HonestTag vs Northbeam
By the HonestTag team · Published October 24, 2026 · Updated October 24, 2026
Prices read on October 24, 2026 from northbeam.io/pricing.
Pick HonestTag for numbers you can check against your real orders instead of a model, sent back to your ad platforms as a new-customer signal, from $49 a month. Northbeam is a multi-touch attribution platform: its own machine-learning model of which ads drove each sale, with dashboards, view-through credit and media mix modeling on larger plans.
- See the gap free. The Mirror plan shows what Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Advertising and TikTok claim beside the new customers your real Shopify orders show. Free at any store size.
- Holds up to Safari and ad blockers. Orders come straight from Shopify, server to server, and paid plans send purchases from HonestTag's servers, where a browser blocker cannot reach them.
- Server-side delivery, no tags. Paid plans send every verified purchase to the platforms you connect: Google Ads, Meta and 7 more. The Starter plan sends to 2 at once, higher plans to more.
- Bid on new customers. Every delivered purchase is marked new or returning, so your campaigns can go after new buyers instead of repeat ones.
- Proof for every attributed order. On paid plans, open an attributed order to see the click, the match and any refund behind it.
- Installs in minutes, one flat price. A Shopify Web Pixel with no theme edit, and paid plans priced by your sales, with no per-order fee.
Install HonestTag free and run the Mirror plan beside your current tracking. It sends no purchases or conversions to your ad platforms, so it cannot double-count a sale or change your current setup, and it shows which platform claims hold up against the new customers in your real orders. Free at any store size.
Where Northbeam wins
- Built for large multi-channel budgets: multi-touch attribution, view-through credit and dashboards, per its pricing page.
- Media mix modeling, incrementality and a dedicated media strategist on larger plans, and platforms beyond Shopify.
- New Customer % and First Time Customer ROAS in reports, and Apex sends data to Meta and AppLovin.
If that is the job, Northbeam is built for it.
Side by side
| Area | Northbeam | HonestTag |
|---|---|---|
| Job | Multi-touch attribution, dashboards, media strategy | Claims checked against orders, new-customer conversions, order proof |
| Attribution | Machine-learning multi-touch model, plus view-through | First-click new customer. Truth plan and up also show last-click and any-click, read-only |
| New customers | New Customer % and First Time Customer ROAS in reports | Every delivered purchase marked new or returning |
| Sends to ad platforms | Apex: attribution data to Meta and AppLovin | Every verified purchase, server-side, to Google Ads, Meta and 7 more platforms |
| Order proof | Not described on the pages we read | Click id, timestamps, match method, new or returning, refunds, kept 400 days (Starter plan and up) |
| Free plan | None listed | The Mirror plan: free at any store size, sends no purchases |
| Entry paid plan | Starter plan: listed at $1,500 | Starter plan: $49 a month for $5K-$50K trailing 30-day sales |
| Platforms | Shopify on the Starter plan; any ecommerce platform from the Professional plan | Shopify |
What you get with HonestTag that Northbeam doesn't
- Platform claims beside your orders, not a model. Northbeam says its numbers will look different from ad platforms "by design". HonestTag puts each platform's own claim beside the new customers your orders show.
- Verified purchases you can bid on, on paid plans. Apex sends Northbeam's attribution data to Meta and AppLovin. HonestTag sends each verified purchase, marked new or returning, to the platforms you connect, among Google Ads, Meta and 7 more.
- Proof for each attributed order. On paid plans: click, match, new or returning and any refund, kept 400 days. We found no Northbeam page that describes a record for each order.
- Start free. The Mirror plan is free at any store size and the Starter plan is $49 a month. Northbeam's Starter plan is listed at $1,500.
Different meters
Northbeam asks you to choose "Based on your annual marketing spend". Its pricing page lists its Starter plan at $1,500, with a quote on request, and Professional at $3,500 a month, with Growth and Enterprise priced on request, and says "your monthly price is informed by the volume of data in your business (measured in pageviews)." The Starter plan is month-to-month for Shopify brands; Professional and Enterprise are annual terms.
HonestTag paid plans follow your trailing 30-day sales. $5K-$50K: Starter plan, $49. $50K-$250K: Truth plan, $99. $250K-$1M: Truth+ plan, $199. $1M-$3M: Scale plan, $499. $3M+: Scale+ plan, $999. The Mirror plan is free at any size.
No paid plan has a per-order fee or an overage charge. Each paid plan includes a printed number of pageviews, and traffic past them asks you to approve the plan that covers it, never a fee. A store's first paid plan starts with a 21-day free trial. Current terms live on the pricing page.
Run both
Northbeam connects to Shopify and your ad platforms to build its reports, and nothing there has to change. The free Mirror plan adds a check of each platform's claims against the new customers in your orders, and it sends no purchases.
If you move purchase delivery to HonestTag, keep one purchase source for each pixel and ad account, so the same order does not reach a platform twice. Read duplicate purchase events and the alongside guide first.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to remove Northbeam?
No. Keep Northbeam running while you evaluate HonestTag beside it. The free Mirror plan sends no purchases to any platform, so it cannot add a second purchase event.
Will two tools double-count?
They can if both send the same purchase to the same pixel or ad account. Pick one purchase source for each platform. Duplicate purchase events explains why, and the alongside guide explains the setup.
Is Northbeam cheaper?
No. Northbeam's pricing page lists its Starter plan at $1,500, with the price informed by your pageviews, against $49 to $999 a month for HonestTag's paid plans. Northbeam's price covers modeled multi-touch attribution, dashboards and, on larger plans, media strategy support. HonestTag's covers claims checked against your orders, new-customer conversions, order proof and delivery to the platforms you connect.
Why do Northbeam and HonestTag show different numbers?
Northbeam builds its own multi-touch model, and its pricing page says your performance will look different from ad platform numbers by design. HonestTag does not model credit: it shows each platform's own claim beside the first-click new customers your store recorded.
Why are HonestTag's numbers smaller in week one?
HonestTag starts at zero and does not invent click history from before installation. Give the records about 30 days to build before comparing totals.
Does HonestTag deliver to Pinterest, Reddit or Microsoft Advertising?
Yes. Paid plans deliver to Google Ads, Meta, Klaviyo, Microsoft Advertising, TikTok, Google Analytics 4, Pinterest, Reddit and OpenAI Ads, the ones you connect.
Why Shopify merchants pick HonestTag
Northbeam models credit for big budgets. HonestTag checks each platform's claims against your orders and feeds them a new-customer signal, at a price a growing store can start with. Run the free Mirror plan beside Northbeam; it sends no purchases.
Test your tracking side by side
Install HonestTag free and run the Mirror plan beside your current tracking.
- No risk to your setup. The Mirror plan sends no purchases or conversions to your ad platforms, so it cannot double-count a sale or change your current setup.
- Claims against real orders. It shows what Google Ads, Meta, Microsoft Advertising and TikTok claim beside the new customers whose first recorded ad click or ad-tagged link was that platform, counted from your own orders.
- Free at any store size. The Mirror plan stays free whatever your sales.