Customer referral software

ViralPayouts vs Friendbuy

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. Friendbuy does not say it pays affiliates for you and does not say it has two-tier recruiting. It does not publish its prices.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Friendbuy

Best fit: A smaller or digital brand that wants to start without a contract, pay only on results, and let partners recruit partners.

$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

	Friendbuy	ViralPayouts
Price	Not published: quote on requestTerm: Annual ('a flat annual license')	$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	Not stated	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 links; codes; multi-signal attribution (not only cookie or coupon); email referrals without a click	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	Partly	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	Shopify, Shopify Plus, Klaviyo, Attentive, Braze	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Friendbuy plans in full

Annual license: price not published. 'Pricing is based on your program requirements, a flat annual license — no per-referral commissions, no CPA'

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Friendbuy

What Friendbuy offers

Mid-market and enterprise consumer brands (DTC ecommerce, subscription, financial services, consumer services, travel, telecom, energy, education) wanting referral, loyalty and influencer/affiliate programs on one platform with dedicated support.

Customer referral software · G2 4.3 (58 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

Self-serve with no annual licence; fee only when partners are paid (10% falling to 3%)
Two-tier partner/recruiter overrides built in
Public directory of live programs with one partner account across programs
Pays partners for the brand via Whop; Friendbuy does not publicly describe paying affiliates on the brand's behalf

What Friendbuy users say

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

Praise

Responsive support, especially during setup and onboarding g2.com
Easy to set up and manage referral campaigns; integrations easy to adopt g2.com
Hush Blankets generated more referral revenue in its first month than all of the prior year with its previous vendor (vendor-hosted testimonial) friendbuy.com

Complaints

Reporting dashboards confusing; some report inaccurate data g2.com
Integration problems and hard customisation for some g2.com
Pricing seen as high with extra fees not justified g2.com

About Friendbuy

In their words:: "The platform for referral, loyalty, and influencer programs." (homepage H1)
Company:: Friendbuy, Inc. (Terms of Service)
Named customers:: OluKai, Hush Blankets, Bathhouse, PrettyLitter, Natural Life
Website:: friendbuy.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 Friendbuy (9), checked 12 October 2026

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