Best Affiliate Marketing Software – Run your own programs

Run, track & manage your own affiliate marketing program

Having run a few successful affiliate marketing websites I know how successful they can be for companies.

Why you should trust my recommendations? I’ve run multiple successful affiliate websites and also managed multiple affiliate programs client-side. My main property attracted over 300,000 visitors a month and resulted in a self-employed remote lifestyle with a staff of three part-time writers. I have worked with AWin, Commission Junction and all major networks both as an affiliate and as a publisher.

There are really 2 main ways to make an affiliate marketing program happen for your company.

1. Join an affiliate marketing network
2. Run your own program using affiliate marketing software

Let’s start with number 1 and then move on as this post is focused on companies who want to run their own Affiliate Marketing Program, and are looking for the best software to do it.

1: Joining an affiliate marketing network

There are benefits to joining an existing and established network like AWin (affiliate window), CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction), ShareaSale and more.

These benefits include:

• Access to thousands of affiliates by being part of their affiliate directory
• Coaching, suggestions and guidance on how to set up and run an effective affiliate program
• Being on a network where someone else worries about approvals, payouts and uptime

Some of the challenges can be:

• Getting lost in all the other companies in the network
• Less control over the affiliates experience
• Cost of set up, fees and ongoing commissions you have to pay to the network itself

Now let’s start learning how to run your own affiliate marketing business and the best software to do it. I’ve evaluated the best affiliate marketing software.

2: Run your own program using affiliate marketing software

Running your own in-house affiliate program doesn’t have to require a huge amount of effort. The available hosting affiliate solutions have made this easier and easier over time. You will need to work harder to find advocates and affiliates but the best place to start is with your existing customers. Some ideas for where you can promote your program:

• In welcome emails when people join your mailing list
• In post purchase emails
• On your order confirmation page
• In your cart abandon emails (why not? making money is different to spending money for people)
• In targeted look-a-like audience adverts in facebook
• In retargeting display ads on adwords
• A link in your website footer
• Post it on your social media channels

The benefits of running your own program include:

• Full control over all the things
• Save money on fees and commissions to the platform
• Update, change and edit offers to affiliates as you like
• Get backlinks from affiliates linking to your site, rather than linking through a networks site (big deal this one)
• Direct relationship with affiliates and influencers
• Speed and agility to change and adapt as you need to

Some of the challenges of running your own program include:

• Having to figure most of it out yourself, unless your SaaS provider can help (set up is pretty easy)
• Managing payouts to affiliates (usually doable through PayPal etc easily)
• Keeping it fresh if you want to do updates to your campaigns and branding
• Having someone in the business own it.

Let’s assume you’ve decided to run your own program and you need to know what affiliate marketing software you should use.

What do I need to look for when I am looking at affiliate marketing software?

When looking for the best options for the software the obvious feature is that it was fully hosted. Almost a no-brainer these days. I didn’t want to host our own software and have to manage upgrades and updates.

The rest of the requirements I wanted were as follows:

• Global affiliate options – allow our affiliated to be in any market and any country in over the world.
• PayPal Payouts – allow us to easily payout to affiliates where ever in the world they are.
• Own domain in referral URLs – ensure we get backlink benefits from links to our website.
• MLM options – Allow people to recruit other people under them.
• Multiple Commission Tiers – allow us to offer increased commissions to top performers, or offer different categories of rewards. e.g. a top tier could be our VIP affiliate commission rate which is 15%, as opposed to the starting bracket which could be 10% payout.
• Custom Affiliate Portals (affiliate has their own landing pages) – allow our affiliated to have their own custom landing pages to promote in their publishing. This ideally would still be ‘hosted’ on our domain, but it’s quite a challenge for it to be so it wasn’t a blocker.
• Reporting for the business and affiliates – allow us to see how each affiliate is performing and for them to easily see how they are doing. Automated and regular scheduled mail progress updates would be a bonus.
• Easy to build and access asset library (banners ads etc. for affiliates to cut and embed) – quick and easy access to banner images, links and other promotional assets for customers. 
• Coupon Management – this is also not a ‘must have’ but it would be nice for affiliates to be able to offer a coupon for redemption at checkout. This would need to integrate with our Shopify store. The negative of a coupon is that it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a link back to the site; but it’s still someone promoting our company so all good.
• Social Sharing – this probably lives under the asset library. A place where people can easily share pre-formated posts for facebook and twitter etc. Ideal click to post or cut and paste to post.
• Fraud detection – more to protect affiliates than us e.g. if robots are hijacking inbound links. Fraud detection just seems like a smart choice. 
• Click Reports (not just commission reports) – I’d like publishers and all our affiliates to see what links are getting clicked, not just what links are generating sales. 
• Commission Reports – how much money they are making on our program.
• Easy integration with Shopify or WordPress

Affiliate marketing software comparison

Name	Price	Core Service	SMB or Enterprise
Post Affiliate Pro	$	Affiliate	SMB
tapfiliate	$	Affiliate	SMB
refersion	$	Affiliate + Marketplace	Both
Omnistar (OSI Affiliate)	$	Affiliate	SMB
Everflow	$$	Platform	Both
Voluum	$$$	Affiliate Tracking	Enterprise
HitPath	$$	Affiliate Tracking	Both
Click Inc	$	Affiliate	SMB
Cake	$$$	Affiliate Tracking	Enterprise
Referral Saasquatch	$$$	Affiliate	Enterprise
Lead Dyno	$	Affiliate	Affiliate
Invite Referrals	$	Affiliate	Affiliate
Karta	$	Affiliate + Marketplace	Affiliate

What is the best affiliate marketing software?

I’ve scoured the interweb and this is the list and breakdown of the best affiliate marketing software with details and pros & cons of each.

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1: Post Affiliate Pro

Top Overall Pick Popular and very well established affiliate tracking program. 

In brief: post affiliate pro is mature and feature rich. They have all the things you need and possibly more for your company to run an effective affiliate marketing program. It will allow you to grow in to the future. 

This is a very extensive, affordable and easy to use platform. It understands what makes a good small business affiliate program work and it’s well thought out. These guys have been around for a long time which is why you’ll be hard-pressed to find something this feature-rich at this price or even more expensive.

If you want a quick way out then try their 14-day free trial and see what you think.

Post Affiliate Pro with pricing. It’s a little higher than some others like tapfiliate, Omnistar and even reversion but only just. And you get value for money which is why this should be on the top of your shortlist.

Post affiliate pro starting pricing really suits small to medium businesses and startups. You can quickly set up and manage a program with a 1:1 affiliate relationship arrangement. It’s been around for a long time and really established itself as a market leader.

There is no bad decision with post affiliate pro, as long as you see the feature you need to be listed, you’ll be making a good choice and it will grow as you grow.

post affiliate pro integrates with: more networks, CMS and eCommerce platforms that I can list. Here are the main ones.

• Shopify
• Stripe
• XCart
• WordPress
• Big Commerce
• PayPal
• Joomla
• Drupal
• PrestaShop
• Magento

Check out post affiliate pro for yourself with the 14-day free trial

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2: tapfiliate

Top alternative pick – especially for a really modern quick start program that is somewhat future-proofed.

In Brief: With its open API, integration to Zapier, wide range of commission options and good looking interface AND affordable price tag, Tapfiliate gets my vote for companies looking for affiliate marketing software to grow and promote their business. It’s future-proofed and quick to set up and configure.

Straight away I can tell you that look and feel of tapfiliate affiliate software is the best looking of the lot. Modern, clean and easy to work with. This is a big plus for me. A modern interface and layout makes me also believe, rightly or wrongly, that the software is probably built more recently, and therefore efficiently as changes in programming languages have developed so significantly over the last 10 years.

You get a free 14-day trial so you can try it out and see how it feels.

What I like about Tapfilate, which goes back to what I was saying above, is that it is built with APIs in mind. It is built to integrate with additional services. One significant one is Zapier as this extends it even further. Others include stripe, PayPal, WordPress (plus Woocommerce), Shopify, magneto, paddle, square space and more. At the very least you can drop a small piece of javascript on your site to integrate tracking – this suits people using a custom-built website or app.

A platform built with an API integration always gets a big tick from me as ensures (typically) it’s open and flexible into the future.

Pricing is affordable. A little more than Omnistar but you’re probably getting more value for money as even the base tier includes Zapier integration, MLM and SEPA payout info. The second tier is not a huge step up and you get things like multi-domain options.

The dashboard and control panels are responsive which is great on mobile and the reporting is clear – click, conversions, geo-located commissions, pending payments and commission amounts.

The asset manager includes Banners, Text Links, Feeds, Videos and Social Posts. Most people will use text links so that makes it easy. Interestingly I know that there is the option of a coupon but it’s not in my login currently.

tapfiliate integrates with:

• Shopify
• Squarespace
• WIX Stores
• WordPress
• WooCommerce
• Weekly
• Big Commerce
• Volusion
• Prestashop
• Magento
• Miva
• Wp Easy Cart
• Hikashop
• Teachable
• 3Cart
• OpenCart
• Cratejoy
• Lightspeed
• And more…

Check out tapfiliate and get a 14 free trial period

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3: refersion

Best hybrid network & 1:1 affiliate solution. Highly Recommended.

In brief: refersion have both a network and the ability for you to run your own 1:1 program on their network. This means you have your own white label affiliate program with branded page AND you can also be a part of their affiliate directory for affiliates to find you that way. It’s popular, effective and you really can white-label it nicely.

Refersion have a 14-day free trial which is a good start. You can log in, kick the tires and see where it ends up for you. The interface is attractive and you get a good feel for your current position quickly. 

Reversion is slightly more feature-rich compared with tapfiliate or Omnistar but less enterprise than Tune or Voluum. I say this mostly as there is an enterprise-level offering and the reversion marketplace which is where all refersion affiliate programs can be listed. Marketplace inclusion is optional.

One of the features I like about refersion which I’ve seen on the Shopify integration and guess it’s a conversion page options for most of their plugs is a pop up that says ‘Thanks for your order’ and then says ‘Refer your friends and get a rebate!’. Under that, it says active your link, when you click it provides a link immediately that they can share on social media (via ready to share buttons) or anywhere else they want to. Pretty cool.

I’d recommend refersion quite happily. I’ve signed up to a couple of programs with them and like how it works from the affiliate end.  It ticks most of the boxes I had in my list.

refersion integrates with:

• Shopify (and Shopify Plus)
• Magento
• WooCommerce
• Big Commerce
• Stripe

Check out refersion and get a 14-day free tiral period

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4: Omnistar

Recommended – simple, affordable. Perfect for non-technical small business

In brief: Companies and retailers that just want to run an affiliate program that promotes their online business. e.g. You sell handbags and you want people to promote your website selling handbags. Or you sell an online course and you want people to promote your course, and maybe sign up friends to promote your courses also (MLM). Easy and quick to set up and run. Ideal for non technical people.

I first started using Omnistar back in 2014. I’m a huge fan which is why it’s easy to promote them. My requirements checklist I have listed above is pretty much complete with Omnitracker (OSI Affiliate). It’s missing some bit which I’ll explain below.

The interface is clean and easy to use, the social sharing options are super easy for affiliates to use.

The beat most partners by 1 extra day with a 15-day free trial.

Affiliates get excellent reporting – it’s simple and quick. They get clicks, unique clicks, impressions, leads and conversions in your affiliate dashboard.

For reporting, they also break out social results. So if you share on facebook, twitter or LinkedIn you get unique reporting on clicks and conversions for social channels only.

You can have a link direct to your website for your affiliates to earn direct income from commissions. 

There is also the option for your affiliates to share a link with other people to sign up to be affiliates. This is the MLM or multi-tier feature of the software. So if people become affiliates for your company under them, they get a cut.

Just to recap that bit: they can have two unique links. One for them to get direct commissions from referrals to your website. One they give to people to also sign up as an affiliate under you – multi-level-marketing. (MLM)

A feature they don’t offer is the ability to have your own branded and customised page.

If I said one thing about this option:

My feeling on Omnistar is that it’s a simple, fast option with an affordable starting price. 

Omnistar (OSI Affilaite) Integrates with:

• Shopify
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce
• Drip
• Etsy
• ActiveCampaign
• Wishlist
• MemberPress

Check out Omnistar and their 15-day free trial

5: Voluum

Affordable and feature rich affiliate program. Definitely worth a mention.

In brief: Voluum is part advertising platform part affiliate marketing software. It offers advanced analytics, multi-campaign options and a business version to level up and run a network. Not ideal for small businesses looking for a single business solution, but worth looking at.

Voluum has evolved (possibly pivoted) over the years. It is definitely a more robust platform that starts at a really affordable price point. 

The ability to run multiple campaigns automatically means for the company that wants to just say ‘please promote my business’ will not need all the features that come with this. If you have dedicated marketing staff who are quite smart, then it is a powerful platform that offers the ability to run a lot of campaigns and affiliate based activities effectively.

The reporting is rich and you can drill in pretty deep if you want to. 

My problem with these platforms is that if you don’t have someone who is dedicated to making it work, it can just too much to manage and handle. You’ll end up running one campaign and never leveraging all it can do. If you do have someone on your team who can commit to making this work, and they can work on ongoing campaigns to make your company successful, then it’s a good choice. 

An advanced feature that also makes this better value for money is the traffic distribution AI. This algorithm automates your traffic so it lands on pages that are more likely to convert. So you can run multiple inbound offers and the AI will help route it correctly.

Voluum is affiliate advertising tracking first and foremost but it delivers well as an affiliate marketing platform too.

Check out Voluum here and its feature rich offers

6: Everflow

An affiliate network and platform a level up.

In brief:  This is more of a platform for running advanced affiliate and advertising platforms. People who want advanced analytics who also want to run multiple affiliate programs or offerings within one piece of software. Companies that want to run a platform for both affiliates AND advertisers. More that you need for a single small company running a program.

For interest sake I asked in online forums which affiliate marketing software I should use and Everflow was mentioned by one person. I’m not sure if that’s a vote or a lack of votes.

Everflow is pretty nerdy so it will help if you like really getting into the analytics and data to make it most successful. It can run a program for one company, but it can do much more too.

Everflow costs more than some, less than others but you do get features that match the price. Everflow really suits people who are interested in running more than one partner program and more than one channel. It’s an affiliate platform and more than just affiliate software.

The analytics go deep. If the sales presentation includes the option for pivot tables I begin to zone out. I expect the software to present data quickly and simple, but such are my needs.

If you’re time-poor, only have a single company and don’t care for detailed reporting, it might not be for you.

If you are a larger company managing affiliate, influencers and strategic partners – this will be more suitable for you.

Finally, I’m always a bit disappointed in affiliate marketing platforms that don’t run their own program on their own software.

Check out everflow here

7: Tune

Enterprise SaaS Affiliate marketing platform.

In brief: Tune is serious partner management and affiliate network software. Smaller companies or companies looking for a SaaS affiliate platform, parent management platform or performance marketing platform with serious firepower (and fees).

Tune boasts some large customers. It’s a platform that is more about partners and performance marketing than a 1:1 affiliate solution. If you have a network you need to feed you can load this up, share out your campaigns and campaign details, then track it back to your networks where ever it comes from. You can bring on advertising partners who can recruit advertisers and then report and reward based on results.

If you’re looking for an enterprise solution and work with advertising partners, check it out. If you want a 1:1 relationship with your affiliates and not work with partners, then skip this. 

Check out Tune