You're here because native platform reporting stopped working. Post-iOS14, attribution accuracy became everyone's biggest headache. You spend serious money on ads across Meta, TikTok, Google, maybe even CTV, and nobody can tell you with confidence which dollars actually work.
That's why you're looking at Triple Whale and Northbeam.
Most comparison articles miss the crucial point: these tools solve different problems for different businesses. One isn't universally "better." The real question is which one gives you the insights you need to make smarter budget decisions tomorrow.
We'll cut through the noise and show you exactly how to choose. No fluff, just the critical differences that actually matter.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam: What You're Actually Buying
Both Triple Whale and Northbeam exist to answer the same fundamental question: "Where should I spend my next dollar?" But they approach it from totally different angles.
Triple Whale Review: Your Daily Operating System
Triple Whale is an all-in-one analytics hub built specifically for Shopify brands. Your performance command center with real-time dashboards, blended ROAS, profit tracking, creative analytics, and attribution all in one place.
The interface is clean. Setup is fast. Your founder can open it on their phone and immediately see: "Are we profitable today?"
It's built for speed and clarity. The Triple Pixel tracks first-party data post-iOS14, giving you better visibility than native platforms alone. Most teams get it running in under a day.
Key limitation: Shopify only. If you're on WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or a custom stack, Triple Whale isn't an option.
Northbeam Review: Your Attribution Lab
Northbeam is a sophisticated multi-touch attribution engine designed for data-driven marketing teams. It uses machine learning and probabilistic modeling to fractionally credit every touchpoint in the customer journey.
It's platform-agnostic. Works with Shopify and beyond. Handles complex omnichannel scenarios including offline channels like direct mail, podcasts, and CTV.
The power comes with complexity. You'll need time to learn it, possibly an analyst to operate it, and definitely patience during onboarding. But once it's dialed in, you get incrementality analysis, media mix modeling, and the kind of cross-channel insights that can reshape your entire growth marketing strategy.
Key limitation: Steeper learning curve, higher price point, requires analytical horsepower to extract full value.
| Aspect | Triple Whale | Northbeam |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Operators who need fast answers | Analysts who need deep truth |
| Setup Time | Hours to 1 day | Days to weeks |
| Learning Curve | Low | High |
| Starting Price | $179/mo (free tier available) | ~$999/mo |
| Platform Support | Shopify only | Shopify + others |
| Attribution Approach | Platform-like (familiar) | Fractional (unified truth) |
How Triple Whale and Northbeam Attribution Models Work
Forget feature lists for a moment. The core difference between these tools is how they assign credit for conversions. Everything else flows from this.
Triple Whale Attribution: Platform-Friendly Approach
Triple Whale's attribution mirrors how ad platforms report. If Facebook says a campaign drove 50 sales, Triple Whale will show a similar number. It uses familiar models like last-click attribution, first-click, and linear attribution.
Why this matters:
- Low learning curve: Your team already understands these models
- Easy platform comparison: Triple Whale's numbers feel consistent with what you see in Ads Manager
- Fast adoption: No need to retrain your team on a new measurement philosophy
The trade-off:
Triple Whale can over-count conversions when you add up channels. If a customer touched both Facebook and Google, both platforms claim the full conversion. Triple Whale preserves this behavior.
Real example: Customer watches a TikTok video, then clicks a Facebook ad two days later and buys. Triple Whale (like the platforms) will credit Facebook 100%, missing TikTok's role in creating awareness.
This works great for quick tactical decisions (which ad set to scale today). Less great for strategic budget allocation (how much to invest in each channel long-term).
Northbeam Attribution: Fractional Multi-Touch Model
Northbeam takes a fundamentally different approach. It ensures that when you add up attributed conversions across all channels, the total never exceeds your actual order count.
In that same example (TikTok view, Facebook click, purchase), Northbeam might assign 60% credit to TikTok for creating awareness and 40% to Facebook for closing the deal.
Why this matters:
- No double-counting: You get a unified source of truth
- Reveals upper-funnel value: Channels that assist but don't get last-click get proper credit
- Enables incrementality analysis: See which spend is truly additive vs. just taking credit for existing demand
The trade-off:
Northbeam's numbers won't match your ad platforms. Facebook might claim 50 sales while Northbeam shows 32.5 fractional conversions for that channel. This requires team buy-in and education.
When fractional attribution changes everything:
If you're running multiple channels and trying to optimize budget allocation, Northbeam can reveal that your "low-performing" TikTok campaigns are actually driving significant assisted conversions that your Google Ads later capture. Cut TikTok and your Google performance drops.
Triple Whale won't show you this. The platforms definitely won't tell you this. But this insight alone can save six figures in misallocated budget.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Setup: What to Expect
How to Set Up Triple Whale
Setup honestly couldn't be simpler:
- Install the Shopify app
- Click to connect your ad accounts (Facebook, Google, TikTok, etc.) via OAuth
- Add the Triple Pixel snippet to your store
- You're live
Time investment: A few hours, maybe a day. Most founders do this themselves without developer help.
The interface immediately makes sense. Your main dashboard shows blended metrics (total revenue, ad spend, ROAS, profit) right up front. The mobile app is legitimately useful for checking performance on the go.
How to Set Up Northbeam
Setup requires actual work:
- Install Northbeam tracking script on your site
- Configure DNS (add a subdomain for first-party tracking, which improves match rates but requires technical setup)
- Connect each data source manually (Shopify, ad platforms, email, etc.)
- Validate data accuracy across touchpoints
- Learn the interface and attribution models
- Set up custom reports and views
Time investment: Days to weeks. Many brands work with Northbeam's team or an agency during setup. Some users report spending a week troubleshooting discrepancies before fully trusting the data.
But once it's dialed in, Northbeam delivers granular, trustworthy cross-channel insights that can dramatically shift how you allocate budget.
Daily usage reality:
- Triple Whale feels like checking your bank balance (instant clarity)
- Northbeam feels like running a financial model (powerful but requires interpretation)
Reviews reflect this: Triple Whale scores higher for ease of use (8.7/10 vs lower), while Northbeam scores higher for "ease of admin" once you're set up (9.2/10), suggesting it's complex to learn but well-organized once you understand it.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Features: Where Each Tool Wins
Creative Performance Analytics Comparison
Triple Whale:
Shows which ads and creatives drive the most revenue and ROAS across channels. Great for quickly identifying winning hooks and concepts to scale. The Creative Analytics dashboard is straightforward. Click a tab and see your top 10 by whatever metric matters.
Northbeam:
Goes deeper. Shows not just performance but engagement metrics like scroll depth and thumbstop rates connected to downstream sales. Lets you analyze creative performance across the full funnel, not just last-click conversions. Better for sophisticated creative testing programs.
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Analysis
Triple Whale:
Provides cohort analysis showing how customers acquired in different periods perform over time. Tracks LTV by channel, campaign, and product. Includes benchmarking against other stores. Clean visualizations make trends obvious.
Northbeam:
Similar cohort tracking but with more granular control over definitions and custom metrics. Because it assigns fractional attribution, it can more accurately show which channels bring higher-LTV customers when accounting for the full journey.
Media Mix Modeling Capabilities
Triple Whale:
Recently added MMM capabilities in the Professional plan ($539/mo). This is newer territory for them. Includes budget recommendations and predictive simulations. Still maturing as a feature.
Northbeam:
Has offered MMM from the start. More established, with "MMM+" in enterprise tiers. Can run scenarios like "If I cut Facebook 20% and increase TikTok 20%, what happens?" without waiting for holdout tests. This is a core differentiator for strategic planning.
Triple Whale Unique Features
| Feature | What It Does | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier (Founders Dash) | Basic real-time metrics with no credit card | Test before committing |
| Post-purchase surveys | Ask customers "How did you hear about us?" | Validate attribution with self-reported data |
| Inventory integration | See stock levels alongside ad performance | Avoid promoting low-inventory items |
| Mobile app | Highly rated for checking KPIs on the go | Founder accessibility |
| Whale Mail | Newsletter with insights and benchmarks | Industry context |
Northbeam Unique Features
| Feature | What It Does | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Northbeam Apex | Feeds enriched first-party conversion data back to ad platforms | Improves Meta algorithm optimization |
| Deterministic view-through | Credits viewed ads that influence conversions without clicks | Critical for video and upper-funnel |
| Incrementality measurement | Shows which spend truly adds new conversions | Prevents wasted budget |
| Offline channel support | Track and attribute podcasts, direct mail, CTV | True omnichannel view |
| Touchpoint-level exports | Get granular data for custom analysis | Data team flexibility |
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Pricing: What Does It Cost?
Triple Whale Pricing Plans
Pricing is based on your Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) and clearly listed:
- Free: Founders Dash for basic metrics
- Starter: $179/month (Unlocks Triple Pixel attribution, integrations, advanced surveys)
- Advanced: $259/month (Adds creative analytics, cohort analysis, custom dashboards)
- Professional: $539/month (Includes MMM, SQL editor, everything unlocked)
Key point: You can start free, pay monthly, and cancel anytime. 30-day refund guarantee on paid plans. Low risk.
For most DTC brands under $20M revenue, Triple Whale is significantly cheaper than Northbeam.
Northbeam Pricing Plans
Based on media spend or site traffic (pageviews). Not publicly listed, requires a demo call.
- Starter: **~999/month minimum** (For brands spending <250k/mo on ads)
- Professional: **~2,000-4,000/month** (estimated) (For >250k/mo ad spend, includes dedicated support)
- Enterprise: **5,000+/month** (For >500k/mo ad spend, adds MMM+, multiple accounts, Slack support channel)
Key point: No free trial, typically annual contracts, pricing scales with volume. Higher commitment.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Pricing by AOV
Interesting twist: Triple Whale prices on revenue, Northbeam on traffic.
High AOV products (luxury goods, high-end electronics, $2,000+ items) with relatively low traffic might actually find Northbeam cheaper. Low volume, high value per order means low pageviews but high GMV.
Low AOV products (cheap consumables, $5-20 items) with high volume could see Northbeam's cost balloon while Triple Whale stays proportionate to revenue.
For typical DTC ($50-200 AOV), Triple Whale is almost always cheaper.
Which Tool Has Better ROI?
Don't just compare sticker prices. Compare impact on decision quality.
If you spend 50k/month** on ads and Triple Whale (**179/mo) helps you improve efficiency by 10%, that's $5,000 extra monthly revenue. Clear ROI.
If you spend 300k/month** on ads and Northbeam (**2,000/mo) helps you reallocate 15% more effectively, that's potentially $45,000+ in improved performance. The tool cost disappears into the value created.
Attribution tools are amplifiers, not magic bullets. Pick the one you'll actually use to inform decisions.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam: How to Choose the Right Tool
Answer these questions honestly:
What's Your Monthly Ad Spend?
<$50k/month: Triple Whale
Northbeam would be overkill and eat too much of your budget. You need visibility and speed, not enterprise attribution complexity.
$50k-200k/month: Mostly Triple Whale, consider Northbeam if complexity grows
Triple Whale handles most needs here. But if you're running 4+ channels with complex cross-channel effects and approaching the upper end, Northbeam starts making sense.
$200k+/month: Strongly consider Northbeam (maybe both)
At this scale, small percentage improvements mean huge dollars. You need the depth. Many brands at $20M+ revenue use both tools. Triple Whale for daily ops, Northbeam for strategic decisions.
Do You Have a Dedicated Data Analyst?
No analyst: Triple Whale
If you (founder/marketer) will be the primary user, you want something you can open and immediately understand. Northbeam requires someone who can interpret complex attribution data and educate the rest of the team.
Yes, data team exists: Northbeam makes sense
If you have analytical horsepower, Northbeam delivers insights your data team will love. They'll use it to reshape your strategy.
How Many Marketing Channels Do You Run?
1-2 primary channels: Triple Whale is fine
If 80% of your spend is on Facebook/Instagram and the rest is minor, the attribution overlap problem is less severe. Triple Whale gives you what you need.
Many channels plus upper-funnel investment: Northbeam excels
If you're running Facebook, Google, TikTok, YouTube, podcasts, and trying to understand how they work together, Northbeam's fractional attribution reveals the true picture. It shows which "low-performing" channels actually drive value elsewhere in the funnel.
Are You on Shopify or Another Platform?
Shopify: Both options available
Choose based on other factors.
Not Shopify: Northbeam only
Triple Whale literally won't work on WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, or custom builds. Northbeam is platform-agnostic.
Can You Use Triple Whale and Northbeam Together?
At a certain scale, using both isn't redundant:
Triple Whale: Operational dashboard for the team. Quick daily decisions. The founder/CEO can check profitability at a glance. Media buyers can see which campaigns to scale today.
Northbeam: Strategic insights for leadership and analysts. Budget allocation decisions. Understanding incrementality and cross-channel effects. Quarterly planning and forecasting.
Different tools serving different audiences inside your business. The combined cost is still a fraction of ad spend at that scale.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Limitations: What Could Go Wrong
Triple Whale Limitations
Attribution gaps on complex journeys:
If customers touch many channels over weeks, Triple Whale misses the nuance. You'll see overall performance but won't understand cross-channel effects or incrementality.
Shopify lock-in:
Your entire measurement infrastructure becomes tied to Shopify. If you ever migrate platforms, you lose Triple Whale.
Possible over-reliance on last-click:
Teams can optimize too heavily on last-click ROAS and accidentally kill upper-funnel campaigns that create demand.
Northbeam Limitations
Complexity can backfire:
If your team doesn't have the analytical capacity to understand and act on the insights, you've added cost and confusion for no gain.
Numbers won't match platforms:
Expect questions from your team (and possibly leadership): "Why does Northbeam show different numbers than Facebook?" This requires education and buy-in.
Overkill below certain scale:
If you're spending <$50k/month or running one primary channel, Northbeam's sophistication exceeds your needs. The ROI isn't there yet.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam Common Mistakes to Avoid
Expecting immediate magic
Both tools require clean data to work. If your UTM tagging is a mess, your naming conventions are inconsistent, and your tracking is broken, neither tool will save you. Fix your data hygiene first.
(This is where AdManage becomes relevant. See below.)
Comparing attribution windows blindly
If you're looking at 7-day click in one tool and 1-day click in another, you're not comparing tools. You're comparing time windows. Use consistent windows.
Not aligning on definitions
What counts as a conversion? Do you include subscriptions? Exclude refunds? Count draft orders? Define this clearly before you implement either tool.
Model-hopping constantly
Pick an attribution model and stick with it for at least a few weeks. Constantly changing models makes trend analysis impossible.
How AdManage Fits Your Attribution Stack
Neither Triple Whale nor Northbeam fixes your ad creation and launch chaos.
The reality: Attribution tools only work when you're feeding them clean data. If your ads have inconsistent naming, broken UTMs, and you're manually launching hundreds of variations, your attribution is garbage no matter which tool you use.
AdManage solves the operations layer that makes attribution tools actually useful:
Bulk launching with enforced conventions:
Launch 1,000s of ad variations with standardized naming and UTM parameters automatically. No more manual errors.
Post ID preservation:
Scale winners while keeping social proof intact. Critical for performance AND attribution accuracy.
Sheets-native workflows:
Launch ads directly from Google Sheets with your team's existing creative production process.
Integration with your attribution stack:
AdManage doesn't compete with Triple Whale or Northbeam. It feeds them clean data:
- AdManage: Launches ads with clean UTMs and naming
- Triple Whale/Northbeam: Reads that clean clickstream and attributes accurately
- You: See which creative variations actually drive profit
- AdManage: Scale winners via Post ID launches
The loop only works when your data isn't a mess.
Ready to streamline your ad operations so your attribution tools can actually do their job? Check out AdManage here. Fixed-fee pricing starting at £499/month for in-house teams.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam FAQ
Can I try before I buy?
Triple Whale: Yes. Free tier (Founders Dash) available permanently. Paid plans have 30-day refund guarantee.
Northbeam: No free trial. Typically requires annual commitment and demo process.
Which tool is more accurate?
Wrong question. "Accuracy" depends on your definition and setup.
Northbeam is more sophisticated for multi-touch attribution. Triple Whale is more familiar (matches platform reporting). Neither is "truer." They measure different things.
Do I need post-purchase surveys?
Not required, but Triple Whale's survey feature is genuinely useful. Customer self-reported attribution provides a sanity check against your modeled data. Shows where people actually heard about you.
Can I export data to my warehouse?
Triple Whale: Yes, self-serve exports to BigQuery, Snowflake, AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage.
Northbeam: Yes, has a data export API with configurable windows and models.
Will either tool help my ad platforms optimize better?
Northbeam Apex: Explicitly designed to feed Meta better conversion data from Northbeam's measurement to improve campaign optimization.
Triple Whale Sonar: Enriches conversion events and sends enhanced data back to platforms via server-side connections.
Both offer activation capabilities, but Northbeam Apex is more developed for this use case.
What if I'm running ads on channels besides Meta/Google/TikTok?
Triple Whale: Focused on major digital channels. Limited support for niche or offline channels.
Northbeam: Can ingest data from unusual sources (podcasts, direct mail, custom platforms) via Google Sheets imports or API.
If you run significant spend on non-standard channels, Northbeam handles this better.
Triple Whale vs Northbeam: Final Verdict
Choose Triple Whale if:
- You're on Shopify and spending <$200k/month on ads
- You want something your entire team can use immediately
- Quick daily decisions matter more than strategic modeling
- You don't have a dedicated data analyst
- You value low risk (free tier plus monthly billing)
Choose Northbeam if:
- You spend $200k+/month on ads across many channels
- You have analytical capacity to interpret fractional attribution
- You need to understand cross-channel effects and incrementality
- You're not on Shopify, or you run complex multi-brand setups
- You're willing to invest in setup for long-term strategic value
Choose both if:
- You're at $20M+ revenue with 4+ major channels
- You have the budget ($3-5k/month combined isn't material)
- You want operational clarity (Triple Whale) AND strategic depth (Northbeam)
- Different teams need different views of performance
Choose neither yet if:
- Your ad spend is <$25k/month (start with native platforms plus Google Analytics)
- Your UTM tagging and naming conventions are broken (fix this first)
- You're still in product-market fit phase (focus on creative testing, not attribution complexity)
The Honest Reality Check
Most brands between $5M-15M revenue pick Triple Whale and find it sufficient. The ease of use and price point fit the needs perfectly.
Brands above $20M with multi-channel complexity increasingly need Northbeam's depth, even if they keep Triple Whale for daily ops.
The decision usually isn't that hard once you honestly assess: Do we have the scale, complexity, and analytical capacity to extract value from enterprise attribution?
If yes, Northbeam. If not yet, Triple Whale.
No shame in starting with Triple Whale and graduating to Northbeam as you scale. That's actually the natural progression for many brands.
Just don't make the mistake of buying enterprise tools when you need operator tools, or vice versa. Match the tool to your actual needs, not what you think sounds impressive.
And remember: the best attribution tool in the world can't fix messy ad operations. Clean data in means useful insights out.
Ready to fix your ad operations layer? AdManage handles bulk launching, naming enforcement, and UTM management so your attribution tools actually work. Check pricing here.