Appcues vs Heap (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Heap grades higher than Appcues: 2.2 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Heap grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Appcues
In-product guides, checklists and surveys with usage analytics
Which one is for you
Pick Appcues if
- Fits if you run a software product and want onboarding flows without engineering time
- Works for teams whose active users are under 50,000
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're small: $9,000 a year to start
- Tight if you want to try first, as there's no free plan or trial
- Watch out: behaviour-based email is an add-on on Grow
- Watch out: Grow caps published experiences at 25 and Enterprise at 100
Pick Heap if
- Fits if you never planned your event tracking and want to look back at clicks
- Works for teams already on Contentsquare who want product analytics beside it
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to see a price before you install anything
- Not for you if you want session replays on a cheaper plan, as they're a Pro and Premier add-on
- Tight if you stay free, with 10,000 sessions and data you can't view past the cap
- Watch out: Free keeps 6 months of data and Growth 12; longer is an add-on on Pro and Premier
- Watch out: the trial's length and plan aren't stated, and warehouse sync is Pro and Premier only
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAAppcuesWeak | 2.2GPAHeapFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D$9,000 a year is $750 a month, far above the category's dearest tenth, which starts at $299. | CNo published figure for this size. A site with 10,000 visitors makes at least 10,000 sessions, the free cap, so you'd tip into Growth, which is only quoted after you install the snippet. Pro and Premier go through sales. No price, so a C. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan or free trial on the pricing page. | CFree up to 10,000 sessions a month, with core charts, SSO and 6 months of history. Past the cap your data keeps arriving, but you can't see it until you upgrade. There's a trial too, though its length isn't stated. |
| Features | CGuides, checklists, targeting, usage analytics, surveys and AI agents. Behaviour-based email is an add-on, and Grow caps published experiences at 25. | CAutocapture, funnels, journeys, retention and segments, with the Sense AI assistant from Growth up. Graded against Amplitude, Mixpanel and PostHog, which include replays even free, here replays and heatmaps are an add-on for Pro and Premier only. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. You add code to your product and build the flows. | CNo rating on record. You don't have to tag events up front, but you still define events afterwards and learn the charts, and paid plans start with a sales conversation. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with Salesforce, HubSpot, Intercom, Slack, Mixpanel, Heap, Zapier and Jira. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Salesforce, Snowflake, Segment, Shopify, Iterable, Klaviyo and Marketo, and Heap Connect sends data to your warehouse on Pro and Premier. |
| Best for | in-app guides and checklists for software products | analyzing clicks you never planned to track |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Appcues and Heap. How we grade
Where they differ
- Appcues also covers workflow automation and surveys.
- Heap also covers web analytics and session replay.
At a glance
| Appcues | Heap | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | $9,000 per year, scaling with monthly active users up to 50,000 | Not published |
| Free plan | None | Up to 10,000 sessions a month, core analytics charts, unlimited enrichment sources, guides integrations, single sign-on and 6 months of data history. |
| Free trial | None listed | Free trial offered from the site; its length and plan are not stated |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Appcues | Heap Inc. (part of Contentsquare) |
| Price read from | appcues.com | heap.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Appcues
- Entry price is $9,000 per year; there is no free plan or free trial listed on the pricing page.
- Behavior-based email is an add-on on Grow, and the number of published experiences is capped at 25 (Grow) or 100 (Enterprise).
- Enterprise is sold through sales; SSO and an EU data center are listed as available options.
Heap
- No paid prices are published: Growth is quoted after you install the snippet, and Pro and Premier are priced by monthly sessions through sales.
- Session replay, heatmaps and error analysis are an add-on for Pro and Premier only.
- Past your plan's monthly session limit, data keeps arriving but you cannot view it until you upgrade.
- Free keeps 6 months of data and Growth 12; up to 3 years is an add-on on Pro and Premier.
Key features
Appcues
- Guides, checklists and announcements
- Multi-step in-product guides, checklists, announcements and surveys, plus embedded inline content.
- Advanced targeting
- Unlimited segments, with targeting based on plan, role or account stage pulled from a CRM, warehouse or CDP.
- Usage analytics
- Product usage monitoring, clickstream and event tracking, dashboards and reports.
- AI agents
- A plain-language interface and agents for analysis, building campaigns and reports, also reachable from Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor over MCP.
- Surveys and sentiment
- Surveys with plain-language analysis of the answers.
Heap
- Automatic event capture
- Records clicks, pageviews and other interactions on web and mobile from one snippet, so you can define and analyze events after they happened.
- Funnels, journeys and retention
- Charts for funnels, retention and visual maps of the paths people take, with segments for comparing groups of users.
- Sense AI assistant
- Contentsquare's AI answers questions about your data in chat, writes summaries and suggests follow-ups. It is listed from the Growth plan up.
- Session replay and heatmaps
- The Experience Analytics add-on for Pro and Premier adds session replay, heatmaps and error analysis linked to the analytics.
- Warehouse sync
- Heap Connect sends data to your warehouse, such as Snowflake, automatically and retroactively. It is an add-on for Pro and included with Premier.
Plans
Appcues
Grow$9,000
per year and up, by monthly active users
Up to 50,000 monthly active users, unlimited seats, 25 published experiences, 24 months of reporting history, and a CX manager and technical success manager.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom active-user volume, 100 published experiences, 36 months of reporting history, priority support and 24 hours of premium services.
Heap
Free$0
Up to 10,000 monthly sessions, core charts, 6 months of data history and SSO.
GrowthCustom
Price estimated after you install the tracking snippet. Adds the Sense AI assistant, unlimited users and reports, CSV exports, 12 months of data.
ProCustom
Sold through sales, priced by sessions: account analytics, engagement matrix, report alerts, 2 environments; session replay as an add-on.
PremierCustom
Sold through sales: warehouse sync, behavioral targeting, unlimited projects, advanced permissions, dedicated CSM, regional storage.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Appcues or Heap?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Appcues starts at $9,000 per year, scaling with monthly active users up to 50,000, and Heap publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, Appcues or Heap?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Heap has a free plan. Appcues does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.