Amplitude vs Northbeam in 2026: In-product behavioral analytics vs ecommerce media attribution
Amplitude answers what a user does after they land in a product. Northbeam answers which ad dollar got them there in the first place. Both sit under Analytics & Reporting, but they measure opposite ends of the funnel.
Amplitude
Northbeam- Amplitude tracks in-product user behavior with events, funnels, and retention curves. Northbeam tracks ad spend attribution across paid channels and does not track in-product behavior at all.
- Amplitude has a free Starter tier capped at 50K monthly tracked users. Northbeam has no self-serve or free tier; all three of its plans require a sales conversation.
- Northbeam runs media mix modeling (MMM) that estimates the contribution of channels with no user-level tracking, like streaming ads and podcasts. Amplitude has no attribution modeling for offline or upper-funnel ad spend.
- Amplitude's AI Agents automate cohort discovery and behavioral anomaly detection. Northbeam has no equivalent AI-agent layer, though its MMM models are themselves statistical.
- Northbeam includes budget scenario planning that projects the revenue impact of shifting spend between channels. Amplitude has no media budget planning capability since it does not track ad spend.
- Amplitude bundles feature experimentation (A/B testing) directly into its analytics engine. Northbeam has no experimentation tooling; its focus is attribution and spend modeling, not testing product changes.
- Northbeam requires two to four weeks of onboarding to implement its pixel and connect ad platforms and ecommerce data. Amplitude can start producing funnel reports the same day instrumentation is live.
Amplitude and Northbeam rarely come up in the same evaluation because they are built for different teams asking different questions. Amplitude is a behavioral analytics platform for product teams: it tracks events inside an app or website and builds funnels, retention curves, and cohorts from that data. Northbeam is a marketing attribution and media mix modeling platform for DTC and ecommerce brands: it tracks ad spend across Meta, Google, and TikTok, and tells a media buyer which channel actually drove a sale once platform-reported ROAS has been discounted for double-counting. One has a free tier and self-serve signup. The other is entirely enterprise, demo-required, with pricing available only after a sales conversation.
The tools at a glance
Amplitude
AI-powered analytics platform combining behavioral data, product analytics, A/B experimentation, and session replay in a unified product intelligence suite
Amplitude tracks what happens after a user is already inside a product. Its behavioral graph logs events over a user's full lifetime, which powers funnel analysis, retention curves, and cohort comparisons. None of that overlaps with what Northbeam does, since Amplitude has no concept of ad spend, channel attribution, or media mix modeling built in.
Feature Experimentation ties A/B testing to the same event data, so a team can run a test and see the effect on retention or conversion in the same funnels used for regular analysis. AI Agents add automated cohort discovery and anomaly surfacing on top, reducing how much manual query-building a smaller team needs to do.
Amplitude is accessible in a way Northbeam is not: Starter is free up to 50K monthly tracked users and there is no sales call required to start. The trade-off is that Amplitude has nothing to say about which marketing channel drove a conversion in the first place; that is a different job entirely.
| Feature | Starter Free | Plus $49/month | Growth / Enterprise Contact for pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly tracked users | 50K | 1K-100K | Custom |
| Self-serve signup | Yes | Yes | No |
| Feature experimentation | No | No | Yes |
| AI Agents | No | No | Yes |
| Media spend attribution | No | No | No |
Northbeam
Multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling platform for DTC and ecommerce brands managing spend across paid social, search, and streaming channels
Northbeam exists to correct a specific problem: platform-native attribution from Meta, Google, and TikTok each takes credit for the same conversion, which inflates reported ROAS across the board. Northbeam's first-party pixel and server-side tracking build a unified view of the customer journey that removes that double-counting and gives media buyers one number to trust.
Media mix modeling extends that further to channels with no user-level tracking at all, like streaming ads or podcast sponsorships, using statistical modeling across historical spend and revenue. Budget scenario planning then turns that modeling into an actual recommendation, letting a team model "what happens if we shift 20% of Meta budget to TikTok" before making the change.
None of this touches in-product behavior. Northbeam has nothing to say about what a user does after they land on a site, only which channel got them there and how much revenue that channel is really responsible for. It is also entirely enterprise: no free tier, no self-serve, and two to four weeks of onboarding before the first attribution numbers are reliable.
| Feature | Growth Contact sales | Scale Contact sales | Enterprise Contact sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-touch attribution | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Media mix modeling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Budget scenario planning | No | Yes | Yes |
| BI connector | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated CSM | No | Yes | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Amplitude | Northbeam |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Product analytics | Marketing attribution |
| In-product behavioral tracking | Yes | No |
| Ad spend / channel attribution | No | Yes |
| Media mix modeling | No | Yes (Scale+) |
| Budget scenario planning | No | Yes (Scale+) |
| A/B testing / experimentation | Yes (Growth+) | No |
| AI-assisted analysis | Yes (AI Agents) | No (statistical MMM only) |
| Session replay | Yes | No |
| Self-serve signup | Yes | No |
| Free tier | Yes (50K MTU) | No |
| Onboarding time | Same day for basic reports | 2-4 weeks |
| Starting price | Free | Contact sales |
Neither tool tracks AI search visibility
Amplitude has an early feature that monitors brand mentions in ChatGPT and Perplexity, though it is a minor add-on inside a product analytics platform, and Northbeam has no AI visibility capability since its focus is ad spend attribution, not brand monitoring. Brands that want to know how they show up in AI-generated answers need a dedicated tool. AI Peekaboo tracks citation and share-of-voice across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, which is a gap neither Amplitude nor Northbeam is built to fill.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
AmplitudeNorthbeamAmplitudeNorthbeamAmplitudeNorthbeamAmplitudeThis is not really a head-to-head. Amplitude and Northbeam measure different halves of the customer journey: Amplitude picks up once a user is inside the product, Northbeam covers everything that happened in paid media before that point. A DTC brand running significant ad spend plausibly needs both, Northbeam to know which channel is working and Amplitude to know what happens once that traffic converts, rather than choosing one over the other.
Bottom line
Pick Amplitude if the open question is about in-product behavior: funnels, retention, and experimentation. Pick Northbeam if the open question is about paid media: which channel is actually driving revenue once platform-reported ROAS is corrected for double-counting. Ecommerce brands spending heavily across paid channels while also running a product with meaningful engagement depth will likely end up running both, since neither one answers the other's question.
Frequently asked questions
Can Northbeam replace Amplitude for product analytics?
Northbeam has no capability to track in-product user behavior, funnels, or retention, since its entire focus is attribution across paid marketing channels. A team that needs to understand what users do after converting still needs Amplitude, Mixpanel, or a comparable product analytics tool.
Does Amplitude do marketing attribution like Northbeam?
Amplitude does not track ad spend, channel-level attribution, or media mix modeling in any of its tiers. It measures behavior after a user is already in the product, which is a different data problem than reconciling attribution across Meta, Google, and TikTok spend.
Is Northbeam worth it for a smaller DTC brand?
Northbeam is built for brands spending meaningful budget, generally $50K or more per month across paid channels, since its attribution and media mix models need enough conversion volume to be statistically reliable. Smaller brands below that threshold typically will not see enough data volume to justify Northbeam's enterprise pricing and onboarding investment.
How long does it take to see results from each platform?
Amplitude can produce basic funnel and retention reports the same day instrumentation is complete, though a well-planned event taxonomy takes two to four weeks of developer time to build properly. Northbeam requires a similar two-to-four-week onboarding window to implement its pixel, connect ad platforms, and calibrate its media mix models before the attribution data is reliable.
Does either tool have a free trial?
Amplitude has a free Starter tier with no time limit, capped at 50K monthly tracked users, which functions as an ongoing free option rather than a trial. Northbeam has no free tier or published trial; every plan requires a sales conversation and a demo before pricing is disclosed.