Softwr

Marketing · head to head

Crazy Egg vs Lightdash

Crazy Egg logo

Crazy Egg

Marketing

Website optimization with heatmaps

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lightdash logo

Lightdash

Business Intelligence

Open-source BI for dbt users

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lightdash has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Crazy Egg the Starter plan at $29 a month covers 5,000 pageviews and 50 snapshots, which a modest site exhausts quickly; Lightdash requires existing dbt infrastructure, not suitable for teams without data models
  • They diverge on capability: Crazy Egg covers Heatmaps, Lightdash covers dbt Integration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Crazy Egg and Lightdash actually diverge.

Attributes where Crazy Egg and Lightdash differ
AttributeCrazy EggLightdash
Starting price$29/monthFree
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise)
CategoryMarketingBusiness Intelligence
Founded20062021

Identical on both: pricing model (Unknown), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Crazy Egg

  • Heatmaps
  • Scrollmaps
  • Confetti Reports
  • A/B Testing
  • Session Recordings
  • Google Analytics
  • Shopify
  • WordPress

Only in Lightdash

  • dbt Integration
  • Metrics Layer
  • Dashboards
  • Scheduling
  • Version Control
  • dbt
  • BigQuery
  • Snowflake

Both cover

  • Web support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Crazy Egg

  • Click, scroll and move heatmaps on a pagenot Lightdash
  • Session recordings to see where visitors strugglenot Lightdash
  • A/B testing page variantsnot Lightdash
  • Snapshot reports comparing behaviour over timenot Lightdash

Lightdash

  • Self-service analyticsnot Crazy Egg
  • Data explorationnot Crazy Egg
  • Ad-hoc reportingnot Crazy Egg
  • Collaborative analysisnot Crazy Egg
  • Embedded analyticsnot Crazy Egg

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Crazy Egg

  • The Starter plan at $29 a month covers 5,000 pageviews and 50 snapshots, which a modest site exhausts quickly
  • All plans are billed annually rather than monthly
  • There is no free tier, only a trial
  • Reaching 500,000 pageviews means the Pro plan at $249 a month

Lightdash

  • Requires existing dbt infrastructure, not suitable for teams without data models
  • Enterprise features and AI agents unavailable in open-source MIT-licensed core

Pricing, plan by plan

Crazy Egg

$29/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Crazy Egg review.

Lightdash

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT-licensed core
    • Self-hostable
    • dbt integration
  • Cloud Managed$undefined/mo
    • Managed hosting
    • Premium features
    • AI agent capabilities

Which should you pick?

Choose Crazy Egg if

  • You need heatmaps.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want scrollmaps.
Crazy Egg review

Choose Lightdash if

  • You need dbt integration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise).
  • You also want metrics layer.
Lightdash review

Questions people ask

Is Crazy Egg or Lightdash better?
Neither clearly leads. Crazy Egg starts at $29/month and Lightdash at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Crazy Egg or Lightdash?
Lightdash has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $29/month for Crazy Egg and Free for Lightdash.
Does Crazy Egg or Lightdash run on more platforms?
Crazy Egg runs on Web, API. Lightdash runs on Web, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise).
Can I use Lightdash for free?
Yes. Lightdash has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Crazy Egg starts at $29/month.
What is Crazy Egg best used for?
Crazy Egg is most often used for click, scroll and move heatmaps on a page, session recordings to see where visitors struggle, a/b testing page variants, snapshot reports comparing behaviour over time. Of those, click, scroll and move heatmaps on a page and session recordings to see where visitors struggle are not what Lightdash is typically brought in for.
What can Crazy Egg do that Lightdash cannot?
Crazy Egg covers Heatmaps, Scrollmaps, Confetti Reports, A/B Testing. Lightdash covers dbt Integration, Metrics Layer, Dashboards, Scheduling. Both handle Web support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Crazy Egg: How is Crazy Egg priced?

Crazy Egg starts at $29/month for 5,000 tracked pageviews and 50 recordings. Pricing scales to $599/month for Enterprise tier. A/B testing available from $99 plan up. Annual billing required with no monthly option. 30-day free trial available.

Source
Lightdash: Is Lightdash free?

Yes. Lightdash is free and open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting is completely free. Managed cloud services and enterprise features require separate licensing.

Source
Crazy Egg: What features does Crazy Egg include?

Crazy Egg provides heatmaps showing user clicks and scrolls, session recordings, A/B testing from the Plus tier up, and unlimited domains and team members across all plans.

Source
Lightdash: How does Lightdash integrate with dbt?

Lightdash reads dbt models and metric definitions directly. A team defines metrics once in dbt and reuses them across dashboards, exploration, and AI agents without redefinition.

Source
Crazy Egg: Does Crazy Egg offer a free trial?

Yes, Crazy Egg offers a 30-day free trial for all new users to test heatmaps and session recordings before committing to a paid plan.

Source
Lightdash: Does Lightdash support SQL queries?

Yes. As a modern BI platform for analysts, Lightdash supports full SQL capabilities alongside dbt model exploration and visual query builders.

Source
Lightdash: What are Lightdash AI agents?

Lightdash AI agents, available on paid plans, allow natural language queries against your data, generating SQL and visualizations automatically from questions.

Source
Lightdash: Can Lightdash be self-hosted?

Yes. Lightdash's MIT-licensed core is completely self-hostable and free. Enterprise features and AI agents ship under separate licensing.

Source
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