Referral & Affiliate Software Pricing Compared (2026)
Most referral and affiliate tools look cheap on the pricing page. Then the program starts working, and the bill moves: some tools put you on a higher plan as your affiliates bring in more revenue, some take a percentage of every referred sale, some charge per participant, and several add a fee when they pay your affiliates for you.
This comparison lists the current public prices of eight tools that SaaS and subscription apps commonly look at, explains what each price actually scales with, and works through what they cost at three program sizes. It also covers two questions pricing pages tend to skip: which billing systems each tool connects to, and whether it handles App Store and Google Play subscriptions.
Prices checked on 1 October 2026; net, monthly billing. All figures come from each vendor's own pricing page or documentation, linked in the text. Prices are as listed, without any VAT or sales tax added at checkout; several vendors give annual discounts that aren't shown here. Vendors change prices often, so check the linked page before you decide.
Prices at a glance
| Tool | Entry price (monthly billing) | What the price scales with | Billing integrations (documented) | App Store / Google Play subscriptions | Who pays the affiliates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rewardful | $49 | Affiliate-attributed revenue: $49 up to $7,500/mo, $99 up to $15,000, $149+ up to $30,000 (entry Enterprise tier); 0% transaction fee | Stripe; Paddle Classic only (not Paddle Billing) | No store integration listed | You (PayPal/Wise mass payouts), or optional managed payouts with a 3% fee |
| FirstPromoter | $49 | Revenue from affiliates: $49 up to $5,000/mo, $99 up to $15,000, Enterprise from $149 above that | Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly, Braintree; others via API | No native connector; your backend reports purchases to the Tracking API (mobile guide) | You; direct PayPal payouts from Business; managed auto payouts on Enterprise |
| Tolt | $69 | Revenue earned from affiliates: $69 up to $10,000/mo, $99 up to $20,000, $199 up to $50,000, custom above | Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee | No store connector documented; payments can be sent via the Transactions API | You (manual payouts on Basic); auto payouts with a 2% processing fee from Growth |
| Tapfiliate | $89 | Affiliates, clicks and conversions: Launch = 50 affiliates, 5,000 clicks, 500 conversions; Scale $179; overage fees per 1,000 clicks/conversions | Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly and others | Via REST API plus a mobile measurement partner (support article) | You; automated payouts via Trolley on Scale and above |
| GrowSurf | Referral programs $179; affiliate programs $0 + 3% | Referral: participants ($179 up to 2,500). Affiliate: 3% success fee on referral revenue | Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly | iOS and Android SDKs for referral attribution at sign-up; no store purchase connector documented | You, from your own connected PayPal, Wise or Tremendous account |
| Cello | €95 (user referrals) | Referral ARR: €95 up to €10K, €300 up to €50K, €750 up to €100K; partner referrals add 2–5% transaction costs | Stripe and Chargebee webhooks; Paddle, Recurly and RevenueCat via API (per Cello's own comparison) | Mobile SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter; purchases sent from your side | Cello pays out (PayPal, Venmo); you fund the rewards |
| ReferralCandy | $39 + 10.5% | Monthly fee plus a success fee on referred revenue: 10.5% / 3.5% / 1.5% / 0.25% depending on plan | Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, custom stores | Not applicable (e-commerce) | ReferralCandy sends cash rewards you fund; 5.4% fee on PayPal rewards |
| PartnerStack | Not published ("Book your demo") | "Partner program size, feature needs and level of support" | Not listed on the pricing page | Not mentioned | Automated partner payouts included |
| AppThunder Referrals | €19 flat | Nothing: no revenue share, no cap | Stripe webhook, subscription webhook for in-app subscriptions, REST API | Yes, via subscription webhook (code stored as subscriber attribute) | You, from exported files (PayPal Mass Pay, Wise batch, CSV) |
Viral Loops is often mentioned in the same breath, but its pricing page couldn't be loaded for this check, so it isn't included.
What each tool charges for
Rewardful
All plans include unlimited affiliates and a 0% transaction fee; the plan is set by affiliate-attributed revenue per month. Starter is limited to 2 team members and 1 campaign. Optional managed payouts cost 3% of the payout. Rewardful's Paddle page states that it works with Paddle Classic only, not the newer Paddle Billing.
FirstPromoter
Also tiered by revenue from affiliates, with lower thresholds; Starter is capped at 1,000 affiliates. Five billing systems connect directly; anything else goes through the API. On Enterprise, managed auto payouts let you pay one invoice and have FirstPromoter distribute the money. For native apps, its docs describe capturing the referral ID from a deep link and having your backend report confirmed purchases to the Tracking API.
Tolt
Tiered by revenue earned from affiliates, with higher thresholds per tier than the two above. The trade-off sits in payouts: Basic has manual payouts only; automatic payouts (PayPal, Wise, local bank, crypto, wire) start on Growth and carry a 2% processing fee.
Tapfiliate
Priced by usage rather than revenue. On Launch ($89), overage costs $1.50 per 1,000 clicks and $15 per 1,000 conversions; Scale ($179) has unlimited affiliates, 100,000 clicks and 10,000 conversions. If you run a program with many small affiliates, the 50-affiliate cap on Launch is the limit you'll hit first.
GrowSurf
Two separate price lists. Referral programs (customers inviting customers) are priced by participants, "counted by unique email address": $179 for up to 2,500, $279 for up to 5,000, Business plans from $449. Affiliate programs have no monthly fee and a 3% success fee on the referral revenue affiliates bring in. Payouts go from your own connected PayPal, Wise or Tremendous account.
Cello
Built for in-product referral programs (users referring users), priced by referral ARR (shown in EUR by default). ARR is annual: Start's €10K cap equals about €833 of referred monthly revenue, so a program above that is already on Grow (€300). User-referral plans have 0% transaction costs; partner-referral plans charge 5% (Free), 3.5% (Plus €100, Pro €350) or 2% (Enterprise). Cello pays rewards out via PayPal and Venmo.
ReferralCandy
The clearest example of percentage pricing: the success fee falls as the monthly fee rises ($39 + 10.5%, $79 + 3.5%, $249 + 1.5%, $799 + 0.25%). The fee applies to the first three orders of net-new referred customers. It integrates with store platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento), so it's a fit for e-commerce rather than SaaS or app subscriptions.
PartnerStack
No public prices. The pricing page names three plans (Launch, Growth, Enterprise) and states that the final plan and price are confirmed in a demo. What sets it apart is a network: PartnerStack describes a marketplace where partners discover programs, and states "131K+ active partners" on its homepage.
The three pricing models, explained
Flat fee
You pay the same amount however much referred revenue comes in. Easy to budget, and the cost per referred dollar falls as the program grows. The risk is the opposite one: you pay even in months where nothing comes in.
Tiers by affiliate revenue
Rewardful, FirstPromoter and Tolt use this model. Inside a tier the fee is flat; crossing a threshold moves you to the next plan. Two things to check: what counts as attributed revenue (gross or net of refunds, monthly or annualised as at Cello) and what changes besides the price: team seats, campaigns, payout automation and integrations often sit on the higher tiers.
Percentage of referral revenue
GrowSurf's affiliate plan (3%) and ReferralCandy (10.5% down to 0.25%) charge a share of what affiliates bring in. Nothing to pay while the program is quiet, but the fee grows linearly with success. Payout fees (Rewardful's 3% managed payouts, Tolt's 2% auto payouts, ReferralCandy's 5.4% on PayPal rewards) are a second percentage, charged on what you pay affiliates rather than on revenue.
What it costs at three program sizes
The table shows the tool fee at a monthly affiliate-attributed revenue of $2,000, $12,000 and $40,000, using the prices above (monthly billing). For Cello, the same figures as ARR are 24,000, 144,000 and 480,000.
| Monthly referred revenue | $2,000 | $12,000 | $40,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rewardful | $49 | $99 | Above the $30,000 entry Enterprise tier: not listed |
| FirstPromoter | $49 | $99 | $149 (entry Enterprise) |
| Tolt | $69 | $99 | $199 |
| GrowSurf (affiliate, 3%) | $60 | $360 | $1,200 |
| Cello (user referrals) | €300 (Grow) | Enterprise, custom | Enterprise, custom |
| AppThunder Referrals | €19 | €19 | €19 |
Tapfiliate doesn't fit this table, because its price depends on clicks, conversions and number of affiliates, not revenue: $89 while you stay within 50 affiliates and 500 conversions, $179 (Scale) beyond that, plus overage.
Break-even points worth knowing:
- A 3% success fee costs more than a $49 plan once referred revenue passes about $1,633 a month (49 ÷ 0.03), and more than a $99 plan above $3,300.
- Against a flat €19 fee, the same 3% overtakes at roughly 630 a month in referral revenue, leaving the exchange rate aside.
- On ReferralCandy, Grow ($79 + 3.5%) beats Basic ($39 + 10.5%) from about $571 in fee-bearing referred revenue, and Scale ($249 + 1.5%) beats Grow from $8,500.
The bigger number is the commission itself. If you pay affiliates 20% (an example rate, not a recommendation) on $12,000 of referred revenue, that's $2,400 a month, more than any tool fee above. A managed payout of that amount adds $72 at Rewardful's 3% or $48 at Tolt's 2%; paying it yourself through a PayPal or Wise batch costs whatever those providers charge you.
How to choose
| Your situation | What to look for |
|---|---|
| You bill on the web through Stripe | Almost every tool here works; compare the tier thresholds against your expected referred revenue |
| You bill through Paddle Billing | Check Paddle support explicitly: Rewardful states Paddle Classic only; FirstPromoter and Tolt list Paddle |
| Most of your revenue is App Store / Google Play subscriptions | Web-checkout tools don't see those purchases on their own. You need a server-side path: a subscription webhook, or your backend calling the vendor's API |
| You want the vendor to pay affiliates for you | Rewardful (managed, 3%), Tolt (Growth+, 2%), FirstPromoter (Enterprise), Cello, ReferralCandy. Budget the fee |
| You want affiliates to find you | A marketplace such as PartnerStack's; the self-serve tools expect you to recruit affiliates yourself |
| Pre-revenue, testing whether the channel works | A pure success fee (GrowSurf affiliate, $0 + 3%) or a low flat fee keeps the cost of an empty month small |
Before you sign up anywhere, run through this:
- Estimate your referred revenue in 12 months and price the tier you'll be on then, not today
- Check whether the tier is based on monthly revenue or annualised ARR
- Confirm your billing system is supported, including the version (Paddle Classic vs Paddle Billing)
- If you sell through the App Store or Google Play, find the documented path for in-app purchases, not just "mobile SDK"
- Add payout fees to the commission budget, or plan to pay out yourself
- Check what's gated to higher tiers: team seats, campaigns, custom domain, payout automation
- Read the refund handling: are commissions held and cancelled when a customer refunds?
If your program runs inside an iOS app, also check the App Store rules for referral programs before you design the rewards.
Where AppThunder fits
AppThunder Referrals is our referral and affiliate infrastructure for subscription apps and web products. It costs €19 a month flat, net (VAT added), with no revenue share and no cap. Creating a program is free; a card is needed before the first referral code is created, and you can cancel monthly.
What it does:
- Three attribution paths: a subscription webhook for in-app subscriptions (the referral code is stored as the subscriber attribute
at_ref), a Stripe webhook for web checkout, and a REST API for your backend. - Copy-paste templates for Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter and Web. The web snippet uses first touch, a 90-day window on the same device, stored in localStorage.
- Commission handling: a 30-day hold by default for the refund window, refunds void commissions, self-referrals are blocked.
- Deterministic attribution only: a referral counts when a code actually arrives. No device fingerprinting, no probabilistic matching.
What it doesn't do, and where the tools above may suit you better:
- No payouts. AppThunder never holds or moves money. You export payouts (PayPal Mass Pay, Wise batch, CSV) and pay affiliates yourself. If you want a vendor to send the money, look at the managed-payout options above.
- No marketplace. There's no affiliate network or discovery; you recruit your own affiliates.
- USD ledger. Commissions are kept in USD; other currencies are converted at the ECB reference rate of the payment date (the roughly 30 currencies the ECB publishes). If you report in euros, you'll convert back.
- Younger product. It's newer than the established tools above, with fewer integrations and a shorter track record.
- No probabilistic matching. If a user never enters or carries a code, the referral isn't counted. That keeps the data clean, but some referrals other tools might guess at will be missing.
FAQ
Which referral software is cheapest? It depends on volume. With no referred revenue yet, GrowSurf's affiliate plan ($0 + 3%) costs nothing. From roughly 630 a month in referred revenue, a flat €19 such as AppThunder's costs less than a 3% fee. Among the revenue-tiered tools, the cheapest plan at a given volume changes with the thresholds; see the table above.
Do these tools charge a percentage of my affiliate revenue? Rewardful, FirstPromoter and Tolt don't take a percentage of revenue but move you to a higher plan as attributed revenue grows. GrowSurf (affiliate plan) and ReferralCandy do charge a percentage. Separately, managed payouts at several vendors carry a fee on the amount paid out.
Can I track App Store and Google Play subscriptions with an affiliate tool? Only if the tool receives the purchase from your side. In the documentation checked for this article, none of the other tools describes a direct App Store or Google Play connector; FirstPromoter, Tapfiliate and Tolt document API-based approaches, Cello mentions RevenueCat via API. AppThunder Referrals takes the code through a subscription webhook.
Are these prices with or without VAT? The figures here are the list prices on the vendors' pages; whether VAT or sales tax is added depends on the vendor and where your business is. AppThunder Referrals' €19 is net; VAT is added on top.
Why isn't PartnerStack in the cost table? PartnerStack doesn't publish prices; the final plan and price are set during a demo.