Heap vs Pendo
We give Heap a 2.2 GPA and Pendo a 2.4, out of 4.0. Pendo grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAHeapFair | 2.4GPAPendoFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | CNo published figure for this size. A product with 10,000 monthly active users is far past the free 500, so it needs Base, Core or Ultimate, all quoted by sales from users and modules. Replays need Core, and surveys need Ultimate or add-ons. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CPendo Free covers 500 monthly active users with analytics, guides, and Pendo-branded NPS and roadmaps, but no support. Go past 500 and you can't make new guides, surveys or segments. The 30-day trial is set up through sales. |
| Features | 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. | BProduct analytics with retroactive data, in-app guides on every plan, replays, NPS and surveys, feedback and roadmaps, and the Leo AI assistant. Graded against Amplitude and Mixpanel, it covers the job, with guides as its strong suit. Replays start at Core. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Not having to tag events up front is a real head start, but you still define events afterwards and learn the charts, and paid plans start with a sales conversation. | CNo rating on record. The snippet goes into your app, then the work is building guides, targeting segments and setting up surveys, and paid plans start with a sales call. There's a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app of its own. It works across unlimited web and mobile apps, and connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Intercom, Jira, Gainsight, Marketo and Segment. |
| Best for | analysing clicks you never planned to track | walkthroughs and tips inside your own app |
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: Heap and Pendo. How we grade
Where they differ
- Heap also covers dashboards.
- Pendo also covers surveys.
In commonFree planWebAI featuresWeb analyticsSession replay
At a glance
| Heap | Pendo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | Up to 10,000 sessions a month, core analytics charts, unlimited enrichment sources, guides integrations, single sign-on and 6 months of data history. | Pendo Free, free forever: analytics, in-app guides, Pendo-branded roadmaps and NPS surveys for up to 500 monthly active users, across unlimited web and mobile apps. |
| Free trial | Free trial offered from the site; its length and plan are not stated | 30-day free trial of the whole platform, set up through sales |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Heap Inc. (part of Contentsquare) | Pendo.io, Inc. |
| Price read from | heap.io | pendo.io |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Heap
- Product teams that do not want to plan event tracking up front
- SaaS and online stores studying sign-up and checkout funnels
- Companies already using Contentsquare
Pendo
- SaaS companies onboarding users inside their product
- Product teams measuring feature adoption and collecting feedback
- IT teams guiding employees through internal software
Worth knowing
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.
Pendo
- No paid prices are published: Base, Core and Ultimate are quoted by sales from monthly active users and the modules chosen.
- On Pendo Free, going past 500 monthly active users stops you creating new guides, NPS surveys or segments until you upgrade.
- Session replay starts at Core, and surveys, product discovery and journey orchestration need Ultimate or paid add-ons.
- Churn prediction (Predict) and agent analytics are priced separately from the plans.
Key features
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.
Pendo
- Product analytics
- Tracks feature use, paths and retention with retroactive data back to the day Pendo was installed, across any number of apps.
- In-app guides
- Walkthroughs, tooltips and announcements shown inside your app and targeted at user segments, included on every plan including Free.
- Session replay
- Replays of user sessions to give support and product teams context, included from Core and sold as an add-on on Base.
- NPS, surveys and feedback
- Sentiment tools for NPS and in-app surveys, plus product discovery for collecting and ranking feedback. Pendo-branded NPS comes with Free.
- Leo and Pendo AI
- Leo answers questions about your data in plain language on every plan; churn prediction and AI agent analytics are separate paid modules.
Plans
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.
Pendo
Free$0
Up to 500 monthly active users: analytics, in-app guides, Pendo-branded NPS and roadmaps. No support included.
BaseCustom
Sold through sales, priced by monthly active users: analytics, guides and support. Session replay and surveys are paid add-ons.
CoreCustom
Sold through sales: adds session replay. Product discovery and NPS or surveys remain add-ons.
UltimateCustom
Sold through sales: everything, including product discovery, NPS and surveys, and journey orchestration.
