Documentation
Set up Privatrak, name what matters to you and read every report.
Heap alternative
Privatrak is a Heap alternative for teams that want answers to product questions without an analyst and without a cookie banner. Like Heap, it records clicks automatically, and you name features by clicking them on your own site. Here you see how the two compare, where Privatrak is stronger, and when Heap is the better choice.
Privatrak and Heap compared
Last checked: 17 October 2026.
| Topic | Privatrak | Heap |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies and cookie banner | No cookies and nothing stored in the browser. In many countries, no banner is needed. | First-party cookies on your domain, such as one for visitor identity that lasts about 13 months. In the EU, storing or reading an analytics cookie needs consent. |
| Complete numbers | Visitors who would decline a banner are counted too. | If you load Heap only after consent, visitors who decline are missing. |
| What it answers | Which features people use, where they drop off, where they go next and where clicks go wrong. Plus pages, sources, campaigns and how each variant of an A/B test converts. Revenue and average order value per day, product, campaign or version, from the amounts your site sends. | Autocapture records clicks, form submissions, page views and other interactions from the moment the script loads, with input values masked by default. Charts, funnels, journeys and retention are on the free plan. |
| AI assistant | Sign in from Claude, Codex or Cursor. It answers questions, sets up features, funnels and a dashboard, and you undo its changes in one step. | An official MCP server for analysing your data in outside AI tools. It is read-only and cannot create or change events, segments, charts or dashboards. |
| Hosting and privacy | On servers in the EU. IP addresses are never stored, and a visitor is recognised for one day only. | The pricing page does not state where data is stored. Region-specific storage is listed under the Premier plan. |
| Other tools in the package | Analytics only, with the Click Map, Insights and dashboards. | Session replay, heatmaps, error analysis and the Sense AI assistant, none of them on the free plan. Premier adds a data warehouse integration. |
| How long data is kept | 30 days on Free, 90 days on Starter and 180 days on Pro. On Enterprise, it is agreed with us. Older data is deleted automatically. | 6 months on the free plan and 12 months on Growth. |
| Price | Free plan with 10,000 events a month. Paid plans are on the pricing page. | Priced by sessions. Free up to 10,000 sessions a month with 1 project. Growth shows its price after you install the snippet, and Pro and Premier are priced individually. Above your limit you upgrade before you can view data again. |
Cookies and identified users
Heap’s help center says it uses first-party cookies on your domain. One holds the visitor’s identity for about 13 months, and another holds session properties for 30 minutes. In the EU, storing or reading such a cookie for analytics needs consent, as for any analytics cookie.
Heap’s autocapture records interactions from the moment its script loads.
Privatrak sets no cookies and recognises a visitor for one day only. Instead of following one person over weeks, you compare groups of visitors with traits, such as everyone on your Pro plan. In many countries you need no cookie banner for Privatrak.
This is general information, not legal advice. Privacy lists exactly what Privatrak stores.
Where Privatrak is stronger
- Complete numbers without a cookie banner. Every visitor who declines a banner is missing from your funnels and conversion rates, so the numbers you decide on are smaller than reality. Privatrak needs no cookie, so in many countries it needs no banner, and those visitors are counted too.
- Answers product questions without an analyst. You name a feature by clicking the button on your own site with the Element Picker. Features then shows how often it is used, including clicks from before you named it. This takes no code and no query language, so the people who ask the questions can answer them themselves.
- Click problems as a ready report. You don’t need to know what to look for. Click Problems finds the buttons and links where clicks fail, and you open each one on your own site in the Click Map. If you mark one resolved and clicks on it have no effect or cause an error again, it comes back as Happened again, so a fix that didn’t work doesn’t go unnoticed.
- An AI assistant that sets it up for you. You sign in from Claude, Codex or Cursor, without copying a key. If you allow it, your assistant names the buttons and links that matter, creates funnels and builds a starter dashboard. Everything it changed is listed under AI assistant changes in Settings, and you undo a whole set of changes in one step.
- Privacy by design, not by setting. Privatrak never stores IP addresses and deletes each day’s key and visitor codes once the day is counted. After that nobody, Privatrak included, can link two days. Your data is on servers in the EU on every plan, with nothing to choose.
When Heap fits better
Heap is the better choice in these cases:
- You need session replay or heatmaps and are happy to pay for them.
- You want account analytics.
- You need a data warehouse integration, advanced permissions or a dedicated customer success manager.
- You need data older than 180 days. Privatrak keeps data longer only on Enterprise, by agreement.
Switch from Heap to Privatrak
- Create a free account and a project, as shown in Getting started.
- Add the Privatrak script tag to your site. Leave Heap in place for now.
- Create the funnels you care about. A funnel counts from the day you create it.
- Compare both for a few weeks. When Privatrak covers what you need, remove Heap.
Your Heap data stays in Heap. Privatrak counts from the day you add it.
If you used Heap with its cookies and nothing else on your site needs consent, your cookie banner may be able to go as well. Read Do you need a cookie banner? on the Privacy page before you remove it.
Next steps
- Getting started: add Privatrak to your site in four steps.
- Features: name what you already record and see how often it is used.
- Connect an AI assistant: ask Claude, Codex or Cursor about your visitors.