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Technology · head to head

Heap vs Hookdeck

Heap logo

Heap

Technology

Product analytics for the modern product team

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Heap no built-in A/B testing or feature flags; requires integration with separate tools for experimentation; Hookdeck pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • They diverge on capability: Heap covers Autocapture, Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Heap and Hookdeck actually diverge.

Attributes where Heap and Hookdeck differ
AttributeHeapHookdeck
Pricing modelUnknownPer month by delivered event count
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryTechnologyDeveloper Tools
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Heap

  • Autocapture
  • Retroactive analytics
  • Session replay
  • Funnel analysis
  • User segmentation
  • Path analysis
  • Data science
  • Virtual events

Only in Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

What people use each for

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

Heap

  • User behavior analysisnot Hookdeck
  • Conversion optimizationnot Hookdeck
  • Product adoptionnot Hookdeck
  • Customer journey mappingnot Hookdeck
  • A/B testing analysisnot Hookdeck

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot Heap
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot Heap
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot Heap
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot Heap

Where each one falls short

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

Heap

  • No built-in A/B testing or feature flags; requires integration with separate tools for experimentation
  • Group analytics and advanced features require a sales conversation, not self-serve
  • Cloud-only deployment; no self-hosted option for data security or compliance requirements
  • Session replay lacks developer debugging tools compared to PostHog
  • Pricing for Growth and Pro plans requires direct sales contact; no transparency on how pricing scales

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone.
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once.
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead.
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate.

Pricing, plan by plan

Heap

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Up to 10,000 monthly sessions
    • Basic charts
    • 6 months data history
  • Growth$undefined/custom
    • Custom session pricing
    • Sense AI assistant
    • 12 months data history
  • Pro$undefined/custom
    • Custom session pricing
    • Account analytics
    • Engagement matrix
  • Premier$undefined/custom
    • Custom session pricing
    • Data warehouse integration
    • Unlimited projects

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/month
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/month
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose Heap if

  • You need autocapture.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want retroactive analytics.
Heap review

Choose Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Questions people ask

Is Heap or Hookdeck better?
Neither clearly leads. Heap starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Heap or Hookdeck?
Heap starts at Free and Hookdeck at Free.
Does Heap or Hookdeck run on more platforms?
Heap runs on Web, iOS, Android. Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Heap for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Heap best used for?
Heap is most often used for user behavior analysis, conversion optimization, product adoption, customer journey mapping. Of those, user behavior analysis and conversion optimization are not what Hookdeck is typically brought in for.
What can Heap do that Hookdeck cannot?
Heap covers Autocapture, Retroactive analytics, Session replay, Funnel analysis. Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Heap: What does Heap's autocapture feature do?

Heap's autocapture is a single code snippet that automatically captures every click, swipe, tap, pageview, and form fill on your website and apps without requiring manual event setup. Once installed, Heap captures the entire digital experience of every user on every platform with no ongoing engineering maintenance needed.

Source
Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

Heap: What are Heap's pricing plans and how much do they cost?

Heap offers a Free plan for up to 10,000 monthly sessions. Growth, Pro, and Premier plans use custom session-based pricing that requires contacting sales for a quote. Free includes basic charts and 6 months data history. Growth adds the Sense AI assistant. Pro adds account analytics. Premier adds data warehouse integration and dedicated customer success management.

Source
Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

Heap: Does Heap include session replay and A/B testing?

Heap includes integrated session replay showing exactly what users did on your site. However, Heap does not include built-in A/B testing or feature flags. Teams requiring these capabilities must use separate tools or integrate with third-party platforms.

Source
Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Heap: What integrations does Heap support?

Heap supports over 100 integrations connecting to business tools including marketing platforms, CRMs, and data warehouses. This allows insights to reach relevant teams and ensures data flows to other business systems automatically.

Source
Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

Heap: Does Heap offer self-hosting or is it cloud-only?

Heap is cloud-only and does not offer self-hosted options. Organizations requiring on-premises deployment should consider alternatives like PostHog which supports self-hosting alongside its cloud product.

Source
Heap: What is Sense and how does it help with analytics?

Sense Chat is Heap's AI assistant that enables users to access analytics without extensive technical knowledge. It allows teams to ask questions about user behavior and get answers directly without lengthy onboarding or technical expertise, making insights more accessible to non-technical stakeholders.

Source
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