitude
2M events
- Replay
- 10,000 monthly sessions listed
- Billing
- Events plus expanded packages
- Accounts
- Package dependent
- Paid price
- Public plan information and enterprise quote
Heap pricing
Heap by Contentsquare
10K sessions
- History
- Six months on Free
- Billing
- Sessions, contract rules, and add-ons
- Accounts
- Eligible higher tiers
- Paid price
- Quote/package dependent
Detailed pricing notes
Amplitude cost can rise with event volume, replay, Accounts, activation, experiments, flags, and enterprise governance. Heap cost can rise with sessions, event density, history, Experience Analytics, Account Analytics, Heap Connect, Activate, and broader Contentsquare packaging. Contract terms can change, so verify the exact quote and legal schedule.
A 0.1-point difference is not a meaningful winner. Use review themes to plan evaluation questions, not as evidence of objective accuracy or return on investment.
Which should you choose?
| Choice | Choose it when | Implementation caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Amplitude | You want governed analytics connected to native experiments, flags, guides, surveys, and activation | Assign ownership for taxonomy, identity, packages, and cost |
| Heap | You repeatedly need answers about UI interactions nobody named before release | Curate definitions and preserve explicit backend outcomes |
| Use both temporarily | You are migrating or running a controlled evaluation | Set one KPI owner, one identity contract, and an end date |
Whichever product you choose, define stable user identity, active account context, authoritative backend outcomes, privacy controls, retention, release QA, and one source of truth for every metric.
Where Hymetry fits
Hymetry is narrower account-centric product intelligence for B2B SaaS, not a replacement for the full analytics breadth of Amplitude or Heap.
| Decision | Consider Hymetry when | Choose Amplitude or Heap when | Hymetry's limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Company-level product usage is the default view | Broad events, funnels, cohorts, experiments, or autocapture are primary | Less analytical breadth |
| B2B workflow | You need Companies, Users, Visits, adoption breadth, and concentration together | You can build account analysis from general primitives | Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations |
| Session evidence | Customer teams start from an account signal and inspect relevant Visits | You need deeper general-purpose analytics or replay | No comparable autocapture depth or mature review score |
Explore Hymetry's Pages, Companies, Users, and Visits. For broader context, see Amplitude vs Mixpanel vs Heap.
Frequently asked questions
Can Amplitude analyze interactions retroactively?
Yes, when an eligible interaction was collected after Amplitude autocapture was enabled and remains available. A later label cannot recover pre-installation behavior, blocked data, absent properties, or backend outcomes that were never sent.
Can Heap replace custom events?
No. It can reduce pre-planned frontend instrumentation, but custom and server events remain important for backend success, failures, payments, permissions, asynchronous jobs, and durable business context.
Which has stronger account analytics?
Both offer account-level analysis on eligible packages. Amplitude is attractive when account cohorts must connect to its experimentation and activation suite; Heap is attractive when account funnels use retrospectively defined behavior. Validate multi-account users and event-time context in either product.
Which includes session replay?
Amplitude lists replay allowances and an expanded Session Replay package. Heap provides replay through eligible Experience Analytics packaging. Confirm recording volume, retention, masking, and integration in the actual quote.
Which includes experiments and feature flags?
Amplitude has native feature and web experimentation plus feature flags. Heap can analyze external assignments and integrates with feature-management products; no directly equivalent native delivery engine was verified in the core Heap product.
Which has the better free plan?
The units differ. At verification, Amplitude listed 2 million monthly events and 10,000 monthly replay sessions; Heap listed 10,000 monthly Product Analytics sessions and six months of history. Model your own events per session and module needs.
Sources
Disclosure: Hymetry publishes this comparison and appears only where its narrower B2B account model is relevant. Product capabilities, prices, ratings, ownership, packaging, and videos were verified on August 9, 2026 and may change.
Methodology and evidence limits
Official product, implementation, pricing, and legal documentation were prioritized. G2 was the shared customer-rating source. Independent and vendor videos provide context, not benchmark evidence.
No authenticated Amplitude or Heap tenant was used and no hands-on implementation was performed. Package-dependent claims retain their uncertainty, and the verification date was not changed during this editorial restructure.
Full source directory
Amplitude official sources
- Pricing and documentation
- Engineer quickstart and data-team quickstart
- Schema configuration and data-planning workflow
- Introducing Autocapture
- Accounts, account reporting, account setup, and Group Identify API
- Funnel analysis, Feature Experiment, and privacy and consent
Heap and Contentsquare official sources
- Heap pricing, Heap by Contentsquare, and service schedule
- Autocaptured Data, Events overview, and naming conventions
- HTML/CSS practices, code-change practices, and Capture Controls
- Stateful and stateless properties, Heap Connect schema, funnels, and Journeys
- API enrichment, A/B testing, and LaunchDarkly integration
- Voice of Customer and Product Analytics
Ratings and context
Additional preserved references
These references supported the original detailed article and remain available for claim verification and further reading.
