Affiliate Software Pricing Comparison 2026 (8 Tools, Verified July 2026)

The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive way to run a SaaS affiliate program in 2026 is more than $12,000 a year, and most of that gap is pricing model, not features. Eight platforms dominate the category and they bill four different ways: flat subscriptions with revenue caps, a percentage of results, a subscription plus a percentage, and usage metering. Which model is cheapest depends almost entirely on how much affiliate revenue you have today.

This page does one job: real numbers. Every price below was checked against the vendor's live pricing page on July 5, 2026, and every dollar figure carries that date. That matters more than it should. Two of these eight vendors materially changed their pricing in the three weeks before this was written — Dub raised its Business plan from $75 to $90 and its Advanced payout fee from 3% to 5%, and PartnerStack published pricing after years of sales-gated quotes. An undated affiliate-software pricing comparison is wrong within a quarter.

One disclosure before the tables: we build Affitor, one of the eight tools below. Percentage pricing — our model — is the cheapest option at some revenue levels and the most expensive at others, and this post shows both without flinching.

Quick answer: how much does affiliate software cost in 2026?

Affiliate software costs anywhere from $0 to more than $1,000 per month in 2026: Affitor charges $0/month plus 3.5% on affiliate-driven sales after your first $10,000; flat-subscription tools run $49–$199/month with revenue caps (Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt) or request metering (Post Affiliate Pro, $89/month list); Dub Partners charges $90/month plus a 5% payout fee; and the enterprise platforms start at $500/month (impact.com, plus a 2.5% transaction fee) and $1,000/month paid annually (PartnerStack). The cheapest choice flips with scale: below roughly $1,400/month in affiliate-driven revenue the percentage model wins, above it flat subscriptions do.

Every price on this page was checked against each vendor's live pricing page on July 5, 2026. Treat the live pages as the source of truth — in this category they drift monthly.

The four pricing models, and who each one punishes

Flat subscription with revenue caps (Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt). You pay the same whether affiliates send you $0 or the tier cap, which makes it predictable and — once the program works — the cheapest model per dollar of affiliate revenue. It punishes two groups: programs that earn nothing yet, for whom the $49–$99/month is pure overhead, and programs that grow, because crossing a cap forces an upgrade. On Rewardful, crossing $7,500/month in affiliate revenue doubles the bill from $49 to $99 (as of July 5, 2026) — you pay more because your affiliates performed.

Percentage of results (Affitor). No subscription; the platform earns only when you do. Affitor is $0/month with a 3.5% fee on affiliate-driven sales that starts after your first $10,000. A common critique says revenue-share pricing punishes growth, and at scale that critique is simply correct: 3.5% of $30,000/month is $1,050/month, several times any flat subscription. The model's value is entirely at the other end — a program that earns nothing costs nothing.

Subscription plus percentage — the double toll (Dub Partners, impact.com, and Tolt's automated payouts as a mild case). You carry the fixed cost while small and the percentage while big, the worst half of both models. Dub Partners charges $90/month and 5% of every partner payout; impact.com charges from $500/month and 2.5% of partner-driven transactions; Tolt adds 2% to automated payouts on top of its subscription (all as of July 5, 2026). A double toll is only worth paying when the platform does something the single-toll tools do not — Dub's link infrastructure, impact.com's ~90,000-partner marketplace.

Usage metering (Post Affiliate Pro). The bill tracks traffic, not results: tiers are metered by tracking requests per month (10,000 on the $89-list Starter). Cheap for a low-traffic, high-conversion program; expensive for the opposite, because you pay for every click including the ones that never convert.

What a full year actually costs

The table below shows 12-month totals at three affiliate-revenue run rates, using each vendor's cheapest tier that fits the volume, at prices verified July 5, 2026. One modeling assumption: the payout-fee math (Dub Partners, Tolt) assumes you pay partners a 20% commission — adjust proportionally for your rate. Affitor figures are steady-state years; your first year is lower because the first $10,000 in affiliate revenue is fee-free ($490 instead of $840 at the $2,000/month run rate).

*Post Affiliate Pro is metered by tracking requests, not revenue — its cost at any run rate depends on your traffic volume, and a 33% promo ($720/year effective on Starter) runs until January 1, 2027.

At $2,000/month, the crossover is already behind you or just ahead. Rewardful and FirstPromoter Starter, at $588/year, are the cheapest flat plans; Affitor costs $840 in a steady-state year but $490 in year one and $0 until your program's first $10,000. The break-even against a $49 subscription sits at exactly $1,400/month in affiliate-driven revenue (3.5% of $1,400 is $49) — below that line the percentage model is cheaper, above it the subscription is.

At $10,000/month, flat pricing wins outright: $1,188/year for Rewardful Growth or FirstPromoter Business against $4,200 for Affitor. That is the honest number. If your program consistently does five figures a month in affiliate revenue, percentage pricing is the expensive option, and the double-toll models sit in between — Dub Business at about $2,280 including payout fees.

At $30,000/month, enterprise flat tiers crush every percentage model: Rewardful and FirstPromoter Enterprise start at $1,788/year while Affitor costs $12,600 — priced like a PartnerStack contract — and impact.com reaches $15,000 once its 2.5% transaction fee is counted.

What the table hides is risk and caps. Every flat number assumes your program actually earns the run rate and stays inside the tier cap; most new programs spend their first months at $0 affiliate revenue, and a year of any $49 subscription at zero results still costs $588. The percentage column is the only one where a program that fails costs nothing. Caps cut the other way: growth that crosses $7,500/month (Rewardful), $5,000/month (FirstPromoter), or a $2,500/month payout ceiling (Dub Business) triggers a forced upgrade the flat sticker price never mentions.

1. Affitor — $0/month plus 3.5% after the first $10,000

Affitor is our product, so here is the model stated plainly: you pay nothing until your affiliate program actually pays you.

Pricing

$0/month, $0 setup, no tiers, and no revenue caps. There is one fee: a 3.5% platform fee on affiliate-driven sales, and it does not start until your affiliates have generated their first $10,000 in revenue. The free threshold is enforced in the billing code, not a limited-time promo. If your affiliates generate nothing, you pay nothing.

Fees on top

None. The 3.5% is the entire price — no payout-processing fee, no per-seat pricing, no setup charge.

What a year costs

$840 at $2,000/month steady state ($490 in year one, $0 until the first $10,000 total), $4,200 at $10,000/month, $12,600 at $30,000/month. The honest read: above roughly $1,400–$2,800/month in consistent affiliate-driven revenue, a flat Rewardful or FirstPromoter tier is cheaper on paper. What the percentage buys below and around that line is zero downside risk before results, no cap-triggered upgrades ever, and a bill that is always a fixed fraction of money affiliates actually brought in. The full setup path is walked in How to create a Stripe affiliate program.

2. Rewardful — flat tiers from $49/month with a true 0% fee

Rewardful is the price anchor for the whole category: the plan everyone else gets compared against.

Pricing

Per rewardful.com/pricing (as of July 5, 2026): Starter is $49/month for up to $7,500/month in affiliate revenue, with 1 campaign and up to 2 team members. Growth is $99/month for up to $15,000/month, with unlimited campaigns and a branded affiliate portal. Enterprise starts at $149/month above that. 14-day free trial, 2 months free on annual billing, no free tier. The REST API is included on every tier, even the $49 plan.

Fees on top

None — the 0% transaction fee is genuine on all tiers. The subscription is all you pay.

What a year costs

$588, $1,188, then from $1,788 at our three run rates — the cheapest per dollar of affiliate revenue in this comparison once your program is earning. The cost event to model is the cap step: crossing $7,500/month in affiliate revenue doubles the bill, and crossing $15,000/month steps it again. If the caps (or cookie-based attribution) are why you are shopping, the Rewardful alternatives guide covers the replacements in depth.

3. FirstPromoter — the same $49 floor with the earliest upgrade wall

FirstPromoter matches Rewardful's sticker prices and hides its differences in the caps and the API gate.

Pricing

Per firstpromoter.com/pricing (as of July 5, 2026): Starter is $49/month for up to $5,000/month in affiliate revenue, 3 campaigns, 1,000 affiliates, and no API. Business is $99/month for up to $15,000/month with unlimited campaigns and affiliates, API and webhooks, and tax forms. Enterprise starts at $149/month. 14-day trial, no card required, no free tier. No transaction fee is stated on the pricing page.

Fees on top

None stated on the pricing page.

What a year costs

The same $588 / $1,188 / from $1,788 as Rewardful at our three run rates — but the $5,000/month Starter cap is the lowest in this peer group, so the forced upgrade to $99 arrives earliest. The other hidden price is the API paywall: the $49 plan is dashboard-only, which rules out programmatic setups until you pay $99/month. The full head-to-head is in Rewardful vs FirstPromoter.

4. Tolt — $69/month with a 2% payout-fee footnote

Tolt sells the highest revenue headroom per dollar of the flat-fee trio, with one nuance in the fine print.

Pricing

Per tolt.com/pricing (as of July 5, 2026): Basic is $69/month for up to $10,000/month in affiliate revenue, with 2 programs and manual payouts only. Growth is $99/month for up to $20,000/month with 5 programs and automated payouts. Pro is $199/month for up to $50,000/month with unlimited programs; Enterprise is custom above that. Unlimited affiliates and referrals on every tier. 14-day trial, no card required, 30-day refund. Note that software directories still show a stale $49 Basic price — the live page says $69.

Fees on top

A 2% processing fee on automated payouts. The Basic tier avoids it only because its payouts are manual.

What a year costs

$828, $1,668, and $3,828 at our three run rates (payout fees modeled at a 20% commission). The $99 Growth tier is the value play — a $20,000/month cap against Rewardful's $15,000 at the same price. The thing to price in is the payout fee's shape: it scales with your commission rate, so a generous 30% program pays proportionally more than the table shows.

5. Post Affiliate Pro — $89/month list, metered by requests, not revenue

Post Affiliate Pro, in market since 2004, is the only tool here whose meter ignores your revenue entirely.

Pricing

Per postaffiliatepro.com/pricing (as of July 5, 2026), list prices: Starter $89/month (10,000 tracking requests/month, unlimited affiliates, up to 2 hours of setup service included), Pro $139/month (1M requests, 220+ integrations), Ultimate $269/month (6M requests, performance rewards), Network $649/month (20M requests, multi-merchant). A 33% promo ($60/$93/$180/$435) runs until January 1, 2027. 30-day free trial, 24/7/365 support on all plans.

Fees on top

None stated — the meter is tracking requests per month, not a percentage of anything.

What a year costs

From $1,068 at list ($720 under the promo) at any revenue level, which makes it the strangest row in the TCO table: a $30,000/month program with modest traffic pays the same as a $2,000/month one. That is a bargain for high-revenue, low-traffic programs and a trap for the reverse — the meter counts every click, including the ones that never convert, and heavy traffic pushes you up tiers regardless of results.

6. Dub Partners — $90/month plus 5% of every payout

Dub Partners is the double toll with the best developer experience, and the fastest-moving price list in this comparison.

Pricing

Per dub.co/pricing (as of July 5, 2026): Partners requires a paid Dub plan — there is no free affiliate tier. Business is $90/month with 10,000 new links/month, 250,000 tracked events, partner payouts up to $2,500/month at a 5% payout fee, and 10 users. Advanced is $300/month with 50,000 links, 1M events, and payouts up to $15,000/month, also at 5%. Enterprise is custom, annual, with a 3% payout fee and SSO/SAML. 14-day trial on paid plans. These numbers are fresh: between June and July 2026, Business went from $75 to $90, Advanced from $250 to $300, and the Advanced payout fee from 3% to 5%.

Fees on top

The 5% payout fee (3% on Enterprise) on every dollar paid to partners — this is the clearest double toll on the page.

What a year costs

$1,320, $2,280, and $7,200 at our three run rates (20% commission assumed). The caps deserve as much attention as the fee: a Business-plan program cannot pay partners more than $2,500 in a month, so a program whose payouts outgrow that is forced to the $300/month Advanced tier. What the toll buys is real — link infrastructure, analytics, SDKs in five languages, and payouts in one platform.

7. impact.com — from $500/month for SaaS, plus 2.5% per transaction

impact.com's $30 headline price is not the price a SaaS will pay.

Pricing

Per impact.com/plans-b2b (as of July 5, 2026): Starter is "priced from $30/month," but it is ecommerce-only — it requires a Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, or Squarespace integration, so it is not an option for a SaaS. The first SaaS-usable tier is Essentials, "priced from $500/month," demo-gated, with access to a marketplace of roughly 90,000 partners. Pro is "priced from $2,500/month" (cross-device tracking, API-based tracking, Data Lab, SAML), and Enterprise is contact-sales. "Priced from" means floors, not quotes.

Fees on top

A 2.5% transaction fee on partner-driven transactions, on top of the subscription.

What a year costs

From $6,600, $9,000, and $15,000 at our three run rates — subscription floor plus the 2.5% fee. It is the second double toll on this page, and the marketplace is the justification: ~90,000 partners discoverable in-network is distribution no point tool offers. If you are pricing it as an affiliate tracker rather than a partnerships network, every other row in the table is cheaper.

8. PartnerStack — from $1,000/month, paid annually

PartnerStack finally has public pricing, and it confirms the category it plays in.

Pricing

PartnerStack published pricing in mid-2026 after years of sales-gated quotes. Per partnerstack.com/pricing (as of July 5, 2026): Launch starts at $1,000/month paid annually, covering affiliate link tracking or lead/deal registration, marketplace access, and partner payments. Growth starts at $1,520/month paid annually, adding advanced integrations, a partner LMS, challenges, and MDF management. Enterprise is custom. Onboarding is demo-led with no free trial stated.

Fees on top

None published.

What a year costs

From $12,000 at every revenue level in our table — it is a contract floor, not a usage curve. That money buys a full partner-relationship-management suite (B2B marketplace, deal registration, training) rather than a tracker, so the comparison is only fair if you need those motions. If affiliate tracking is all you need, this is the wrong aisle — the PartnerStack alternatives guide covers what to use instead.

Which pricing model should you pick?

The honest segmentation is by stage, because the models flip in value as affiliate revenue grows.

$0–500K ARR: pay for results or pay nothing. Your affiliate program probably earns $0 today, so any subscription is pure downside risk — a year of the cheapest flat plan at zero results still costs $588. Affitor is free until affiliates have generated $10,000, which makes the software decision budget-free. If you would rather pay a predictable $49/month for the category's most familiar tool, Rewardful is the default flat pick.

$500K–5M ARR: run the crossover math. If affiliate-driven revenue consistently exceeds roughly $1,400/month (the break-even against a $49 plan) to $2,800/month (against a $99 plan), a flat subscription is cheaper than 3.5%: Rewardful Growth and FirstPromoter Business at $99/month cover up to $15,000/month, and Tolt's $99 tier stretches to $20,000/month. Avoid the double tolls at this stage unless the extras earn their keep — at $10,000/month, Dub's subscription-plus-5% costs nearly twice Rewardful Growth.

$5M+ ARR: flat enterprise tiers are the bargain, suites are the decision. From $1,788/year, Rewardful or FirstPromoter Enterprise undercuts every percentage and double-toll model at scale. Pay PartnerStack's $12,000+/year only when you are running affiliates plus resellers plus referral partners as one managed program, and impact.com's $500–$2,500/month floors only when its ~90,000-partner marketplace is the distribution you want.

Every price at a glance

*impact.com's $30 Starter is ecommerce-plugin-only (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, Squarespace) — not available for SaaS.

FAQ

How much does affiliate tracking software cost in 2026?

Entry-tier pricing as of July 5, 2026: Rewardful and FirstPromoter $49/month, Tolt $69/month, Post Affiliate Pro $89/month list price, Dub Partners $90/month plus a 5% payout fee, impact.com from $500/month for its first SaaS-usable tier, PartnerStack from $1,000/month paid annually, and Affitor $0/month plus 3.5% on affiliate-driven sales after the first $10,000.

Which affiliate software has no monthly fee?

Affitor is the only tool in this comparison with no monthly fee: $0/month and $0 setup, with a 3.5% platform fee on affiliate-driven sales that starts only after your first $10,000 in affiliate revenue. Every other platform on this page has a subscription floor, from $49/month (Rewardful, FirstPromoter) to $1,000/month paid annually (PartnerStack), all as of July 5, 2026.

What is the cheapest affiliate software for SaaS?

Below roughly $1,400/month in affiliate-driven revenue, Affitor is the cheapest option because it costs $0/month and is entirely free until your first $10,000. Above that, flat subscriptions win: Rewardful and FirstPromoter at $49–$99/month (as of July 5, 2026) are the cheapest tools per dollar of affiliate revenue, as long as you stay within their tier caps.

Do affiliate platforms charge transaction fees on top of the subscription?

Three of the eight do, per their pricing pages as of July 5, 2026: Dub Partners adds a 5% fee on partner payouts (3% on Enterprise), impact.com adds a 2.5% fee on partner-driven transactions, and Tolt adds a 2% processing fee on automated payouts. Rewardful advertises a genuine 0% transaction fee, and FirstPromoter, Post Affiliate Pro, and PartnerStack list subscription-only pricing.

Is Dub Partners cheaper than Rewardful?

No, not at the same revenue level. Dub Partners starts at $90/month plus a 5% fee on every partner payout, while Rewardful starts at $49/month with a 0% transaction fee (both as of July 5, 2026). At $10,000/month in affiliate revenue with a 20% commission, a year of Dub Business costs about $2,280 versus $1,188 for Rewardful Growth.

How much does PartnerStack cost?

PartnerStack published pricing in mid-2026 after years of sales-gated quotes: Launch starts at $1,000/month and Growth at $1,520/month, both paid annually (as of July 5, 2026). That is a minimum commitment of roughly $12,000 per year, with demo-led onboarding and no free trial stated.

What's next

The short version: pick a flat subscription (Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt) once affiliate revenue consistently clears $1,400–$2,800/month and stays inside the caps. Pick a double-toll platform (Dub Partners, impact.com) only when its extras — link infrastructure, a partner marketplace — earn the second fee. Pick PartnerStack when you are buying a partner-management suite, not a tracker. Pick Post Affiliate Pro when your traffic is light and your revenue is not. Pick Affitor when you want the only bill in the category that stays at $0 until your affiliates have generated $10,000, then tracks results instead of tiers.

If the performance model fits your stage, create your program — it costs nothing to run until your affiliates have generated $10,000, so the cheapest way to evaluate Affitor is to launch with it. If you want to see what the 3.5% fee actually covers before you decide, read the tracking docs: the click, signup, and sale chain is documented end to end.

More comparisons

• The best Rewardful alternatives for SaaS
• PartnerStack alternatives
• Rewardful vs FirstPromoter
• FirstPromoter alternatives
• Tolt alternatives
• Tolt vs Rewardful
• PartnerStack vs Rewardful
• Best affiliate software for SaaS