Is Backtracks still available?

No. Backtracks states on its own site that the platform is no longer available. Any feature list you find in an older review describes a product you cannot sign up for, which is why availability is worth checking before a tool goes on a shortlist.

Can I move my Chartable or Backtracks data to a new tool?

No. Neither service offers an export path, so there is no import into a replacement. Whatever you install begins counting on its install date, and the honest way to report that is a labelled gap rather than a spliced trend line.

What should I replace Chartable and Backtracks with?

Replace by job, not by brand. Prefix-based download measurement, promotional link attribution, and advertiser-facing campaign reporting were bundled differently by each tool, and no single current product recreates either bundle exactly. List what you actually reported on, then buy against that list.

Chartable vs Backtracks: both are closed

Chartable vs Backtracks is a comparison of two closed products. Chartable shut down after Spotify acquired it, and chartable.com now returns a 301 redirect to megaphone.spotify.com. Backtracks states plainly on its own site that the platform is no longer available. If either name is still on a shortlist, take it off.

That makes this a replacement-planning page. The useful question is not which was better, it is what each one's users specifically lose and what they have to buy to get it back.

	Chartable	Backtracks
Status	Closed	No longer available
What the site shows now	301 redirect to megaphone.spotify.com	A notice that the platform is unavailable
Who used it	Independent podcasters and networks	Audio publishers and advertisers, enterprise leaning
Headline jobs	Prefix downloads, SmartLinks, chart tracking	Audience analytics for publishers and advertisers
Data export	None	None
Single-product replacement	None	None

What each one was for

The two served different buyers, which is why their users need different replacements.

Chartable sat on the independent side. You attached its prefix to your feed, it counted downloads across apps, it tracked your position in the Apple and Spotify charts, and its SmartLinks sent one promotional URL to whichever app a listener preferred. It was free at the entry tier, which is why so many small shows had it installed and why its closure was felt widely.

Backtracks sat on the publisher and advertiser side. Its own description was privacy-focused technology for audio publishers and advertisers to analyse audiences and improve the listener experience. That is a different purchase: an organisation with several shows, an ad business, and people whose job is reporting.

Replacing Backtracks is therefore the bigger project, because other teams were reading its output and those reports have to keep arriving.

Replace by job, not by brand

The mistake is shopping for a Chartable replacement or a Backtracks replacement as if either were a single product. Both bundled jobs that are now sold separately.

Write down what you actually reported on in the last twelve months. Not what the dashboard could do, what you used. For most shows the list is shorter than expected: a monthly download number, a geographic split, an app or device breakdown, and a link-click count for promotions.

Then buy against that list. Prefix-based download measurement is one purchase. Promotional link attribution is another. Advertiser-facing campaign reporting is a third, and for most independent shows it is not needed at all until a sponsor asks for it.

Our Chartable alternatives and Backtracks alternatives pages both work this way, and the Backtracks review covers how to build the reporting inventory before you shop.

The chart tracking problem

One Chartable feature has no clean replacement.

Chartable tracked where a show ranked in the Apple and Spotify charts over time, a scraped-and-stored dataset, not a measurement anyone can derive from your feed. A prefix cannot reconstruct it, because chart position is a property of the platform, not of your downloads.

If chart position was part of your reporting, you are either finding a dedicated chart-tracking service or dropping the metric. Dropping it is a defensible choice for most shows, since chart position moves on velocity and platform mechanics, not on audience size, and sponsors rarely buy on it.

The gap in your history

Neither tool exports. There is no file to download from Chartable and none from Backtracks, so there is nothing to import into whatever comes next.

Your measurement series therefore has a hole, and the only honest handling is to label it. Record the install date of the replacement. Keep whatever Chartable or Backtracks figures you still have as a separate, clearly labelled series. Do not join the two into one line in a media kit.

This matters more than it sounds in a sponsor conversation. A buyer who notices that a download series changed measurement provider mid-chart, with no note, reasonably stops trusting the rest of the deck. A dated note saying measurement moved to a new provider on a specific date costs you nothing and buys you the benefit of the doubt. Podtrac vs Backtracks and Podder vs Backtracks both cover live options for the publisher-side job.

What to do this week

Install a prefix on your feed first, before you finish evaluating anything. Every day without one is a day of measurement you cannot recover later, and the install is reversible. Verify that a current episode is being counted, then write the date down.

After that, work the list. Decide whether you need link attribution now or later, and check SmartLinks for podcasters if promotional routing was part of what you lost. Decide whether advertiser-facing reporting is a real requirement or an aspiration, because that is the line item that separates a $19 analytics subscription from an enterprise contract.

Switching is an install, not a migration, because there is nothing to carry across. Chartable is gone, and Podder is where a lot of its users landed. Add the prefix, confirm one episode reports, and start the clean series today rather than after the evaluation.