A flat-priced Heap alternative
Heap autocaptures every click and lets you define events retroactively, which is genuinely useful, but it is usage-priced above a small free tier, sales-led on its higher plans, and now part of Contentsquare. smolanalytics also autocaptures, prices flat and cheap, keeps your data exportable in one file, and lets you ask it questions in plain English.
is smolanalytics a good Heap alternative?
Yes, if you want Heap's autocapture without the lock-in and sales-led pricing. Heap (now Heap by Contentsquare) captures every click and page view from the moment its snippet loads, so you can define events retroactively against historical data, and it pairs with Contentsquare session replay on higher plans. But Heap's free tier caps at about 10,000 sessions a month, and paid plans start around $3,600 a year and go custom above that. smolanalytics runs each project on its own isolated instance, your data exports in one file any time, and there is nothing for you to run. It does web and product analytics from one snippet (visitors, referrers, funnels, retention, paths, cohorts), leads with a daily verdict on what to fix, and lets you ask questions in plain English, from a dashboard bar or your own Cursor or Claude over MCP, with answers computed from deterministic reports, not guessed by an LLM. Pricing is flat: a 14-day trial at Pro limits with no card, then from $19/month. smolanalytics ships heatmaps, surveys, feature flags, A/B experiments, and an event-based session inspector; keep Heap if you need its retroactive autocapture depth or Contentsquare's pixel-perfect DOM session replay, which smolanalytics does not do on purpose. And if the product you measure is itself an AI agent, smolanalytics computes its observability from the same events (tool-call latency p50/p90/p99, error taxonomy, and conversation health like re-ask and resolution), which Heap does not do.
what to know about Heap (as of mid-2026)
“Autocapture records every user interaction from the moment the snippet is installed, without manual event tracking setup.”
Heap's autocapture docs
“Virtual Events are retroactive to the moment you installed Heap, so you can define and redefine events against historical data.”
Heap's virtual events docs
“The free plan covers up to 10,000 monthly sessions; paid plans are custom and start around $3,600 a year.”
Heap pricing coverage, 2026
Heap vs smolanalytics
| Heap | smolanalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | hosted (part of Contentsquare) | hosted, one isolated instance per project |
| Capture model | autocapture, define events retroactively | autocapture, web + product from one snippet |
| Getting an answer | build reports, define virtual events, or ask its Sense AI (Growth plan and up) | ask in plain English, a verdict on what to fix |
| Ask from your editor | no | MCP, your own AI answers free, computed not guessed |
| Session replay | yes, via Contentsquare (extra cost) | event-based session inspector, not DOM replay |
| Price | free to ~10K sessions, then usage-priced (sales-led at higher tiers) | 14-day trial at Pro limits, then $19 or $49 flat |
when to keep Heap
- You rely on Heap's retroactive autocapture depth: defining and redefining virtual events against every historical click without re-instrumenting. That deep retroactivity is Heap's core strength and smolanalytics keeps things simpler.
- You want Contentsquare's pixel-perfect DOM session replay and digital experience analytics alongside product analytics in one suite. smolanalytics ships heatmaps, surveys, feature flags, A/B experiments, and an event-based session inspector, but not video-style DOM recording.
Set up in 30 seconds
# no sales call, no annual contract npx smolanalytics init # paste your project key, it wires the snippet + MCP
Autocapture priced flat instead of sales-led. Point Claude or Cursor at it and ask anything: no model to pay for, no number it can make up.
questions
Is smolanalytics a good Heap alternative?
Yes, if you want autocapture without the lock-in and sales-led pricing. Heap autocaptures every click and lets you define events retroactively, but its free tier caps around 10,000 sessions a month, and paid plans start near $3,600 a year and go custom. smolanalytics sets up in minutes with one snippet, runs each project on its own isolated instance, and your data exports in one file, any time. It does web and product analytics from one snippet, leads with a verdict on what to fix, and you can ask it questions in plain English from a dashboard or your own editor over MCP. Keep Heap if you need its retroactive autocapture depth or Contentsquare session replay.
Who holds my event data?
With Heap (now Heap by Contentsquare), your event data lives on their shared infrastructure. With smolanalytics each project runs on its own isolated instance: nothing is pooled with other tenants, nothing phones home, and you can export everything in one file whenever you want, so leaving is always a download, not a negotiation.
Does it autocapture like Heap does?
Yes, from one snippet, and it turns that into web and product analytics together: visitors, referrers, funnels, retention, paths, and cohorts, plus channel and revenue attribution and a daily verdict on what to fix. Where Heap leans on defining virtual events retroactively in a point-and-click UI, smolanalytics leans on letting you just ask the question in plain English and getting an answer computed from deterministic reports.
What does Heap do that smolanalytics doesn't?
Deep retroactive autocapture with virtual events you redefine against all historical data, and Contentsquare's pixel-perfect DOM session replay and digital experience analytics on higher plans. smolanalytics ships heatmaps, surveys, feature flags, A/B experiments, and an event-based session inspector, but not video-style DOM recording. It is for teams who want a straight answer on what to fix, that they own, priced flat and cheap, and can ask in plain English.
How does the pricing compare?
Heap has a free tier up to about 10,000 monthly sessions, then paid plans start around $3,600 a year and become custom and sales-led above that. smolanalytics is flat: Pro $19 a month for 2M events or Scale $49 for 5M, with extra events at $6 per million (versus roughly $50 at the big tools). There is a 14-day trial at Pro limits and no card required.
Get the verdict, not another dashboard.
You shipped all quarter; this tells you which of it did anything. It finds what changed, names who it hit, prices it when the metric carries revenue, and shows the receipt when it heals itself. Mark a finding acted and it verifies the fix when the metric recovers. One snippet, your data exports in one file. 14-day trial at Pro limits, no card.