In this post, I will be reviewing the 13 best affiliate management software platforms.
And discuss what they have to offer.
Affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular way to generate revenue for your business, but it can be difficult to manage affiliate programs without the right software.
These are special software you can use to manage, track, assign, and recruit affiliate marketers – who help to bring leads to your business…
To lessen the burden of spending too much on advertising, enabling you to focus on other aspects of serving your customers better.
Let’s get into it.
13 Best Affiliate Management Software to Manage Your Affiliates in 2021:
Software | Starting Price | G2 Rating | Link |
---|---|---|---|
Post Affiliate Pro | $97/mo | 4.5/5 | 14days free |
Thrivecart | $495 onetime | 4.6/5 | Lifetime deal |
PartnerStack | n/a | 4.7/5 | Book demo |
LinkMink | $39/mo | n/a | 14days free |
Tapfiliate | $69/mo | 3.4/5 | 14days free |
Kartra | $99/mo | 4.0/5 | $1 14days |
FirstPromoter | $49/mo | 5.0/5 | 14days free |
LeadDyno | $49/mo | 4.1/5 | 30days free |
iDevAffiliate | $39/mo | n/a | none |
PayKickStart | $99/mo | 4.8/5 | 14days free |
Refersion | $89 | 3.6/5 | 14days free |
ClickFunnels | $97/mo | 4.7/5 | 14days free |
OsiAffiliate | $47/mo | n/a | 15days free |
Here is reviewed the list of affiliate management software marketing platforms:
#1. Post Affiliate Pro
Post Affiliate Pro affiliate is a very popular software for managing your affiliate program.
It is one of the most powerful affiliate marketing tools for optimizing affiliate programs.
It has been helping online businesses for years, to help keep track of leads, manage commission payouts, and a bunch of other pretty stuff.
From my experience and research, this is the best affiliate management tracking tool for businesses.
This software provides advanced functionality you need in every affiliate management system.
Based on the reviews from various software marketplaces and SaaS review sites – Post Affiliate Pro happens to be one of the top-rated affiliate tracking software.
Talk about review sites like G2, TrustPilot, and GetApp.
A 4.5 review rating from G2:
With unique UI, it comes with dozens of affiliate-friendly features and seamlessly integrates with lots of other online marketing tools and payment gateways.
Top Features
- multiple tracking methods (customize affiliate links, sub ID channel tracking, currency tracking)
- set commission types (recurring, split, multi-tier, lifetime, and custom commission)
- option to add affiliate promo materials (images, coupons, text link banners, HTML banners, PDFs, etc)
- customizable interface to look the way you want
- comprehensive reporting to effectively track the performance
- mass payouts to affiliate
- supports 36+ languages
- provides extra tools to optimize your affiliate campaigns
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Robust reporting
- Fraud detection
- Multiple tracking methods
- Different commission types (MLM, CPA, recurring)
- Nice UI and UX
- Great customer support
Cons
- Expensive for small business owners
This affiliate managing software has a 14-day free trial which after you can decide to start from the PRO plan of $97/mo up to $477/mo NETWORK plan
#2. ThriveCart
Thrivecart is known as a dedicated shopping cart software with a funnel building, affiliate tracking with other cool features.
I mean when it comes to creating and hosting shopping cart pages, taking product payments, upsells, Dunning -ThriveCart is flawless
You can perform the necessary activities when it comes to managing affiliates, generate links, pay affiliates, tracking, and all other basic needs.
One amazing feature that caught my attention my its affiliate management is the automatic bonus sending feature that lets your affiliate send bonuses to referrals automatically. Awesome!
Thrivecart Top Features
- instant PayPal payouts to affiliates
- create and enable 2-tier affiliates
- set custom commissions and payouts for specific affiliates
- automate adding, removal, and payouts of affiliate partners
- automatic bonus delivery/sending features from partners to referrals
- comprehensive affiliate dashboard to view affiliate performance
- JV contracts and revenue sharing option
- integrates with your autoresponder to easily create powerful rules based on various triggers for your affiliates
- Only works for products sold through the Thrivecart shopping cart system
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Powerful affiliate rules
- Simple (but powerful) reporting dashboard
- automatic bonus delivery for affiliates
- Super-easy to manage and setup
- Huge and engaged Facebook community
- Regular update
- Onetime pricing (good deal atm)
- option to manually (or automatically) import or delete affiliates
Cons
- works only on products sold via the Thrivecart system
- no free trial available
As of the time of writing this post, Thrivecart only has a one-time pricing option which costs $495 for standard or $690 Pro. This is a limited offer and might become unavailable anytime soon to become a $99/mo software.
#3. PartnerStack
This is another affiliate marketing management and tracking software I have seen in action as an affiliate myself.
I must say that it really caught my attention due to the fact that I’ve seen some people in my network recommend it to others.
One of the best for tracking affiliate performance.
PartnerStack happens to be the best choice of so many software companies like Unbounce, Asana, Thinkific, Instapage, and many others.
It has everything you need to start and scale your partner, reseller, and marketing program.
Starting from, the integration capabilities with other tools, follow-up with your affiliates, asset management, and swift payout functionality feature.
You also have the opportunity to speed up your partner marketing programs by joining other great businesses that makes use of the PartnerStack marketplace, which is way better than many tracking systems with a marketplace.
PartnerStack Top Features
- multiple payment path to affiliates (PayPal and Stripe)
- a marketplace that connects you to agencies and affiliate partners
- best for Saas affiliate programs
- integrates with your favorite CRM
- anti-fraud & security
- helpful affiliate management software support (ticket-based, email, phone, 1:1)
- multiple partner types, groups and tiers
- full commission management
Pros and Cons
Pros
- most recommended for SaaS companies
- fraud detection
- create custom referral links for partners
- great support
- nice UI and UX
- awesome reporting and analytics
Cons
- very expensive
- no pricing displayed nor free trials
- lacks customization
#4. LinkMink
LinkMink is an affiliate management software that provides affiliate managers with a variety of different tools to help them manage the affiliate program.
They work specifically for SaaS businesses.
With LinkMink affiliate management software, affiliate managers can track their commissions and any earnings made by all of their affiliates.
It also has a reporting system that generates graphs so affiliate managers can see the success of each affiliate’s campaign over time.
LinkMink Top Features
- automatically approves commissions
- direct linking to any of your assets so your partners can have a unique URL parameter
- robust affiliate reporting dashboard both for you and your affiliates
- option to segment affiliates for a different payout and commission structures
- pay affiliates using the PayPal MassPay option in a click
- reliable leads and sales tracking
- automatic and manual affiliate approvals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- LinkMink is a Stripe verified partner
- fast and easy set up (as little 15 minutes)
- direct linking to any page
- automatic approvals
- simple and sweet looking reporting dashboard
- helpful support with LiveChat
Cons
Limited integrations
Works mainly for SaaS
LinkMink starts with a $39 per month pricing on the Starter plan – up to $100 on for the advanced plan. There’s also a 14-day free trial.
#5. Tapfiliate
Tapfiliate is cloud-based affiliate tracking and management platform enabling you to create, track, and optimize your own affiliate marketing campaigns.
With advanced tracking capability.
Tapfiliate is a software geared towards e-commerce and SaaS businesses.
This platform has a nice user interface and it offers a range of features for managing affiliate campaigns in one place.
Not just that, you can set everything up and running and start recruiting affiliates immediately.
So far from what I’ve seen, their customer care support is topnotch.
Most of the features aren’t new things to be excited about though.
But a few ones that are worth looking into are the advanced social media sharing option that allows your affiliates to seamlessly share any of your affiliate assets on social media platforms with their links embedded.
With one click.
Tapfiliate Top Features
- easy setup
- full REST API & webhooks features to automate workflows
- social media sharing buttons and assets for affiliates
- ability to onboard affiliates, approve commissions automatically
- set commission structures and bonuses based on affiliate performance
- adjust and configure commission types (recurring, onetime)
- seamless integrations with your favorite platforms
- supports 6 different languages
- You can give your affiliate access to a branded affiliate dashboard
Pros and Cons
Pros
- customizable user interface
- advanced social sharing feature (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest)
- easy integration with tools (including Zapier)
- ability to use Tapfiliate to your custom site using just a few lines of codes
Cons
- tracking can be sometimes inconsistent
- limited to only 6 language
The monthly pricing starts from $69/mo for the Essential plan. There’s also a free trial for new users.
#6. Kartra
Kartra is an industry leading marketing automation and sales funnel marketing tool.
You can use Kartra to build out a sales funnel, membership site, automate sales, manage and assign affiliates.
Kartra inbuilt affiliate management software is one of the most-sophisticated and feature-riched in the market.
The affiliate system gives you all of the options for recruiting, incentivizing, managing, paying and communicating with your affiliates – all from one integrated system.
Besides serving as an affiliate tracking and managing system – you can also manage your Joint Ventures (JVs) with the help of Kartra affiliate feature.
Kartra Top Features
- detailed analytics of affiliates and JVs performance
- option to create and offer custom landing pages to your affiliates
- automatically or manually (using questionnaire) approve affiliates
- ability to setup multiple commission tiers and group affiliates based on performance
- create joint brokers (they recruit affiliates for you, earning a second-tier commission)
- reward based on lead or sale acquisition
- allow instant Paypal payouts via Paypal’s adaptive payment
- free affiliate signup, registration and questionnaire page templates (all thanks Kartra Pages)
Pros and Cons
Pros
- you gain free access to other inbuilt Kartra tools and funnel builder
- set commissions structures with ease
- marketplace available to showcase your product and have affiliates apply
- simple and understandable affiliate analytics
- tons of affiliate page templates to choose from
- build custom landing pages for partners
Cons
- could be expensive for small businesses
- steep learning curve
Kartra starts at $99/mo with access to the entire software suite. No free trial available but there’s a $1 access for 14days.
TRY KARTRA AFFILIATE MANAGER HERE
#7. FirstPromoter
FirstPromoter is one of the most popular affiliate management software in this space and mostly geared towards SaaS businesses.
It has almost everything you need to run your own referral, affiliate, and influencer program – providing you with some sophisticated features for tracking affiliate marketers.
It is amazing for SaaS and online course creators.
FirstPromoter’s affiliate marketing management suite comes with everything you need to create referral programs and it is incredibly easy to set up and use.
With its fairly customizable dashboard, you can change the look of your affiliate area the way you want (logos, colors, etc.).
Unlike other affiliate tracking software on this list, it integrates with Stripe, Recurly, Braintree, Chargebee and natively with their own API.
FirstPromoter Top Features
- automatic commission adjustments and tracking (track refunds, chargebacks, billing)
- vendor-affiliate engagement feature (automatically emails affiliates on signups, progress, sales)
- onboard new affiliates with pre-made, customizable email drips
- fraud protection
- direct URL tracking and subID tracking
- supports multiple currencies (190+)
- use your own domain or sub-domain
- Best for subscription-based products (recurring and one-time charges, upgrades, cancellations, refunds, expired CCs)
- One-click automated Paypal payouts (pay hundreds of affiliates in one go with 0% commission)
- Powerful reporting and in-depth view of the performance of your affiliate marketing program
Pros and Cons
Pros
- FirstPromoter affiliate links are SEO-friendly
- fraud protection
- supports 190 currencies and currency conversion
- direct URL tracking (to your landing pages)
- allows different commission types
- connect with 1000+ apps using Zapier
- branded affiliate dashboard
- multi-tiered commissions(MLM)
Cons
- can’t make payouts directly from Stripe
- steep learning curve
You can start with a 14-day free trial period before the starter plan of $49/mo.
#8. Lead Dyno
With LeadDyno affiliate management software you turn your fans into sales reps by launching your own affiliate program.
You can set custom commission terms, invite affiliates, and reward them for helping you grow your business.
This affiliate marketing tracking platform makes it easy to give your customers, partners, and supporters a reason to shout about your products from the rooftops.
It includes various metrics such as earnings of your affiliates against the total sales volume generated by them so you can easily see who needs more attention or which type of traffic brings better conversion rates.
In addition, it provides daily updates on how much each individual affiliate earned through their efforts during the previous day.
There are quite some amazing features in this affiliate marketing tool has.
But It’s pretty basic compared to advanced options like Post Affiliate Pro, Thrivecart and PartnerStack.
LeadDyno Top Features
- affiliate sharing feature for mobile, tablets and laptops
- integration with your favorite marketing platform
- one-click social sharing
- affiliate dashboard application for your affiliates
- visitor, lead and conversion tracking
- integrates with your favorite tools
- flexible commission structures and types (recurring, MLM)
- automatically follow-up and engage with affioliates with LeadDyno’s automation tool
Pros and Cons
Pros
- easy set up. no dev required
- user-friendly analytical dashboard
- flexible commissions and payouts
- bulk pay affiliates with Paypal Mass Pay
- nicely integrates with other tools and social media platforms
Cons
- could be basic for big businesses
All LeadDyno affiliate tracking software plans are month-to-month starting from $49/mo and include a 30-day free trial.
#9. iDevAffiliate
iDevAffiliate affiliate program management platform – an “old kid” in the land of affiliate management.
Over 20 years, this tool has been one of the most used and popular affiliate tracking solutions by online entrepreneurs – affiliate management, tracking, and all sorts.
iDevAffiliate affiliate management software that helps affiliate managers to manage affiliate programs and campaigns.
It is a powerful affiliate marketing suite with everything from account management, affiliate creatives, and landing pages to campaign reports.
It provides you the necessary features needed to create and recruit your own army of affiliate marketers.
That’s not all.
The iDevAffiliate platform is the perfect solution for most of your referral marketing needs. It offers everything from affiliate management solutions to SEO, SEM and more.
iDevAffiliate Top Features
- huge list of integrations
- flexible payout structure (multiple tiers, coupon-based, pay-per-lead, or however you desire)
- marketing resources and promotional materials (videos, banners, email templates, HTML ads)
- detailed reporting with exporting features
- customize your affiliate management dashboard (color, logo etc)
- built-in social media sharing option (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram)
- assign and track coupon codes to affiliate marketers
- fraud prevention and detection tools
- easy integration with your favorite cart, landing pages and ecommerce platform
- built-in SEO linking and localization tool
Pros and Cons
Pros
- easy-to-use affiliate tracking
- designed for both novice and expert users
- been in business for over 20 years (good track-record)
- easy integration
- you can pay using Paypal or Stripe
Cons
- looks somehow outdated
- lacks enough customization option
- no free trial available
This software starts at $39/mo (cloud-hosted) and the self-hosted plan starts at a $199 one-time fee.
#10. PayKickstart
Just like Thrivecart, PayKickStart also serves as a dedicated shopping cart solution for online vendors.
And yes, it also has an affiliate management system built into it.
PayKickstart has several amazing options as a checkout tool and a marketing platform for tracking and managing your army of affiliates.
PayKickStart affiliate tracking and management tool provide affiliate managers the ability to create affiliate campaigns, manage affiliate promotions.
And track affiliate performance through reports from one dashboard.
This lets you see which affiliates have been performing well for you in real-time; keep tabs on overall earnings and outbound traffic; monitor mobile usage stats.
You can even export data into CSV format if needed
PayKickStart Top Features
- advanced reporting (append TIDs, monitor key metrics and keep tracks)
- multiple payment options (PayPal, wire transfers)
- currency converter
- access to promotional tools (banners, email swipe copy)
- automatic bonus delivery feature from affiliates to their referrals
- set automated payouts and instant commissions
- advanced tracking for affiliates
- set commission types, levels, and tiers with a click of a button
- real-time affiliate contest leaderboard widget (can be added to any website or affiliate page)
Pros and Cons
Pros
- automates affiliate payment payout
- supports partners/JV contracts
- easy-to-understand interface
- promotional tool section for affiliates
- free marketplace for users to help generate new affiliates on auto-pilot
Con
- unlikely to work well if your cart isn’t built on PayKickStart
- takes a little time to configure
- limited customization
- could be expensive for small businesses
PayKickStart starts at a basic plan of $99/mo all the way to $149/mo. free trial also available.
#11. Refersion
I have known Refersion for a while now, and even have an account with them. But not as a creator.
I got to discover this affiliate management system when I wanted to apply as an affiliate to some product months back.
Never actually knew that I could also use the platform to manage an affiliate program.
Not until recently.
Refersion is a popular affiliate marketing management software. With it, you can manage affiliate networks and track earnings.
It also has a built-in affiliate training program to help affiliates get started with creating affiliate marketing campaigns on the various affiliate networks that they are signed up in.
Refersion affiliate management platform is somehow simpler and works best for e-commerce. I don’t recommend for SaaS and course creators.
Refersion Top Features
- easily automates commission payouts
- personalized affiliate portals to track sales
- nice-looking reporting and analytical dashboard
- seamlessly integrates with the top (and your favorite) eCommerce platform
- great customization and optimization feature
- set commissions your preferred way
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Best for eCommerce businesses
- helpful customer support
- Unlimited commission structures
- ability to track digital sales from anywhere
Cons
- not recommended in every niche
- tracking a bit limited
Each of the plans gets unlimited affiliates and visits, starting from $89/mo.
#12. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is yet another all-in-one marketing system that is designed specially to take care of all your online marketing needs.
Part of its features also includes an affiliate marketing management platform. Backpack.
It’s inbuilt affiliate platform is always buggy and inconsistent. A lot of customers have complained and left to other affiliate systems.
And only available on the Platinum plan of $297 per month.
Although, it’s a great tool for building sales funnel from scratch to top and managing other parts of your online business and marketing campaigns.
I highly recommend it as the best software for creating both simple and complicated funnels.
One of the nice things about ClickFunnels is how easy it is to use and integrates with other affiliate management software on this list.
ClickFunnels BackPack Top Features
- creating new commission plans to two-tier type
- manage affiliate payments (mass payments, selected payments)
- customize your commission plan
- easily add and integrate with your existing sales funnel
- design your affiliate area the way you want
- promo area available
- huge reporting dashboard
Pros and Cons
Pros
- pretty easy to set up
- add promo materials (banners, PDFs, email swipes, videos)
- access to affiliate area customization (but limited)
- supports tier2 and JV contracts
Cons
- can be buggy (with reporting) sometimes
- expensive (access only available on the $297 plan)
- can’t use outside of ClickFunnels
The basic plan starts at $97/mo (without an affiliate software). The Platinum suite plan costs $297/mo where you get access to the affiliate system.
#13. OSIAffiliate
OSI affiliate marketing tracking and affiliate management software is one of the best out there.
It is easy to use, integrates with lots of applications, customizable looks, and great customer support (phone, LiveChat, Helpdesk, and knowledgebase).
You are being provided with almost all the features you need to get the best in your partnership with other marketers.
OSIAffiliate Top Features
- promotional tools (social media, email templates)
- comprehensive affiliate reporting features
- supports coupons and discounts
- set commission types and track clicks, leads and sales
Pros and Cons
Pros
- integrates with your favorite tools
- free set up for new users
- advanced social sharing and survey feedback tool
- exit intent pop ups
Cons
- interface no friendly
- limitation on visitor count and number of affiliates
OSI Affiliate gives you a free 15 days free trial and the monthly plan starts from $47/mo.
How to Choose the Best Affiliate Management Software
Choosing the best affiliate software for your product or service is important, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
As long as you know what features are necessary and which ones aren’t, deciding which one will work better with your business can actually help streamline operations rather than complicate them.
Every provider seems to offer the same basic features, but not all of them may be able to provide what you need.
Choose one that offers everything you require and your digital marketing business will run smoothly.
Here are factors to consider:
- Ease of use and simplicity
- Promotional tools and creatives
- Security and fraud detection
- Program customization
- Commission management (tiers, types)
- Diverse affiliate tracking
- Software integrations
- Customer support availability
The thing is – an awesome affiliate management software shouldn’t take you time to set up.
And they should provide you with all the needed support and affiliate management features to easily track and engage your affiliate’s success.
Which Best Affiliate Tracking Software Should You Use?
Deciding for which to settle for actually depends on your business goals and the level of functionality you need.
I have to say that it’s really difficult to choose which is the best among all these great affiliate tracking software.
If you already got your business running on another system or you prefer a nicely built advanced affiliate management and tracking software…
Then I highly recommend systems like:
- Post Affiliate PRO (my best overall works for any business)
- Thrivecart (best value for money – LTD)
- PartnerStack (best for SaaS)
Those are the best and my top recommended affiliate manager software.
That said, you can’t go wrong with the tools on this list either.
Recommended: Best Link Tracking Software for Affiliates
Final Thoughts…
The affiliate management software market is saturated with many options to choose from.
I do hope this post has helped you narrow down your search for a good fit and I wish you luck in finding a partner marketing system that meets all of your needs.
I have to say that there’s no perfect solution in this space because choosing the best affiliate management software really boils down to so many factors.
But no matter your choice, I do suggest you put into consideration the factors I listed above. Which all of our top 3 met those criteria.
Still not sure what the best affiliate marketing program management software is for you?
Drop me a comment below.
Further Reading on Khrisdigital: If you plan to launch a marketing campaign, then you could be considering doing an automated or live webinar for your online business, check out my review of the best webinar software platforms and my best marketing automation tools for businesses.
Check out Other Affiliate Marketing Posts:
Found this via google search after wading through tons of cr*p ! This post has the absolute best list I have ever seen. I’ll probably go with first promoter / tapaffiliate.
Thanks a ton for putting this together
Thanks for the kind comment Saurav,
You can’t go wrong with either option man.