Creator and checkout platformViralPayouts vs Hotmart
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. Hotmart also pays affiliates for you and has no two-tier recruiting. It costs $0 a month + 9.9% to 20% of transactions.
Every figure for Hotmart comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.
Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Hotmart
Best fit: A brand with its own checkout that wants affiliates and recruiters paid for it and only pays a fee on partner earnings.
- $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.
Side by side
| Hotmart | ViralPayouts | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 a month + 9.9% to 20% of transactions | $0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month. |
| Setup fee | $0 ("No monthly or annual fees") | None |
| Fee for paying affiliates | Withdrawal fee R$1.99 per withdrawal (BRL), minimum withdrawal R$2.00 | 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 | Yesvia Hotmart itself (its own payment system) | Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner |
| Two-tier recruiting | No | Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups |
| Public program directory | Yes500,000+ products on the platform (not all affiliate-enabled) programs | Yes Partners browse and join with one account |
| Tracking | HotLinks (affiliate tracking links) with cookies; HotLeads (lead capture attribution when cookie is missing); Global affiliation (same creator's other products); Sales history matching | 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 | REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks |
| Integrations | Webhooks, Sales, Subscriptions and Members Area APIs, Embeddable Hotmart checkout / shopping cart, Tracking pixels, Email automation (Hotmart Send) | Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API |
Hotmart plans in full
- Standard creator fee (BRL sales): $0 a month, plus 9.9% of transactions. "For revenue up to five figures, the fee is 9.9% + R$1 per approved sale." Fees are "tiered: the more you earn, the less you pay". Fee is on every sale, with or without an affiliate; affiliate commission comes out of the creator's share.
- Microtransactions (products up to R$10): $0 a month, plus 20% of transactions. 20% per sale (per HeroSpark's July 2026 fee comparison, a competitor)
Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Hotmart
What Hotmart offers
Creators selling online courses, ebooks, memberships, events and some physical products (strongest in Brazil, Latin America and Spain) who want checkout, hosting and a ready affiliate marketplace in one place, paid per sale.
Creator and checkout platform · Capterra 4.5 (77 reviews) · Trustpilot 3.2 (3,623 reviews)
Why ViralPayouts is the better choice
- Fee only on what the brand pays partners (10% falling to 3%), not 9.9% + R$1 on every sale
- Brand keeps its own checkout (Stripe webhook or S2S API) and customer relationship
- Two-level partner + recruiter override on every program with a separate recruit link; Hotmart only has invited Affiliate Manager cocreators
- Works for any business, not just products sold through Hotmart
What Hotmart users say
Paraphrased from public reviews. Follow each link to read the original.
Praise
- Easy to access and intuitive for both sellers and buyers; long track record gives credibility (Nath M., Sep 2023). capterra.com
- Large affiliate base that helps promote and sell products (regina N., Mar 2023). capterra.com
- Commission payments are "super fast"; no worry about delivery and receipt (Aparecido V., Apr 2022). capterra.com
- Being able to become an affiliate is a second way to use the platform (Heyohaan H., Feb 2022). capterra.com
Complaints
- A 10% commission on top-line revenue is steep; fees higher than other infoproduct platforms. capterra.com
- Account suspended with about EUR 10,000 withheld and no clear release date (Lucas Gros, Sep 2026). trustpilot.com
- Creator selling through the affiliate program hit a problem support failed to resolve (Claudio S., Sep 2026). trustpilot.com
- Identity-document approval and account problems dragged on for weeks (Sep/Oct 2026). trustpilot.com
About Hotmart
- In their words:
- "Join the world's largest platform for digital products."
- Company:
- Founded 2011 (founders João Pedro Resende, CEO, and Mateus Bicalho, COO) · Headquarters in The Netherlands (Amsterdam); offices in Brazil (Belo Horizonte), Spain, Colombia, Mexico, USA and France · Part of the Hotmart Company group
- Team:
- 1,900+ employees ("Troopers"), 700+ in Product & Tech
- Named customers:
- Claims 200K+ creators, $10B+ in sales, 25M+ buyers, 500,000+ products sold in 188 countries, Creator Leandro Madeira featured on homepage
- Website:
- hotmart.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.
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ViralPayouts vs HumanzSources for Hotmart (12), checked 12 October 2026
- https://hotmart.com/en-us
- https://hotmart.com/en/pricing
- https://hotmart.com/en/about
- https://hotmart.com/en/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hotmart
- https://hotmart.com/en/blog/affiliate-commissioning-at-hotmart-understand-the-5-levels-of-commission-attribution-to-affiliates
- https://help.hotmart.com/en/article/360017792651/how-do-cookies-work-at-hotmart-
- https://help.hotmart.com/en/article/360016601731/how-are-affiliate-commissions-determined-at-hotmart-
- https://help.hotmart.com/en/article/115006275027/
- https://developers.hotmart.com/docs/en/
- https://herospark.com/guias/taxas-e-margem
- https://www.capterra.com/p/219169/Hotmart/reviews/
- https://www.trustpilot.com/review/hotmart.com
Hotmart is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with Hotmart. Prices and features change: check hotmart.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.