compare / datafast
Virling vs DataFast
DataFast and Virling answer the same question: which channels bring paying customers. The main differences are how you run it and which payment providers it reads.
| Virling | DataFast | |
|---|---|---|
| Open source | Yes, AGPLv3 | No, as far as we can tell |
| Self-host | Yes, one Rust binary with embedded storage. No Postgres, ClickHouse or Redis. | No, hosted service |
| Payments | Stripe, Dodo Payments, Polar and LemonSqueezy, read with a key, no event code | Stripe, LemonSqueezy, Polar and Shopify connections, plus a payments API |
| Renewals keep their first channel | Yes. Renewals keep the channel of the first payment | See their docs |
| Revenue per visitor by channel | Yes, for every channel, referrer, campaign, page and country | Yes |
| AI assistant traffic | Yes. AI assistant visits and AI crawler reads, with revenue | Yes, including AI answer fetches |
Based on DataFast's public docs as of October 2026. See DataFast for their current features and pricing. Something out of date? Tell us.
When DataFast is the better fit
You want a polished hosted product today, you sell through Shopify, or you do not want to run anything yourself.
When Virling is the better fit
You want the code and the data on your own server, you take payments through Dodo Payments, or you want one binary with no database to manage.