— Honest head-to-head · Updated April 2026

Propel Replays vs MIDA:
an honest comparison for Shopify merchants.

MIDA is the closest peer Propel has. Both are Shopify-native by design, both pair session replay with heatmaps, both price in the same band, both are run by small teams that understand merchants. This isn't a "Shopify-shape" comparison — both have it. It's about product detail, craft, and which workflow rhythm fits the way you actually work.

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— TL;DR

The short answer.

MIDA is a respected Shopify-native CRO app with strong heatmap-type breadth (scroll and movement heatmaps shipped today), a comparable entry tier ($9.99/mo for 3,000 sessions), and an active content cadence. If heatmap-type variety is the dominant factor, MIDA earns its place — and we keep it on the shortlist in our roundup of the best Shopify session replay apps for 2026.

Propel Replays is the Shopify-native session-replay app built by a small studio that runs Shopify stores. Differentiators: insight alerts that proactively surface the replays worth watching, product-page alerts that flag add-to-cart-rate drops, AI summaries that see Shopify customer and order context, 0ms measured Core Web Vitals impact, and named human support (Tom, Support Team Lead, gets called out by name in App Store reviews).

Pick MIDA if entry-tier price, heatmap-type breadth (scroll/movement today), and their content/comparison library are what tip the scale. Pick Propel if insight alerts, product-page alerts, Shopify-aware AI summaries, 0ms performance, and named human support matter most. Both are real Shopify-native apps — this is the friendliest comparison on the page.

— At a glance

The 7-row decision table.

If you only read one section of this page, read this one.

  Propel Replays MIDA
Shopify-native Yes — built on Shopify primitives Yes — Shopify-only positioning
Free tier 750 pageviews/mo, full features Free — 250 sessions/mo
Starting price (paid) $9.90/mo ($6.44/mo annual) $9.99/mo · 3,000 sessions (Basic)
AI summaries with Shopify context Sees customer + order context Yes — generic per-replay narrative
Insight alerts (proactive replay surfacing) Yes No
Product-page ATC-rate alerts Yes No
Core Web Vitals impact 0ms (Lighthouse-verified) Not publicly published
Shopify App Store rating 4.9★ across 500+ reviews Strong rating — comparable band
Vibes Modern, crafted, AI-summary workflow Heatmap-first, content-heavy, functional

Pricing reflects the lowest non-free paid plan as listed by each vendor in April 2026. App Store ratings sourced on the same date. The "0ms" claim reflects Propel's measured Lighthouse delta with the tracking script enabled vs. disabled. Where MIDA hasn't published a comparable number, we say so rather than guess.

— Be honest with us

When MIDA is the right choice.

MIDA is a real, healthy, Shopify-native CRO app run by a team that clearly cares about merchants. They've earned their place in the category. If your situation matches any of these, MIDA is genuinely a fine pick — and we'd rather you install the tool that fits than the tool we sell:

  • Entry-tier price is the deciding factor. MIDA's Basic plan is $9.99/mo for 3,000 sessions; Propel's Basic is $9.90/mo for 20,000 pageviews. List prices are basically a tie before annual discounts — Propel's 35% annual brings Basic down to $6.44/mo, which typically wins on a 12-month basis. If you're comparing month-to-month list price and a few cents matters, MIDA edges it. Always check both vendors' live pricing pages.
  • Heatmap-first is your mental model and you need scroll/movement maps today. MIDA leads with heatmaps in their marketing and ships the full set of heatmap types (click, scroll, movement) today. Propel ships click and area heatmaps with scroll and movement on the near-term roadmap. If heatmap-type breadth is the binding constraint, MIDA wins it.
  • You value an active content library while you're learning. MIDA publishes regularly on Shopify CRO topics — heatmap interpretation, bounce rate, session replay how-to, comparison content. If you're new to the category and want a vendor whose blog teaches you while you trial, they're well set up for that.
  • Your team has prior MIDA fluency. If a colleague, agency, or prior role used MIDA and the team already knows the dashboard, the switching cost outweighs the marginal upside of moving. Existing fluency is a real factor.
  • You want to support a different vendor in the ecosystem. The Shopify session-replay category is healthier when there are multiple committed Shopify-native vendors competing on craft. Propel benefits from MIDA pushing on heatmap depth; MIDA benefits from us pushing on AI-summary workflow. Either pick is good for the ecosystem.
— Where we win

When Propel Replays is the right choice.

Propel started as the tool Chris Norton (founder) wanted when he was running his own Shopify store, SOLID Tool Chests. The category at the time meant Hotjar or Lucky Orange — both felt like aftermarket bolt-ons that didn't speak Shopify. So we built the tool we wished existed. MIDA is the only other vendor on the App Store that comes from a similar origin, which is part of why this comparison is so close. Where we win is the product detail:

— Feature-by-feature

The full feature comparison.

Five tables, broken out so you can skip to the part that matters. Yes / no / partial — with a note where the practical difference is meaningful.

1. Recordings & playback

Feature Propel Replays MIDA
Full-fidelity DOM replayYesYes
Per-replay AI summaryYes — sees Shopify customer/order contextYes — generic narrative
Insight alerts (proactive replay surfacing)YesNo
Product-page ATC-rate alertsYesNo
Filter replays by Shopify customer fieldYes — order count, tag, cart value, total spent, UTMPartial — Shopify-aware filters, depth varies
Replay link-back to Shopify orderYes — opens the order in Shopify adminPartial
Rage-click detectionYesYes
Dead-click detectionYesYes
U-turn / hesitation eventsYesPartial
Replay retention30 days rolling — every plan, free → EnterpriseTied to plan
Share replay via linkYesYes
Tag / annotate replaysYesYes
Mask form inputs by defaultYesYes
Skip idle time on playbackYesYes
Replay search by event typeYesYes

2. Heatmaps

Feature Propel Replays MIDA
Click heatmapYesYes
Area (region density) heatmapYesPartial
Scroll heatmapComing soonYes
Movement heatmapComing soonYes
Segment by device (mobile/tablet/desktop)YesYes
On-page overlay (heatmap on live store)YesYes
Auto-generate per page (no manual setup)YesYes
Heatmap-first marketing positioningReplay-firstYes — flagship positioning
Heatmap retentionTied to planTied to plan

3. Privacy & data

Feature Propel Replays MIDA
GDPR-compliantYesYes
Form input masking by defaultYesYes
Payment field exclusionYes — never capturedYes
Shopify customer privacy API nativeYes — auto-honours store consentYes
DPA available on requestYesYes
Replay retention30 days rolling — every plan, including EnterpriseTied to plan
Auto-purge of older sessionsYes — past 30 days, auto-deletedPlan-dependent
Public sub-processor listYes — Shopify, Cloudflare, Heroku, AWS, Papertrail, New RelicPublished on privacy/terms
Data exportOne-click CSV from dashboardCSV export available
Sells your dataNoNo

4. Performance & install

Feature Propel Replays MIDA
Core Web Vitals impact (measured)0ms (Lighthouse-verified)Not publicly published
Async script loadingYesYes
Shopify theme app embed installYes — one-toggleYes
Requires Google Tag ManagerNoNo
Requires theme.liquid editsNoNo
Time from install to first replay<30 secondsA few minutes
Shopify Markets awareYesPartial
Slack notificationsYesPartial
Zapier integrationYesYes
GA4 integrationYesYes
Uninstall fully removes scriptYes (Shopify app removal)Yes (Shopify app removal)

5. Pricing & support

Feature Propel Replays MIDA
Free planFree up to 750 pageviews/mo, full featuresFree — 250 sessions/mo
Entry paid tierBasic — $9.90/mo · 20,000 pageviewsBasic — $9.99/mo · 3,000 sessions
Annual discount35% off (e.g., Basic = $6.44/mo annual)Available — varies
7-day free trial on paid plansYesYes
Billed viaShopify Billing APIShopify Billing API
Support response timeSame day, often within hoursSame day on business hours
Named support teamTom (Support Team Lead) — named in App Store reviewsGeneric ticket queue
Founder accessibilityYes — Chris answers email directlyPossible but not signposted
Knowledge base / docsYesYes — extensive
Public content library (CRO blog)GrowingYes — active blog with regular posts
Shopify App Store rating4.9★ across 500+ reviewsStrong rating — comparable band
— Pricing, side-by-side

What you actually pay each month.

Both vendors price by traffic volume in the same general band. The entry tiers are within a couple of dollars of each other; the gap shows up at the annual-billing tier where Propel's 35% discount kicks in.

Propel Replays

Pricing by pageview

Free · 750 pageviews/mo $0
Basic · 20,000 pageviews $9.90/mo · $6.44 annual
Plus · higher limits $14.90/mo · $9.69 annual
Premium $39.90/mo · $25.94 annual
Enterprise $49.90/mo · $32.44 annual

Annual = 35% off. 7-day free trial on every paid plan. 30-day rolling replay retention on every plan, free through Enterprise. Older sessions auto-purge.

MIDA

Pricing by traffic volume

Free · 250 sessions/mo $0
Basic · 3,000 sessions $9.99/mo
Growth · 10,000 sessions $19.99/mo
Advanced · 20,000 sessions $39.99/mo
Enterprise · 40,000 sessions $79.90/mo

MIDA's entry-tier list price is essentially identical to Propel's Basic. The curve climbs faster: at 20,000+ sessions you're on a $40+ tier, where Propel stays in the same band on pageview-priced plans. Annual discounting is available on both sides.

Pricing as of April 2026. Both vendors update pricing periodically; check the live pricing pages before purchasing. Honest summary: list prices at the entry tier are within cents of each other; at annualized pricing Propel's 35% discount typically wins, and the gap widens at higher traffic since MIDA's curve is session-priced and climbs faster.

— Migration guide

How to switch from MIDA to Propel.

Honest first: you can't migrate historical replays or heatmaps from MIDA to Propel. That's an industry-wide limitation, not a Propel-specific one — replays are stored as compressed DOM events in vendor-specific formats, and they don't translate between tools. Heatmaps are derived from those events, so they don't migrate either. Anyone telling you otherwise is confused or selling you something. The good news: fresh data accumulates fast. A Shopify store doing a few hundred sessions a day will have a readable click heatmap within 24–48 hours of installing Propel, and a meaningful library of replays inside a week.

Because both apps install through the Shopify App Store, switching mechanically is unusually clean — both tools come and go via Shopify app removal, no theme.liquid edits, no GTM containers, no orphan snippets to chase. Here's the sequence:

  1. Install Propel. One click from the Shopify App Store. Toggle the theme app embed on. Recordings start streaming in within minutes — typically under 30 seconds from install to first replay.
  2. Run side by side for 7–14 days. Don't remove MIDA yet. Two tracking scripts running concurrently is fine for a short overlap and gives you a clean comparison: same traffic, two dashboards, decide which workflow fits how you actually work. The AI-summary rhythm is best evaluated on real sessions, not demo data.
  3. Cut over. Once you've decided, uninstall MIDA from the Shopify App Store — that removes the script automatically. Cancel the MIDA subscription via the App Store billing surface.
  4. Keep MIDA in read-only for 30 days if it offers that. Some vendors let you stay logged in with no active tracking; useful if you want to refer back to a specific replay or heatmap from a campaign that ran before you switched. If MIDA doesn't allow read-only post-cancel, screenshot anything you specifically need to keep before you cancel.

Two practical tips. First, audit Lighthouse on a few key pages with each tool installed during the overlap — that's the easiest way to confirm the 0ms claim on your specific theme. Second, recreate any MIDA dashboards you actively use (saved filters, segments, alerts) inside Propel during the parallel run, so the cutover isn't a workflow shock.

— Real merchants

What Shopify stores say about Propel.

7,000+ Shopify stores. 4.9★ across 500+ reviews. Three verbatim quotes — the language merchants use about the product, not the marketing line.

"In the past we used Hotjar (I think it's called something else now), but this is much better because it's in Shopify. Having qualitative data like session replays is essential, and Propel is designed in a way that's tailored to how shop owners use this kind of data."
Strudel3D
Shopify App Store review
"More features and metrics available than other replay apps I have used so far."
Cask & Cotton
Shopify App Store review
"Genuinely helpful suggestions that actually improve conversion, not just generic advice."
Pixel Burn Custom Laser Creations
Shopify App Store review
— Final take

The honest verdict.

MIDA is a good app run by people who understand Shopify merchants. They've earned their place in the category, their heatmap positioning is the strongest in the field, and they're a genuine Shopify-native peer. This is the friendliest comparison on this site. We respect their work.

For most Shopify stores, Propel Replays is the right answer because the product detail tilts our way: insight alerts and product-page alerts surface the work for you, AI summaries see Shopify customer and order context, the 0ms Core Web Vitals claim is published and verifiable, the dashboard and defaults reflect a different level of design care, and named human support (Tom answers tickets, Chris answers email) is a quality of small studios that disappears the moment you hit a generic queue. If those points matter to you, that's the bet.

Best test: install both free tiers, leave them running side by side for two weeks, and decide on real traffic. The free tiers cover the experiment. The proactive alerts and Shopify-aware context are what change minds — not the spec sheet.

— FAQ

MIDA vs Propel — frequently asked questions

Is MIDA a real competitor to Propel?
Yes — MIDA is the closest peer Propel has on the Shopify App Store. Both apps target Shopify merchants exclusively, both bundle session replay with heatmaps, both price in roughly the same range, and both have positive App Store ratings. MIDA is not a multi-platform veteran like Hotjar or Lucky Orange, and it isn't a free generic tool like Microsoft Clarity. It's a Shopify-native CRO app built by people who understand the same problem space we do. The honest framing is that the two apps are siblings — and the comparison comes down to product detail, craft, and which workflow rhythm fits the way you actually work.
Which one is more Shopify-native?
Both are genuinely Shopify-native, which is unusual in this category — most direct competitors (Hotjar, Lucky Orange, Microsoft Clarity, Smartlook, Mouseflow) are multi-platform tools with a Shopify install path. MIDA and Propel are the two apps in the category that built specifically for Shopify from day one. The difference is in how Shopify-shape shows up: Propel filters every replay and heatmap by Shopify customer fields (order count, customer tag, total spent, cart value, UTM, product, collection) and links replays back to actual orders in Shopify admin. MIDA is Shopify-positioned across the marketing surface but the in-product Shopify integration depth varies feature by feature. If your evaluation hinges on Shopify-fit, install both free tiers and compare the filter UI directly.
Is MIDA cheaper than Propel?
At the entry tier the two are within a dollar of each other — MIDA's Basic is $9.99/mo for 3,000 sessions; Propel's Basic is $9.90/mo for 20,000 pageviews (or $6.44/mo billed annually with the 35% discount). MIDA's curve climbs faster: Growth is $19.99/mo for 10,000 sessions, Advanced is $39.99/mo for 20,000, Enterprise is $79.90/mo for 40,000. Propel's curve tops out at $49.90/mo (Enterprise). Annualized, Propel's 35% discount typically wins. If pure entry-tier list price is the deciding factor, the two apps are basically a tie; if you scale, Propel pulls ahead.
Does MIDA have AI summaries?
Yes — MIDA ships per-replay AI narratives now too. The existence of an AI summary isn't the differentiator anymore. What's different is the shape: Propel's summaries see Shopify customer and order context (returning VIP with three prior orders, $240 cart, customer tagged wholesale), so the narrative reads like it was written by someone who runs a Shopify store. The workflow rhythm and the depth of Shopify-aware context are where Propel earns its place — not the existence of the AI feature itself. The honest move is to install both free tiers and read a week of summaries side-by-side.
Can I run both at the same time?
Yes — running MIDA and Propel side by side for a week or two is the cleanest evaluation move and we recommend it. The two scripts coexist without conflict; you'll see a small bump in network requests during the overlap but no broken behaviour. Same traffic, two dashboards, decide which one fits how you actually work. Don't run both forever — at some point the duplicated tracking becomes wasteful even though both scripts are lightweight. Most merchants we hear from make the call inside two weeks.
Which one has better support?
Propel — by App Store evidence. Tom (Support Team Lead at Propel) is named by name in multiple 5-star reviews on the Shopify App Store, which is unusual for a tool of this size and a strong signal that tickets are answered by humans rather than a generic queue. Chris (founder) also answers email directly. MIDA has support and from public reviews it's competent — they reply, they help — but the support layer isn't called out by name the way Propel's is. If founder-accessible, named-human support matters to you, that's the gap.
What's the difference between MIDA's and Propel's heatmaps?
Today Propel ships click and area heatmaps with device segmentation; scroll and movement heatmaps are on the near-term roadmap. MIDA leads with heatmaps in their marketing and ships a wider set of heatmap types today — credit where it's due. Where the comparison flips is at the replays layer: Propel's replays filter by every Shopify customer field (cart value, customer tag, order count, total spent), and insight alerts surface the day's biggest orders, biggest abandoned carts, and biggest abandoned checkouts. If heatmap-type breadth is the call, MIDA earns it. If the broader Shopify-aware replay workflow matters more, Propel does.
Which integrates with Shopify Plus better?
Both apps run on Shopify Plus, both are used by Plus brands, neither has the enterprise feature surface that a heavier tool like Contentsquare offers. Propel's Plus advantages: Shopify Markets awareness, Shopify customer-privacy-API native consent (one-toggle), 0ms Core Web Vitals impact (which most Plus performance teams measure), data lives on infrastructure controlled by a small independent studio (no third-party ad-network adjacency), and a Plus-tier plan is in development. MIDA's Plus situation is similar in shape — Shopify-positioned, App Store install — and they have Plus customers in the wild. If procurement requires SSO, advanced data residency, or formal enterprise SLAs, neither MIDA nor Propel is the right shape today; that's a Contentsquare or PostHog conversation.
How long is the migration?
30 minutes of active work, plus a 7–14 day parallel-run period if you want to be thorough. Install Propel from the Shopify App Store (~30 seconds), enable the theme app embed (~30 seconds), and recordings start streaming in within minutes. Run side by side with MIDA for a week or two to compare on the same traffic. Then cancel MIDA via the Shopify App Store (uninstalling removes the script automatically — that's one of the benefits of installing both as native Shopify apps rather than manual snippets). Honest caveat: you can't migrate historical replays or heatmaps from MIDA to Propel — that's industry-wide, not a Propel-specific limitation. Replays are stored as compressed DOM events in vendor-specific formats and don't translate.
Does MIDA slow down a Shopify store?
MIDA's tracking script is reasonable for the category — they're a Shopify-native vendor and the script weight is in line with that positioning. We don't have a published Lighthouse delta from MIDA, so we won't put a number on it. What we can verifiably claim about Propel: 0ms impact on Core Web Vitals, measured in Lighthouse with the script enabled vs. disabled. Propel ships as a Shopify theme app embed (Shopify injects it at the bottom of the page, after everything else has loaded) and the script itself is async. If CWV sensitivity is part of your decision, the easiest test is to run Lighthouse on a key product page with each tool installed and compare directly.
Are both GDPR-compliant?
Yes — both apps are GDPR-compliant and both mask form inputs by default. Both honour Shopify's customer privacy API (which means cookie consent set in your store's banner is respected without extra configuration). Both will sign a DPA if you ask. Both store session data on their own infrastructure — that's true industry-wide for session replay; the data has to live somewhere. Propel's sub-processor list as of April 2026: Shopify, Cloudflare, Heroku, AWS (S3 and SES), Papertrail, New Relic. MIDA publishes their own list on their privacy/terms pages. Neither vendor sells your data; both have standard subprocessor disclosures.
Which one is more honest about its limits?
Subjective question, honest answer. We try to be transparent about Propel's limits on this site — replay retention is 30 days rolling on every plan including Enterprise (older sessions auto-purge); we don't have a public REST API for replay export, only one-click CSV export from the dashboard; we don't ship live cobrowse. MIDA's marketing surface is more comparison-and-blog-heavy and the limits are less prominently stated. That isn't a knock on MIDA — different content strategy — but it does mean a careful evaluator will need to ask MIDA's team specific questions during the trial. If you want a written limits-and-caveats document from either vendor, ask. Both teams are responsive on this kind of question.
MIDA vs Propel: which has better merchant reviews?
Both apps carry strong App Store ratings — Propel is at 4.9★ across 500+ reviews (across the studio's apps; Replays carries most of those), and MIDA's rating is in the same band on their App Store listings. Volume of reviews is broadly comparable. Where Propel's reviews stand out is the language: merchants name Tom (support) by name, mention switching from Hotjar and from Microsoft Clarity verbatim, and call out the AI summaries and Shopify-shape specifically. MIDA's reviews are positive and thoughtful but lean more on heatmap interpretation and customer success than on craft markers. If you want to compare on review evidence, read the most recent 30 reviews on each App Store listing — that's the highest-fidelity signal in this category.
Is MIDA going to disappear?
No — MIDA is a real competitor, not a Smartlook-style flight risk. They're an active independent vendor with a regular publishing cadence (their blog ships weekly to bi-weekly), recent customer success stories, and continued product development. We don't have insight into their internal financials or runway, and we won't speculate, but on every public signal MIDA looks like a healthy small-vendor business in the same shape Propel is in. The right framing is that MIDA and Propel are both committed Shopify-native apps and either is a defensible pick for a multi-year tooling decision.
Which should an agency recommend to clients?
It depends on what the agency optimizes for. Recommend Propel when the client wants the AI-summary workflow (skim hundreds of sessions instead of watching ten), when storefront performance is sensitive (0ms CWV claim), when the client values craft signals in the tools they use, or when the agency wants founder-accessible support during a launch crunch. Recommend MIDA when the client wants the heatmap-first positioning that MIDA leans into, when entry-tier price is the deciding factor, or when the agency already has internal MIDA fluency from a previous engagement. For most Shopify clients in the $10k–$5M GMV range, either tool will serve them well — and both are meaningfully better-fit than installing Hotjar or Lucky Orange on a Shopify storefront.

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