Customer referral software

ViralPayouts vs Smile.io

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 Smile.io, you pay your affiliates yourself and does not say it has two-tier recruiting. It costs $0 to $999 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Smile.io

Best fit: A brand that wants outside partners and recruiters paid cash commissions, not a customer loyalty scheme

$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

	Smile.io	ViralPayouts
Price	$0 to $999 a monthTerm: Plus and Enterprise billed annually	$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	Not stated	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	No	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Not stated	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	No	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	unique customer referral link	First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon tracking	Not stated	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	Not stated	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 Flow	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Smile.io plans in full

Free: $0 a month. 200 orders/month
Essential: $15 a month. 500 orders/month, 1 integration
Standard: $79 a month. 1,000 orders/month, 2 integrations
Growth: $199 a month. 2,500 orders/month, then $20 per extra 100 orders
Plus: $999 a month. 7,500 orders/month (annual billing), $5 per extra 100 orders, API access
Enterprise: price not published. Custom, unlimited orders

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Smile.io

What Smile.io offers

Shopify / ecommerce stores wanting a customer loyalty programme with points, VIP tiers and refer-a-friend discounts

Customer referral software · G2 4.6 (469 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

Pays partners real money (via Whop) instead of store discounts
Two built-in levels with recruiter overrides
Public directory where partners find and join programs
Server-to-server event API and Stripe webhook, not Shopify-only

What Smile.io users say

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

Praise

Easiest loyalty programme to set up, good integrations, helpful support (Oct 2026 review) apps.shopify.com
Easiest of the platforms the merchant tested; team helped them get running (Oct 2026 review) apps.shopify.com
Support resolved a checkout discount issue with step-by-step help (Sep 2026 review) apps.shopify.com

Complaints

None found.

About Smile.io

In their words:: Shopify loyalty platform (points, referrals, VIP); H1 not captured on pricing page
Company:: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (Shopify App Store developer address; listing also says 'Based in United States')
Named customers:: Blue Banana (case study), Naturium (case study), Death Wish Coffee (case study)
Website:: smile.io

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 Smile.io (4), checked 12 October 2026

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