Branch vs Ruler Analytics

Branch (Branch Metrics) is a mobile linking and measurement company founded in 2014 in California by Alex Austin, Mike Molinet, Mada Seghete and Dmitri Gaskin. It says more than 100,000 brands use its platform. Its core job: make links open the right screen inside an app across web, email, social, ads and SMS, and measure which campaigns drive installs and in-app actions.

The platform is split into products: Engagement for deep links that survive app installs and handle thousands of platform edge cases, Performance for mobile attribution (multi-touch, SKAdNetwork Conversion Studio, fraud detection, cohort and LTV analytics), Activation for branded short links and QR codes, Banners for web-to-app Journeys, LinkHub link management and data exports. Ivy is Branch's AI product for growth teams. Attribution is sold in Basics, Essentials and Enterprise tiers without public prices; Basics comes with a free trial.

Branch fits consumer apps with heavy web-to-app, email and referral traffic where reliable deep linking matters as much as attribution. Pricing can climb steeply with usage, and its attribution suite is less dominant than AppsFlyer, the market leader for paid user acquisition, or Adjust, which is strong in gaming. Teams using Firebase Dynamic Links need a replacement since Google shut that service down in August 2025.

If you mainly need deep links, ask Branch for an Engagement-only quote; if you need an MMP, run Branch against AppsFlyer and Adjust and compare SKAN modelling and partner coverage with your own ad networks.

Ruler Analytics is a marketing attribution platform built in Liverpool, UK. It started around 2012 inside Epic New Media, an SEO and PPC agency run by Ian Leadbetter and Daniel Reilly. Ruler was later spun out as its own company with backing from the North West Fund. Its core job is to tie every form fill, call or chat to the visit and campaign that created it, then match the revenue that closes later in the CRM back to that source.

A first-party tracking tag stores each visitor's touchpoints, dynamic number insertion handles call tracking, and form and chat capture fill in the rest. Ruler pulls deal values from the CRM and pushes offline conversions and revenue back to ad platforms so smart bidding optimises for sales instead of leads. Pricing is set by monthly website visits: Small starts at $400 a month, Medium adds advanced segmentation plus data-driven and impression attribution, and Advanced adds marketing mix modelling and an AI analyst agent. Every plan includes a customer success manager and onboarding; there is no free plan.

Ruler fits businesses where the sale happens offline or weeks later: B2B services, legal, finance and automotive. It is expensive for small sites, and Shopify-first brands get more from ecommerce tools. Hyros targets high-ticket info products and call funnels, while Northbeam and Rockerbox focus on ecommerce and media mix.

Buying tip: because tiers scale with traffic rather than leads, content-heavy sites with few conversions pay more per lead. Ask about the 10% annual discount and agency partner rates.