Heap vs. Smartlook

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Heap
Score 8.2 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Heap is a web analytics platform captures every user interaction on web iOS with no extra code. The tool allows you to track events and set up funnels to understand user flow and dropoff. It also provides visualization tools to track trends over time.
$0
Up to 10k sessions/month
Smartlook
Score 8.8 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Smartlook is an analytics solution tool for websites, iOS/Android apps, and various app frameworks, that answers the "whys" behind users' actions. It helps users understand precisely how customers interact with website and app — watch recordings, create heatmaps, use automatic tracked events, and build conversion funnels. Data is seen on one central dashboard, which enables sharing and collaborating with colleagues. This is to support clear, data-driven decision-making for product managers,…
$55
per month 5000 sessions
Pricing
HeapSmartlook
Editions & Modules
Free
$0
Up to 10k sessions/month
Growth
Starting at $3,600 annually
Up to 300k sessions/year
Pro
Contact Heap Sales
Custom sessions per month and unlimited projects
Premier
Contact Heap Sales
Custom sessions per month
Pro
$55
per month 5000 sessions
Free
Free forever
per month 3000 sessions
Enterprise
Custom pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
HeapSmartlook
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsHeap pricing is based on session volume. A session is a period of activity from a single user on your app or website. It can include many pageviews or events.All Smartlook packages support both web and mobile app platforms.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
HeapSmartlook
Considered Both Products
Heap
Chose Heap
Google Analytics stacks up for high level traffic and marketing data but not ideal for enterprises looking user level product interactions in detail. On the other hand Heap stood out for its automatic data capturing, faster onboarding, easy to use dashboards, Highly integrable …
Chose Heap
For me, Heap is much simpler to utilize. I've previously used Google and Adobe Analytics but switched to Heap because it provide better features and is easy to integrate. Without a specialist's assistance, I am able to construct dashboards and am convinced that they are useable …
Chose Heap
Both have more or less the same strong and weak points.
Chose Heap
Heap is better because its easy to use, easy to install. With Heap you just add a snippet of tracking code to your header, instead of having to instrument each event like you do with other tools.
Chose Heap
all of them may have their own strong suits but Heap is backed by best in class ML and AI algorithms. not only that all this powerful and robust backends are well handles also from the frontend. no matter how good your software is, if it is somewhat hard to navigate or to get …
Chose Heap
Heap is better then Pendo and Amplitude. Compared to Amplitude, Heap is cheaper and easier to analyze and use. Configurations might be cumbersome but in the long run, users find it very seamless and easy. Compared to Pendo, Heap offers much superior analytics, event …
Chose Heap
The ability to view events in real time as they occur, restrict them to just show mine, and then create dashboards using those events is the finest feature for me. It eliminates the requirement for constant 100% accuracy in documentation maintenance and guessing. I can monitor …
Chose Heap
It seemed Heap was better for our company as it seems it lets us zoom in more on the information we want.
Chose Heap
Heap had an edge over Google analytics in many ways. Few points to consider Heap over GA.
1. Low code implementation and less involvement of engineering team.
2. Great reporting dashboard with additional feature of of showing user journey, that helps understand user behaviour
Chose Heap
Other applications help to achive the requirements using the current data, but Heap has two driven model one is dependent on past data which is also known as predictive framework and also one dependent upon fly which is adaptive framework. And integration is other tools is …
Chose Heap
Heap offers a ton of functionality on a single platform.It also has an smart data science layer to offers suggestions for next steps in the analysis, allowing us to explore alternative paths we may not think to take. The low-code option for updating data is appealing, and there …
Chose Heap
Great reviews and market credibility, with minimal similar products at the same price point.
Chose Heap
I have heard about Google Analytics but I have not used it.
Chose Heap
Heap blows away the competition in this space in my opinion. Amplitude was the closest competitor but did not have the ease of instrumentation that Heap offers out of the box. Google Analytics has gotten worse year after year and was borderline worthless for our business, as …
Chose Heap
Heap is far easier to use compared to these.
Chose Heap
Heap is a little more user-friendly and much more robust than Google Analytics, but it is less user-friendly than Amplitude.
Chose Heap
Tableau offers more advanced features, but at a much higher cost across all dimensions: price, difficulty of implementation and integration, onboarding effort, prior knowledge required, etc.
Chose Heap
Compared to GA, Heap provides a much better UI, and its a much better product analytics tool (considering GA's main functionality is not for Product analytics) Overall, of you, are searching for Product analytics I would choose Heap instead of GA.
Chose Heap
Heap is much easier to use versus Google Analytics. Previously, I was using Segment to get channel level data. However, Segment is not a customizable tool to understand top of funnel/web performance in the same way Heap does. Heap Connect is excellent when it comes to creating …
Chose Heap
Heap is much easier for me to use. With Adobe Analytics, I needed to work exclusively with a product analyst whose whole job is working in Adobe Analytics. I can create dashboards without help from a specialist and feel confident that they are functional, actionable, and usable …
Chose Heap
I didn't select heap. Someone else did. I wasn't consulted during the process either, it was there before I arrived and we recently renewed, but I wasn't part of that process. Hotjar was alright, the heapmap is a neat way to quickly show non-experts where we might have an …
Smartlook
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook has all the features of the other products I have tried but was both simpler to use and cheaper.
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is better in tracking events, building advanced funnels, and filtering out the sessions than Hotjar. It's definitely cheaper and more user-friendly than Fullstory.
Chose Smartlook
I like it more in different aspects such as pricing, capabilities, UI, etc. When it comes to the pricing, I have been using it for many years, and always was easy to use and to see what was happening with conversions. It's the most undervaluable tool these days. When I was …
Chose Smartlook
FullStory is more complex, detailed, better-looking and way more expensive. Therefore I think it makes sense to start with Smartlook at least. FullStory also has yearly plans which is really annoying. Hotjar doesn't have browser error logging which is a huge disadvantage for …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is the better overall value of all the solutions we've tried. Hotjar was overpriced, Lucky Orange seems more like an experimental project than a full-fledged product and Mouselflow seems to have some problems dealing with some types of browsers that we did not …
Chose Smartlook
For me personally, I use Smartlook more for the debugging side of things, so I wish it had more debugging/error reporting features.
Chose Smartlook
Like I mentioned, Smartlook is younger than FullStory and it seems like they're trying to improve. The dashboards are lacking. I wish I had more control over what I see there instead of the standard. We use the API to determine customer name and company and I'd like to see some …
Chose Smartlook
We use both intensively in our agency. Google Analytics is our first go-to analytics suite, but we often combine it with Smartlook to prove or disprove our hypotheses. Both our web design and marketing projects benefit greatly from this synergy. Google Analytics offers better …
Chose Smartlook
For me, Smartlook gathers everything a product designer or even a product manager needs. We have everything gathered in a single platform, and it's very powerful we can analyze everything we need. It's the only product where recordings are as well done. The UX/UI of the …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook seems smoother than Hotjar and it also offers more customizable options such as events and funnels.
Chose Smartlook
Compared to Hotjar, the first, and most important criteria for us is the performance impact on our customers. We've always had problems with Hotjar's rather resource-intensive script, which causes a noticeable degradation even on medium to high-performance client devices. In …
Chose Smartlook
Smartlook is far more cost-effective and simple to use for agencies with multiple clients than Hotjar, which targets the user companies more directly.
Chose Smartlook
So much simpler to the user and way more effective. The pricing for our requirement was also much better.
Chose Smartlook
The thing about Hotjar is they became too big too fast. They forgot what their product was all about and then started to charge an exorbitant amount for what is a glorified heat map. Smartlook has taken into account new features but always kept the essence of what they're …
Chose Smartlook
At my old company, we debated using FullStory, but I believe Smartlook was the better option financially.
Chose Smartlook
100% better. Microsoft had no support at all. They directed you to a forum where other users "could" assist, but there was no assistance.
Chose Smartlook
In terms of analytics, we are still using other products, which are more suited to our needs and more complex. In terms of user behavior and session recording, this is by far the best tool there is!
Best Alternatives
HeapSmartlook
Small Businesses
Fullstory
Fullstory
Score 9.1 out of 10
Matomo Analytics
Matomo Analytics
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Whatfix
Whatfix
Score 9.9 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Whatfix
Whatfix
Score 9.9 out of 10
Contentsquare
Contentsquare
Score 7.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
HeapSmartlook
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.4
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
HeapSmartlook
Likelihood to Recommend
Heap is well suited for 1. Capture customer journey with session replay 2. Identify customer behaviour and improve overall customer experience 3. Frequent and quick implementations and modifications 4. Comparative analysis for historical marketing insights Heap is not so well suited, if the aim is to capture only analytics data without any goals to improve upon customer experience / targeting appropriate users based on data tracking.
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Smartlook is best for screen recordings. Especially when you are running MVPs. However, its pricing is very high. If your daily visitors are too much then either you will have to lose many of your recordings or you will have to pay too much money.
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Pros
  • The Auto Capture function does indeed save quite a bit of time, and being able to build new reports off historical data is really valuable.
  • Interface is really intuitive and user-friendly. Much easier to pick up and use than GA.
  • Building reports out on the fly is really quick and easy, allowing you to give right into all kinds of analyses.
  • The Event Definition screen is really useful, giving a quick glance at the most used events, which you then decide to turn into conversions or goals if you want.
Read full review
  • Funnels are both easy to configure yet comprehensive enough to detect complicated customer journeys.
  • Real-time recording provides exceptional insights to our design & engineering teams.
  • Session recording is surprisingly lightweight and seems to cause no substantial performance degradation for our customers.
Read full review
Cons
  • I think Heap can improve its onboarding; I would love to see some info that is helpful for someone who isn't in Heap every single day.
  • Sharing dashboards can be tricky, it feels like a huge learning curve that I already have forgotten how to do.
Read full review
  • Events -- but I think this is something that we could improve ourselves in our system.
  • Create some suggestions for funnels and heatmaps.
  • Give general insights for a certain period of time, e.g. from Oct. 7th to 12th, 75 users left the checkout step and 60% of them left due to a payment issue. IDK just bringing some ideas!
  • Send an e-mail with main insights.
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Likelihood to Renew
Heap helps me understand key data points without fussing with the formatting of a dashboard. It gives me the benefit of data analyzation without the fuss of the formatting - as well as the ease of sharing data collected with my colleagues
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As my ratings show, I have been absolutely delighted with Smartlook in terms of usability, cost, support, and its benefit to our organization. I have given it such high ratings because I think it has really benefitted our organization and I think it could do the same for other companies too.
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Usability
Sometimes, Heap has issues reconciling similar selectors, and I have not found the manual tagging system to be the most intuitive, especially when best practices are not used when designing the front-end infrastructure. Even so, it helps that the data is unmodified, and all analytics are done through an interfaced layer, so damage and confusion [are] not permanent.
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Smartlook is very intuitive and simple for an average programmer (I don't know if it will be as simple for a normal user). We have never had to resort to looking for information on the web or ask for help for something we didn't understand or didn't work as expected.
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Reliability and Availability
I've never run into any issues with Heap's availability, Heap is always there when I need it. I haven't run into any issues like application errors or unplanned outages during my 2+ years of using Heap. Each and every time I log in to Heap I have a completely functional experience
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No answers on this topic
Performance
On a scale from 1-10, Heap loads pages fairly quickly. The only time I experience delays is when I am loading a graph with perhaps too many events or filters on the page. But in terms of creating or searching for events or viewing reports, I don't ever experience a lag.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Heap support has allowed us to troubleshoot and test a lot of different items. Their support team is always helpful and friendly, even when we come to them with the most complicated questions. I think this greatly improves the value proposition of the product because their support team is knowledgable and friendly.
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I am always very happy when a company offers the option to use online chat, as I do not like to call customer support and writing an email is just too slow and cumbersome. I did not even expect a reply right away, yet it took the customer support team less than a minute to respond to my problem.
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Implementation Rating
The implementation was smooth and easy. The Heap team helped us with implementation and it went great! Within a few weeks, we were fully up and running and utilizing the platform to its full capability. This is an additional thing that has made this platform so great and we couldn't recommend it enough.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Heap is better because its easy to use, easy to install. With Heap you just add a snippet of tracking code to your header, instead of having to instrument each event like you do with other tools.
Read full review
Like I mentioned, Smartlook is younger than FullStory and it seems like they're trying to improve. The dashboards are lacking. I wish I had more control over what I see there instead of the standard. We use the API to determine customer name and company and I'd like to see some custom dashboards.
Read full review
Scalability
The most challenging part of using Heap in a growing organization is the naming and structure in which reports and dashboards are organized. I work within the marketing department and our Heap leader internally works within the IT/Product department, which makes it challenging because we often don't speak the same language, so the learning curve has been steep without any specific use-case examples to leverage online.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • It has helped us make decisions on what products to scope for our MVP based on the usage data.
  • It's allowed us to measure success with our beta product.
  • It's helped us view our conversion rates in an easy and usable manner.
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  • We have increased the conversion rate from the beginning till now with 120%.
  • We redesigned our landing pages and decreased the bounce rate by 41%.
  • We rethinked and redesigned our menu structure and internal site linking to increase the time users spent on our site based on the data we got from Smartlook analysis.
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ScreenShots

Heap Screenshots

Screenshot of Dashboard in Heap (Use to get Product or User Behavior Insights)Screenshot of Effort Analysis provides the first-ever quantitative measurement of user friction, capturing the difficulty users face when moving through every step of every user flow across the digital experience.Screenshot of Heap Illuminate looks for the most common events between two steps in a funnel and generates a Top Events table that displays how well paths including different events convert to the next step so you can understand how that behavior is helping or hurting conversion.Screenshot of From Top Events you can choose an event and use Path Comparison to fork your funnel and see how the selected behavior impacts conversion downstream.

Smartlook Screenshots

Screenshot of HeatmapsScreenshot of RecordingsScreenshot of DashboardsScreenshot of EventsScreenshot of FunnelsScreenshot of Analytics for websites & mobile apps