Northbeam vs Simple Analytics in 2026: Enterprise media attribution vs privacy-first traffic counting
These two share a category page but solve almost nothing in common: one is a contact-sales media mix modeling platform for ecommerce ad spend, the other is a €20-a-month cookieless analytics tool that skips consent banners entirely.
Northbeam
Simple Analytics- Northbeam is built for ecommerce brands with real ad spend to attribute across channels. Simple Analytics is built for anyone who wants an accurate visitor count without cookies or consent banners.
- Simple Analytics has a free tier and self-serve signup starting at €20 per month. Northbeam has no free tier and requires a sales conversation at every pricing level.
- Northbeam includes multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling. Simple Analytics has neither; it reports aggregate pageviews, referrers, devices, and geography only.
- Simple Analytics is cookieless and GDPR/CCPA compliant by default, recovering traffic that consent-banner rejections hide from tools like GA4. Northbeam relies on a first-party pixel and server-side tracking rather than a cookieless-by-design model.
- Simple Analytics offers white-label delivery on its Enterprise tier for agencies. Northbeam does not list white-label delivery as an explicit pricing-tier feature.
- Neither tool does funnel analysis or session-level behavioral tracking; Simple Analytics by design, Northbeam because its focus is spend-to-revenue attribution rather than on-site behavior.
Northbeam and Simple Analytics both live under Analytics & Reporting, but they answer completely different questions. Northbeam tells DTC and ecommerce brands which ad channel actually drove a sale, using multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling against real ad spend data, and it costs enough that every tier requires a sales call. Simple Analytics tells any website owner how many people actually visited, without cookies, without a consent banner, and without losing the visitors that ad-blockers and GDPR rejections hide from Google Analytics. If you are choosing between these two for the same job, you likely have the wrong pair in front of you; the more useful comparison is figuring out which problem you actually have.
The tools at a glance
Northbeam
Multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling for DTC and ecommerce brands
Northbeam is a marketing attribution and media mix modeling platform for ecommerce and DTC brands spending meaningful budgets on Meta, Google, and TikTok. It replaces platform-reported ROAS, which double-counts conversions across ad platforms, with a first-party pixel and server-side data layer designed to hold up under iOS 14 tracking restrictions.
The platform runs multi-touch attribution alongside media mix modeling, refreshing near-real-time rather than the weekly cycle typical of legacy MMM providers. Budget scenario planning and creative-level analytics turn the attribution data into concrete spend recommendations, aimed at media buyers making frequent reallocation decisions.
There is no published pricing and no self-serve signup; every tier requires a sales conversation, and onboarding takes two to four weeks of pixel implementation and data connector work before you see attribution output.
| 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 |
| Creative analytics | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| BI connector | No | Yes | Yes |
Simple Analytics
Privacy-first web analytics that captures 100% of visitors without cookies or consent banners
Simple Analytics is a cookieless web analytics platform built on the premise that consent banners and ad-blockers have made Google Analytics data unreliable, hiding an estimated 20 to 60 percent of real traffic. It tracks visitors without setting cookies or fingerprinting, so no consent popup is legally required and every visitor is counted, including those who would decline a GDPR banner.
The product is deliberately narrow: pageviews, referrers, top pages, devices, and geography on a single-page dashboard, with no funnel analysis, no user-level tracking, and no behavioral segmentation. That scope is a design choice aimed at people who want an accurate traffic count without a BI learning curve.
Data is hosted in the EU and GDPR/CCPA compliant by default. A public API is available on paid tiers for pulling data into other systems, and Enterprise customers can get white-label delivery for agency client reporting.
| Feature | Free Free | Self-Serve €20/mo | Enterprise Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pageviews included | Limited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR compliant by default | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API access | No | Yes | Yes |
| White-label | No | No | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Northbeam | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Ecommerce and DTC paid media attribution | Privacy-first website traffic analytics |
| Multi-touch attribution | Yes | No |
| Media mix modeling | Scale tier and up | No |
| Cookieless / privacy-first tracking | No (first-party pixel plus server-side tracking) | Yes, no cookies or fingerprinting |
| GDPR compliant by default | Not documented as a core feature | Yes |
| Funnel or user-journey tracking | No, attribution-focused rather than on-site behavior | No |
| Free tier | No | Yes, limited pageviews |
| Self-serve signup | No, contact sales at every tier | Yes |
| API access | Not listed in public pricing tiers | Yes, Self-Serve tier and up |
| White-label delivery | Not listed as a pricing-tier feature | Enterprise tier only |
| Starting price | Contact sales, no published floor | Free, paid plans from €20/month |
Which should you choose?
NorthbeamSimple AnalyticsSimple AnalyticsNorthbeamSimple AnalyticsNorthbeamThis is less a head-to-head than a fork in the road. Northbeam only makes sense if you have meaningful ad spend across multiple channels and need to know which one is actually converting; the cost and onboarding process only pay off at that scale. Simple Analytics only makes sense if your problem is a basic, accurate visitor count without the compliance overhead of cookie banners; it has no attribution or media mix modeling and was never built to have any. Most teams evaluating both are really asking two separate questions and should treat them that way.
Bottom line
Go with Northbeam if you are spending real money on paid ads and need to know which channel deserves credit for a sale, and you are willing to sit through a sales process to find out what it costs. Go with Simple Analytics if you just need an accurate, privacy-compliant traffic count without a consent banner, and you want to start for free today. Running both is not unusual: Simple Analytics for general site traffic, Northbeam for paid media spend accountability.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose Northbeam or Simple Analytics for my ecommerce store?
It depends on what you are spending on ads. If you run meaningful paid budgets across Meta, Google, or TikTok and need to know which channel actually drove a sale, Northbeam is built for that. If you just want an accurate count of who visits your store without a consent banner getting in the way, Simple Analytics does that job for €20 a month or less.
Does Simple Analytics do attribution the way Northbeam does?
No. Simple Analytics reports aggregate traffic metrics, pageviews, referrers, devices, and geography, with no multi-touch attribution or media mix modeling. Northbeam is purpose-built for attributing revenue to specific ad channels and does not offer a comparable lightweight traffic dashboard.
Why does Northbeam have no published pricing while Simple Analytics starts free?
Northbeam targets enterprise-scale ecommerce ad spend, where pricing is typically negotiated based on ad budget and data volume, which is why every tier requires a sales conversation. Simple Analytics is a self-serve product aimed at a much broader market, so it publishes a free tier and a flat €20 per month self-serve price.
Is Simple Analytics a replacement for Northbeam if I cannot afford enterprise attribution tools?
No. Simple Analytics is not a lighter-weight attribution tool, it has no attribution or MMM capability at all. If you need attribution but cannot justify Northbeam's spend threshold, look at self-serve ecommerce attribution tools like Triple Whale rather than treating Simple Analytics as a substitute.
Can agencies white-label either of these tools for clients?
Simple Analytics offers white-label delivery on its Enterprise tier, letting agencies present the dashboard under their own branding. Northbeam does not list white-label delivery as an explicit feature on any of its published pricing tiers.