WordPress affiliate plugin

ViralPayouts vs AffiliateWP

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 AffiliateWP, paying affiliates for you is optional or extra and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $12.46 to $29.13 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over AffiliateWP

Best fit: A brand not on WordPress (or selling via Stripe Checkout) that wants partners paid for it, built-in recruiter overrides and exposure to partners through a public directory, with no upfront fee.

$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

	AffiliateWP	ViralPayouts
Price	$12.46 to $29.13 a monthTerm: Annual licence (all prices shown are per year); renews at full (non-introductory) price. 14-day money-back guarantee.	$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	None from AffiliateWP ("We don't add a fee of our own, so every charge is Stripe's"); Stripe/PayPal standard fees apply and are paid by the merchant.	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 Stripe and PayPal from the merchant's own accounts; the hosted AffiliateWP Payouts Service stopped paying affiliates on 30 September 2026	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Higher plans5 levelsPro (or Growth Bundle)	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 link cookies (?ref=ID); Affiliate-assigned coupons (coupon takes priority over cookie); Lifetime commissions (customer permanently linked to affiliate); Direct link tracking (Pro)	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	No	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	WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Stripe, PayPal, MemberPress	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

AffiliateWP plans in full

Personal: $12.46 a month billed yearly. $149.50 first year (normally $299/yr); 1 site; unlimited affiliates and commissions; PayPal payouts, store credit, WooCommerce + 20 integrations
Plus: $16.63 a month billed yearly. $199.50 first year (normally $399/yr); 2 sites; adds multi-currency, signup commissions, leaderboards
Pro: $24.96 a month billed yearly. $299.50 first year (normally $599/yr); 5 sites; adds multi-tier commissions, tiered rates, fraud prevention, lifetime/recurring commissions, automatic payouts, REST API write access
Growth Bundle: $29.13 a month billed yearly. $349.50 first year (normally $699/yr); AffiliateWP Pro + RewardsWP Pro, 5 sites each

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of AffiliateWP

What AffiliateWP offers

WordPress site owners (WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, membership and LMS sites) who want to run their own in-house affiliate program on their own site without paying a network or per-transaction fee.

WordPress affiliate plugin · G2 4.3 (6 reviews) · Capterra 4.6 (112 reviews) · Trustpilot 4.1 (65 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

ViralPayouts pays the affiliates for the brand (via Whop); AffiliateWP makes the merchant run payouts from their own Stripe/PayPal
Not tied to WordPress: works for any stack via redirect links, a signed server-to-server event API and Stripe Checkout webhook (AffiliateWP is cookie-only, 1-day default)
Public directory so partners can find and join programs with one account; AffiliateWP has none
Two-tier recruiting built into every program with separate customer and recruit links, rather than a $599/yr Pro add-on
No upfront cost; fees only when partners are paid and reversed on refund

What AffiliateWP users say

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

Praise

Support repeatedly praised for staying with problems until fixed (e.g. found a misconfigured SMTP setting; fixed a commission calculation issue step by step). trustpilot.com
Quick setup; one reviewer had it running in about an hour, with reliable tracking. trustpilot.com
Smooth install and integration with Easy Digital Downloads and Restrict Content Pro; real-time reporting and CSV export. softwareadvice.com
Good reports/analytics and customisable referral links and emails. capterra.com

Complaints

Cancelling and renewals are painful: many page views to cancel, a renewal charge after trying to cancel (refunded), daily billing emails after declining renewal. trustpilot.com
Considered expensive for small businesses; one reviewer rated value-for-money 1/5. capterra.com
Affiliate dashboard looks dated/unstyled and is hard to customise. softwareadvice.com
Paying affiliates was clunky (mass payment setup, outdated docs); plugin adds DB load that slowed sites. softwareadvice.com

About AffiliateWP

In their words:: "The Best WordPress Affiliate Management Plugin" (homepage H1); pricing page H1: "The Most Powerful WordPress Affiliate Plugin … without the High Costs"
Company:: Founded 2014 (launched April 2014 by Pippin Williamson and Andrew Munro) · Awesome Motive; operated by Sandhills Development, LLC ("the Awesome Motive company that operates it")
Named customers:: FooPlugins (testimonial from Adam W. Warner), Paul Jarvis (individual creator testimonial), Claims "Trusted by 30,000+ businesses" (no company logos named)
Website:: affiliatewp.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 AffiliateWP (19), checked 12 October 2026

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