Heap vs Matomo

Free tier available

From €26 per month (indicative, cloud by hits)

Paid tiers are quote-based by session volume.

Self-hosting is free but plugins such as heatmaps and A/B testing are paid add-ons.

Free plan with a monthly session limit.

Self-hosted community edition is free; premium plugins are paid.

Widely used

Contentsquare · since 2013

Widely used

InnoCraft · since 2007

• Retroactive event definition eliminates 'we didn't track that' entirely.
• Very fast time to first insight — no instrumentation project required.
• Warehouse sync for teams that want the raw data.

• Complete data ownership with no third-party processing — the strongest GDPR position available.
• No sampling, unlike free tiers of hosted analytics.
• Can be configured to run without cookies or consent banners.

• Autocaptured data needs governance or the event list becomes unusable noise.
• Session-based pricing on high-traffic products.
• Acquisition means overlap with Contentsquare's own products.

• Self-hosting requires PHP and MySQL operations, including performance tuning at scale.
• The interface is less refined than modern product analytics tools.
• Advanced features are paid plugins even on the free self-hosted edition.

Product teams that want analytics without an instrumentation backlog.

Public sector, healthcare and European organisations with strict data-residency requirements.