Affiliate software for e-commerce

ViralPayouts vs Refersion

ViralPayouts has no monthly fee, pays your affiliates for you and pays recruiters on every program. You pay 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3%, and nothing in a month when nobody sells. With Refersion, paying affiliates for you is optional or extra and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $0 to $199 a month + 2% to 3% of affiliate revenue.

Every figure for Refersion comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Refersion

Best fit: Brands that want built-in recruiter overrides and payouts handled without a subscription, paying only 10% falling to 3% of partner earnings.

$0 a month
No plan and no setup fee. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Payouts done for you
One invoice per program. ViralPayouts sends every partner and recruiter their money and collects tax forms.
Recruiters built in
Customer links and recruit links on every program, with the override set your way and reversed on refunds.

Start a program free

Side by side

	Refersion	ViralPayouts
Price	$0 to $199 a month + 2% to 3% of affiliate revenueTerm: Monthly or annual (20% off); reviewers report annual contracts that are hard to exit	$0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Setup fee	Not stated	None
Fee for paying affiliates	Unified Payments: merchant pays 1% of each monthly funding (capped at $6) plus $5/yr per affiliate earning $600+ (1099 filing); $25 for returned ACH. Affiliates pay $1 per withdrawal (US) or $1 + 3% (international).	Included in the fee above: no charge to the brand for sending payoutsPartners pay Whop's own fee when they withdraw to their bank
Pays your affiliates for you	Optionalvia Unified Payments powered by Dots; US-registered merchants with US bank only, USD only	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Higher plansAs many levels as configured (one direct parent per affiliate) levelsScale plan only (custom quote)	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	Yes	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	First-party tracking (browser local storage, no cookies); Unique links; Unique coupon codes; Manual credit	First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon tracking	Yes	Yes A code per partner, per program
Mobile app tracking	Not stated	App installs, sign-ups and purchases reported from your server through the signed event API, with bounties on them. No SDK to ship in your app.
API, webhooks, MCP	API, webhooks	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Refersion plans in full

Marketplace Listing: $0 a month. Public marketplace listing, affiliates can view and apply; no tracking/payouts
Launch: $39 a month, plus 3% of affiliate revenue. Unlimited affiliates, clicks and conversions; first-party tracking domain; one-click payouts incl. PayPal; % of sale or subscription commissions
Growth: $199 a month, plus 2% of affiliate revenue. Adds advanced commissions, SKU/customer-email tracking, API access, 30+ marketing integrations, webhooks, multi-store, chat support
Scale: price not published. For $1M+ GMV brands; flat monthly subscription (quote), premium support, white-glove onboarding, Slack channel; required for MLM

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Refersion

What Refersion offers

DTC ecommerce brands (Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Stripe), from new brands to $1M+ GMV; health & wellness, fashion & beauty, home, food & beverage.

Affiliate software for e-commerce · G2 3.6 (22 reviews) · Capterra 4.2 (56 reviews) · Trustpilot 2.2 (10 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

No monthly subscription: Refersion charges $39-$199/mo plus 2-3% of affiliate sales
Two-tier on every program; Refersion locks MLM to custom-priced Scale
Not limited to US-registered merchants for paying affiliates via the platform (Refersion Unified Payments is US-only)
No annual contract lock-in

What Refersion users say

Paraphrased from public reviews. Follow each link to read the original.

Praise

Easy to track affiliate and influencer sales; data useful for decisions. capterra.com
Quick to set up in Shopify and get affiliates promoting. capterra.com
Brands cite reliable tracking and simple payments (vendor-shown testimonials, e.g. DryEye Rescue, Kyndryl). refersion.com
Marketplace brings in quality affiliates. capterra.com

Complaints

Overpriced, inflexible and hard/expensive to leave; annual contracts. apps.shopify.com
Paid ~$3,000 on a one-year ~$300/mo contract with 'no exit policy'. trustpilot.com
Could not cancel for over a week; emails unanswered (May 2026). trustpilot.com
Long-standing bugs not fixed for years; glitchy, needs support to fix. apps.shopify.com

About Refersion

In their words:: "Affiliate Marketing without the Compromise" (homepage H1); subhead: "1st-party tracking loved by thousands of brands. No cookies. No redirects. No nonsense."
Named customers:: Fuego (dance sneakers), Renue by Science, DryEye Rescue, Boardroom Socks, Jigsaw Health, Momentous, Blenders Eyewear
Website:: refersion.com

Try ViralPayouts on test money

Set your commission and recruiter override, see what each sale costs you, and run it on the test network before a real partner joins. No monthly fee.

Start a program See pricing

More comparisons

All comparisons

Sources for Refersion (23), checked 12 October 2026

Refersion is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with Refersion. Prices and features change: check refersion.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.