The verdict
If you have no engineer ready to instrument events, or the product changes often and you keep wishing you had tracked something, I'd pick Heap. If you have a product manager who will own a naming plan, and you want a free tier with clear limits to learn on, I'd pick Mixpanel. Heap's higher plans are priced by session volume with no published figure, while Mixpanel is usage-based on events. Both fail on messy data. Heap gives you noise if nobody names events, and Mixpanel gives you gaps if nobody plans them. Try the same funnel in both.
Side by side
| 12 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | |
| Custom dashboards | Yes | Yes |
| Event autocapture | Yes | Yes |
| Heatmaps | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Product analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Reverse ETL / activation | Yes | No |
| Session replay | Yes | Yes |
| Warehouse-native | No | No |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Heap
- FreeFree
Mixpanel
- FreeFree
- GrowthFree
Who each is for
Choose Heap if…
Pick Heap if you want behaviour data now and cannot plan every event in advance. One snippet captures everything, and retroactive analysis lets you answer a question today from history. Segments, dashboards and playbooks suit marketers and product managers without a data team, and Heap Connect sends data to your warehouse. Be strict about event names, owners and quarterly reviews. Capturing everything includes things you may not want, so mask sensitive fields and respect consent. The free plan has a session limit, higher plans are priced by sessions, and Heap is now part of Contentsquare.
Choose Mixpanel if…
Pick Mixpanel if you run a software product and want self-serve funnels, flows and retention that a product manager can run alone. The free plan covers a million events and 10,000 session replays, and there is a free first year for early-stage startups on a dedicated plan. Replay, experiments and feature flags live in the same product, and Cohort Sync sends user groups to tools such as Braze and Google Ads. A hosted MCP server lets an AI assistant query your data. Write a tracking plan before you install anything, and estimate your events, because heavy tracking drives the bill.
Other options worth a look
Combines product analytics, session replay, feature flags and experiments in one open-source stack for product teams.
Shows visitor behaviour through heatmaps, session recordings and on-site surveys to uncover friction.
Track user behaviour, retention and conversion across your web and mobile products in one platform.
Create and distribute surveys to collect customer, employee, and market feedback at scale.