Affiliate software for SaaS

ViralPayouts vs FirstPromoter

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 FirstPromoter, paying affiliates for you is optional or extra and offers multi-tier commissions. It costs $49 to $149 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over FirstPromoter

Best fit: A brand that wants two-level recruiting and hands-off payouts without a subscription or plan gates, and wants exposure in a public program directory.

$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

	FirstPromoter	ViralPayouts
Price	$49 to $149 a month	$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	Managed payouts: "There is no additional fees for you right now"; affiliates pay withdrawal fees (e.g. fixed $0.75 US bank withdrawal).	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 Dots (dots.dev) for managed payouts	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Yes3 levelsAll plans	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	Affiliate links via tracking script; Vanity URLs on your domain; Direct URL tracking; Coupon codes (auto-created, synced to Stripe)	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, MCP server	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Stripe (verified partner, Stripe App Marketplace), Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly, Braintree	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

FirstPromoter plans in full

Starter: $49 a month. Up to $5,000/month affiliate revenue; no custom domain/white label
Business: $99 a month. Up to $15,000/month affiliate revenue; white label, custom domain
Enterprise: $149 a month. Above $15,000/month (scales; 'Let's talk'); managed auto payouts (Enterprise 2+, approval, SaaS only)

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of FirstPromoter

What FirstPromoter offers

Subscription and SaaS/AI SaaS businesses (plus creators and course sellers via Kajabi, Thinkific, ClickFunnels etc.) wanting a full-featured affiliate program with recurring commissions and partner recruitment.

Affiliate software for SaaS · G2 4.6 (35 reviews) · Capterra 4.9 (7 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

No monthly fee and no revenue caps; fee only on what partners are paid (10% falling to 3%)
Pays affiliates for every brand without Enterprise gating or approval; FirstPromoter managed payouts need Enterprise 2+ and SaaS only
Separate customer and recruit links with recruiter override set per program as % of commission, % of sale, or fixed
Public directory where partners discover programs, one account across programs (FirstPromoter has none)

What FirstPromoter users say

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

Praise

Support is the most-cited strength: fast, hands-on help with setup and integrations. g2.com
"Easy to get started, we were up and running the same day." (product marketing manager) g2.com
Support rep spent over a week, including weekends, helping with Chargebee integration (Benjamin F., Sep 2020). capterra.com
Developer configured it in about two hours; API allowed a custom reward payout (Paul M., Aug 2020). capterra.com

Complaints

Onboarding is complex and price is high; no affiliate marketplace, so reviewer also pays for Reditus (Andrey K., Sep 2021). capterra.com
Missing bulk editing/approval tools and network features (David R., Aug 2020). capterra.com
Needs a developer for setup; wants a WordPress plugin (Pablo G., Feb 2021; Paul M., Aug 2020). capterra.com
Steep learning curve, limited customization of reward views, reporting dashboards could be more robust. g2.com

About FirstPromoter

In their words:: "Affiliate Management Software" / "Runs your program while you run the relationships" (title: "FirstPromoter - All-in-One SaaS Affiliate Software")
Company:: Founded 2017 · SpringWater (SaaS acquirer, Lithuania-linked) acquired FirstPromoter on 4 Sep 2025; founder Virgil Cioaca
Funding:: Not stated; began as a side project, profitable before sale (no outside funding mentioned)
Named customers:: JustCall ($2.4M affiliate ARR, 1,000 partners), Passion.io ($2M affiliate revenue), Submagic (EUR 1.64M affiliate revenue, 9,000+ promoters), Hostinger, Ghost, Wishpond, CustomGPT
Website:: firstpromoter.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 FirstPromoter (21), checked 12 October 2026

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