Heap
New Relic
| Feature | Heap | New Relic |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $0.3/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | product-teams, growth-teams, ux-researchers, data-analysts | development-teams, sre-teams, startups, devops-engineers |
| Founded | 2013 | 2008 |
| Auto Capture | ✓ | ✗ |
| Retroactive Analytics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Session Replay | ✓ | ✗ |
| Journey Mapping | ✓ | ✗ |
| Funnels | ✓ | ✗ |
| Retention | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apm | ✗ | ✓ |
| Infrastructure Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Log Management | ✗ | ✓ |
| Browser Monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Synthetics | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai Assistant | ✗ | ✓ |
| Distributed Tracing | ✗ | ✓ |
| Error Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Heap Pros
- Auto-capture all events
- No code required for tracking
- Retroactive analysis possible
- Session replay included
✗ Heap Cons
- Expensive at scale
- Can be data-overwhelming
- Slower than event-based tools
✓ New Relic Pros
- Generous free tier with 100GB/month data ingest
- Full-stack observability in one platform
- Usage-based pricing is cost-effective for many teams
- Strong AI assistant (New Relic AI) for troubleshooting
✗ New Relic Cons
- Per-user pricing for full platform access
- Data retention limits on free tier
- Can be complex to set up comprehensively
The Verdict
Heap is built for product teams and growth teams, with a focus on auto-capture and retroactive-analytics. New Relic targets development teams and sre teams and leads with apm and infrastructure-monitoring.
Heap uses custom enterprise pricing, while New Relic starts at $0.3/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, New Relic offers broader built-in capabilities (8 features vs 6), while Heap takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.