Best WordPress Affiliate Plugins

You are looking for an affiliate plugin for WordPress, with which you can set up your own affiliate program? For example, to promote your digital products or to create an incentive to link your store accordingly? I’ll introduce you here to the best WordPress affiliate plugins for WordPress and show you which features you should definitely look out for before choosing a corresponding affiliate suite.

If you’re looking for an efficient affiliate plugin for WordPress, there are a few factors that come to the forefront: feature set, e-commerce compatibility, and ease of use. An ideal plugin offers comprehensive statistics, gamification elements for user engagement and supports popular e-commerce solutions like WooCommerce. Integration with email marketing tools and extensible add-ons are also beneficial.

The best affiliate plugin

Newcomer: An insider tip could be the new Solid Affiliate.

Find the best affiliate plugin for WordPress now. Here I’ll introduce you to the best WordPress plugins that you can use to implement your affiliate program in WordPress to massively increase your sales. You will get all the pros and cons at a glance, with my honest opinion and authentic recommendations.

Info: All presented plugins are for creating your own affiliate program.

1. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is a comprehensive affiliate management suite for your WordPress business. First and foremost, this means that the extension can easily work with most e-commerce solutions. This then includes plugins like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, among others. Also classic membership referrals are possible if you use a plugin like MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro. With this, you can equip almost all WordPress websites with their affiliate program and operate accordingly.

The special thing about AffiliateWP is certainly its scope. The plugin provides you with all the data you need, generates insightful statistics and has many special features at the ready. Above all, all this data is stored by you and not by a third-party provider.

The registered partners can be activated automatically or by manual approval. The same applies to the payouts, which also take place automatically on fixed days, but can also be set manually. An extremely comprehensive WordPress plugin, which is suitable for all those who want to run their affiliate program based on WordPress.

Advantages

• Extremely comprehensive affiliate suite for WordPress, which supports almost every function in affiliate marketing
• Size of the plugin guarantees a wide support of popular WordPress e-commerce plugins
• Hardly any limits set and all data and statistics remain with you as the operator and are not transferred to a third-party provider

Disadvantages

• None known

2. Ultimate Affiliate Pro

Another extremely comprehensive WordPress affiliate plugin is Ultimate Affiliate Pro. The extension is available for purchase at Codecanyon, which is the platform Envato. There, it is initially a one-time purchase. What’s exciting about Ultimate Affiliate Pro is how modern the extension for WordPress appears. It has systems like multi-level marketing already integrated, outputs the top 10 affiliates as a handy and motivating toplist, and has many other factors that add a bit of gamification to affiliate marketing. Among other things, rank levels with corresponding achievements. This motivates all participants and loosens the whole thing up noticeably.

For the ranks just mentioned, different commissions are also possible. These are freely selectable for you as an admin. From a one-time payment to a commission based on a percentage, everything is possible. Lifetime commissions are also unlocked via add-on if you want to use them. It’s really wonderful how much has been thought of in Ultimate Affiliate Pro and how dedicated the developer is. Moreover, the affiliate plugin has been getting permanent support since 2016 and has already been updated this year as well. This is worth mentioning in a time when many plugins are simply dropped after the initial hype. That is definitely not the case here.

Advantages

• One-time purchase instead of permanent subscription, as with many other affiliate plugins for WordPress
• Many modern features and approaches of gamification integrated, turning the affiliate program into a kind of game
• Despite the large volume, obviously designed and therefore super easy to use.

Disadvantages

• None known

3. EasyAffiliate

EasyAffiliate is also a pretty comprehensive affiliate suite for WordPress that allows you to set up your own affiliate program. There is effective fraud detection, connection to email marketing, various integration options for popular WordPress e-commerce solutions, and a lot more. EasyAffiliate’s comprehensive dashboard also keeps all the numbers present and in your field of vision at all times.

At first glance, EasyAffiliate doesn’t seem that modern, which is partly because the plugin has been around for a long time. However, the impression is quickly compensated by the variety of features because EasyAffiliate is undeniably one of the most comprehensive in its profession. It is precisely the reliability, the permanent maintenance and development, as well as the broad support of third-party providers, whether it is WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, that distinguish the affiliate program suite for WordPress.

Advantages

• All-encompassing affiliate suite for WordPress, as a basis for your own affiliate program
• Fair 14-day money back guarantee, should the affiliate plugin for WordPress not meet your expectations
• Straightforward to set up and keep track of, thanks to extensive documentation, lots of data and statistics

Disadvantages

• Seems a little outdated in places, since the plugin has been around for a very long time

4. Solid Affiliate

With the Solid Affiliate plugin for WordPress, the developers clearly focus on WooCommerce as a platform. This simplifies all other steps, as the setup is also significantly related to WooCommerce and the rest is done within a few minutes. Signups for the affiliate program can then be approved or rejected, just the way you like it.

Via drag & drop builder, the application form can also be freely customized so that you can ask for any desired information from the potential partners in advance. Advertising materials can also be stored directly for a quick start. New affiliates then have, among other things, directly suitable text links or banners, which they can easily link accordingly. Completely without own knowledge or effort.

How much commission an affiliate receives is completely up to you. Recurring commissions can also be set for sold subscriptions. In this way, affiliates really do earn on every subscription they complete, even in the future. In principle, different commissions are also conceivable for partners. Earnings are then paid out regularly and even fully automatically if you wish, so you don’t have to worry about anything yourself. All in all, Solid Affiliate is extremely professional and cleverly designed. It is modern, comprehensive and leaves hardly any wish unfulfilled, while at the same time being effortless to use.

Advantages

• By focusing on WooCommerce, Solid Affiliate does its job really well and does not need to be optionally customized for many other systems
• Addons expand the range of functions considerably once again and add further functions

Disadvantages

• Only for WooCommerce also means that other e-commerce solutions for WordPress are not supported by Solid Affiliate in any way

5. SliceWP

SliceWP is a WordPress plugin that specializes in managing an affiliate program directly from your WordPress dashboard. It gives you the ability to recruit affiliates, track visits and commissions automatically to increase your sales.

The plugin provides real-time reports that allow you to continuously analyze the performance of your affiliate program. Besides commission and affiliate management, SliceWP also offers one-click PayPal payouts and various e-commerce integrations for maximum usability.

Advantages

• Easy integration and management: SliceWP integrates seamlessly with your existing WordPress environment.
• Customizable commission rates: You have the flexibility to set the affiliate reward rates yourself.
• No additional fees: Since SliceWP is installed directly on your WordPress website, there are no additional fees charged by intermediaries.

Disadvantages

• none known

6. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is a plugin that allows you to set up an effective affiliate program in a WordPress store. With this plugin, store owners can pay commissions to referral sources for successful sales, which increases the visibility of their products. It provides an integrated dashboard to monitor visitor statistics, conversions, commissions and payouts.

The plugin encourages collaboration with influencers and bloggers by allowing them to share their referral links and earn commissions for sales generated by their articles or social networking activities.

Benefits

• The YITH WooCommerce Affiliates plugin enables an efficient affiliate program for more visibility and customer loyalty.
• Affiliate management is simplified with a dedicated dashboard, and different affiliate payment options are available.
• The plugin is compatible with multiple themes and page builders and complies with GDPR guidelines.

Cons

• Only for WooCommerce.

7. WP Affiliate Manager

Those who would like being less extensive, but no less feature-rich, are in pretty good hands with the WP Affiliate Manager plugin. Among other things, the extension for WordPress brings seamless integration for WooCommerce, Simple WP Shopping Cart, Easy Digital Downloads and many other e-commerce plugins. Membership plugins like Paid Membership Pro are also supported by the affiliate plugin accordingly. Foremost, the support for third-party providers is massive and a unique selling point. Especially because many smaller extensions are supported.

Likewise, It is interesting that the WP Affiliate Manager plugin is comparatively cheap. Moreover, it remains elementary and integrates seamlessly into any WordPress installation. Statistics and account information show users as well as admins the current affiliate program figures. All conditions can also be set individually. Moreover, there is a link generator to be able to create corresponding affiliate links to the products as easily as possible.

Advantages

• Rudimentary and simple WordPress affiliate plugin, which is quickly installed and requires little additional knowledge
• Support for the known third-party providers, to be able to start your affiliate program based on it

Disadvantages

• Compared to the very big plugins of this kind, the possibilities are limited

8. SUMO Affiliates Pro

At first glance, SUMO Affiliates Pro is just another affiliate plugin for WordPress, without much unique selling points or real special features. It can do what other extensions can do, and thus offers nothing that sets it apart from similar plugins. Interesting here is certainly the price factor because SUMO Affiliates Pro costs only a fraction compared to the other extensions, namely only about 50 US dollars. What’s more, it’s available via Envato as a one-time purchase, so it doesn’t come with an expensive or even permanent subscription. That can be worth a lot if you’re a blogger looking to tie yourself down as little as possible.

In terms of the feature set, SUMO Affiliates Pro works via modules. Each feature is thus a single module and thus only active when it has been turned on accordingly. In this way, email opt-in can be enabled as well as URL masking or SMS notifications. So everyone turns on exactly what they want to offer and use for their affiliate program. I find this method interesting by itself because it avoids unnecessary features and adds integrations only when they are actually needed. It’s a cool concept, and it works out wonderfully here.

Advantages

• Extensive features that allow almost everything from multi-level marketing to lifetime commissions and pretty links
• Features are activated via individual modules, which means that only what is actually used is active

Disadvantages

• Seems a bit outdated, as the interface design is a bit fiddly, but that doesn’t matter much in purely functional terms

9. ThriveCart

ThriveCart is a bit different from the classic affiliate plugins for WordPress, as it is more of a shopping cart software. So thanks to ThriveCart you can sell products and subscriptions, market offers and coupons, so you can also offer an affiliate program without having to manage it. No matter if classic funnels, clever upsells, embedded products or shopping carts – with ThriveCart all this is realized in no time. At the same time, the service knows many connections to common platforms, such as HubSpot or MailChimp and the like.

However, ThriveCart works completely independent of WordPress and not as a website. It only offers the tools for sale and even a lot of them. So you still need your own platform, but you can use ThriveCart to automate and perfect shopping carts and product sales and create your own affiliate programs. This all works remarkably well, but should be considered more as an alternative. The other solutions mentioned here work, especially with WordPress and the e-commerce plugins there, usually much better, easier and in the end, also cheaper.

Advantages

• No own installation necessary, the tools and functions are provided by ThriveCart

Disadvantages

• Not ideal to be used in conjunction with WordPress, as there are much more convenient solutions with the CMS

10. Post Affiliate Pro

Post Affiliate Pro is an affiliate marketing software that helps businesses create and manage their own affiliate programs. The platform provides a set of tracking, reporting, and provisioning tools to ensure efficient and transparent collaboration with affiliates.

With extensive customization options and an intuitive user interface, Post Affiliate Pro allows for flexibility in designing affiliate campaigns. Known for its scalability and robustness, the software is suitable for both small businesses and large corporations.

This is a SaaS service. I picked it up because of its excellent WordPress integration.

Advantages

• Accurate tracking: Post Affiliate Pro offers very accurate tracking methods to track referrals, conversion rates, affiliate performance and payouts.
• Extensive automation: the software supports automated workflows to minimize repetitive tasks.
• Flexibility and scalability: with a wide range of integration options for over 170 CMS and payment gateways, Post Affiliate Pro is suitable for both small businesses and large networks.

Cons

• Not a WordPress-only plugin.

Create an affiliate program with WordPress

Getting your affiliate program up and running can be extremely costly and complicated. The platform needs to be developed and maintained, and if a third-party provider is used, it’s important to keep a close eye on the API should there be any changes. In short, it is very complex and therefore expensive, which is why affiliate portals and frameworks are usually more limited to the big providers with over 100,000 sales.

With WordPress, however, anyone can implement their affiliate program for their store or product. This succeeds, as always with the content management system, based on the appropriate plugins. Because here there are already a variety of ready-made solutions, which only need to be set up accordingly to be immediately ready for use.

Thereby, the affiliate program plugins for WordPress fall back on standards within the scene. For example, almost all affiliate plugins support WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, which are two of the biggest e-commerce plugins for WordPress. This allows anyone to spread their product even further with an affiliate program and thus massively increase their sales. All without the use of complicated APIs, services or costly integrations of the major networks, of course.

Your own product is not enough for success

You sell your own eBook, a wallpaper pack or an online course and it is really successful? I’m thrilled about that, but what if I told you that you could be even more successful. Because as much as you promote it on your blog, the target audience here seems to be limited and so the sales go down steadily over time. One day, you’ve just reached everyone in your bubble and then there’s no one there to buy anything.

An own affiliate program can prevent exactly this. Because here you activate the interest of other bloggers or social media influencers. By giving a fixed amount or a percentage of your profit, you make them actively advertise for you. And with the greatest interest to actually sell your product because the commission is only credited if the sale can be successfully verified. For the only click there is nothing.

With an affiliate program, you get out of your own target group and open up an entirely new one. The best thing is that you don’t have to do anything. You only have to give away a part of the profit, which seems more than fair in the end, considering the customers you wouldn’t have without the affiliate. Especially because this customer would otherwise be completely out of your reach.

Why affiliate marketing is so effective

The reason why affiliate marketing is so successful lies in its very nature. The fact that customers themselves become advertisers, or that a direct interest in selling arises, also boosts sales accordingly. Only those who sell earn cash from the commission. Anyone who does not sell anything goes away empty-handed.

At the same time, the commission is usually a percentage, so it is temptingly high. But even if it is fixed, there is usually a higher earning than with traditional advertising. If you then provide banners, text links and templates that can be linked quickly and easily, the incentive of your partners is quickly massive, who might otherwise shy away from the effort.

By the own hosting gives besides still another positive side effect. No complicated referrer URLs are generated, but clear backlinks to your website. In the best case, your ranking will also improve and the affiliate program will provide a strong SEO boost. However, the latter should definitely not be your main goal if you are considering running your own affiliate program.

Conclusion on running your own affiliate program

Running your affiliate program based on WordPress can make a lot of sense, especially if you sell your own products and can control the commission freely accordingly. But even if you own an online store, you should seriously think about using less direct advertising and more affiliate marketing.

Affiliate programs make sense mainly because you only get paid commission if sales are made. So if nothing is sold, you don’t pay for banners, links or direct offers. This can be tempting for both sides. You minimize your costs and risk, while other site owners earn more by promoting products more directly and actively linking to them. The backlinks are an added incentive in a self-created affiliate program based on WordPress, which may also be worthwhile.

In the end, you have to decide for yourself how useful the whole thing is for your products or online store. The presented affiliate plugins for WordPress do the work for you almost completely and make the realization of your affiliate programs much easier. So feel free to give it a try.

Create affiliate program with WordPress

Setting up your affiliate program can be extremely costly and complicated. The platform has to be developed and maintained, and if a third-party provider is used, the API has to be kept under scrutiny in case there are any changes. In short, it is very complex and therefore expensive, which is why affiliate portals and frameworks are usually more limited to the big providers with over 100,000 sales.

With WordPress, however, anyone can implement their affiliate program for their store or product. This succeeds, as always with the content management system, based on the appropriate plugins. Because here there are already a variety of ready-made solutions, which only need to be set up accordingly to be immediately ready for use.

Thereby, the affiliate plugins for WordPress fall back on standards within the scene. For example, almost all affiliate plugins support WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, which are two of the biggest e-commerce plugins for WordPress. This allows anyone to spread their product even further with an affiliate program and thus massively increase their sales. All without the use of complicated APIs, services or costly integrations of the major networks, of course.

Your own product is not enough for success

You sell your own e-book, wallpaper pack or online course and it’s really successful? I’m delighted about that, but what if I told you that you could be even more successful. Because as much as you promote it on your blog, the target audience here seems to be limited and so the sales go down steadily over time. One day, you’ve just reached everyone in your bubble and then there’s no one there to buy anything.

An own affiliate program can prevent exactly this. Because here you activate the interest of other bloggers or social media influencers. By giving a fixed amount or a percentage of your profit, you make them actively advertise for you. And with the greatest interest to actually sell your product, because the commission is only credited if the sale can be successfully verified.

Only for the click there is nothing.

With an affiliate program, you get out of your own target group and open up an entirely new one. But the best thing is that you don’t have to do anything for it. You only have to give away a part of the profit, which seems more than fair in the end, considering the customers you wouldn’t have without the affiliate. Especially because this customer would otherwise be completely out of your reach.

Why affiliate marketing is so effective

The reason affiliate marketing is so successful is in the nature of things. The fact that customers themselves become advertisers, or that a direct interest in sales arises, also boosts sales accordingly. Only those who sell earn cash from the commission. Who sells nothing, goes out empty.

In the chart, you can see how affiliate marketing sales are increasing every year. Between 2014 and 2015, it was an increase of almost one billion.

At the same time, the commission is usually a percentage, so it’s temptingly high. But even though it’s fixed, there’s usually a higher earning than with traditional advertising. If you then provide banners, text links and templates that can be linked quickly and easily, the incentive of your partners, who might otherwise shy away from the effort, is quickly gigantic.

By the own hosting gives besides still another positive side effect. No complicated referrer URLs are generated, but clear backlinks to your website. In the best case, your ranking will also improve and the affiliate program will provide a strong SEO boost. However, the latter should definitely not be your main goal if you are considering running your affiliate program.

Conclusion about own affiliate program

Having your own affiliate program based on WordPress can make a lot of sense, especially if you sell your products and can freely control the commission accordingly. But even if you are a proud owner of an online store, you should seriously consider starting affiliate marketing instead of focusing on direct advertising.

Affiliate programs make sense mainly because the commission paid out only comes when sales are made. So if nothing is sold, you won’t pay for banners, links or direct offers. This can be tempting for both sides. You minimize your costs and risk, while other site owners earn more by promoting products more directly and actively linking to them. The backlinks are an added incentive in a self-created affiliate program based on WordPress, which may also be worthwhile.

In the end, you have to decide for yourself how useful the whole thing is for your products or online store. The presented affiliate plugins for WordPress do the work for you almost completely and make the realization of your affiliate programs much easier. So give it a try.