In 2025, mobile attribution has become a foundational part of any app marketer’s tech stack. It’s no longer just a tool for advanced teams. It’s a baseline requirement for anyone spending money on user acquisition. Yet, while the value of attribution is clear, the cost associated with traditional Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) platforms is often not.

Many developers and marketing teams (especially those at growing or mid-market app companies) have silently accepted high attribution bills as a “cost of doing business.” But what if it didn’t have to be?

The Real Price of Legacy Attribution Tools

Legacy MMPs like AppsFlyer, Branch, and Adjust offer sophisticated tracking features, but they come with a heavy price tag. Most app marketers initially focus on pricing per install or event, but the true cost goes far beyond that.

1. Volume-Based Pricing That Penalizes Growth

Almost every legacy MMP charges based on the number of attributed installs or tracked events. At first, this might feel like a fair tradeoff: pay as you scale. But in practice, this model punishes success. As your acquisition efforts become more effective, a larger portion of your budget gets diverted into attribution costs.

For example, if you’re driving 100,000 installs per month, you might end up paying $3,000 to $5,000 monthly, which often equals 5–10% of your entire marketing budget. That’s money you’re not putting into ads, creative, or optimization.

2. Hidden Feature Paywalls

It gets worse when you realize that the base pricing tiers don’t even unlock the full platform. Many essential features (like fraud detection, cohort analysis, API access, and long-term data retention) come with additional fees:

• Advanced fraud protection? +20%

• API and raw data access? Separate tier

• More than 6 months of data retention? Pay extra

When you add these up, your $3,000/month bill can easily double.

3. High Engineering and Integration Overheads

The technical complexity of legacy MMPs often requires dedicated engineering time to implement and maintain:

• Initial SDK integration

• Event parameter mapping

• Campaign tagging setup

• Data reconciliation between platforms

It’s not uncommon for dev teams to spend dozens of hours every month just maintaining the MMP setup, an expensive drain on internal resources.

4. Tiered Support That Slows You Down

Lastly, most older MMPs offer tiered support based on how much you pay. If you’re not in the top pricing tier, expect delayed replies, limited access to specialists, and longer resolution times.

This can be a nightmare if attribution breaks during a critical campaign window, like a holiday sale or product launch.

Why This Matters: The Real ROI Impact

These costs aren’t just a line item. They have ripple effects on your entire growth strategy.

Imagine this scenario:

• You spend $50,000 on a campaign

• Your MMP takes an 8% cut ($4,000)

• Your target CPI is $2.00

That $4,000 hit means 2,000 fewer users acquired. This results in a higher effective CPI, a lower ROAS, and reduced momentum in user acquisition.

In other words, the more you rely on attribution, the more expensive your growth becomes (unless you’re using the right tool).

Linkrunner.io Enters the Scene: A Better Way Forward

Enter Linkrunner.io, a modern MMP built for cost-conscious, growth-focused app teams. With flat, transparent pricing and enterprise-grade features included out of the box, Linkrunner is making powerful attribution accessible to everyone (from indie developers to Series B startups and beyond).

Here’s how it works differently.

Flat-Rate Pricing That Scales With You

No more paying more just because you’re successful. Linkrunner’s pricing is fixed and predictable, with no install- or event-based penalties. This unlocks scalability for marketing teams, allowing them to run high-volume campaigns without spiraling measurement fees.

Compared to legacy MMPs, customers report paying up to 7x less. That means more capital for acquisition, experimentation, or product.

Everything Included (No Surprise Costs!)

Every Linkrunner plan comes fully loaded:

• Advanced fraud detection

• Unlimited historical data retention

• Seamless attribution across Android, iOS, web, and OEM channels

• Real-time API access for custom dashboards and modeling

• AI-powered analytics to surface optimization opportunities

It’s attribution the way it should be: powerful, complete, and unlocked from day one.

Developer-Friendly by Design

Most attribution platforms are built for analysts first and developers last. Linkrunner reverses that. With clean, auto-generating SDKs, no-nonsense docs, and built-in campaign tagging, integration takes a fraction of the time compared to older tools.

Support for CI/CD pipelines, QA modes, and live-testing environments makes it ideal for fast-moving growth teams.

Real Support for All Customers

Unlike platforms that reserve responsive help for their largest customers, Linkrunner offers:

• 24/7 support availability

• Attribution specialists, not generic agents

• Personalized onboarding sessions

• Ongoing optimization and training

Whether you’re running your first attribution test or scaling multi-country campaigns, you’re never alone.

Why This Matters Strategically

Affordable attribution isn’t just a “nice to have.” It reshapes what’s possible for app marketing.

Experiment More, Risk Less

Freed from volume penalties, your team can test TikTok, influencer campaigns, push notification strategies, or programmatic networks without worrying about budget bloat from tracking costs.

Democratized Access to Data

When attribution isn’t metered, your product managers, designers, and growth analysts can explore metrics and behavior freely, leading to more informed product decisions and faster iteration loops.

Support Long-Term Planning

Cohort tracking over 30, 60, 90, and even 180 days becomes feasible without extra fees, allowing real LTV modeling, retention forecasting, and revenue planning.

Full-Funnel Visibility, Not Just Top-of-Funnel

From ad click to install to revenue, Linkrunner tracks it all across every channel, every region, and every user segment, without breaking your budget.

The Business Case: Real-World Math

Let’s say your app spends $100,000 per month on user acquisition:

• Legacy MMP (7%): $7,000/month → $84,000/year

• Linkrunner.io (1%): $1,000/month → $12,000/year

• Annual savings: $72,000

With that savings, you could fund:

• An entire new growth hire

• Another 28,800 users (at $2.50 CPI)

• 6 months of influencer campaigns

• A stronger runway or improved burn rate

In every scenario, the ROI upside of switching is undeniable.

The Attribution Revolution Is Now

Measurement isn’t going anywhere. If anything, it’s becoming more important as privacy frameworks tighten and marketing budgets face more scrutiny.

But that doesn’t mean attribution needs to be expensive, gated, or reserved for enterprises. With Linkrunner.io, attribution becomes a growth enabler, not a hidden tax.

Whether you’re just launching or scaling into new geographies, choosing the right MMP can add velocity to your entire business.

The question isn’t whether you can afford attribution.

It’s whether you can afford to keep overpaying for it.