Last-click on a finish line. Or causal on the full race.
Shopify's marketing reports run on last non-direct click, rules-based. They tell you which touchpoint was last in the path, and only the last one gets credit. Assist channels (Pinterest, email, podcast, organic search five weeks ago) are erased. Cross-platform spend that helped get the customer to the finish line gets zero attribution.
Causality Engine measures incremental contribution across every channel in your GA4 history. The point is not to second-guess Shopify's order-of-record (that's correct, the order happened) but to answer the budget question Shopify's last-click view can't: which spend actually caused the sale.
// Shopify Marketing Reports answers which touch closed the order? → last non-direct click on the path // Causality Engine answers which spend caused the sale? → causal inference + confidence intervals across all channels
Same question, different answer. Often the opposite answer.
| Causality Engine | Shopify Marketing Reports | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Causal inference on GA4 + Shopify | Last non-direct click (rules-based) |
| Credits assist channels? | Yes (causal contribution) | No (last touch only) |
| Confidence intervals? | Yes | N/A |
| Cross-platform deduplication? | Yes | No (one channel gets the last click) |
| Price | €99 per read · €299/mo Pro | Included with Shopify |
Which one is the right call for your situation.
Use Shopify reports when
you need the order of record (which order, which customer, which fulfillment status). That's what Shopify is the system of truth for. Don't replace that with anything.
Stack Causality Engine on top when
the question moves from order accounting to budget allocation: which channels caused the sales, with how much confidence. Shopify can't answer that because it only sees the last click. We can because we model the full causal path.
Shopify reports what happened. They don't report what caused it. A €99 causal read tells you which channels to scale and which to pull back, without contradicting the order of record.
The questions buyers ask about us vs Shopify Marketing Reports.
- Does Causality Engine replace Shopify Marketing Reports?
- No. Shopify is the system of record for orders. We're the causal layer on top of that. Different jobs.
- Do you connect to Shopify?
- Native Shopify integration is on the roadmap. Today, your GA4 export is enough because GA4 already has the conversion events. You can upload a Shopify export alongside if you want.
Every causal vs MTA tool in one row each.
They track clicks. We measure cause. Four of these five tools are pixel or multi-touch-attribution dashboards on an annual contract; they reassign credit for conversions that already happened, and they need a script installed and maintained. Causality Engine measures incrementality, the sales a channel actually caused, from your existing GA4 and Shopify export, no pixel, with confidence intervals, for €99 a read. Different question, different bill, different install.
| Tool | Core method | Causal? | Pixel / SDK? | Time to value | Pricing model | Yr-1 fully loaded | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Causality Engine | Causal inference (Bayesian) on GA4 + Shopify | Yes, native | None | 5–10 min | €99 per read · €299/mo Pro | €99 one-time · €3,588/yr Pro | Credit card, cancel anytime |
| Triple Whale | Pixel + MTA (Clicks & Deterministic Views) | No | Yes (Triple Pixel) | Days (after pixel install and data) | Subscription, GMV tiers | GMV-priced, quote by store size | Not published |
| Northbeam | ML MTA + MMM + incrementality (2026 add-on) | Partial (newer layer) | Yes (script + UTMs) | Weeks (onboarding) | Starter $1,500/mo; Pro/Ent custom quote | $1,500/mo Starter; $3,500/mo Professional; higher tiers quoted | Not published |
| Rockerbox | MTA + MMM + incrementality (enterprise) | Yes (native) | Yes (integration) | Weeks (config + experiments) | Quote only | Quote only, plus onboarding | Not published |
| Hyros | Server-side click tracking + MTA | No | Yes (watcher scripts, heavy) | 2–12 weeks (setup) | Subscription, demo-gated | Quote only, demo-gated | Not published |
| Wicked Reports | First-party click MTA (LTV focus) | No | Yes (pixel + CRM/UTM) | Days to weeks | Revenue-banded: $499 / $699 / $999 / $4,999+ | $499–$999/mo by revenue band | Monthly billing; term not published |
| Cometly | MTA pixel + server-side + CAPI | No | Yes (Comet Pixel + CAPI) | Days (post pixel install) | Usage-based on pageviews; no free trial | Quote only, usage-based | Monthly or annual (annual −20%) |
| Billy Grace | Deep-learning MTA + Unified Marketing Measurement | Modeled, no CIs | Yes (own first-party pixel) | Demo-gated onboarding | Subscription, by ad spend | €499–3,250/mo + €99 integrations | Demo-gated |
| EYKData | Server-side MTA on owned BigQuery (correlation-based) | Quote-only top tier | Yes (GTM + BigQuery + Stape) | Weeks (stack stand-up) | Subscription, by sales | €399–€529+/mo (Advanced = quote) | Subscription |
| Funnel.io | Data integration / ETL platform | Add-on at quote-only top tier | Connectors / warehouse | Weeks (pipeline build) | Base plan + paid Measure add-on | $300–600 base + $2,250/mo Measure (≥$500k spend) | Billed annually |
| Supermetrics | Marketing data pipeline / connectors | No (claims unverified) | Connectors | Hours per source | Per-source subscription | From $44/mo billed annually; Growth from $177/mo | Annual |
| Elevar | Shopify server-side conversion tracking + data layer | No (not attribution) | Yes (data layer install) | 1–2 weeks (setup) | Subscription, by orders | $225–3,000+/mo + $1k–4.5k install | Monthly |
| Fairing | Post-purchase survey (zero-party) | No (self-reported) | Survey widget | Minutes (install) | Subscription, by orders | Plans by order volume; quote on fairing.co | Monthly |
| Google Ads | Self-attributing network, data-driven attribution | No (window-bound, self-mediated) | Native | Built in | Native to ad platform | Free (with the spend) | Native, no contract |
| Meta Ads Manager | Self-attributing, 7-day click + 1-day view default | No (view-through inflates) | Native + Meta Pixel/CAPI | Built in | Native to ad platform | Free (with the spend) | Native, no contract |
| TikTok Ads Manager | Self-attributing, 7-day click + 1-day view | No (passive-feed view-through) | Native + TikTok Pixel | Built in | Native to ad platform | Free (with the spend) | Native, no contract |
| Shopify Marketing Reports | Last-click (last non-direct), rules-based | No (erases assists) | Native | Built in | Included with Shopify | Free (with the plan) | Native, no contract |
| GA4 | Data-driven attribution, click/visit-based | No (ignores impressions, no control group) | Native GA4 tag | Built in | Free | Free | Native, no contract |
Competitor figures are our estimates of a fully loaded monthly cost in EUR, built from each vendor's published pricing (USD where quoted) on the date shown under this table. A tilde or "est." marks an estimate, "reported" marks a figure from a third-party report, and quote-only vendors are marked as such. Prices change often: verify with the vendor before relying on them. Not vendor quotes to us.
Run the side-by-side. Watch the model work on a sample store first, no signup. Then upload your GA4 export and get incremental ROAS with confidence intervals in 5–10 minutes, €99. Refundable if the first read doesn't pay for itself in one reallocation decision. Keep your current tool; use us as the independent causal second opinion.
We're the only one in this table without an ad budget, or a dashboard subscription, to protect.