Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.
Catalog capabilities may require a paid plan, add-on or hosted edition. “Not listed” means unverified here, not unavailable. Confirm the exact edition, usage limits and privacy settings.
Starting prices use different billing periods and usage units. Compare the same traffic, events, retention and seats.
Choose Skald ifSite owners and agencies with access to suitable server or CDN logs who want visibility into people and automated traffic.
Important considerations: Source-available, not OSI open source. Optional browser tracking adds in-page signals. AI-answer monitoring uses your provider keys and paid API samples; it does not reproduce what every app user sees. No verified hosted data-region claim.
Choose Smartlook ifExisting Smartlook customers planning a move to another web or mobile behavior analytics platform
Important considerations: Paid support ends August 31, 2027. Export required data before your paid plan expires: historical data does not migrate to Splunk automatically. The platform and remaining data are scheduled for removal on September 30, 2027.
Swipe or use arrow keys to view all columns.
| Attribute | Skald | Smartlook |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | Skald analyses web-server logs to distinguish visitors, AI assistants and crawlers. It is free to self-host under Elastic License 2.0, with paid hosted plans and a 30-day trial. | A web and mobile behavior analytics product with session recordings, heatmaps, funnels, events, and crash reports. Smartlook reached end of sale on May 31, 2026 and is no longer available to new customers. |
| Pricing | Free self-hosting. Hosted Starter: $9/month or $86/year for 1 site, 1 million requests/month and 3 team members; 30-day free trial. Requests include assets and bots, not just page views. Server costs and optional AI-provider API charges are separate. | No new subscriptions since May 31, 2026. Renewals and expansions end August 31, 2026. |
| Deployment | Self-hosted and hosted options | Vendor-hosted cloud |
| Best for | Site owners and agencies with access to suitable server or CDN logs who want visibility into people and automated traffic. | Existing Smartlook customers planning a move to another web or mobile behavior analytics platform |
| Operator | Space-O Technologies Independent private company | Smartlook, s.r.o. Subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc. |
| Company base | Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India · Other region | Brno, Czechia · European Union |
| Organization scale | at least 140 team members · operator, as of 26 Oct 2026 | No comparable official organization-size figure was publicly disclosed. |
| Recent direction | platform integration Recent official evidence shows a focus on platform integration. | platform integration Recent official evidence shows a focus on platform integration. |
| Key features |
|
|
| Important considerations | Source-available, not OSI open source. Optional browser tracking adds in-page signals. AI-answer monitoring uses your provider keys and paid API samples; it does not reproduce what every app user sees. No verified hosted data-region claim. | Paid support ends August 31, 2027. Export required data before your paid plan expires: historical data does not migrate to Splunk automatically. The platform and remaining data are scheduled for removal on September 30, 2027. |
| Integrations | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools | Shopify, WordPress |
| Fact check | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-10-26. | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27. |
This matrix shows capabilities recorded in our catalog. Not listed means we have not confirmed the capability here. Check the linked vendor sources for plan, deployment, and usage limits.
Swipe or use arrow keys to view all columns.
| Attribute | Skald | Smartlook |
|---|---|---|
| App analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Behavior analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Cross-device tracking | Not listed | Listed |
| Data export | Listed | Listed |
| Error tracking | Not listed | Listed |
| Event tracking | Not listed | Listed |
| Free plan | Listed | Not listed |
| Funnels | Not listed | Listed |
| Heatmaps | Not listed | Listed |
| Integrations | Not listed | Listed |
| Retention analytics | Not listed | Listed |
| Self-hosted | Listed | Not listed |
| Session recordings | Not listed | Listed |
| User segments | Not listed | Listed |
| Web analytics | Listed | Not listed |