Heap is one of multiple analytics tools that offers session replay functionality. But is it the best one for your team?

That’s what this article will help you decide!

I will show you how it works, discuss its main capabilities and limitations, and suggest an alternative session recording tool to consider.

Overview of Heap session replay feature

Heap session replays allow you to watch user interactions with your websites and web and mobile apps: their scrolls, mouse movements, clicks, taps, and keystrokes.

Heap automatically captures all these events during the user session. It also takes screenshots of the website pages or product screens and combines all the data into what looks like a video recording of the screen. Technically, however, there’s no recording involved.

Heap session replay use cases

Product managers and UX designers can use Heap session replays to:

• Identify frustration signals and uncover UX pain points. Think rage clicks, dead clicks, and looped behaviors.
• Understand how users engage with your web pages or web/mobile apps.
• Find drop-off points within user funnels and optimize conversion rates.
• Spot bugs.
• Track user interactions with page elements or features.

Integrated analytics

Heap was the first company to integrate the session replay feature with the rest of its analytics capabilities, like funnel analysis or effort analysis.

This makes it easier to find relevant sessions. For example, when you see a high drop-off rate at a particular stage in the funnel, you can easily find recordings that show you what exactly happens.

Thanks to that, you can identify friction points and diagnose their root causes much quicker.

Other tools, like Hotjar, have caught up with Heap and offer this kind of functionality, too.

Rage click detection

Heap automatically discovers rage clicks. That’s when the user taps or clicks on a specific part of the UI.

Rage clicking is a sign of frustration caused by bugs or usability issues, so the feature comes in pretty handy when you want to optimize the UX.

To find sessions with rage clicks, scan the list of user sessions for the red icon.

Privacy settings

To protect your users’ privacy, Heap allows you to mask sensitive information in the session recordings.

There are two main settings:

• Mask all form fields and sensitive content (like passwords or personal data).
• Mask all text content.

Integrations

Heap offers a whole host of native integrations with various tools where you can export session replay data:

• Data warehouses (Redshift, S3, Snowflake, and more).
• A/B testing tools (Optimizely, VWO, and more).
• CRMs (Hubspot, Salesforce).
• Adoption platforms (Appcues).
• Customer success (Zendesk, Intercom).
• Feedback (Delighted).
• Data integration (Segment).

Pricing

Heap offers four pricing plans, including a Free plan.

However, the session replay feature is available as an add-on only to paying customers (Growth, Pro, Premier).

How much does it cost?

Heap pricing is available upon request. You can get an estimate of how much the Growth plan is by installing a snippet on your website. As to the session replays, G2 reviewers comment that they’re expensive but offer no details.

Looking for a Heap Session Replay Tool Alternative? Try Userpilot!

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Why you might need a Heap alternative

Heap’s session replay is a powerful functionality. However, it has a few limitations, so it’s worth considering alternative tools.

1. A need for a complete look at quantitative, qualitative, and visual data

With Heap’s analytics features, you can gather quantitative data, while session replays and heatmaps allow you to visualize how users navigate your product pages.

This is a powerful combination, allowing you to understand not only what happens but also why.

However, Heap doesn’t offer native feedback features, so you need additional tools to run surveys. And the choices are limited to Appcues and Delighted for in-app surveys. You can work around this by using a data integration tool like Segment, but this adds friction to your workflows.

If you want to get all three kinds of data, quantitative, qualitative, and visual, then you need a different solution.

2. Data storage and retention limits

By default, Heap stores session replays only for 30 days. This is a limiter because you cannot go back to review historical data, for example, during major UX redesigns.

Heap does give you the option to increase your data retention period, but it will cost you extra. Which is another thing to budget for.

Is Userpilot a better alternative to Heap?

Userpilot has been prioritizing its analytics capabilities for the last 18 months. After giving you custom events, heatmaps, trends, retention analysis, funnels, and paths last year, it launched autocapture earlier this year. And recently, session recordings.

How does the feature stack up against Heap?

Let’s explore the key differences.

1. All-in-one platform

Userpilot is a comprehensive adoption platform combining product analytics and feedback features with an engagement layer.

This means you can use it to gain in-depth insights into user behavior inside the product, collect user feedback via in-app surveys to better understand their problems, needs, and motivations, and create in-app onboarding experiences based on these insights.

Heap is an analytics powerhouse, but as mentioned, to collect feedback or provide in-app guidance, you need to integrate it with 3rd party tools. More tools mean more maintenance and more subscription fees.

2. Advanced filtering and organization of session replays

Userpilot’s advanced segmentation and filtering sessions allow you to find the relevant sessions to watch in no time.

You can pick a user segment based on company and user properties, survey responses, and user behavior data. For example, you can watch the sessions of users who engaged with a particular feature or your NPS detractors.

You can also easily find sessions of specific users. This is useful when you want to support individual customers, for example, when they complain.

Once you set your filters, you can save the sessions in playlists. This means you don’t have to go through the process every time you want to review the data.

3. Collaboration features

Userpilot offers a bunch of features that improve collaboration.

You can add notes, flag bugs, and tag team members within recordings to share insights quickly.

This helps organizations tighten feedback loops, break down data silos, and improve cross-functional alignment.

In Heap, this is limited to sharing via links or email. When sharing, you can set the starting point, which helps the recipient find the relevant section.

4. Navigation

When you replay Userpilot session recordings, you change the playback speed and fast forward or rewind the recording.

There’s also the skip inactivity feature. When enabled, it removes the sections where nothing happens, for example, when the user takes a break. This is a massive time-saver that Heap doesn’t offer.

Finally, the right-hand side panel includes the Activity log with all user actions during the session, so you can quickly drill into specific events.

Userpilot vs Heap: feature breakdown

To wrap up, here’s a breakdown of all session replay features in Userpilot and Heap for easy comparison.

Conclusion

Heap is a reliable platform for teams looking to gain granular quantitative and qualitative insights into user behavior, and session replays are one of its standout features.

However, it supports no survey and engagement features, so you need to use 3rd party tool to collect user feedback and act on it with in-app experiences.

Userpilot session recordings offer more collaboration features and better navigation. More importantly, Userpilot is an all-in-one product growth platform. It allows you to gain a complete view of user behavior and engage them inside your product.

Want to see Userpilot session recordings in action before you commit to Heap? Book the demo!

Looking for a Heap Session Replay Tool Alternative? Try Userpilot!

Get a Demo

• 14 Day Trial
• No Credit Card Required