Flable vs Northbeam: Northbeam Perfected Revenue Attribution. Flable Shows You What's Left After Costs.
Looking for a Northbeam alternative that goes beyond attribution? Northbeam is the most sophisticated ecommerce attribution tool available for D2C. But even perfect multi-touch attribution cannot tell you if a sale is profitable. That requires a different layer entirely.
At a glance
Flable
Profit-complete analytics with attribution and creative intelligence. Connects your ad channels to COGS, shipping, returns, coupon stacking, and payment fees. Shows contribution margin per channel, per campaign, per SKU — in real time.
Shows: "Meta generated $4,200 in profit. Google lost $1,800."Northbeam
Enterprise attribution intelligence. Multi-touch attribution, media mix modeling, deterministic view-through tracking, incrementality testing. The deepest revenue measurement engine available for D2C.
Shows: "Meta drove $62K in attributed revenue at 4.16x ROAS"Same $15K Meta spend. Two very different conclusions.
$15,000 Meta Spend — Premium Skincare — Q1 2026
Northbeam and Flable both connect to the same Shopify store and Meta account. Here is what each shows.
What Northbeam Shows
What Flable Shows
The gap: Northbeam confirms this channel is incremental and high-performing. That analysis is correct. But incrementality and profitability are different things. A campaign can be genuinely incremental — driving sales that would not have happened otherwise — and still lose money on every one of those sales.
What each platform actually tracks
| Capability | Flable | Northbeam |
|---|---|---|
| 💰 Profitability Intelligence | ||
| Contribution margin per channel (CM1 / CM2 / CM3) | ✅ Real-time | ❌ No |
| COGS connected to channel performance | ✅ Auto per SKU | ❌ No |
| Shipping cost per order & per region | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Return rate tracked per channel & per SKU | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Coupon stacking detection | ✅ Automatic | ❌ No |
| Proactive margin risk alerts | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| SKU-level profitability | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Revenue only |
| 📊 Channel, Campaign & Creative Performance | ||
| Meta / Google / TikTok spend & revenue | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Channel-level ROAS | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Channel-level profit (not just revenue) | ✅ CM3 per channel | ❌ Revenue only |
| Last-touch attribution | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (+ MTA, MMM) |
| Creative performance analytics | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Competitor creative analysis | ✅ Built-in | ❌ No |
| 🤖 AI & Automation | ||
| AI copilot — natural language queries | ✅ Profit-focused | ⚠️ Limited |
| "Why is profit down?" — root cause diagnosis | ✅ Under 5 min | ❌ No |
| Ads Manager Agent (optimize for profit) | ✅ Targets CM | ❌ No |
| ⚙️ Platform & Pricing | ||
| Multi-client agency dashboard | ✅ Built-in | ⚠️ Enterprise only |
| Setup time | 48 hours | 1–2 weeks |
| Starting price | Flat rate | $999/mo (Starter) |
The verdict
Choose Flable if...
Revenue is growing but your bank account isn't. You need to see which channels are profitable after COGS, shipping, returns, and discounts. Best for $1M+ brands and agencies managing D2C clients.
Choose Northbeam if...
You spend $250K+/mo across 5+ channels (including CTV) and need the most precise revenue attribution to allocate budget. Best for $10M+ enterprise brands with healthy margins.
Two Platforms Solving Different Halves of the Same Problem
D2C brands face two analytics challenges as they scale. The first is revenue measurement: understanding which channels, campaigns, and touchpoints are driving sales. The second is profitability measurement: understanding whether those sales actually make money after all variable costs.
Northbeam is the best solution available for the first challenge. Flable solves the second. The critical insight is that you can have perfect attribution and still be losing money. Northbeam can correctly tell you that Meta drove $62,400 in incremental revenue. What it cannot tell you is that after COGS, shipping, returns, coupon stacking, and payment fees, those sales generated a $5,574 loss.
The Limit of Perfect Attribution
Even when attribution is 100% correct, it only measures revenue. Northbeam can tell you with confidence that a campaign generated $62,400 in incremental revenue. But none of it answers the question: was that $62,400 in revenue worth generating?
To answer that, you need to know what those orders actually cost. Not just the ad spend, but the full variable cost stack: COGS on the specific product mix, shipping and fulfillment per order, return rates on orders from this channel, coupon or influencer codes stacking, and payment processing fees. Northbeam does not track any of these.
Flable vs Northbeam: The Right Tool for Your Stage
Sub-$5M in revenue, spending less than $100K/month on ads: Northbeam at $999–2,500/month is almost certainly overkill. Your biggest risk is not attribution inaccuracy — it is margin invisibility. Flable provides more actionable insight per dollar at this stage.
$5M–$20M, spending $100K–$500K/month on ads: Your cost structure is complex enough that ROAS is no longer a reliable proxy for profitability. This is the stage where the gap between what your dashboards show and what your bank account shows becomes alarming. Flable closes that gap.
$20M+ or agency managing enterprise clients: At this scale, both tools serve distinct, valuable functions. Northbeam optimizes where the money goes. Flable ensures the money is well spent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Flable a Northbeam alternative?
They solve different problems. Northbeam is the most advanced revenue attribution platform for D2C. Flable is a profitability intelligence platform that shows contribution margin per channel after COGS, shipping, returns, and discounts. For brands where profitability is the bigger challenge than attribution accuracy, Flable addresses the more impactful blind spot.
Does Northbeam track profitability or contribution margin?
Northbeam offers Profit Benchmarks that compare your metrics to industry averages, but it does not calculate contribution margin (CM1/CM2/CM3). It does not connect to shipping providers, returns portals, or payment processors.
Is Northbeam worth $999 per month?
For brands spending $250K+ per month on paid media across multiple channels, Northbeam's attribution accuracy can prevent significant budget misallocation. For brands spending under $100K/month, simpler tools may suffice.
Can a campaign be incremental and still unprofitable?
Yes. Incrementality measures whether a sale would have happened without the campaign. Profitability measures whether the sale generated more revenue than it cost after all variable expenses. A campaign can drive genuinely new sales that each lose money after costs.
Does Flable connect to Meta and Google like Northbeam?
Yes. Flable pulls channel-level data from Meta, Google, and TikTok. The difference is that Flable connects that data to your full cost stack to show contribution margin per channel, not just attributed revenue.
Your attribution says "scale." But is the revenue worth generating?
Book a Flable walkthrough with your own data. We will show you the contribution margin behind your best-performing channels — and whether scaling them means more profit or more losses.
See Your Real Channel Profitability →Setup in 48 hours · No credit card required · Backed by Microsoft & NVIDIA