Technology · head to head
Heap vs Trino

Trino
Technology
A distributed SQL engine that queries data where it already lives, across object storage, warehouses and operational databases.
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
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; Trino trino stores nothing and computes no statistics of its own, so the plan it produces is only as good as the partitioning, file sizes and table statistics on the source; a Hive table of thousands of small files or a lake with no stats produces a slow query the engine cannot improve.
- They diverge on capability: Heap covers Autocapture, Trino covers Federated querying.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Heap and Trino actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Technology).
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 Trino
- Federated querying
- Connector architecture
- Predicate and aggregation pushdown
- Massively parallel execution
- Fault-tolerant execution
- Resource groups
- Iceberg and Delta table support
- Standard client protocols
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Heap
- User behavior analysisnot Trino
- Conversion optimizationnot Trino
- Product adoptionnot Trino
- Customer journey mappingnot Trino
- A/B testing analysisnot Trino
Trino
- Ad hoc analysis that spans a data lake and one or more operational databases, without building an ingestion pipeline firstnot Heap
- Serving a BI tool a single SQL endpoint over an estate that is actually several separate storage systemsnot Heap
- Querying Iceberg or Delta tables on object storage interactively, as the compute layer of a lakehousenot Heap
- Investigating whether a dataset is worth ingesting, by querying it in place before committing to a pipeline for itnot 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
Trino
- Trino stores nothing and computes no statistics of its own, so the plan it produces is only as good as the partitioning, file sizes and table statistics on the source; a Hive table of thousands of small files or a lake with no stats produces a slow query the engine cannot improve.
- Federated queries pull data out of the systems they touch, so a join between a lake table and a production Postgres can put a full table scan onto an OLTP database that other applications depend on, and the person who wrote the query will not see the incident it causes.
- Releases come roughly every one to two weeks with no community long-term support line, and deprecations arrive quickly, so you either dedicate someone to keeping current or you buy Starburst Enterprise for a supported long-term version.
- It is memory-based and disk spilling was deprecated in favour of fault-tolerant execution, so a query exceeding cluster memory fails outright rather than degrading; enabling fault-tolerant execution requires an external exchange store on object storage and makes queries measurably slower.
- It is a query engine and not a warehouse: there is no built-in job scheduling, no incremental materialised view maintenance and no transformation framework, so producing curated tables still needs dbt or an equivalent layer that somebody has to own.
- The 2020 fork split the ecosystem, so documentation, connectors, Stack Overflow answers and vendor material written before then describe PrestoDB, which is now a different project with different behaviour, and following the wrong one wastes real time.
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
Trino
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Trino review.
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.
Choose Trino if
- You need federated querying.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want connector architecture.
Questions people ask
- Is Heap or Trino better?
- Neither clearly leads. Heap starts at Free and Trino at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Heap or Trino?
- Heap starts at Free and Trino at Free.
- Does Heap or Trino run on more platforms?
- Heap runs on Web, iOS, Android. Trino runs on Web.
- 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 Trino is typically brought in for.
- What can Heap do that Trino cannot?
- Heap covers Autocapture, Retroactive analytics, Session replay, Funnel analysis. Trino covers Federated querying, Connector architecture, Predicate and aggregation pushdown, Massively parallel execution.
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.
SourceTrino: What is the difference between Trino and Presto?
They share an origin. The original creators left Meta and renamed their fork from PrestoSQL to Trino in December 2020; PrestoDB continues separately under the Linux Foundation. They have diverged in features, connectors and SQL behaviour, so material written for one may not apply to the other.
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.
SourceTrino: Does Trino replace my data warehouse?
Not on its own. It is compute without storage, scheduling or transformation. Paired with Iceberg or Delta on object storage and something like dbt for modelling it can serve as a lakehouse; used alone it is a query layer over what you already have.
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.
SourceTrino: Why is my federated query slow?
Usually because a connector could not push a filter or aggregation down, so Trino is pulling whole tables across the network to join them itself. The fix is usually better source-side partitioning or statistics, or ingesting that source rather than federating it.
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.
SourceTrino: What happens when a query runs out of memory?
It fails. Disk spilling was deprecated in favour of fault-tolerant execution, which checkpoints to an external exchange store such as S3 and lets long queries survive memory pressure and worker loss, at the cost of noticeably slower execution.
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.
SourceTrino: Is there commercial support?
Yes, from Starburst, which offers Starburst Enterprise with long-term supported releases and Starburst Galaxy as a managed service. The open source project itself has no long-term support line.
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.
SourceRelated pages
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