# What pairs well with Pencil > Pencil is a paid ads tool, and a team running it still has 7 neighbouring categories to staff. The pick in each is Carrd for landing page builders, Umami for GTM analytics, Microsoft Clarity for CRO & experimentation, WhatConverts for call tracking & attribution, DashThis for client reporting dashboards, Mangools for SEO & content marketing and Hello Bar for lead capture & popups, each the leading tool in that category on published criteria. - Profile: https://saastracker.org/products/pencil - Category: Paid Ads Management (https://saastracker.org/categories/ppc-ads) - Web version: https://saastracker.org/products/pencil/stack ## The stack, category by category | Category | Ideal pairing | Because | Benefit | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Landing Page Builders | [Carrd](https://saastracker.org/products/carrd) (Best Value) | Pencil lists AI Auto Resize consuming a credit per format makes the effective among its limits. Carrd adds Pro Plus offers downloadable sites. | A campaign page ships the same afternoon without waiting on an engineer. | | GTM Analytics | [Umami](https://saastracker.org/products/umami) (Best Value) | Pencil lists post-cancellation retention and export of generated assets are documented only among its limits. Umami adds a very large open-source community with tens of thousands of GitHub stars. | Spend gets attributed to revenue, so the channel that works is the one that gets funded. | | CRO & Experimentation | [Microsoft Clarity](https://saastracker.org/products/microsoft-clarity) (Ease of Use) | Pencil is built for paid ads, not CRO. Microsoft Clarity adds free with no traffic limits. | Page changes get tested rather than argued about, and the winner is measured. | | Call Tracking & Attribution | [WhatConverts](https://saastracker.org/products/whatconverts) (Ease of Use) | Pencil lists everything that makes Pencil enterprise-grade is Pro-tier and unpublished among its limits. WhatConverts adds one-click lead qualification. | Phone calls get attributed to the campaign that caused them, like every other conversion. | | Client Reporting Dashboards | [DashThis](https://saastracker.org/products/dashthis) (Ease of Use) | Pencil lists no competitive ad research and no account-level creative analytics among its limits. DashThis adds fastest route in the category from a blank account to a presentable. | Clients get their numbers on a schedule, and nobody spends Monday morning in a spreadsheet. | | SEO & Content Marketing | [Mangools](https://saastracker.org/products/mangools) (Best Value) | Pencil lists the product's public positioning among its limits. Mangools adds a free trial without a credit card plus a useful library. | Pages get written for demand that already exists, and ranking movement is visible rather than guessed. | | Lead Capture & Popups | [Hello Bar](https://saastracker.org/products/hello-bar) (Ease of Use) | Pencil sends buyers elsewhere for the enterprise capabilities at a published price. Hello Bar adds fast from install to a live campaign. | Traffic already on the site turns into addresses, rather than leaving without a trace. | ### Carrd for Landing Page Builders Pencil lists AI Auto Resize consuming a credit per format makes the effective among its limits. Carrd adds Pro Plus offers downloadable sites. A campaign page ships the same afternoon without waiting on an engineer. Price and metering model are structurally different from the rest of the category: $19 a year for ten sites, with no per-visitor or per-pageview charge to fear when a page succeeds. Unbounce holds Category Leader here, and is worth weighing if that is closer to the problem Pencil leaves open. ### Umami for GTM Analytics Pencil lists post-cancellation retention and export of generated assets are documented only among its limits. Umami adds a very large open-source community with tens of thousands of GitHub stars. Spend gets attributed to revenue, so the channel that works is the one that gets funded. On a self-hosted instance your data sits in your own PostgreSQL, queryable with SQL and retained forever, which no managed competitor can match on ownership. Google Analytics 4 holds Category Leader here, and is worth weighing if that is closer to the problem Pencil leaves open. ### Microsoft Clarity for CRO & Experimentation Pencil is built for paid ads, not CRO. Microsoft Clarity adds free with no traffic limits. Page changes get tested rather than argued about, and the winner is measured. Backed by Microsoft, so the vendor is not going to run out of runway, and EU customers contract with an EU entity in Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited. ### WhatConverts for Call Tracking & Attribution Pencil lists everything that makes Pencil enterprise-grade is Pro-tier and unpublished among its limits. WhatConverts adds one-click lead qualification. Phone calls get attributed to the campaign that caused them, like every other conversion. Enhanced conversions push qualified-lead data back into Google Ads so automated bidding optimizes toward calls that closed, not calls that connected. ### DashThis for Client Reporting Dashboards Pencil lists no competitive ad research and no account-level creative analytics among its limits. DashThis adds fastest route in the category from a blank account to a presentable. Clients get their numbers on a schedule, and nobody spends Monday morning in a spreadsheet. Full white labeling, custom domain, and custom email sender are included on the $44 entry plan rather than reserved for higher tiers. ### Mangools for SEO & Content Marketing Pencil lists the product's public positioning among its limits. Mangools adds a free trial without a credit card plus a useful library. Pages get written for demand that already exists, and ranking movement is visible rather than guessed. AI Search Watcher covers eight AI systems including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Mistral, and Llama, included in the subscription rather than sold as an add-on. Semrush holds Category Leader here, and is worth weighing if that is closer to the problem Pencil leaves open. ### Hello Bar for Lead Capture & Popups Pencil sends buyers elsewhere for the enterprise capabilities at a published price. Hello Bar adds fast from install to a live campaign. Traffic already on the site turns into addresses, rather than leaving without a trace. A/B testing is included on every paid plan instead of being reserved for a top tier, which is not the norm in this category. ## FAQ ### What is the best stack to run with Pencil? Pencil is a paid ads tool, and a team running it still has 7 neighbouring categories to staff. The pick in each is Carrd for landing page builders, Umami for GTM analytics, Microsoft Clarity for CRO & experimentation, WhatConverts for call tracking & attribution, DashThis for client reporting dashboards, Mangools for SEO & content marketing and Hello Bar for lead capture & popups, each the leading tool in that category on published criteria. ### What do I pair with Pencil for Landing Page Builders? Carrd. Pencil lists AI Auto Resize consuming a credit per format makes the effective among its limits. Carrd adds Pro Plus offers downloadable sites. A campaign page ships the same afternoon without waiting on an engineer. ### How many tools do I need alongside Pencil? Pencil sits next to 7 other categories in a working paid ads stack, and its own profile names the gap each one fills. Most teams staff the first two or three and add the rest as the motion grows. ### Is Hello Bar worth adding alongside Pencil? Pencil sends buyers elsewhere for the enterprise capabilities at a published price. Hello Bar adds fast from install to a live campaign. Traffic already on the site turns into addresses, rather than leaving without a trace. --- Source: SaaSTracker (https://saastracker.org), an independent editorial project. Pairings are the leading tool in each complementary category, chosen on published criteria: https://saastracker.org/methodology. Placement cannot be purchased.