Customer referral software

ViralPayouts vs Viral Loops

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 Viral Loops, paying affiliates for you is optional or extra and does not say it has two-tier recruiting. It costs $49 to $399 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Viral Loops

Best fit: A brand running an ongoing cash-commission partner program where partners recruit other partners and need payouts handled.

$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

	Viral Loops	ViralPayouts
Price	$49 to $399 a monthTerm: Monthly or annual (annual saves 30%)	$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	Optionalvia Tremendous, Stripe	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	referral URL widget; form widgets; JavaScript SDK conversion; page-URL conversion	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	API	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, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Mailjet, AWeber	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Viral Loops plans in full

Start-up: $49 a month. Up to 1,000 participants; AI campaign assistant for 1 campaign
Plus: $139 a month. Up to 5,000 participants; Stripe and Tremendous rewarding integrations
Growing: $229 a month. Up to 10,000 participants
Power: $399 a month. Up to 25,000 participants; unlimited AI campaign assistant
Enterprise: price not published. 25,000+ participants; custom

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Viral Loops

What Viral Loops offers

Startups, newsletter creators, fintech and ecommerce/Shopify brands running template-based referral campaigns: prelaunch waitlists, refer-a-friend, milestone, newsletter referral, giveaways; affiliate and ambassador programs also listed.

Customer referral software · G2 4 (42 reviews) · Capterra 4.6 (137 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

Two-tier partner/recruiter structure built in; Viral Loops has only two-sided and milestone rewards
No monthly fee; ViralPayouts takes 10% falling to 3% of partner payouts only
ViralPayouts pays partners in cash via Whop; Viral Loops relies on Tremendous/Stripe rewards the brand funds
Public directory of live programs; Viral Loops has none
Signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook and append-only ledger aimed at commission accounting

What Viral Loops users say

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

Praise

Quick setup without developers; pre-built referral and giveaway templates g2.com
Responsive support and onboarding specialist got a campaign live in minutes capterra.com
Variety of pre-built campaigns and easy HubSpot integration capterra.com

Complaints

Cost jumps sharply when a campaign succeeds because pricing is by participants capterra.com
Slow, sporadic support for some; workarounds needed for Shopify; outdated docs for HubSpot integration capterra.com
Bugs, reliability issues and integration gaps; a billing/cancellation dispute g2.com
Shopify app reviewer said 'This app does not work'; another had referral emails and discount codes fail at first apps.shopify.com

About Viral Loops

In their words:: "The All-in-One Referral Platform Built for Growth" (homepage H1); title: "Viral Loops | Build a referral program for your brand"
Company:: Founded 2016 · Toronto, Ontario, Canada (per llms.txt; Shopify listing says Athens, Greece) · EMERGE Commerce Ltd. (TSXV-listed), acquired from Wishpond, closing announced 10 March 2026 for CA$2.3M; Wishpond had acquired it in 2022. Co-founder Savvas Zortikis (2016 blog)
Funding:: Acquired; FY2025 revenue CA$1.3M, ~86% gross margin, CA$800K adj. EBITDA (EMERGE press release)
Team:: About page lists 9 core team members (per llms.txt)
Named customers:: Logos shown: Product Hunt, Perplexity, Miro, Descript, Opera, Lime, Life360, Rocket Companies, Greenlight, Morning Brew-style newsletters (theDONUT, The GIST), Exness, Baraka (testimonials), Sequence (case study: nearly 400 paying customers from prelaunch waitlist)
Website:: viral-loops.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

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Sources for Viral Loops (10), checked 12 October 2026

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