Best Affiliate Platforms and Software (that I am all using myself)
Since affiliate marketing is our main source of revenue at Tooltester, we're signed up with 100s of companies. Previously, I told you about the 10 things that make me happy as an affiliate.
The affiliate network (or software) you choose obviously plays an important part in how convenient it is to promote your products.
Therefore, let me explain what I like and dislike about each of the systems we use. I will start with fully managed affiliate platforms (e.g. Awin) and then also discuss SaaS solutions (e.g. Ambassador).
Affiliate Platforms vs Software Tools - Pros and Cons
The advantage of an affiliate platform is generally the reach you instantly get. You will usually have access to thousands of affiliates that can easily join your program. If you manage your affiliate program through a software or SaaS application, it will be your own responsibility to find affiliates. Of course, if a huge number of potential affiliates has access to your program it creates its own set of challenges. You will need to make sure they do a decent job and don't violate your terms of use.
The advantage of affiliate software is mainly the price. It's far cheaper to set up and run. But as mentioned, you will have to make sure enough interesting affiliate partners land on your platform. Another disadvantage is fraud prevention. Big affiliate platforms usually have detection systems in place. While most software tools also offer this, you'll have to do more fraud prevention yourself.
What Affiliate Platforms Are Companies Actually Using?
I thought it could be useful to provide an overview of the affiliate platforms some of our partners are using. The most popular one here is Impact with seven of our partner relying on it. Other popular ones are Ambassador (4 times) and Partnerstack (3 times). Six of our partners are using their own proprietary affiliate system.
AWIN
The German AWIN network (formerly Zanox) is the leading affiliate platform in the world after having taken over ShareAsale, Affili.net and many others. For me as an affiliate it's an okay platform. It's not the easiest to use as the menus are pretty complicated due to the high number of features. My guess is also that it's not the cheapest one to set up either.
Deeplinks: yes (via Link Builder)
SubIDs: yes
Pricing: no information
What I like: good selection of companies, provides all features that I need as an affiliate like automatic payments via bank transfer in different currencies.
What I dislike: it's complicated to use. Credit notes won't be emailed.
ShareAsale
Although they also belong to Awin, it doesn't look like ShareAsale will be switched off anytime soon (however, you can never be too sure). I use it mainly for the Weebly affiliate program and I have to say it's one of my favorites. It loads fast, the menus are intuitive and I really have everything I need in there. The only drawback I can think of is that there is only one SubID. Sometimes I would like to track different values, which is not possible here unfortunately.
Deeplinks: yes
SubIDs: yes (however no multiple IDs)
Pricing: $550 access fee + $100 minimum deposit
What I like: a no-nonsense platform that does (nearly) everything an affiliate wants, good reports and good payment options
What I dislike: everything looks a bit old and it would be nice to be able to add multiple link tracking extensions.
Impact
Impact is another US-based affiliate platform and refreshingly modern. It's slick, loads fast and has an interesting selection of affiliate partners to choose from. We use it for Squarespace, Namecheap and BigCommerce among others. Similarly to the other big platforms, the menu can be slightly confusing but it seems like this is something you have to live with if you are using one of the big guns.
Deeplinks: yes (via the link creator)
SubIDs: yes
Pricing: no information
What I like: the design is nice and everything loads fast. They do bank transfers in different currencies. The reports are useful. There seems to be also a white-label product.
What I dislike: although not quite as bad as Awin or CJ, I find that Impact’s usability could be better
Commission Junction
US-based CJ is one of the classic affiliate networks and also very big with offices around the world. It's got a huge number of affiliate companies, including very big ones like GoDaddy and Constant Contact. My main complaint about CJ is that their platform is so terribly slow. Whenever you are trying to load a report it takes at least 5-10 seconds until anything appears on your screen. It also has been pretty consistently like this in the past decade that I've been using them.
Deeplinks: yes via Bookmarklet
SubIDs: yes
Pricing: no information
What I like: similar to Awin there are a huge number of interesting companies, they have all the important features and also do bank transfers in various currencies.
What I dislike: as mentioned, it can be a pain to use due to its sluggishness. Sometimes I also receive email notifications for affiliate campaigns that I never signed up for, which is annoying.
Partnerstack
Partnerstack (formerly Growsumo) is a pretty new affiliate platform. They are a bit in between a serviced platform and a SaaS application as there is a marketplace behind it all. The tool is pretty decent, allowing you to create deep links, for example. Unfortunately, subID tracking seems to have been implemented as an afterthought, which is strange for an application of this price point.
Deeplinks: yes
SubIDs: yes (here's a guide), unfortunately finding those sales in the reporting is rather clunky
Pricing: starts at $800 per month + a %-fee for any commissions generated
What I like: the interface is modern and probably the one I like best. It's very smart that they also allow you to connect your Stripe account for payments so you can avoid expensive Paypal fees.
What I dislike: no subIDs, it's unclear to me why such an important feature doesn't exist.
Tapfiliate
From Amsterdam, Tapfiliate has managed to attract a massive number of companies we work with. Among them are Sendinblue, Tidio, Mailjet and many others. After checking their prices I now also know why. Considering their huge amount of features they are by far the cheapest affiliate software.
So on paper Tapfiliate seems really great. The only issue I encountered has to do with subID Tracking. In the affiliate dashboard, you can indeed add subIDs as you can see in the screenshot:
However, getting the subID report is much more work than with other platforms. Rather than just going to the reporting section you have to actually download the reporting file. Also, I initially used the 'Source' field to separate my different target groups, which I later learned isn't intended for this purpose. So the devil is in the details with Tapfilite but once you've figured it out it's actually a pretty solid affiliate software.
Deeplinks: yes (instructions)
SubIDs: yes (although a bit complicated to manage)
Pricing: starting at $69 per month
What I like: it's a simple interface, very easy to understand and modern. Affiliates can use your usual link structure with a refID attached to it.
What I dislike: subID feature is more complicated than with other platforms (especially getting to the reporting.
