Heat Map Generator: Create a Heat Map

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How to Create a Heat Map in Minutes

1

Open Heat Mapping

Go to Map Tools in your Maptive dashboard and select Heat Mapping. You'll set your data source and visual style here.

2

Choose Your Map Style

Choose Marker Density to show where your pins cluster, or Numerical Data to weigh locations by a column like sales.

3

Generate Your Heatmap

Click Add Heat Map to render the overlay on your map. Then adjust the radius, opacity, intensity, and gradient colors.

What Is a Heat Map?

A heat map is a color-coded overlay on a geographic map that shows you where data points are concentrated or where values are highest. Areas with more data or higher numbers appear in warmer colors, and areas with less activity fade into cooler tones. In Maptive, your heat map pulls directly from your uploaded spreadsheet, so every color shift ties back to real entries in your dataset.

You can set a maximum intensity threshold to control when the color tops out, and toggle between gradient mode and single-color mode depending on how granular you need the view to be.

Spot Coverage Gaps Across Your Service Area

Plot your store, office, or service locations on a heat map and the cold zones where no presence exists become obvious. Those blank spots point to areas where customers can't easily reach you, giving you a starting point for expansion.

Compare Regional Sales Performance

Assign your sales column as the numerical data source and the heat map will weigh each location accordingly. Higher-revenue spots glow hotter on the map, so you can find top-performing areas and underperforming ones in a single view.

Identify High-Density Customer Clusters

Run a marker density heat map using your customer address data to see where buyers group together. The result tells you which neighborhoods or zip codes hold the largest share of your customer base, useful for targeting local ad spend.

Evaluate Store or Facility Placement

Layer a heat map over your existing locations alongside population or demographic data to see if your placement aligns with real demand. Where the map shows warm zones without a nearby store, you may have a site selection opportunity.

Visualize Field Team Distribution

Map your sales reps or field technicians by density to see where your team coverage is thick and where it thins out. That view helps you rebalance territories so reps aren't overlapping in the same areas while others go underserved.

Ways to Use Maptive's Heat Map Generator

Analyze Marker Density to Spot Concentration Patterns

When you select the Marker Density style in Maptive, each pin on your map carries equal weight and the heat map shows you where those pins stack up. This is the default view, and it answers a simple question: where do you have the most and the fewest locations?

For competitor analysis, this is where you start. Upload a spreadsheet of competitor locations, generate a marker density heat map, and the color gradient will show you where competition is heavy and where it is light. If you are in retail and trying to decide where to open a new store, that map gives you a factual basis for the conversation instead of relying on assumptions about which areas are saturated.

You can also use this to audit your own coverage. If you manage a sales team spread across a region, a density heat map of your rep locations will show you the clusters and the dead zones in seconds. When your VP of sales asks where you need more headcount, you can point to the cold spots on the map instead of pulling together a manual report. Maptive lets you filter this view by a specific group too, so you can isolate a single state, territory, or business category and see its density pattern without noise from every other marker.

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Weight Locations by Numerical Data for Deeper Comparison

Marker density tells you where things are, but it treats every location the same. When you switch to the Numerical Data style, the heat map starts weighting each location by a number from your spreadsheet columns, like revenue, transaction count, or square footage.

This is where you move past counting pins and start seeing actual performance. A map of 200 store locations might look evenly spread in marker density mode, but once you weight it by monthly sales, a few hot zones will stand out while the rest of the map stays cool. That kind of contrast is hard to get from a spreadsheet alone because rows of numbers do not communicate geography.

Setup takes two extra steps compared to marker density. You select your numerical column from a dropdown, and if you want to drill into a sub-segment, you pick a specific group the same way you would with a density map. Maptive generates the heat map once you click Add Heat Map, and from there you can adjust the radius and intensity threshold to fine-tune how the data spreads across the map. If a few outlier locations pull the color scale too far, tightening the threshold gives you a more readable result that preserves the relative differences in your data.

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Layer Multiple Heat Maps for Side-by-Side Analysis

Maptive lets you add more than one heat map to the same view, which makes the tool useful for comparison work. You might run one heat map based on marker density and a second weighted by sales to see how volume and revenue align or diverge across your territory.

Each heat map you add receives a different color scheme so you can tell them apart at a glance, and you can customize those colors after the map generates. If you have regional managers who each need to see their own market, you can create separate heat maps filtered by group, one per territory or product line, and toggle them on or off using the visibility control next to each listing.

The visibility toggle is practical during presentations when you want to walk through layers one at a time rather than showing everything at once. You can hide a heat map temporarily with the eye icon so it stays saved without cluttering the view, or delete it with the trash icon when you no longer need it. This layering approach gives you a way to run scenario comparisons, like plotting customer density against service call frequency, without building separate maps for each metric. Your data stays in one place, and you decide what appears on screen.

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FAQs About Heat Maps

1What data format do I need to create a heat map in Maptive?
Maptive works with spreadsheet data, so any file you can open in Excel or Google Sheets will work. Your spreadsheet needs to include location data such as addresses, cities, states, or zip codes so Maptive can geocode each row and place it on the map. If you want to create a numerical heat map, make sure the column you plan to use contains only numbers.
2Can I create a heat map from a specific subset of my data?
Yes. When you set up a heat map, you can choose the Specific Group option instead of All Markers. This lets you select a column from your spreadsheet, like state or business category, and then pick a single value from that column. The resulting heat map will only include rows that match your selection, which is useful for isolating one region or product line.
3What is the difference between marker density and numerical data heat maps?
A marker density heat map treats every row in your spreadsheet equally and shows where pins are concentrated on the map. A numerical data heat map assigns weight to each location based on a number in your data, such as revenue or transaction volume. The first tells you where things are, and the second tells you how much is happening there.
4Can I add multiple heat maps to the same map view?
You can. Maptive lets you generate several heat maps and display them together on a single map. Each one gets a different default color so they remain easy to tell apart. This is useful when you want to compare two metrics side by side, like customer density next to sales performance, without switching between separate views or creating additional maps.
5How do I customize the appearance of my heat map?
After generating a heat map, you can adjust the radius, opacity, and intensity threshold using percentage sliders in the tool panel. You can also switch between a gradient color scheme and a single solid color by toggling the Gradient option on or off. Each of the three gradient colors can be changed to whatever values work best for your brand or presentation.
6What does the intensity threshold control?
The intensity threshold sets the ceiling for your heat map's color scale. When you lower it, less data is needed for an area to reach the maximum color intensity. When you raise it, only the densest or highest-value areas will display the peak color. Adjusting this setting helps you control how dramatically the differences in your data show up on the map.
7Can I hide a heat map without deleting it?
Yes. Each heat map listed in the tool panel has an eye icon next to it. Clicking that icon hides the heat map from view while keeping it saved. This is useful during presentations when you want to show one layer at a time, or when a heat map is blocking other features on the map that you need to review.
8What does the "Unlink From Other Tools" option do?
When you check the Unlink From Other Tools box in the heat map settings, your heat map will stay fixed even if you apply filters or use other Maptive tools that change which markers are visible. Without this option, filtering markers will also change what appears in the heat map. This gives you a stable reference layer while you work with other parts of your data.
9Do I need any special software installed to use the heat map tool?
No. Maptive runs entirely in your browser, so there is nothing to download or install on your computer. Your heat maps are saved in the cloud and accessible from any device with an internet connection. You can share them with team members or embed them directly on your website, and everyone who accesses the link sees the same updated data.
10Can I export or share my completed heat map?
You can share your map with others by generating a shareable link or by embedding it directly on a website. Maptive also supports exporting your map views for use in presentations, reports, and client meetings. Anyone with access to the shared link can view the heat map and interact with it, including zooming and filtering, without needing their own Maptive account.
11Is there a limit to how much data I can use in a heat map?
Maptive supports large datasets, and the heat map tool will work with as many geocoded rows as your plan allows. Performance may vary depending on the volume of data and your browser, but the tool is built to handle spreadsheets with thousands of rows. If your data set is especially large, adjusting the radius and intensity threshold can help the map render more smoothly.
12Can I use heat maps with the boundary tool or other Maptive features?
Heat maps can be displayed alongside other Maptive tools without any conflict. You can view a heat map on top of boundary overlays, radius circles, or grouped markers and everything renders together on the same map. Maptive also supports layering markers from one saved map with a heat map from another, so you can combine datasets without merging your spreadsheets.

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