Why I Didn’t Buy Heap: A Cautionary Tale About Failing Self-Service Users
As a 10-year product manager and current startup CEO, I love analytics tools. Really, I’m way more passionate about analytics than any person ever should be.
A few years ago, I became an avid Heap Analytics fan, especially due to their auto-capture and their event visualizer, allowing product managers to define an event without involving development teams and waiting three sprints for them to get it done.
So when I started my startup, it was clear to me that I’ll install Heap, as well as Fullstory for session tracking. Both came with a free tier, which we recently exhausted.
While Fullstory smoothly paved the way to me converting to a paying user, Heap did the opposite — it managed to annoy me every step of the way, leading to an inevitable churned user.
This post is a “cautionary tale” of sorts, from a once-passionate advocator, but it’s also a good case study of how to create, and how not to create, a self-service conversion flow.
Product
Both products provide quantitative analytics and session recording. However, each specializes in one and offers just the basics of the other. For that reason, I actually considered buying both — not a small expense for a struggling startup.
Heap is a solid product. It mostly delivers the results you need, but it’s not fun to use. In fact, it’s a bit annoying. I used it for the functionality, not the experience.
Fullstory, on the other hand, is a love story — I absolutely admire their attention to detail, and it’s clear they see the jobs to be done every step of the way.
When it came time to upgrade, I could have done without it for a few more months, as it was outside of our budget. But I wanted to continue using it so much. Buying it was almost a treat, a way for me to say to myself: “Good job Guy, you deserve this”.
Hitting the free plan limit
Heap comes with 10k free sessions/month, while Fullstory comes with just 5k. But it’s not how much — it’s how they use it.
With Fullstory, once you hit that limit — your monthly sessions stop. You lose data. However, come the 1st of the month, and your count resets — you can continue doing business.
In the first month, you might just miss a couple of days. On the second: 4–5. By the third month, you stop getting data on the 20th, and spend 10 agonizing days grinding your teeth, looking for the clock to reset. It’s just the right amount of annoying, while letting you keep using the app.
Heap, on the other hand, does something strange. They alert you that your account will soon freeze. They don’t give you a deadline, just a vague threat. It actually took more than two months, and then one day — it’s all gone. You can no longer access your data. At all. You can no longer use the app.
You’re in the middle of getting some data — the furthest thing from a buying mode, and they literally force you to find another way to get that data. That way for me was — you guessed it — using the less sophisticated Fullstory.
Pricing structure
Another way in which Heap botched it was in their pricing.
Fullstory is expensive, but once I passed the 5k limit, their next tier had 50k sessions. At that point, that seemed like it should last forever, giving me some stability.
With Heap, as I passed the 10k mark, they offered me a plan for 12k, which a month later will require me to upgrade to the 16k, and then the 25k — it seems like it will get pricier almost by the month. Even though Fullstory was the more expensive one, in my mind, the prices looked like this:
I didn’t actually calculate it, but the perceived price of Heap I expected within one year of purchasing it: infinity.
Emotions towards SaaS products
In a way, this should have been a cold business decision. After all, this is my startup’s budget we’re talking about here. But it was anything but.
Fullstory made me feel great — they were there for me when I needed them, and when it came time to pay, they nudged me ever so slightly, let out a low cough to clear their throat, and waited patiently for me to say yes.
But Heap — they made me feel betrayed. Them? The product I had advocated for in professional groups for years? My trusted partner in data, who deserted me when I needed it the most? These are not people I wanted to pay, even if it means I have to take a few extra steps to get my data elsewhere.
It’s a shame, as I do think Heap has a unique offering, and they could so easily improve the flows and flaws mentioned above. But it’s clear that someone there just doesn’t get it. Someone said — they’ve used us long enough — make them pay us, or kick them out!
And if you’re building a self-service product, here are two principles I urge you to keep:
- Never lock your users out without a detailed heads-up on the exact time that will happen.
- Don’t have your first paid tier last just a month or two before they have to upgrade again. If they become a paying customer — make them feel like royalty.
Special thanks to Tremis Skeete, Executive Editor at Product Coalition for his valuable input which contributed to the editing of this article.
