PostHog vs Heap
A head-to-head comparison of two leading analytics platforms for AI-powered growth. See how they stack up on pricing, performance, and capabilities.
PostHog
Pricing: Free up to 1M events/mo, then $0.00031/event
Best for: Engineering-led teams wanting an all-in-one open-source stack
Heap
Pricing: Free tier available, then custom pricing
Best for: Teams that want complete data capture without manual event tracking
Head-to-Head Comparison
| Criteria | PostHog | Heap |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier Limit | 1M events/month cloud; unlimited self-hosted | Limited free tier |
| Event Tracking | Autocapture + manual; session recording | Complete retroactive auto-capture |
| Built-in Experimentation | Native feature flags and A/B testing | Not built-in |
| Self-Hosting | Fully open-source self-hostable | Not available |
| Learning Curve | Moderate | Low to start |
The Verdict
PostHog beats Heap on nearly every dimension that matters for engineering teams: a generous free tier, open-source self-hosting, built-in feature flags and A/B testing, and a more transparent pricing model. Heap's differentiated strength is the completeness of its retroactive data capture — Heap captures every interaction automatically, whereas PostHog's autocapture, while good, requires some configuration for complete coverage. For most engineering-led startups, PostHog is the better default; for teams where retroactive analysis of every historical interaction is critical and they're willing to pay for it, Heap remains relevant.
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