Field Notes

In my quest to try the best analytics tools, I installed the DataFast script on my testing site BiblePlan. The site gets a few visitors a day and a signup every few days, so it’s a decent testing ground.

I know I’m not Marc’s target audience because from the DataFast homepage he’s clearly optimizing for revenue attribution and BiblePlan is free, but I still wanted to try it.

Installation was stupidly simple with the “install with AI” script. Within 10 mins I was up and running. I also went ahead and added a few of the fancier features like custom goals and conversion funnels.

My baseline comparison here will be Umami. I’ve been using Umami since BiblePlan launched about a year ago, so I’m very familiar with that tool. So far, here’s my comparison on setup:

• DataFast had a much simpler setup and guided me through it, whereas Umami just shared the tracking code and I was left in the dark on how to add custom events. This may be different now for Umami, but I kind of doubt it. Marc just has a super thoughtful onboarding.
• Umami has a better free tier. DataFast has a 14-day trial, Umami gives you 3 sites for free on a single account with no time limit.
• Both were fine with AI coding tools. The DataFast documentation is optimized for AI setup (I always love to see the “Copy Page” button!) and Umami is enough of an established player that I think it’s in most of the AI tools’ training set.
• If you want to use DataFast for a non revenue-generating SaaS, you’re missing out on some key functionality, so it may not be worth it.
• DataFast’s app is very easy to use and kind of addictive. Umami’s site is not really optimized for mobile so that is a huge plus for DataFast.