Cohort analysis is one of the things Polar Analytics does well. Its own customer reviews mention using it for cohort updates, its semantic layer defines new versus returning customers once so every report agrees, and the dedicated Snowflake database means an analyst can build any cohort view the dashboards do not have. If you want LTV inside a governed data platform, Polar is a legitimate choice.
If you want LTV and cohorts without the platform, it is a lot to buy. Polar’s pricing is not listed on the website, and you will be paying for a warehouse, BI and other products whether you use them or not. These five focus on lifetime value more narrowly, and they split into two groups. Some answer how customers behave after the first order. Others answer which channels bring the customers worth keeping.
1. Lifetimely
Lifetimely by AMP covers LTV, cohorts, repurchase rate and time between orders, plus a daily profit view that subtracts product, shipping and ad costs. It is the most direct swap for a Shopify brand that used Polar mainly for cohort curves and profit. Pricing is based on monthly orders, free up to 50, $79 a month up to 500, $149 up to 3,000 and $299 up to 7,000, with a 14-day trial on paid plans.
2. Peel Insights
Peel Insights is built around retention, with cohort curves, repurchase rates, segments and churn, plus subscription data from Recharge, Skio and others. It sends daily digests to Slack or email, which suits teams that will not log in to a dashboard. Pricing is based on monthly order volume, starting at $199 a month on its Shopify listing.
3. Wicked Reports
Wicked Reports sits on the channel side. It credits repeat purchases back to the source that acquired the customer, with lifetime lookback, and its entry tier already includes cohort and LTV reports. That answers the question Lifetimely and Peel do not, which ad brought the customers who kept buying. Under $2.5 million in annual revenue, Measure is $499 a month, Scale is $699 and Maximize is $999.
4. ThoughtMetric
ThoughtMetric is an e-commerce attribution tool for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and custom stores, and it covers the channel side of LTV. (Disclosure: ThoughtMetric sponsors this site.) It splits revenue and orders into new and returning customers for every channel, campaign and ad, reports new-customer ROAS, and shows LTV by acquisition channel. Pricing starts at $99 a month based on pageviews, with every feature on every plan. It is not a retention analytics tool, so churn and detailed cohort curves still need Lifetimely, Peel or your own analysis.
5. Triple Whale
Triple Whale includes cohort analysis on its paid Foundation plan alongside multi-touch attribution, and it integrates with Recharge and Skio for subscription data. It is the closest platform to Polar, so it belongs here only if you want a second bundle to compare. Paid plans are priced by annual GMV on 12-month terms.
Define LTV before you compare
Every tool above calculates LTV a little differently. Some use revenue, some use margin. Some count the first order, some only repeat orders. Some cut at 12 months, others run lifetime. Two tools can both be right and disagree by 40 percent. Pick one definition with your finance lead, write it down, and check that each tool can match it before you compare outputs.
Then decide which half of the problem you have. If you know which channels are working and want to understand retention, the first two are enough. If retention is fine and you want to stop spending on channels that bring one-time buyers, the next two are the better fit. Many brands need one of each. Background reading is in how to calculate LTV for a Shopify store and how to measure LTV by acquisition channel.
Picking one
- Want cohorts and profit in one Shopify app priced on orders? Lifetimely.
- Want retention, churn and digests your team will read? Peel Insights.
- Want repeat purchases credited to the original channel? Wicked Reports.
- Want LTV by acquisition channel on any major store platform? ThoughtMetric (our sponsor).
- Want another all-in-one platform to compare? Triple Whale.
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