Customer data stack selection guide
The customer data decision is architectural before it is a vendor choice. Get the architecture right and the vendor question becomes small.
Selection criteria we apply
These are the criteria we weigh in real selection work. They are ordered by how often they decide the outcome.
- Where the source of truth lives: in a vendor's schema or in your own warehouse.
- Identity resolution: deterministic rules you can inspect versus a black box.
- Activation latency: how fast a computed trait reaches the tool that acts on it.
- Modelling ergonomics: who can define a trait, and do they need an engineer.
- Cost curve: pricing tied to events, profiles or compute, and how that scales with you.
- Lock-in: what you keep if you switch.
How we form a view
We assess platforms through implementation work: builds, migrations and day-to-day operation in client accounts. We do not run a lab, we do not accept payment for placement, and we do not rank tools we have not touched.
Shortlist and per-tool verdicts
The per-tool verdicts in this category are being written up from delivery notes.
SOURCE REQUIRED · Each verdict requires named-reviewer operating evidence and a review date before it is published here. Reviewed tools carry that record on their own page.
Ask us which one fits your stack
We build and run lifecycle, loyalty and customer-data systems inside your existing stack. Tool-agnostic. Outcome-owned.
Request a call