4 Best Affiliate Tracking & Management Software for WordPress

Ready to launch and grow your own affiliate program but overwhelmed by choosing the right affiliate tracking and management software for WordPress?

To help you find the best one, we downloaded and tested the most popular affiliate tracking and management plugins on real websites. When we were doing that, we discovered ease of use, different features, and faults for each tool.

In this article, we will compare some of the best affiliate tracking and management software for WordPress and highlight their pros and cons.

If you are in a hurry, then you can take a quick look at our top picks to choose the right affiliate tracking software for your site.

#	Plugins	Best For	Pricing
🥇	AffiliateWP	Affiliate tracking and management	$149.60/yr. + Free
🥈	Easy Affiliate	Tracking self-hosted affiliate programs	$99.60/yr.
🥉	ShareASale	Sending payments to each affiliate	$625
4	Impact	Tracking customer interactions and campaigns	$500/mo.

How We Test And Review Affiliate Tracking And Management Software?

Affiliate marketing allows you to build a sales army to reach more potential customers instantly. It’s a great way to make more money online and grow your revenue.

However, managing that affiliate team on your own can be a lot of work because you need to keep track of each affiliate and their sales and then pay their commission regularly.

We have made this easier for you by testing popular affiliate marketing tools and paying special attention to the following criteria:

Ease of use: We have prioritized affiliate marketing tools that are beginner-friendly, have an easy onboarding process, and come with extensive documentation.

Features: We have included software that comes with a powerful affiliate tracking feature, fraud detection, performer segmentation, and different payment methods.

Reliability: For this showcase, we have only recommended tools that we have tested ourselves on a real site. We also took a look at customer reviews.

Why Trust WPBeginner?

WPBeginner has a team of experts with over 16+ years of experience in WordPress, SEO, hosting, plugins, online marketing, and more.

Our team extensively reviews and tests each software on real websites to give you solid recommendations. For more information, see our complete editorial process.

Let’s take a look at the best affiliate management solutions for WordPress.

1. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is the best affiliate tracking and management software, and it’s actually built as a WordPress plugin. We think this makes for a seamless process since you can manage your affiliate program right from your WordPress site.

It was developed by Pippin Williamson and Andrew Munro, the folks behind Easy Digital Downloads. It beats other solutions regarding cost-effectiveness and the control it offers over your affiliate program.

AffiliateWP is a reliable system in the market and is used by other WordPress plugin developers to sell their products. This is a great solution for those looking to build a small group of hand-picked affiliates.

The best part about AffiliateWP is that you get a 14-day money-back guarantee, which is a good amount of time to try the plugin and see if it meets your needs.

We use AffiliateWP to power the affiliate program for our stores like Smash Balloon and SearchWP.

Pros

A one-time purchase entitles you to a year of support and updates. License plans start from $149.60 per year.
You run your own affiliate program on your own site and build your own network.
Complete integration with Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, iThemes Exchange, and other popular WordPress eCommerce plugins.
You can quickly review affiliate applications with the AI Affiliate Review feature.
Real-time reporting for you and your affiliates.
See your top-performing affiliates and build lasting partnerships without paying hefty fees.
You get a 14-day money-back guarantee.
A bulk payment option is available for PayPal and integrated Payouts services to make your life easy.

Cons

You manage everything, including plugin updates, ensure tracking is done properly, etc.
The plugin runs on your WordPress hosting server, which means you’ll need more resources if your site is large.
You don’t have access to an existing network of affiliates, so you will have to bring affiliates to sign up for your program.

Pricing: Starts at $149.60 per year for a single site license. It includes unlimited affiliates and supports multiple payout methods.

Get started with the AffiliateWP plugin!

2. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate, formerly known as Affiliate Royale, is one of the best affiliate marketing plugins for WordPress. The software is easy to use and offers many features to track and manage your affiliates.

It offers an all-in-one solution to create a self-hosted affiliate program. From your WordPress dashboard, you can easily manage affiliates and get real-time reports to track their performance.

You also get a fraud detection feature that alerts you of suspicious affiliate behavior. The software integrates with WooCommerce, MemberPress, PayPal, and email marketing services.

Pros

Easy Affiliate is super simple to use, and you can add an affiliate program in just a few clicks.
With its affiliate dashboard, you can manage and monitor different affiliates, edit their accounts, download their links and banners, and view payment history.
The software offers detailed reports to track the performance of your affiliates and even lets you set up different commission levels along with commission tracking for each user.
You can also secure your payments through the fraud detection feature and flag suspicious affiliate behavior before you pay your partners.
Easy Affiliate lets you create custom affiliate tracking links and supports Pretty Links, so your URLs are short, clean, and memorable.
Seamless integration with eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, payment services like PayPal, and email marketing tools like ConvertKit.

Cons

Easy Affiliate doesn’t offer a free trial to test the software before making a purchase.
There isn’t a network of affiliates you can use to grow your business instantly. You’ll have to reach out to people to join your affiliate program, which can be time-consuming.

Pricing: The basic plan costs $99.60 per year for a single site license. It seamlessly works with MemberPress, Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and other popular eCommerce services.

Get started with the Easy Affiliate plugin!

3. ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate networks on the web. It’s easy to get started and also offers access to its vast network of affiliate marketers.

They have been in business for more than 20 years and have over 270,000 affiliates in their network.

We use ShareASale for our WPBeginner family of products, such as OptinMonster and WPForms.

In our experience as a merchant, ShareASale has been great to work with. The per transaction fee they charge definitely adds up, and we no longer recommend it for smaller stores.

Pros

The software is hosted on the ShareASale server, so you don’t need to worry about managing or updating it.
ShareASale takes care of tracking and sending payments to each affiliate, which saves time.
You get access to the large network of affiliate marketers on ShareASale.
No monthly recurring fee, and you only pay a small percentage when an affiliate makes a sale.
Some other features of ShareASale are real-time tracking, segmentation of top performers, and connecting multiple sites into one account.

Cons

It has a terrible user interface. You get used to it, but at first sight, it’s not pretty.
There is a one-time setup fee of $625, and there’s a recurring transaction fee.
There’s a $35 monthly transaction fee, and new merchants are given a 30-day grace period. We have never had an issue meeting this after the grace period.

Pricing: ShareASale has a $625 one-time setup fee. It also charges a $35 monthly platform fee and a 20% commission on your merchant transactions.

Get started with the ShareASale plugin!

4. Impact

Impact offers an affiliate marketing solution where you pay only for the affiliates you work with and not the network fees.

This significantly reduces the cost as you pay only for the platform and the number of affiliates you work with.

Impact lets you track customer interactions across different devices. Its cross-device tracking feature gives you a detailed picture of your customer journey and the devices your affiliates and customers are using.

The software also has tracking options that help you accurately measure your affiliate campaigns. There is also fraud protection, so you can easily identify suspicious affiliates before payout.

Pros

Provides better analytics and insights into your marketing campaign.
You see exactly who is bringing you more sales and developing strategic partnerships accordingly.
Powerful user-interface
Other features include mobile tracking, SEO-friendly URLs, coupon tracking, and integration with Salesforce and other CRM platforms.
Fraud protection helps you securely payout affiliates.

Cons

Monthly recurring fee, but you don’t pay the network fee for each affiliate that you bring, which can be a perk for larger programs.
A smaller network of affiliate marketers.

Pricing: The starter plan costs $500 per month. It includes onboarding, migration, and support.

Get started with the Impact plugin!

Which Affiliate Tracking Software Should You Choose?

You need to choose a solution based on your own budget and requirements. If you’re looking for a cost-effective solution for WordPress, then we recommend going with either AffiliateWP or Easy Affiliate.

Both are excellent options, however, AffiliateWP’s payout services really give you the best of both worlds.

If you want more advanced features and don’t mind the per-transaction cost and higher fees, then ShareASale is the way to go.

We hope this article helped you find the best affiliate tracking software for your WordPress site. You may also want to look at our other WordPress guides for affiliate tracking and management sites.

Best WordPress Guides for Affiliate Marketing Sites

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