Heap vs Mixpanel: Each Product’s True Strengths

Heap and Mixpanel are each person analytics instruments for web sites and apps, however their approaches are a bit bit totally different. Heap is greatest for locating which person actions matter, whereas Mixpanel is good for gaining deeper insights when you already know your viewers very well.

Right here’s what it is advisable know as you determine which device to make use of. 

Heap vs. Mixpanel: A Fast Snapshot

Have to put aside time to learn this complete piece? Right here’s a TL;DR abstract for the meantime. 

Characteristic Breakdown: Heap vs. Mixpanel

1. Internet and Cellular App Monitoring

Heap

With Heap, your crew can observe person conduct on each your web site and your cell app. As with many comparable instruments, together with most Heap alternatives, setup is tremendous easy: 

• Web sites: Add Heap’s JavaScript snippet to your web site’s header with the clear, easy-to-read directions that anybody, even non-coding of us, can perceive.
• Cellular apps: Heap guides you thru organising cell monitoring on both iOS or Android by way of a software program growth package (SDK).

When you’re all arrange, you possibly can collect the next internet and app knowledge from Heap: 

• Web page and display screen views throughout your web sites and cell apps 
• Clicks, faucets, and kind submissions
• Paths customers take as they navigate your web site
• Consumer attributes (what gadget they used, location they interacted from, and so forth)
• Retention and utilization patterns over time

This offers you a transparent image of what’s happening, from the person point-of-view, on each your SaaS merchandise (you probably have them) and web site—whether or not that’s your ecommerce platform or your informational web site. 

Mixpanel

Like Heap, Mixpanel helps internet and cell monitoring. 

Setup is a bit more difficult than it’s with Heap, although, particularly for monitoring web site conduct. It’s important to determine precisely which person actions you wish to observe after which outline these occasions utilizing Mixpanel’s JavaScript SDK. 

In any other case, you’ll solely see uncooked web page views with none of the deeper behavioral insights Mixpanel is designed to offer. 

Establishing the JavaScript SDK in your web site takes a little bit of upfront work. It’s not a easy copy-paste like it’s for Heap. The tradeoff is that you just get to trace solely the information that issues to you—no further stuff to wade by way of when it’s time to have a look at your totally different dashboards and interpret the information. 

Cellular monitoring setup follows an identical sample—you should combine the SDK and explicitly define which occasions to trace. 

So mainly, Heap affords simple setup and autocapture however extra further stuff you won’t wish to observe. Mixpanel provides you extra management over what knowledge you collect, however setup can also be extra technical. 

2. Funnels and Conversion Monitoring

Heap 

Heap’s funnels are constructed from the conduct it mechanically captures as soon as that monitoring script is lively in your web site (or SDK on cell). You may take person conduct knowledge that your platform has already collected and use it to construct funnels primarily based on retroactive knowledge. 

It is a good method to see what journeys and flows users are taking as they navigate your web site or app. 

To create the Heap funnels, you’ll simply have to outline what steps you wish to embrace within the funnel chart (web page views? Clicks? Different interactions?).

If you happen to understand in a while that one step issues greater than you initially thought, you possibly can add it right into a funnel. I love Heap’s flexibility right here, and I additionally admire how simple it’s to create funnels on Heap. 

The function is good for groups which can be attempting to determine which person occasions matter (aka result in conversions and/or drop-offs) on their platforms. 

Mixpanel

It’s tougher to construct funnels on Mixpanel, however with the standard tradeoff that comes with complexity: larger management over your funnel charts. 

To construct a funnel, you should first determine the occasions you need Mixpanel to trace for that funnel—publication signups, CTA button clicks, or navigation to your pricing page, for instance. 

This implies there’s extra work to do earlier than you can begin constructing funnels, and also you additionally have to have a common concept of the paths your prospects usually take to navigate your web site. 

In contrast, Heap enables you to uncover that retroactively as a part of your funnel-building efforts. 

Mixpanel, however, is all about providing you with energy earlier than the monitoring begins in order that your funnels are clear, exact, and straight related to your online business. 

3. Consumer Segmentation

Heap

Segmentation in Heap relies on the platform’s computerized knowledge seize system. As in its funnels function, lots is achieved retroactively.

Heap information all interactions by default, and you should utilize that knowledge to outline and categorize person segments. Group customers by: 

• Behaviors they’ve in widespread, like customers that signed up for a free trial of your product, or customers that accomplished onboarding. 
• Consumer and occasion properties—gadget sort, location, acquisition supply, and customized properties that you just outline.
• Time-based situations, like customers who carried out a particular motion in a sure timeframe (inside days, or weeks, and even months).
• Multi-step conduct paths, like customers who seen a pricing web page and then began a trial. Or customers who checked the pricing web page after which left your web site altogether. 

Heap’s customer segmentation is good for exploring what your customers do and the place they interact or go away your product altogether. It’s much less perfect for those who already know precisely which actions you wish to observe and wish strict, structured reporting.

Principally, Heap expects you to have a look at knowledge you have already got and use its segmenting options to make connections about which customers are doing what. It holds your hand and guides you thru the method, which is good for those who’re newer to person analytics or your group is only a fledgling. 

In terms of your customers, you don’t know what you don’t know—and Heap helps you acquire that information. 

Mixpanel

Mixpanel doesn’t wish to maintain your hand. 

As you possibly can see on this Mixpanel review, that is true for all of its instruments, together with the person segmentation capabilities. Mixpanel expects you to plan forward and determine which actions matter, after which observe and group customers primarily based on these predefined occasions. 

The conduct analytics device frames segmentations in a couple of key methods: 

• Occasions. You will need to clearly outline occasions—like “Accomplished Onboarding” or “Used Characteristic A”—and customers will then be segmented as they carry out these key occasions. 
• Cohorts. Mixpanel enables you to save segments as cohorts and analyze how these teams behave over time—together with their retention and conversion traits. 
• Properties. You may section customers by occasion properties, person properties, time ranges, frequency, and particular motion sequences.

As a result of segmentation is determined by well-defined occasions and properties, the outcomes are normally tidier than what you get with Mixpanel. 

4. Heatmaps

Heap

Heap affords native internet heatmaps to show you the place customers click on, scroll, and work together in your web site. 

However that’s it—Heap solely affords these three heatmap sorts. Mixpanel solely affords two, so I suppose Heap has an edge right here. Additionally, heatmaps are a reasonably current Mixpanel function, so there’s that.  

To place this in perspective, different conduct analytics instruments like Loopy Egg supply 5 forms of heatmaps. 

Okay, again to Heap. The three heatmaps measure: 

• Clickmaps: Exhibits the place customers do probably the most and least clicking on a webpage
• Scroll depth: Reveals how far down a web page your customers are scrolling, so you possibly can place info extra appealingly
• Consideration maps: See the place customers focus their consideration, primarily based on their cursor actions (together with hovering) 

Whereas this isn’t tremendous complete, the heatmaps are visually pleasing and straightforward to interpret, which isn’t all the time the case. 

Mixpanel 

Mixpanel is newer to the heatmapping recreation, and it at the moment solely affords two forms of heatmaps: 

• Click on maps that present the place your customers click on in your particular person web site parts, so you may get deeper insights into which parts get used probably the most (and least)
• Conventional heatmaps that overlay the overall areas of interplay on the web page, with  common interplay density primarily based on X and Y coordinates throughout the entire structure of the display screen

That is very primary, however at the least it’s a begin. 

If you happen to want one thing extra strong, our record of the top heatmapping tools provides you 7 perfect options. 

5. AI Summaries and Evaluation Instruments

Heap 

AI summaries and evaluation instruments are beginning to change into an anticipated a part of person analytics instruments. And actually, they’re pretty useful elsewhere, too.

The opposite day, AI summarized a protracted e mail chain I acquired with the essential, details of a logistics-focused dialog. I double-checked the small print, however the overview gave me a fast look into the details. 

The identical can occur along with your person analytics instruments. AI might help summarize issues like A/B take a look at outcomes, surveys, heatmapping knowledge, session replay, and funnels. The greatest AI instruments additionally supply ideas for the following steps you possibly can take now that you just’ve collected this info. 

Heap’s AI CoPilot is fairly spectacular. You may ask it questions on your knowledge, like “Which parts of my web page aren’t getting sufficient consideration?” and Heap will generate charts and summaries that tidily package deal the data in these charts.  

It’s also possible to ask Heap CoPilot follow-up questions and ask it to level your subsequent steps in the suitable path. 

Mixpanel

Like Heap, Mixpanel affords a sturdy AI device to assist reply questions and generate summaries out of your knowledge. You may ask it questions in plain language and get funnels, person flows, and insights with out having to construct handbook stories.

Plus, Mixpanel goes a step additional than Heap and affords summaries on particular person session replay recordings. Heap—notably—does not supply this (but). 

Not in the identical manner Mixpanel does, anyway. It focuses as a substitute on guiding you thru related classes by way of providing context for occasions, filters, and analytics. 

That is extremely useful if you wish to save time and keep away from watching tons of of recordings and taking notes on all of the person insights provided inside. 

Pricing Breakdown: Which Has the Greatest Worth?

Okay, so we’ve bought the play-by-play function breakdown out of the best way. Now let’s take a look at pricing—an enormous issue once you’re selecting a brand new software program device. 

How do Heap and Mixpanel examine?

Heap can get costlier as you scale as a result of it mechanically captures all the pieces. However you possibly can think about this a cost for the pace, flexibility, and straightforward setup Heap affords too.

Mixpanel is cheaper within the long-term since you solely pay for occasions you deliberately observe. This may be price it so long as you’re keen to maintain these occasion guidelines exact always so that you don’t collect pointless knowledge. 

Remaining Verdict: Is Heap or Mixpanel Proper for You?

Each instruments supply lots, however they remedy issues in barely other ways. 

Heap is good if you would like quick solutions with solely a droplet of setup, plus loads of room to play with knowledge retroactively. It’s higher for those who don’t know which actions matter, and also you want a device that’ll provide help to discover out. 

Mixpanel is greatest for those who already know which actions matter and have clear targets for what you need your merchandise to perform.

That stated, if you would like one of the best of each worlds, there’s a 3rd choice price calling out: Loopy Egg. Loopy Egg affords internet analytics, session replay, heatmaps, surveys, A/B testing, easy segmentation, and AI summaries with simple setup and clear pricing.

For solo enterprise homeowners, entrepreneurs, and SMBs, Loopy Egg delivers extra usable insights with much less effort than both Heap or Mixpanel do. Be taught extra about what Crazy Egg’s web analytics can do in your crew.