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Amplitude vs. Heap Analytics: Why Amplitude is a better choice?

Compare Amplitude vs. Heap Analytics Tools to understand their features & differences.

Amplitude and Heap are product analytics tools that helps businesses understand user behavior and make data-driven decisions. Through personalized insights and interactive visualizations, these tools pinpoint areas where users struggle or abandon tasks and highlight preferred functionalities. These tools help marketing executives determine the user-preferred features and the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, allocate resources accordingly, and improve conversion rates.

When comparing Amplitude vs. Heap, it’s clear that both tools serve the purpose of improving user experience and providing valuable insights through analytics. However, different features and functionalities set both tools apart. 

Amplitude Analytics

Amplitude analytics tool entered the product analytics market in 2012 and has been a favorite of big corporations, including Ford, PayPal, and Atlassian. Amplitude’s features, such as user journey tracking, behavioral cohort analysis, and A/B testing, allow in-depth analysis and experimentation. It also offers maximum customization flexibility, where you can create custom dashboards or modify the existing ones. Apart from robust features, Amplitude also makes data governance a fundamental part of its ecosystem. It uses Taxonomy to organize data in a structured format, ensuring data centralization and security.    

Heap analytics vs. Amplitude

Heap is another analytics tool that offers automated event tracking and retroactive analysis. This allows for the automatic capture of user interactions with historical data analysis. Heap also offers cohort analysis but requires manual setup, unlike Amplitude. Huel, Brooklinen, and Fivetran are among Heap’s prominent customers.

The following table displays the key characteristics of Amplitude vs. Heap:

Feature Comparison Table
Amplitude Heap
User behavior analysis User behavior analysis
Real-time insights Real-time insights
Extensive third-party integrations Extensive third-party integrations
Easy collaboration Easy collaboration
Advanced cohort analysis Retroactive analysis
Flexible custom event tracking Automatic event tracking

Distinct capabilities of Amplitude vs. Heap analytics

Amplitude and Heap are among the best product analytics tools, as users have reviewed them. However, their differences make them suitable for distinct use cases. Here's a breakdown of the similarities and differences between these two product analytics software:

Data Modeling and User Identification

Amplitude user identification and tracking
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Amplitude offers advanced capabilities for real-time data modeling, including retention, funnels, revenue analysis, cohort analysis, and flexible user segmentation. 

It uses three methods to identify users: 

  • Device IDs
  • Amplitude IDs
  • User IDs

Amplitude automatically generates an Amplitude ID for each unique user and allows you to create user IDs. Combining these three methods provides greater control over user identification and enables accurate user segmentation.

Heap user identification
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Heap analytics allows various visualization charts with custom dashboard flexibility and conversion rate comparison. It uses an identify API to attach a unique ID to each user and track user history. It also allows you to attach custom properties to each user using addUserProperties API

The following table outlines the two product analytics software comparisons in the aspect of data modeling and user identification:

Amplitude vs Heap Feature Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Data modeling Real-time data modeling and advanced analytics (retention, funnels, revenue, cohort, segmentation) Real-time data modeling with visualization charts and custom dashboards
User identification Device IDs, Amplitude IDs, and configurable User IDs Identify API for unique ID, addUserProperties API for custom properties
Data collection Manual and segmented event tracking Retroactive analysis

Pricing

Amplitude and Heap Analytics offer free plans covering the essential features to get started. Additionally, both platforms also provide paid plans with more advanced features and analysis. Below is a detailed comparison of Amplitude vs. Heap pricing:

Amplitude pricing plans
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Amplitude offers a free forever plan for beginners and startups with essential functionalities. In addition to everything included in the free plan, Amplitude's starting paid plan offers unlimited product analytics, custom dashboards and formulas, behavioral cohorts, custom audiences and syncs, and online support.  

Heap pricing plans
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Heap's starting paid plan offers unlimited users & reports, chart customizations, CSV exports, a 12-month data history, email support, and all the features available in the free plan. However, Heap requires you to sign up and install a code snippet to get a pricing estimate for the paid plan. 

Let’s compare heap and Amplitude pricing in the following table:

Amplitude vs Heap Pricing Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Free plan Yes Yes
Paid plan starting cost $49 $3,600 annually according to review sites. Requires sign-up and installation to get an official estimate.
Fixed-price paid plan event limits Unlimited Unlimited


Interface and usability

Amplitude dashboard
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Amplitude data analytics offers a user-friendly interface with highly customizable dashboards and advanced visualizations. The Amplitude user interface tracks real-time user analytics and user segmentation and highlights conversion opportunities. 

Users can also adjust their analytical views to identify key insights quickly. An easy interface with advanced capabilities makes Amplitude an essential product analytics software for businesses focusing on teamwork and data-driven decisions.

Heap dashboard
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Heap’s interface offers real-time activity tracking and retroactive analysis. 

“While Heap’s user interface is beginner-friendly and easy to use, its visual analyzer tool has a steep learning curve.”

The following table compares the user interface and usability of Amplitude vs. Heap:

Amplitude vs Heap Feature Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Interface User-friendly and highly customizable Beginner-friendly with visual analyzer tool
Focus Data-driven decisions and collaboration Exploratory data analysis
Analysis depth Quick yet in-depth analysis Retroactive analysis with a steep learning curve for visual analyzer tool

Features

Amplitude and Heap both are designed to extract deep insights from user data. However, their distinct features make them suitable for varied requirements. Below are the unique attributes of both analytics tools:

Amplitude Analytics

Amplitude cohort analysis
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  • Behavioral Analytics: Amplitude offers insights into customer behavior, such as personal preferences and the impact of marketing efforts, through user flow diagrams and retention analysis. This feature is often highlighted positively in many Amplitude analytics reviews.
  • User Segmentation: Amplitude allows customers to be divided into smaller groups according to their characteristics, such as demographics and behavior patterns. This allows the launch of targeted campaigns and personalized interaction with customers.
  • Event Segmentation: Amplitude allows you to add ten product-specific events and five default events. Event segmentation helps identify the top events, their frequency, and the user journey. A product click, ad click, and payment submission are a few examples of user events.
  • Advanced Analytics: Advanced Amplitude data analytics tools, including funnels, cohort analysis, and storytelling, give insights into which marketing efforts result in conversion and revenue. Amplitude dashboards offer advanced features, including bulk filters, data ranges, email reports, behavioral cohorts, comments, and generating a public link, allowing you to customize your view. 
  • Real-time Analytics: Amplitude updates its analytics as soon as your data is updated. Real-time analytics keep you updated with your performance based on up-to-the-minute user interactions.
  • A/B Testing: Amplitude’s A/B testing feature allows you to run marketing experiments using targeted tactics. You can customize the experiments by developing your hypothesis, choosing a relevant metric, and obtaining user authorization.  
  • Product Paths and Conversion Funnels: Amplitude gives insights into user navigation, such as the time required to make a purchase, and highlights where users tend to leave. This allows for fine-tuning your customer journeys through data-driven decisions.

Heap analytics

Heap analytics features
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  • Real-time Analytics: Heap tracks data in real-time and reflects changes in the user interface as soon as they occur.
  • Retroactive Analysis: Heap automatically captures user interaction without manual setup. You can pick an event, and Heap will generate its analysis using historical data.
  • Event and User Segmentation: Heap allows you to divide your customers based on their interaction, such as users who clicked on a certain product 10 times and their characteristics. This allows for a focused and personalized user experience.

Below is a summary of the comparison of features and implementation in both tools:

Amplitude vs Heap Feature Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Event tracking Automatic and precise event tracking, event segmentation for targeted decisions Automatic event tracking
User segmentation Detailed segmentation based on demographics and characteristics Segmentation based on user interactions and characteristics
Visualization Advanced visualizations, pre-built and customizable dashboards Focus on exploratory analysis
Additional Features Product paths, conversion funnels, A/B testing Retroactive analysis

Implementation

Amplitude implementation
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Amplitude offers tools, resources, and support to make its implementation easy and pleasing. It has a user-friendly setup and easy third-party integration to speed up user onboarding. Additionally, tutorials and customer support guide users at each step, and a Slack Community of 11,000 members connects you with fellow professionals. Amplitude's user interface is also structured and offers several pre-built customizable dashboards, simplifying product analytics.

Heap integration
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Heap also offers quick setup, easy integration, and educational resources. However, users report tricky user interfaces, limited integration options, and slow customer support.

Below is a summary of the comparison of implementation and user-friendliness in both tools:

Amplitude vs Heap Onboarding and Interface Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Onboarding and implementation User-friendly setup, easy integrations, tutorials, community Quick setup, easy integrations, tutorials
User interface Structured and straightforward Reportedly tricky

Customer support

Amplitude resources
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Both tools offer comprehensive documentation, tutorials, guides, and customer support. However, users report Amplitude's customer support as more patient and responsive. Additionally, Amplitude offers online support to all paid users, whereas Heap offers premium support to only premium users.

Below is a summary of the comparison of customer support in both tools:

Amplitude vs Heap Customer Support Comparison
Feature Amplitude Heap
Customer support General, personalized and mission-critical support based on business needs Online support for all premium users
Additional resources Comprehensive documentation, guides, and tutorials, Slack community Comprehensive documentation, tutorials

Reporting and data analysis techniques in Amplitude vs. Heap

Amplitude retention analysis chart
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The foundation of both tools lies in detecting customer preference, so your budget allocation is optimized. However, both Amplitude and Heap analytics have distinguishable strengths.

Amplitude focuses on deep insights and flexible reporting while maintaining user-friendliness. Amplitude’s features enable segmentation, cohort analysis, and funnel analysis so that no user interaction goes unnoticed. Advanced reporting features, including custom dashboards, visualizations, and Amplitude feature flags, allow the creation of tailored reports according to your requirements. Pre-built dashboards are designed to assist beginners so they can still analyze their data while getting used to the platform. Additional Amplitude benefits include its predictive analytics capabilities, which allow for forecasting and identifying trends, offering a competitive edge in data-driven decision-making.

Heap allows users to explore user behavior deeply through flexible data exploration. Automatic event tracking and user identification speed up the data analysis, revealing unexpected user patterns in real-time.

Choosing the best analytics tools for product managers

While both tools serve the same purpose, choosing the best product analytics software depends on various factors, including your business requirements and analytic needs. Amplitude product analytics is ideal for businesses looking for in-depth exploration and growth due to its structured approach and advanced analytics capabilities. On the other hand, Heap is suitable for rapid implementation and exploratory analysis.

Therefore, if you’re a business with growing data and a large customer base, Amplitude product analytics is a scalable option. It effortlessly handles large data and highlights nuances in customer behavior. Conversely, if your team has limited skills and wants quick implementation, Heap will suit your needs. However, it comes with the expense of granular user segmentation and greater event tracking flexibility.

FAQs:

What is the difference between Heap and Amplitude?

Amplitude focuses on advanced real-time analytics, customization, and user experience, making it ideal for businesses that need detailed insights and scalable solutions. 

Heap offers automatic event tracking and retroactive analysis for businesses seeking a quick start.

Which of the two tools provides the best value against the price?

Amplitude offers a comprehensive feature set on paid plans, which might increase businesses' return on investment (ROI).

To obtain a pricing estimate for Heap’s paid plan, you need to sign up and install a code snippet. Therefore, accessing pricing information can be difficult and time-consuming. 

How Do Amplitude and Heap handle user data?

Amplitude provides you control over the definition of events and properties, making it a strong choice among analytics tools for business. Amplitude also adheres to industry standards and complies with relevant data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA.

Heap also prioritizes data security and collects vast user interaction data without requiring upfront event definitions. However, automatic data collection can lead to privacy challenges if not handled carefully.

Contact us at Adasight today to find your product-market fit, identify actionable insights from your data, and achieve sustainable growth with Amplitude.

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