Cometly vs Northbeam in 2026: B2B SaaS pipeline attribution vs DTC media mix modeling
Both are sales-led attribution platforms with no public pricing, but they were built for opposite business models. One tracks a demo through to closed-won ARR in a CRM. The other tracks a Meta ad through to a Shopify checkout.
Cometly
Northbeam- Cometly attributes revenue to closed-won ARR pulled from a CRM, built for B2B SaaS sales cycles. Northbeam attributes revenue to ecommerce checkouts via Shopify and WooCommerce integrations, built for DTC purchase cycles.
- Northbeam runs media mix modeling (MMM) alongside multi-touch attribution to estimate the impact of channels with no user-level tracking, like streaming and podcast ads. Cometly has no MMM layer; it is multi-touch attribution only.
- Cometly ships an MCP integration that lets Claude query attribution data through natural language, plus automatic detection of AI traffic sources including ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Google AI Overviews. Northbeam has neither capability.
- Both platforms require a sales call before you see pricing. Cometly bills by website session volume; Northbeam discloses no pricing model at all beyond three tiers, all marked Contact Sales.
- Northbeam includes a dedicated onboarding team and customer success manager on Scale and Enterprise. Cometly includes a dedicated solutions engineer only on its Enterprise tier.
- Northbeam supports data connectors for Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest ad platforms directly. Cometly focuses on Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Ads with 70+ integrations overall, reflecting its B2B channel mix.
- Cometly Enterprise adds Snowflake and BigQuery sync for warehouse-native attribution modeling. Northbeam offers a BI connector to Power BI, Tableau, and Looker starting on its Scale tier.
Cometly and Northbeam get lumped together because both are premium, demo-required attribution platforms with usage-based or fully custom pricing, but the businesses they serve barely overlap. Cometly follows a lead from the first ad click through a CRM pipeline to closed-won ARR, which only makes sense for B2B SaaS companies with sales cycles measured in weeks. Northbeam combines multi-touch attribution with media mix modeling to tell DTC and ecommerce brands which channel, at what spend level, actually produced a sale, which only makes sense for businesses running six-figure monthly ad budgets across Meta, Google, and TikTok. Picking between them is really a question of which side of the B2B/DTC line your business sits on, not which platform has the better dashboard.
The tools at a glance
Cometly
B2B SaaS ad attribution that connects every campaign dollar to pipeline created and closed-won ARR
Cometly exists to answer a question that trips up most B2B SaaS marketing teams: did this ad campaign actually produce revenue, not just a demo booking. It tracks the full journey from first ad touch through booked demo, deal created, and closed-won ARR, calculating LTV ROAS against real CRM deal values rather than platform-reported conversion events. For sales cycles that stretch 60 to 90 days, that distinction is the entire point of the tool.
A server-side Conversion API supplements the standard Comet Pixel, recovering 15 to 30 percent more conversion events than pixel-only tracking typically captures once ad blockers and iOS restrictions are accounted for. Cometly has also added automatic detection of AI-sourced traffic from ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and Google AI Overviews, plus an MCP integration that lets Claude pull campaign ROAS and pipeline data straight into a conversation.
The cost of all this is friction at the top of the funnel: no public pricing, a required sales call, and a usage-based model tied to website sessions that can be hard to forecast for high-traffic sites. Cometly also does not pretend to serve anyone outside B2B SaaS. If your business does not run a CRM pipeline with a multi-week sales cycle, most of what makes Cometly worth the friction does not apply to you.
| Feature | Core Usage-based, contact for pricing | Enterprise Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Based on website sessions | Custom |
| Multi-touch attribution | Yes | Yes |
| Server-side Conversion API | Yes | Yes |
| AI traffic source tracking | Yes | Yes |
| MCP integration for Claude | No | Yes |
| CRM and warehouse sync | No | Yes |
| Snowflake and BigQuery support | No | Yes |
| Dedicated solutions engineer | No | Yes |
Northbeam
Multi-touch attribution and media mix modeling for DTC brands managing spend across paid social, search, and streaming
Northbeam replaces the double-counted, platform-reported ROAS that Meta, Google, and TikTok each claim credit for with a single, first-party attribution view. It runs multi-touch attribution for user-level tracking alongside media mix modeling for channels that cannot be tracked at the user level at all, like streaming ads and podcast sponsorships, giving DTC brands both a tactical and a strategic read on channel performance.
Data refresh is the differentiator versus legacy MMM providers, most of which update weekly or monthly. Northbeam refreshes daily on its Growth tier and near real-time on Scale and Enterprise, which keeps the budget scenario planner useful for weekly or even daily reallocation decisions rather than only quarterly reviews.
None of this is self-serve. All three tiers, Growth, Scale, and Enterprise, are Contact Sales with no published pricing, and onboarding runs two to four weeks of pixel implementation and data connector setup before the models have enough historical data to be reliable. Northbeam is explicit that brands under roughly $50,000 in monthly ad spend will not generate the data volume needed for statistically sound attribution.
| 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 |
| Data refresh cadence | Daily | Near real-time | Near real-time |
| BI connector | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated CSM | No | Yes | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Cometly | Northbeam |
|---|---|---|
| Primary business model served | B2B SaaS | DTC / ecommerce |
| Revenue attribution endpoint | Closed-won ARR (CRM) | Ecommerce checkout (Shopify, WooCommerce) |
| Media mix modeling (MMM) | No | Yes |
| Server-side / Conversion API tracking | Yes | Yes |
| AI traffic source detection | Yes (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, AI Overviews) | No |
| AI agent integration (MCP) | Yes (Claude, Enterprise only) | No |
| Data warehouse sync | Yes (Snowflake, BigQuery, Enterprise only) | No |
| BI connector | No | Yes (Scale and Enterprise) |
| Dedicated onboarding / CSM | Enterprise only | Yes (Scale and Enterprise) |
| Public pricing | No | No |
| Starting price | Usage-based (contact for pricing) | Contact sales |
Considering AI Peekaboo alongside Cometly and Northbeam?
Cometly detects when traffic arrives from ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Google AI Overviews, but that only tells you visitors came from those tools, not whether or how your brand is actually being described inside their answers. Northbeam has no AI traffic detection at all. Neither platform monitors brand mentions or share of voice across AI-generated answers. AI Peekaboo tracks that separately, across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, with a read and write API on every plan starting at $50 per month and no sales call required.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
CometlyNorthbeamNorthbeamCometlyCometlyNorthbeamCometlyThe honest answer here is that Cometly and Northbeam are rarely competing for the same evaluation. Cometly is built around a CRM deal pipeline and a sales cycle measured in weeks; Northbeam is built around ecommerce checkouts and a purchase cycle measured in minutes. A DTC brand evaluating Northbeam gets little use out of Cometly's closed-won ARR tracking, and a B2B SaaS company evaluating Cometly has no use for Northbeam's media mix modeling across streaming and podcast spend. The decision that actually matters is which business model you run, not a head-to-head feature score.
Bottom line
Book the Cometly demo if you run a B2B SaaS pipeline and need to prove which campaign produced actual closed-won ARR 60 to 90 days later. Book the Northbeam demo if you are a DTC or ecommerce brand spending $50,000 or more a month and platform-reported ROAS has stopped being credible. If your business straddles both models, or you specifically need AI-answer visibility rather than AI-referral traffic, neither tool covers that gap; a dedicated AI visibility platform like AI Peekaboo fills it alongside whichever attribution tool matches your business type.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cometly or Northbeam better for a DTC ecommerce brand?
Northbeam is the better fit for DTC ecommerce. It connects directly to Shopify and WooCommerce, combines multi-touch attribution with media mix modeling for channels like streaming and podcast ads, and its whole pricing and feature structure assumes a purchase cycle measured in minutes rather than weeks. Cometly is built around CRM deal pipelines and closed-won ARR, which does not map onto an ecommerce checkout flow.
Does Northbeam work for B2B SaaS companies the way Cometly does?
Not really. Northbeam is primarily designed for ecommerce and DTC brands with short purchase cycles and high-volume ad spend across Meta and Google. B2B companies with long sales cycles and lower conversion volumes will not generate enough data for Northbeam's attribution models to be statistically reliable, which is the exact gap Cometly was built to fill with its CRM-to-ARR tracking.
Which tool has media mix modeling, Cometly or Northbeam?
Northbeam. Its media mix modeling layer estimates the causal contribution of channels that lack user-level tracking, such as streaming ads, podcast sponsorships, and billboards, using historical spend and revenue data. Cometly has no equivalent; it is a multi-touch attribution tool focused on trackable digital channels like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Ads.
Can either Cometly or Northbeam tell me if AI tools like ChatGPT are mentioning my brand?
No, and this is a common point of confusion. Cometly detects when a visitor arrives on your site from ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Google AI Overviews, which is referral traffic attribution, not brand mention monitoring. Neither Cometly nor Northbeam tracks whether or how your brand is described inside an AI-generated answer. That requires a dedicated AI visibility tool like AI Peekaboo.
Do both Cometly and Northbeam require a sales call to see pricing?
Yes. Neither publishes a self-serve price list. Cometly bills by website session volume and will provide a quote after a demo call; Northbeam discloses no pricing structure at all across its Growth, Scale, and Enterprise tiers, all of which are marked Contact Sales.
Which platform has better AI agent integration, Cometly or Northbeam?
Cometly, by a clear margin. Its MCP integration lets Claude query campaign ROAS, pipeline data, and closed-won ARR through natural language, available on the Enterprise plan. Northbeam has no equivalent AI agent integration in its current feature set.