The short answer
Sift tells your app who looks risky. DataCops tells your ads who is real, and keeps the ad click behind every real signup.
DataCops is a tool for the ad side of signup fraud: it gives every visit a bot verdict, checks each signup email, keeps flagged signups from reaching your ad platforms, sends the real sale back to the click, and lets you warm up new campaigns with your existing customers.
How DataCops does it:
- Real people only. Every visit gets a bot verdict against 360+ billion IPs and 350+ monitoring points, with a Real people only switch per ad platform, off by default. Every form email is checked for disposable providers, domains with no mail server and an email risk score.
- The sale after the form. HighLevel natively (lead, booked, showed, won with value, paid), any CRM by webhook, Shopify through the DataCops Shopify app, all matched to the click by click ID or hashed email and phone, and sent to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok and LinkedIn.
- Ads Warmup. Upload your existing customers (up to 20,000 rows), see a 0 to 10 match score per person, and send them to Meta, Google Ads and TikTok so new campaigns start warm.
- First-party collection, no extra tool. One script and one DNS record put collection on your own subdomain; with your DNS on Cloudflare, the free Worker reads the click at the edge before the page loads. Click IDs are kept on the server for up to 90 days.
- Consent, memory and proof. A TCF 2.2 consent banner from your domain with Google Consent Mode v2 on by default, a server-set cookie up to 400 days where enabled, and a delivery log row for every send, counted once against the pixel.
Best for: ad-funded SaaS and lead gen teams, agencies, and anyone whose signups come from paid campaigns and whose fakes are polluting the ads.
The alternatives at a glance:
- DataCops: best if fake signups are poisoning your ads. A bot verdict on every visit, SignupCops at signup, and only real users sent to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X.
- SEON: best for a self-serve fraud platform with a public price.
- Castle: best for blocking signup and login abuse at a public price.
- Fingerprint: best for engineers building their own device and bot rules.
- Arkose Labs: best for large consumer apps under heavy bot attack.
DataCops is the tracking solution for ad-funded businesses: it keeps bots out of what your ads learn from and sends the sale that happens after the form to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X.
Most people who search for a Sift alternative are not unhappy with Sift's scores. They are unhappy with the price, the demo-only sales process, or the fact that fake signups still show up where it hurts: in the ad accounts.
Every fraud tool list compares signals, models and review queues. None of them ask what your ads learn from. That is what this guide is about.
A score that stops at your door
Here is how a fraud API works. A visitor signs up. Your app sends the signup to Sift. Sift sends back a risk score. Your app decides what to do. That is the whole loop, and it is a good loop for protecting your product.
But look at what already happened before the score came back. The visitor clicked your ad. The Meta pixel saw a signup. Google Ads counted a conversion. The ad platform has already learned: "people like this one sign up." If that signup was a bot or a fake account, your ads now go looking for more of them.
Blocking the account in your app does not undo that. The score lives in your app. The lesson lives in Meta. Nothing connects the two.
Two different questions
Sift asks: should this account be allowed in my product? It scores each check and hands you the answer.
DataCops asks: should this visit and this signup teach my ads anything? It decides before the conversion is sent, and holds risky signups back from the ad platforms with SignupCops.
Both questions matter. Only one of them touches your ad spend.
A fraud score protects your app. It does not protect your ads. They learned from the fake signup the moment it happened.
The real difference: where the verdict goes
Here is what that means in practice, one job at a time.
Every visit gets a verdict, not only signups
Sift scores the events your app sends it: signups, logins, orders. A bot that clicks your ad and leaves never reaches Sift, but it already cost you the click, and your pixel already saw it.
DataCops checks every visit for bots, datacenter traffic, VPNs and proxies (see click fraud protection). Turn on Real people only for a platform and flagged visits never reach it. About 99% of bots are kept out. It is off by default, so you choose where it applies.
One signup, on its way to MetaRisky signups are held back from the ads
With Sift, the risk score goes to your app. What your app does with the ad platforms is a separate project you build. Most teams never build it, so blocked accounts still count as conversions.
SignupCops does it in one place. Risky signups are held back from Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X. Real signups go through. The ads learn from real users only.
The ad click survives Sign in with Google
When a visitor signs up with Google, they leave your site and come back. The ad click ID is usually lost on the way, so the ad that brought them gets no credit. A fraud API does not deal with this at all. It is not its job.
SignupCops keeps the ad click through Sign in with Google. The signup is credited to the right ad, and your cheapest real users stop looking like they came from nowhere.
Server-side tracking comes with it
Sift is not a tracking tool, so you still need one. DataCops is the tracking. One script and one DNS record send conversions server-side from your own subdomain, so ad blockers and Safari are far less likely to strip them. Click IDs are kept 90 days, and visitors are remembered up to 400 days (in the EU that needs consent).
You can see why each event was sent
Sift explains its own decisions, and does it well. But it cannot tell you what reached your ads. DataCops writes every conversion as a row per platform (sent, held, skipped or failed) with the reason next to it. The click log in first-party analytics shows what happened to each ad click.
On the Organization plan, two more tools work on paid clicks. Cloudflare edge blocking stops flagged traffic before it loads your page, and Google refund evidence exports the last 60 days of invalid clicks as a CSV for Google's Click Quality Form. Google decides the refund.
Consent and deletion are built in
We found no consent manager or deletion request form on Sift's pages. DataCops includes a first-party consent manager built to the IAB TCF v2.2 standard. Google Consent Mode v2 is on by default, the banner shows in Europe by default, and the server checks consent again before every send. Visitors can ask for deletion through a form on your privacy page, confirmed by email, with a status page. Deletion requests from Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn are handled automatically. Google Ads deletions are still a manual step. Click IDs, sessions and the click log are deleted after 90 days, and the identity store holds hashed emails and phones only.
Sift tells you the account is risky. With Real people only and SignupCops on, DataCops keeps it out of your ads.
The real cost of a demo-only tool
Sift has no public price. But even the contract is not the full cost. Answer these with your own numbers.
How many hours will it take to build your Sift integration, risk rules and a separate ad tracking setup before the first sale is tracked?
How many hours a month will someone spend keeping it working when Meta, Google or TikTok change something?
If a tag breaks quietly for a week, how many leads never reach your ads? And what is one lead worth to you?
How many sales a month close in your CRM that your ads never hear about?
The last question is the one that matters most. When fake signups reach your ads as conversions, the ads learn to find more of them. Cost per real user climbs, and no fraud dashboard shows you why.
Blocking a fake account after your ads paid for it does not get the money back.
Every feature, side by side
 DataCops |  Sift | |
|---|---|---|
| Fraud and bots | ||
| Bot verdict on every ad visit | Bots, datacenter, VPN, proxy, Real people only per platform | Not built in. Scores events you send, not ad visits |
| Signup risk | SignupCops holds risky signups back from the ads | Account risk scores and workflows |
| Shared signal network | Your own traffic | Global network, 1T+ events a year by its own count |
| Ads and tracking | ||
| Server-side tracking | One script, one DNS record, first-party from your subdomain | Not built in |
| Connect ad platforms | One click each: Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn; API key for Microsoft Ads, Reddit and Pinterest | Not built in |
| Ad click through Sign in with Google | Kept by SignupCops | Not built in |
| What happened to each ad click | Click log in first-party analytics | Not built in |
| Visitor memory | Click IDs 90 days, visitor cookie up to 400 days | Not a tracking tool |
| Beyond the signup | ||
| CRM stages to ad platforms | HighLevel native, any CRM by webhook | Not built in |
| Upload past customers to warm up ads | Ads Warmup, up to 20,000 rows | Not built in |
| Meta health and wellness restrictions | Health mode | Not built in |
| Privacy and legal | ||
| Consent manager | Built in, IAB TCF v2.2 | Not found on its pages |
| Visitors asking for deletion | Self-serve form, confirmed by email, status page | Not found on its pages |
| Deletion requests from Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn | Acted on automatically | Not built in |
| Running it | ||
| Why each event was sent or skipped | Per-row delivery log with the reason | Explains its own risk decisions (Clearbox Control) |
| Agencies with many clients | Agency board, every client on one login | Not built in |
| Scale and customer list | Smaller, no public customer count | 700+ brands across marketplaces, fintech, iGaming, travel |
Sift column checked on sift.com, 2 October 2026. "Not built in" means we found no Sift feature for it. Sift's price is buyer-reported data from Vendr, not a Sift price list.
The 5 Sift alternatives compared
| Best for | Sends to ads | Payments | Free start | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DataCops | Fake signups in ads | Yes, 8 platforms | No | Free plan |
 SEON | Self-serve fraud platform | No | Yes | Free trial |
 Castle | Signup and login abuse | No | No | Free plan |
 Fingerprint | Engineers building rules | No | No | Free 1,000 calls |
 Arkose Labs | Heavy bot attack at scale | No | No | Not found |
1. DataCops: best Sift alternative for fake signups in ads
DataCops is the tracking layer, with fraud built in where it touches your ads. Every visit gets a bot verdict. SignupCops holds risky signups back from the ad platforms and keeps the ad click through Sign in with Google. Real conversions go server-side from your own domain, and every event has a row that says what happened and why.
Why people switch to it
- Fake signups stop training the ads
- The ad click survives Google sign-in
- Tracking, consent and deletion in one tool
- Free plan and a public price
Worth knowing
- Real people only is off until you switch it on
- Edge blocking and refund evidence are on Organization
Best for: teams whose ads keep paying for signups that never become users.
2. SEON: best self-serve fraud platform
SEON is the closest like-for-like swap for Sift, with a public price. Premium is custom and adds case management, AML and 24/7 support. SEON claims 1,000+ signals and says it cuts fraudulent registrations by 90%.
The catch is the same as Sift's. The verdict stays in your app. Your ads still see every signup unless you build the link yourself.
Why people switch to it
- Public price and a free trial
- Readable rules
- Covers payments too
Worth knowing
- Priced per check
- No connection to your ad platforms
Best for: teams who want Sift's job done at a price you can see. See our SEON alternatives.
3. Castle: best for signup and login abuse
Castle blocks bots and abuse at signup and login, with a public price.
Like Sift, it protects the account, not the ads. Data retention is short on the lower plans: 3 days on Free, 7 on Pro.
Why people switch to it
- Public, usage-based price
- Focused on signup and login
Worth knowing
- Short data retention below Enterprise
- No payments, no ad connection
Best for: teams whose problem is account abuse and who want to start small. See our Castle alternatives.
4. Fingerprint: best for engineers building their own rules
Fingerprint gives you a stable device ID plus Smart Signals (VPN, bot and tampering detection) on every plan.
It is a building block, not a decision. Your engineers turn the signals into rules, and connecting any of it to your ads is still your project.
Why people switch to it
- Low entry price
- Flexible signals for your own logic
Worth knowing
- You build the decisions
- No ad platform connection
Best for: teams with engineers who want raw signals. See our Fingerprint alternatives.
5. Arkose Labs: best for heavy bot attack at scale
Arkose Labs defends large consumer apps with challenge puzzles that make bot attacks costly. Its pricing page returned a 404 when we checked, so treat it as enterprise, sold by quote.
It stops bots at the door of your app. It does not tell your ads which signups were real.
Why people switch to it
- Built for large bot attacks
Worth knowing
- No public price
- Challenges add friction for real users
Best for: large apps under constant attack. See our Arkose alternatives.
More in this category: Verisoul, IPQualityScore, reCAPTCHA and Rupt alternatives.
How to choose a Sift alternative
- Name the fraud. Fake signups and bot leads paid for by ads? That is DataCops. Card chargebacks are a separate payments job.
- Follow the verdict. Ask where each tool's decision ends up. In your app, or in your ads too?
- Check your sign-in. If many users sign up with Google, you need the ad click kept through it.
- Price it honestly. Add engineering time to the contract. A public price and a free plan let you test first.
Pick DataCops if
- You run Meta, Google Ads, TikTok or LinkedIn to a signup or a lead form.
- Bots and fake signups are showing up as conversions.
- You want tracking, bot filtering, consent and deletion in one tool at a public price.
When not to use DataCops
- Sift stays the payments and account expert. Payment Protection, Account Defense, post-login monitoring and manual review are what Sift is built for. If chargebacks or account takeover are your biggest loss, keep Sift on checkout and login.
- You need to judge accounts inside your product. Account takeover, payment fraud, multi-accounting and manual review are what fraud and identity tools are built for. DataCops does none of that.
- You do not run paid ads. If fakes are not reaching an ad platform, an account-fraud tool alone may be all you need.
What's your actual goal?
If you run paid ads to a signup, you want five things:
- Keep bots and fake signups out of your ads, so Meta and Google stop finding more of them.
- Credit every real signup to the right ad, including the ones that use Sign in with Google.
- Send the later stages too, like a trial that became paid, so the ads learn who pays.
- Capture every conversion, including the ones ad blockers and Safari hide.
- Stay compliant, with consent checked and data deleted on request.
Sift helps with none of these directly. It was built for a different goal: stopping fraud inside your product. Here is the ad side of the job, done both ways.
The traditional way, with Sift
- Book a demo and agree a contract.
- Send signup, login and order events from your backend to Sift.
- Build rules or workflows on its scores.
- Block or review risky accounts in your app.
- Separately, set up Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X tracking.
- Build your own link so blocked signups never reach the ads.
- Fix the lost ad click for Sign in with Google yourself.
- Buy a consent banner and handle deletion requests elsewhere.
With DataCops
- Add one script and one DNS record.
- Connect Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X.
- Switch on Real people only.
- Switch on SignupCops.
- Switch on the consent manager.
- Send paid customers by webhook if you want.
Then run your business. The ads only learn from real people, and each real signup keeps its ad click.
Sift guards the product. DataCops guards what your ads learn, so your budget buys real users.
Why people look past Sift
Sift is a serious product. People look elsewhere for reasons around it, not inside it.
- No public price. You cannot try it or price it without a sales call. Buyer data puts typical deals in the tens of thousands a year.
- No free plan or trial found. A small team cannot test it on real traffic first.
- It is built for payments and logins. Its products are Payment Protection, Account Defense and a Score API. Fake signups from ads are not its focus.
- The score never reaches your ads. Nothing on its pages connects to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok or LinkedIn.
- It is integration work. Your developers send events from the backend and act on every score.
- It does not see ad visits. Sift scores events you send it, not the bot clicks that hit your landing pages first.
Real customers, by industry
A signup is not a customer. Once the fake ones are out, the next step is telling the ads which real ones paid. DataCops sends those later stages too.
| Business | What the pixel sees | What DataCops adds |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS with a free trial | Every signup, bots included | Real signups only, then trial to paid by webhook |
| Apps with Sign in with Google | Signups with no ad click | The ad click, kept through Google sign-in |
| B2B lead gen | Demo request | Real leads only, then won and paid by webhook |
| Agencies running client ads | Form fills per client | Booked, showed, won and paid from HighLevel |
| Marketplaces and communities | New accounts | Risky accounts held back from the ads |
From HighLevel natively, or any CRM by private webhook, directly or through Zapier, Make or n8n.
See offline conversions for the full picture.
Ads Warmup: tell the ads who pays
Sift scores accounts and visitors inside your product. It does not tell the ad platforms which people are real customers, so new campaigns learn from scratch. The customers you already have are the best description of who to find.
Ads Warmup, DataCops' flagship feature, sends them to your ad platforms before a campaign spends:
- Upload a customer list. A CSV of past buyers, old leads or booked calls. DataCops reads your columns; only email is required.
- See a match score for every person. An estimate from 0 to 10 from email, phone, name, location, click ID and customer ID, before anything is sent.
- Pick the event. Purchase, Lead, Complete registration, Add to cart or Schedule.
- Send server-side. Up to 20,000 people per upload to Meta, Google Ads and TikTok, with a sent, skipped or failed result per person. Google Ads credits only people who clicked a Google ad.
Each row is dated when you press send, not with the old sale date, so it gives a new campaign real customers to learn from on day one. Preview is free; sending needs a paid plan.
What else a fraud API never does
- Capture at the edge. With DNS on Cloudflare, the free, optional DataCops Cloudflare Worker reads click IDs and UTMs off the first request, before the page or any script runs. It captures; it does not block.
- Keep the click on the server. gclid, wbraid, gbraid, fbclid, ttclid and li_fat_id are stored for up to 90 days, so a deal that closes weeks later still finds its click. A signed server-set cookie lasts up to 400 days where enabled.
- Check the lead's email. Fixed rules, not guesses: disposable providers, domains with no mail server and an email risk score. With LeadCops (Business and up), a lead that fails is held and never billed.
- Install on Shopify. The DataCops Shopify app adds a web pixel and a theme app embed, so every paid order reaches your ads, express checkouts included. See Shopify Conversions API.
- Hand evidence to Google. On the Organization plan, the fraud refund report exports bot-flagged Google Ads clicks in the format Google's Click Quality form asks for. You attach it; Google decides.
Setup, step by step, side by side
The same ad-side job done both ways. Sift steps are what it takes to connect a fraud API to your ads. DataCops steps are what you do in the dashboard.
| The job | With Sift | With DataCops |
|---|---|---|
| Get started | Book a demo, agree a contract, integrate the API in your backend. | Sign up free, add one script and one DNS record. |
| Score a signup | Send the signup event to Sift, read the score, act on it in your code. | Switch on SignupCops. |
| Keep bots out of the ads | Not built in. Build your own link from the score to each ad platform. | Switch on Real people only for each platform. |
| Keep the click through Sign in with Google | Not built in. Custom work in your app. | Handled by SignupCops. |
| Send conversions to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest, X | Not built in. A separate tracking tool. | Connect each platform with one click. Pixel and server events are deduplicated by event_id, so each conversion is counted once. |
| Handle consent | Not found. A separate consent vendor. | Switch on the built-in consent manager (IAB TCF v2.2). |
| Find out why a conversion is missing | Check your own tracking tool, then each platform. | Open the delivery log row. The reason is written next to it. |
Sift is excellent at what it scores. The point is that the ad side is a separate project with Sift, and a switch with DataCops.
"15 minutes to get server-side tracking live. After 3 days failing with another app and a DIY server-side Google Tag Manager, that alone sold me. Then support jumped on a Google Meet with me on a Sunday afternoon to finish the job."Andrew Forsyth, Chief Executive Officer, Zeald
What to know before you switch
- Sift stays the payments and account expert. Payment Protection, Account Defense, post-login monitoring and manual review are what Sift is built for. If chargebacks or account takeover are your biggest loss, keep Sift on checkout and login.
- You trade a contract for a plan. Sift is sold by demo with no public price. Moving the ad side does not need a procurement cycle.
- Turn off old pixel sends first. When DataCops starts sending, pixel and server events share one event ID so each conversion is counted once. Switch off any separate server-side sends for the same events, so nothing reaches the ads twice.
Adding DataCops next to Sift
- Keep Sift where it works. Payments and logins stay as they are.
- Add DataCops to your site. One script and one DNS record.
- Connect the same ad accounts, and send each conversion from one place only, so nothing counts twice.
- Switch on Real people only and SignupCops, then compare for two weeks in Meta and Google Ads: signups sent, signups held, cost per real user.
- Send paid customers by webhook so the ads learn who pays, not just who signs up.
Every DataCops product mentioned here
- SignupCops and click fraud protection.
- Server-side tracking and first-party analytics.
- Meta Conversions API, Google Ads conversion tracking, TikTok Events API, LinkedIn Conversions API.
- Offline conversions, HighLevel conversion tracking and DataCops for agencies.
- Consent manager, Ads Warmup and health mode.
Sift alternatives: FAQ
Can I warm up a new campaign with my existing customers?
Yes, with DataCops Ads Warmup. Upload a CSV of past buyers, old leads or booked calls (only email is required, up to 20,000 rows), see a match score from 0 to 10 for every person, and send them to Meta, Google Ads and TikTok as fresh signal, dated when you send. Google Ads credits only people who clicked a Google ad. Preview is free; sending needs a paid plan.
When should I keep Sift instead of switching?
Sift stays the payments and account expert. Payment Protection, Account Defense, post-login monitoring and manual review are what Sift is built for. If chargebacks or account takeover are your biggest loss, keep Sift on checkout and login.
What is the best Sift alternative?
DataCops, for most ad-funded businesses. It replaces Sift and the rest of the stack: one script, a bot verdict on every visit, a built-in consent manager, server-side sends to 8 ad platforms, and your CRM sales matched to the ad click. Other picks depend on the fraud you fight. For payment and chargeback fraud, Sift is hard to beat and you may not need an alternative. For fake signups that your ads keep paying for, DataCops is the better fit: SignupCops holds risky signups back from Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X and keeps the ad click through Sign in with Google. For a self-serve fraud platform with a public price, SEON. For signup and login abuse at a public price, Castle.
Does Sift stop fake signups from reaching my ads?
No. Sift scores the events you send it, like signups, logins and orders, and returns a risk score to your app. Nothing on its pages connects that score to Meta, Google Ads, TikTok or LinkedIn. So a fake signup your app lets through still counts as a conversion in your ads. DataCops SignupCops holds risky signups back from the ad platforms, so the ads learn from real users only.
Is DataCops a replacement for Sift?
Only for part of the job. DataCops does not score payments, fight chargebacks, protect logins from account takeover or run manual review queues. Sift does all of those. DataCops covers the part Sift never touches: which visits and signups your ad platforms learn from, and the ad click behind every real customer.
How does DataCops spot bots and fake signups?
Every visit gets a verdict: bot, datacenter traffic, VPN or proxy. With Real people only switched on for a platform, flagged visits never reach it, and about 99% of bots are kept out. SignupCops applies the same idea at signup: risky signups are held back from the ad platforms, while the real ones go through with their ad click.
What happens to the ad click when people use Sign in with Google?
Normally it is lost. The visitor leaves your site for Google and comes back without the click ID, so the ad platform never learns which ad brought them. SignupCops keeps the ad click through Sign in with Google, so the signup is credited to the right ad.
Which ad platforms does DataCops send to?
Eight: Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Reddit, Pinterest and X. Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, LinkedIn and X connect with one click. Microsoft Ads, Reddit and Pinterest connect with an API key. Microsoft Ads uses its UET Conversions API, which Microsoft runs as a pilot, so ask your Microsoft account manager to turn it on.
Can I run DataCops and Sift together?
Yes, and many teams should. Sift keeps scoring payments and logins inside your app. DataCops runs on your site and decides what your ad platforms learn from. They do not overlap, and neither needs the other to work.
