Traceten vs DataFast
DataFast is simple, revenue-first analytics with an AI channel, native payment connections, an MCP server, a CLI and IP-verified crawler logs. Traceten goes further on AI: a confidence and a method on every visit, reverse DNS as well as IP ranges for crawlers, AI visibility and a $0 plan.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Traceten if
- You want a confidence score and a detection method on every AI visit.
- You want AI crawlers checked with reverse DNS as well as published IP ranges, with allowances that grow by plan.
- You want to see which AI answers mention your brand, and which of your pages they cite (Beta).
- You want a $0 plan to start on, with no trial clock.
Every plan also includes
- AI traffic by assistant
- Revenue attribution
- Verified AI crawler logs
- AI visibility and citationsBeta
- Goals and funnels
- Real-time and visitor journeys
- API, MCP, CLI and webhooks
Choose DataFast if
- You want simple analytics that puts revenue first.
- You want revenue traced to individual X posts, with your X and Reddit mentions on the same chart.
- You want a cookieless script option.
Side by side
Traceten and DataFast, row by row. Every DataFast fact links to its source.
AI traffic
Which AI assistant sent each visit, and how sure the classification is.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| AI referral channel out of the boxVisits from AI assistants are grouped as their own source with no setup. | Yes | YesThe "AI" channel filterSource |
| Named assistant on each visitWhich assistant sent the visit, not only that it came from AI. | 25+ assistantsChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Grok and more | PartialFrom the referrerNames ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and CopilotSource |
| Confidence and detection method on every visitA confidence score and the method behind it (referrer, UTM tag or user agent) on each AI visit. | YesReturned with every session in the API | Not published |
| AI traffic in real timeCurrent visitors, with the AI source that sent each one. | YesThe live view shows each current visitor's AI source | Not published |
Revenue
Which AI assistant sent the buyers, from your payment provider's own records.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| Native payment integrationsPayment providers that connect directly, with no events for you to send. | Stripe, Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and PaddlePlus a payment API for any other provider | Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, ShopifyPlus a payment APISource |
| Revenue per AI sourceAttributed revenue broken out by the assistant that sent the buyer. | Yes | YesFilter revenue by the AI channelSource |
| Refunds netted outRefunds come off revenue on the day they happen. | Yes | PartialRefunds recordedNetting them out is not describedSource |
| Multi-currencyRevenue in other currencies, converted at the rate for the day of the order. | 30 currenciesConverted at the order date's rate | PartialChoose the website currencyConversion is not describedSource |
AI crawlers
Which AI bots read your pages, and whether they are who they claim to be.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| AI crawler visit loggingCrawlers never run JavaScript, so they have to be seen on the server. | Server or edge middlewareNext.js, Express, Hono and Cloudflare | Server-side package or HTTP callSource |
| Crawler verificationChecks that a crawler comes from the network its vendor says it uses. | IP ranges and reverse DNSWhere the crawler's vendor supports them | Published IP rangesWith a verification confidenceSource |
| Crawls includedAI crawler requests included before any limit applies. | 100,000 to 1,500,000 a monthStarter 100,000, Growth 650,000, Pro 1,500,000. Separate from your events. | 100,000 requests per accountResets with each billing cycleSource |
| Past the crawl allowanceWhat happens when AI crawlers use up the allowance. | Opt-in overage at $0.00004 / crawl hitOn Growth and Pro. Without it, totals stay exact with less detail. Starter pauses at the limit. | Crawl logging pausesExtra capacity is optional, at $9 a month for each additional 1M requestsSource |
AI visibilityBeta
Whether AI answers mention your brand, on prompts you choose.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| Brand presence in AI answersRuns your prompts on answer engines and records whether your brand appears. | Yes | Not published |
| Answer enginesWhich engines your prompts run on. | Perplexity, Google AI OverviewsClaude and ChatGPT through each vendor's API, as an add-on | Not published |
| Prompts includedPrompts tracked for you, shared across every site on the account. | 1, 5 or 20 by planStarter, Growth and Pro | Not published |
Product analytics
Where the product suites go deeper than Traceten does.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| FunnelsSee where visitors drop off between steps. | Up to 8 steps | YesSource |
| GoalsCustom events and page matches you want to count. | 200 per site | YesSource |
| Retention cohortsHow often users come back after a first action. | No | Not published |
| Session replayRecordings of what individual visitors did on the page. | No | Not published |
| Feature flagsTurn features on for some users and not others. | No | Not published |
| ExperimentsTest a change against a control and measure the result. | No | Not published |
| HeatmapsWhere visitors click and scroll on a page. | No | Not published |
Privacy
Cookies, IP addresses and where the data lives.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| CookiesWhat the tracking script stores in the visitor's browser. | First-party only | Cookies, or a cookieless scriptSource |
| IP addressesWhat happens to a visitor's IP address when it arrives. | Hashed on arrivalHMAC-SHA-256 under a per-site derived key | CollectedHashed into the visitor ID in cookieless modeSource |
| EU data hostingWhether your analytics data can be stored in the EU. | NoEU data residency is not available yet | NoMost infrastructure is outside the EUSource |
| Open source or self-hostedWhether you can read the code or run it yourself. | NoA hosted service | Not published |
Developer
Build on your data, or hand it to an agent.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| REST APIRead your data over HTTP. | YesDocumented with OpenAPI | YesSource |
| MCP serverAsk an AI agent about your data through the Model Context Protocol. | Yes | YesHostedSource |
| CLIUse your data from a terminal or a coding agent. | Yes | YesSource |
| Server SDKsSend events and payments from your backend. | Node, Python, Go | JavaScript and TypeScriptSource |
| Outbound webhooksSend events to your own endpoint as they happen. | YesSigned with HMAC-SHA-256 | Not published |
| API rate limitsWe link each vendor's own rate-limit docs and print no figures, ours included. | Scales with plan | PublishedSource |
Pricing
What it costs to start, and what you pay for.
| Feature | Traceten | DataFast |
|---|---|---|
| Free planA plan you can stay on without paying. | Starter, $060,000 events and 100,000 AI crawl hits a month | NoA 14-day trialSource |
| Entry paid planThe cheapest paid plan. | Growth, $49 a month | $9 a monthStarter, 10k monthly eventsSource |
| What you pay forThe unit a plan is measured in. | Events, plus AI crawl hitsPageviews, custom events and goals on one meter; crawls on their own | Monthly eventsSource |
| Data retentionHow long visit data is kept. | 2 yearsOn every plan | 3 to 5+ years by planSource |
Checked 24 September 2026. Product names and logos belong to their owners; used here only to identify them.
Running both
The two cover a lot of the same ground, so most teams pick one. If you keep DataFast for its simplicity, Traceten can still run beside it for per-visit confidence, crawler verification and AI visibility.
Questions
01Both track AI crawlers. How do the allowances compare?
DataFast includes 100,000 accepted crawler requests per account, reset each billing cycle. Reaching it pauses crawl logging, and extra capacity is optional at $9 a month for each additional 1 million requests. Traceten includes 100,000 crawl hits on Starter, 650,000 on Growth and 1,500,000 on Pro, with optional overage on paid plans.
02How does crawler verification differ?
DataFast compares a crawler's IP with published crawler IP ranges and records a verification confidence. Traceten checks published IP ranges and adds reverse DNS where the crawler's vendor supports it.
03Is there a free plan?
DataFast offers a 14-day free trial, then a paid plan. Traceten Starter is $0, with 60,000 events and 100,000 AI crawl hits a month.
04Which payment providers connect natively?
DataFast lists native Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Shopify connections, plus a payment API. Traceten connects Stripe, Shopify, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Paddle, plus a payment API for anything else.
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