Top 9 Affiliate Software for Small Businesses

Affiliate software helps businesses manage partner relationships.

Do you partner with external sellers or businesses to promote your offerings to a broader audience and increase visibility? Partnering with affiliates is a great way to boost your marketing efforts and reach more buyers.

But you have to track the referrals, endorsements, and recommendations made by affiliates. You also have to protect your and your partners’ privacy by preventing risk events such as fraudulent chargebacks or the use of stolen credit cards for purchases. In such instances, affiliate software can be of value.

The software automatically tracks affiliates’ click-through performance, sales, advertising impressions, and more. It also tracks visitor data so you can review the types of leads your partners are bringing to your website.

To help you make the right software choice, we’ve listed the top nine affiliate software tools based on two parameters: user ratings and popularity. Each parameter is weighted and scaled to a value between 1 and 50.

• User ratings: This parameter considers the overall user ratings of products based on reviews written in the last 24 months. Users rate products on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).
• Popularity: This parameter considers the average monthly search volume for a standardized set of keywords for each product (as derived by a proprietary search methodology) as well as the position of the vendor’s domain on the search engine results page (SERP) for each keyword. It’s a measure of user interest and relevance used as a proxy for popularity.

Note:

Products are listed in descending order of their total scores—i.e., summation of user ratings and popularity scores. If two or more products have the same score, they are listed alphabetically.

Kartra: Offers marketing and sales capabilities

• User rating: 44/50
• Popularity score: 50/50

Kartra is a cloud-based marketing platform that provides a built-in affiliate management system with options to recruit, incentivize, pay, and communicate with affiliates.

With Karta, you can set partners’ commissions either as a percentage of total sales or a fixed dollar value. You can also get an overview of the total revenue generated, earnings per click, and other parameters through an analytics dashboard.

The software allows you to create custom landing pages with multiple affiliate links to control affiliate traffic. You can also create an affiliate sign-up page to offer a superior registration experience. You can view details such as personal information, promotional links, performance, pending or recurring commissions, and payment history for all affiliates on their profiles.

Kartra doesn’t have a dedicated mobile application, but it can be accessed via web browsers on desktop and mobile devices. Its product documentation resources include FAQs and training videos, and customer support options include chat, help desk, and phone.

Key Features:

• Campaign management
• Commission management
• Landing pages
• Lead management
• Surveys
• Data security

Trial/Free Version: Free Trial

Starting price:

$79 per month (billed annually)

Device Compatibility:

Screenshot:

PartnerStack: Supports partner onboarding and training

• User rating: 49/50
• Popularity score: 43/50

PartnerStack is a cloud-based B2B partner management platform that helps businesses recruit, onboard, and manage partners in affiliate programs. The software has built-in marketplace and payment automation systems to drive sales, calculate conversions, and pay the commission—all through one platform.

The software lets you automate the process of launching and scaling affiliate partnerships. You can list your program in the PartnerStack marketplace to recruit affiliate partners for marketing your brand. You can also build custom onboarding plans for different partners and send automated emails to them.

PartnerStack lets you trigger offers such as bonus incentives to provide a custom experience to your partners. You can run multiple partner programs for affiliate, referral, and reseller partners, among others.

The software automatically calculates the number of affiliate partner conversions and pays out the commission on time. It provides self-serve capabilities to your partners by allowing them to withdraw payments, access resources, and view reports on their own.

PartnerStack doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app, but it can be accessed via web browsers on desktop and mobile devices. Its customer support options include chat and an online help center.

Key Features:

• Partner payments
• Contact management
• Incentive/bonus management
• Onboarding
• Lead management
• Referral management

Trial/Free Version:

Free Trial

Free Version Starting price:

Contact vendorDevice Compatibility:

Dashboard to track affiliate partnerships in PartnerStack (Source)3

AffiliateWP: Provides affiliate management for WordPress

User rating: 47/50
Popularity score: 35/50

AffiliateWP is a cloud-based affiliate marketing solution that helps manage affiliate programs on WordPress. It lets you track registrations, top earners, and account information.

The software provides integrated payout services to pay affiliates directly in their bank accounts or debit cards. Its reporting capability helps track affiliate-referral visits, earnings, and registrations in real time. It also provides a dashboard for your affiliates to track their performance, sales, referrals, and URL links, among others.

You can enable automatic affiliate account creation for anyone who registers a new WordPress user account on your site. You can create customized emails for pending affiliate applications, application approval and rejection, new referral notifications, and other admin notifications.

AffiliateWP’s product documentation resources include FAQs and a knowledge base. Customers can reach out to the support team by filling up a web form through the help center.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

AffiliateWP

Read reviews

View Profile

Key Features:

Affiliate coupon tracking
Social promotion
Commission management
Referral link generator
Banner managementTrial/Free Version:

Free Trial

Free Version Starting price:

$149.50 per site per yearDevice Compatibility:

Screenshot:

Payouts in AffiliateWP (Source)

4

PayKickstart: Tracks lead and sales referrals

User rating: 47/50
Popularity score: 35/50

PayKickstart is a cloud-based subscription billing and affiliate management solution that lets you run affiliate programs and reward partners for referrals and leads. It has a marketplace to promote your products and attract affiliates.

The software lets you accept or deny affiliate requests, set custom recurring commissions, and create revenue sharing contracts with your partners. Its link tracking feature helps ensure proper commission and credits for the referrals generated. It integrates with PayPal to automate the payout process and send instant commission payouts.

Your partners can add new customers to your current email lists as well as view tracking links, marketing materials, and reports. They can create private promotional links and custom landing pages that are single sign-on (SSO) enabled. They can manage their profile; add commission payout methods; monitor key metrics such as clicks, conversion rates, and sales; and track pending and paid commissions.

PayKickstart has a mobile application for Android and iOS devices. Its customer support options include chat, FAQs, and a help center.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

Post Affiliate Pro: Creates audit logs to track affiliate activity

User rating: 47/50
Popularity score: 35/50

Post Affiliate Pro is a cloud-based affiliate referral software platform that helps manage an affiliate marketing program from start to end. It offers features such as email marketing, behavioral targeting, lead generation, commission distribution, and personalized advertising to automate routine tasks.

You can launch an affiliate marketing program, create and manage an affiliate network, and track affiliate activity. You can also create custom reports for top affiliates, banners, commissions, top URLs, campaign trends, and more.

The software lets you create audit logs to track the activities of merchants and affiliates. This helps avoid fraudulent activities such as logging inaccurate hours for more commission or duplicating transactions. The tool’s geotargeting feature helps identify regions where your affiliate programs are most successful so you can search for leads faster.

Post Affiliate Pro has a mobile application for Android and iOS devices. Its product documentation is available in the learning academy and knowledge base. Customers can contact the support team via email, phone, and live chat.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

6

Tapfiliate: Runs affiliate, referral, and influencer programs

User rating: 46/50
Popularity score: 36/50

Tapfiliate is cloud-based affiliate software that helps create, scale, and track affiliate marketing programs. It can be used by eCommerce companies, software providers, and B2B and B2C brands to create custom branded affiliate pages, referral links, dashboards, and emails.

With Tapfiliate, you can grow your social reach by using shareable social media posts to provide engaging content. You can also set up custom payout methods and multiple types of commissions—one time, monthly, fixed, or per category/product.

The software lets you automate emails, workflows, and other tasks through the integration functionality. It also lets you set up performance-based bonuses and incentives to boost sales and achieve targets.

Tapfiliate doesn’t have a mobile app but can be accessed through web browsers on desktop and mobile devices. Its customer support options include FAQs, chat, and email.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

7

LeadDyno: Sets up a custom commission structure

User rating: 45/50
Popularity score: 36/50

LeadDyno is a cloud-based affiliate tracking software tool that helps eCommerce and SaaS businesses increase their revenue by monitoring the performance of marketing efforts through a centralized dashboard.

The software lets you track visitors, leads, sales, shares, and clicks in real time to provide an overview of marketing campaign performance. You can even track a campaign to a particular URL to monitor marketing efforts.

You can share newsletters on product offerings and new launches with your partners. You can set up a commission structure to pay either a percentage of sales or a fixed amount to your affiliates. You can also create customized emails that are automatically sent at a set frequency.

LeadDyno offers a mobile app for Android and iOS. Its customer support options include email support, phone support, live chat, and a resource center.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

Affise: Automates and scales partner relations

User rating: 46/50
Popularity score: 27/50

Affise is a cloud-based partnership marketing platform for agencies, networks, brands, and publishers to drive revenue through partner marketing channels globally.

It allows you to recruit new partners, influencers, or affiliates; track performance; manage partner marketing campaigns; automate payments; and scale campaigns—all through a single platform. It also offers advanced targeting settings to help match your offerings with the best-fit users or prospects.

The software provides custom dashboards to track and analyze URL clicks, visitors, and campaign performance to help manage the traffic to your websites. You can export performance comparison reports to measure campaign success, sales, payouts, and customer turnout. Insights from these reports can help you detect gaps and possible fraudulent activities in any transaction or commission payout.

Affise’s product documentation is available in the knowledge hub and academy. Its customer support options include chat and help desk.

*Analysis accurate as of May 13, 2022

Circlewise: Manages in-house affiliate programs

• User rating: 49/50
• Popularity score: 22/50

Circlewise is a cloud-based affiliate and partnership marketing tool that lets you partner with influencers and affiliates through a performance-reviewed marketplace.

You can consolidate and manage all partner activities on the platform, right from recruitment to payouts. You have access to self-service dashboards to create, edit, pause, and track promotional offers. You can also customize advertisements and performance reports according to your needs.

You can customize the platform as per your brand guidelines to make your affiliates feel more connected to your company. Through the platform, you can connect to influencers on social media channels to create successful campaigns. You can also generate reports to analyze and measure performance across all traffic channels.

Circlewise’s customer support options include chat support, phone support, and a help desk.

What features do affiliate software tools offer?

The core feature of affiliate software is:

Affiliate management: Managing and tracking the affiliate network to run promotions, grow sales, and increase profitability.

All the products listed in this report include the core feature mentioned above.

Besides the core feature, affiliate software tools also offer certain common features:

Banner managementFraud detectionLead generation

How to choose the best affiliate software for your business

Keep these considerations in mind when selecting affiliate software for your small business:

Check software security. While shortlisting software, check its security aspects. Ask the vendor if they use their own servers or rely on third-party providers to store and process customer data. Also, ensure the vendor complies with data security regulations such as the General Data Protection Act (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Look for security features such as fraud prevention, IP address monitoring, browser detection, and payment security.

Look for customization. Opt for a software tool that allows you to customize the affiliate recruitment and registration experience. You should be able to customize the software interface according to your company’s branding guidelines. You should also be able to control access to affiliate program details such as performance reports, total sales, and payout data.

Opt for scalability. To grow your business, you’ll be running different campaigns and taking in more partners. Make sure your shortlisted platform is capable enough to store, generate, and track affiliate partner data, as it keeps increasing with every new transaction. The platform must be scalable enough to grow with your partner/affiliate network.

Common questions to ask when selecting affiliate software

These are some common questions you can ask vendors when purchasing an affiliate platform:

Does your software integrate with other tools?

While looking for an affiliate marketing software tool, check its integration capability. The platform must integrate with your website, shopping cart, and payment gateway to track referrals, purchases, clicks, sales, leads, and any other web actions. Such integrations are necessary to calculate floating, fixed, or recurring commission for your affiliates.

How many businesses are already using your software?

Software that is newly launched in the market can be risky to deploy, so you must know who else is using it. Do your research and find an affiliate marketing software tool that businesses from your industry already use and trust.

What type of support services do you offer?

If you face any technical issue with the software, such as the platform may show server errors or bugs you cannot fix, you will have to reach out to the vendor. Before making a purchase decision, ask vendors about the type of support options available. Understand the entire process of reaching out to the support staff with an issue and the timeline to get the issue resolved.

How did we choose these products? We didn’t—you did

To find your ideal software match, you need information you can trust—so you can save time, stay on budget, and focus more energy on growing your business. It’s why we vet and verify all our user reviews and recommend only the tools endorsed by people like you.

In other words, our product recommendations are never bought or sold, or based on the opinion of a single individual—they’re chosen by your peers, reflecting the views and experiences of our independent base of software reviewers.

At Capterra, we objectively select and rank products based on a methodology developed by our research team. Some vendors pay us when they receive web traffic, but this does not influence our methodology.

To be considered for this list, products had to meet the following criteria:

• Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Capterra within 24 months of the start of the research process for a given report (March 2022).
• Product shows evidence of offering affiliate marketing functionality as demonstrated by publicly available sources such as the vendor’s website.
• Product serves North American users, as demonstrated by product reviews submitted from that region.
• Product is relevant to software buyers across industries or sectors—in other words, no “niche” solutions that cater exclusively to one specific type of user, as determined by our analysis of user reviews and/or market research.
• Product achieves a minimum normalized overall user review rating, after normalizing and weighting review recency (see description under “Scoring” section).
• Product achieves a minimum popularity score.

Scoring: To arrive at a final Rating score per product:

• Scores are calculated for the Ratings dimension based on overall average user ratings.
• Average product ratings are normalized for recency and volume of reviews.
• Scores for each dimension are scaled to a maximum of 50.

Products are represented, included, and/or scored solely based on user ratings and popularity data and are independent of any relationship that Capterra has with vendors.