Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective growth strategies for e-commerce brands and Shopify merchants.
By leveraging affiliates, you can drive new customers to your store through trusted recommendations, paying only for real results.
The right Shopify affiliate marketing app makes the process simple, handling everything from tracking clicks and sales to managing payouts and affiliate performance reporting.
In this review, we have the top Shopify affiliate marketing apps, including their pros and cons and pricing, so you can find the right app to leverage the power of affiliates for your store!
We’ll also explore the key benefits of affiliate programs for e-commerce merchants and walk you through a simple step-by-step guide to setting up an affiliate program for your Shopify store.
Let’s dive right in!
Here’s a quick comparison of the top Shopify affiliate marketing apps, including how much they cost, the pros and cons of each, and our P2P rating:
App Name | Pricing | Pros & Cons | P2P Rating |
Refersion |
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UpPromote: Affiliate & Referral |
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Social Snowball |
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LeadDyno |
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GoaffPro |
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ReferralCandy |
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Affiliatly |
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Omnistar |
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MLM Affiliate by ShoutOut |
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Simple Affiliate |
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Buzzbassador |
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Scroll down for the full reviews!
Refersion is one of the major players in affiliate marketing, and their end-to-end Shopify solution brings together all those world-class features in one robust tool.
The app allows you to recruit, manage, and pay your affiliates with a personalized dashboard. Their Shopify integrations allow you to automatically create unique coupon codes so you can track sales from any channel.
Pros:
Cons:
Website: refersion.com
Shopify App Store: Refersion: Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.7/5 from 490+ reviews
UpPromote: Affiliate & Referral is an ideal option for all-size businesses. The app offers a free plan if you’re looking to start your affiliate strategy without any upfront cost.
You can easily group your affiliates in program(s) with a specific commission structure. You can also set up auto-tier commissions and lifetime commissions to incentivize your team.
The app supports you to build an affiliate team with unlimited affiliates on all plans. Furthermore, you can convert customers into affiliates via a post-purchase popup, or let affiliates invite others with multi-level marketing (MLM) feature. What differs between UpPromote and other apps is that you can list your offer on UpPromote marketplace to approach more ambassadors.
Pros:
Cons:
Website: uppromote.com
Shopify App Store: UpPromote Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.9/5 from 2500+ reviews
Snowball by Social Snowball is an automation app designed specifically for Shopify stores. It automatically converts all store customers into affiliates and encourages them to promote your products by assigning personalized promo codes/links.
Moreover, Social Snowball shows the coupon code at the end of each purchase on the “Thank You” page, making customers more likely to share the product they just bought.
We particularly like their minimal approach to everything. For example, the affiliate forms Social Snowball creates for non-customers (who want to join your affiliate program) can be filled in a few seconds.
You can pay your affiliates in two clicks using one of the six simplified payout methods. And its minimal dashboard lets you keep track of everything.
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Cons:
Website: socialsnowball.io
Shopify App Store: Snowball Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store rating: 4.7/5 from 170+ reviews
As one of the most popular Shopify affiliate tracking apps around, LeadDyno is a favorite among small businesses.
A really great benefit of using LeadDyno is that you’ll not only get to use a great marketing tool but also gain access to their large Shopify affiliate network for free.
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Cons:
Website: leaddyno.com
Shopify App Store: LeadDyno Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.4/5 from 220+ reviews
GoaffPro is a great choice if you’re just starting up because their app offers quite a generous free plan.
You can convert existing customers into affiliates through a customized portal, set up product-level commissions, track sales through multiple methods, generate coupons, and manage payments through PayPal.
Pros:
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Website: goaffpro.com
Shopify App Store: Goaffpro Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.8/5 from 850+ reviews
Referral marketing is part of affiliate marketing. Others might argue that it is a separate strategy, but we’d like to consider it part of the affiliate marketing landscape.
What differs between referral and affiliate marketing is the relationship between the referrer and the end customer, these two are usually connected by family, friendship or other shared interests. Other than that, referral marketing works the same as affiliate marketing.
ReferralCandy is one of the most popular choices and it is a pioneer in the affiliate space. To date, they’ve generated millions of dollars in referral sales, so if you’re looking for a “Rolls Royce” of apps, this is one of them.
ReferralCandy also offers an affiliate marketing mode, so you can also reach out to affiliate partners.
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Price:
Website: referralcandy.com
Shopify App Store: Referral Candy & Affiliate
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.9/5 from 1470+ reviews
Affilatly allows fully customizable affiliate management software. With this Shopify affiliate software, you can create custom links to let your affiliates share your products with ease.
This platform lets you build branded registration forms and get email notifications to stay ahead of your program.
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Website: affiliatly.com
Shopify App Store: Affiliatly Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.2/5 from 60+ reviews
Omnistar is a basic but robust affiliate management software for e-commerce brands with a dedicated Shopify affiliate app.
With one paid plan, this software is ideal for startups. The configuration is quick and easy, and the super responsive customer support is available 24/7.
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Website: osiaffiliate.com
Shopify App Store: Omnistar Affiliate Software
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.7 Stars / 32 Reviews
MLM by ShoutOut is a completely free affiliate marketing software with basic features.
This beginner-friendly affiliate tool lets you manage and pay your affiliates with ease.
While this isn’t the top platform for high-level affiliate management, it’s ideal for individual marketers and startups.
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Website: shoutout.global
Shopify App Store: MLM Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.8/5 from 29+ reviews
Simple Affiliate is one of the best apps, and all its users agree! Boasting five stars, this platform is seamless to use, and you can launch your campaign in a few minutes.
The customer support is superb, and so are the features. This platform is 100% in-house, so you don’t have to manage your affiliates through external portals.
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Website: simple-affiliate.com
Shopify App Store: Simple Affiliate
Shopify App Store Rating: 5/5 from 80+ reviews
Buzzbassador is one of the most favorable apps for micro-influencer marketing campaigns.
You can forget messy forms, and focus on branded registration forms that drive quality affiliates.
Businesses can track their campaigns in real-time and send payments effortlessly.
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Website: buzzbassador.com
Shopify App Store: BUZZ Affiliate Marketing
Shopify App Store Rating: 4.9 Stars / 89 Reviews
Summary: Best Shopify Affiliate Program Apps
The key benefits of affiliate marketing for Shopify merchants and e-commerce brands include:
As a small business, expanding an in-house sales team is a costly affair.
Affiliate marketing allows you to connect with many more people who will be promoting your product quickly. Plus, you only pay per conversion so you’ll steadily increase your ROI.
No lengthy processes are involved in making a sale because affiliates are focused on the job – it’s their source of revenue, so they are determined to generate revenue for you.
Affiliates will use any channel that works for them and for you. You don’t have to get caught up learning to produce digital ads or campaigns.
Your affiliates could generate both brand awareness and conversions from multiple channels such as social media, email, online reviews, or blogging.
74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions.
Your affiliates are people, and you can leverage their reach and influence easily through an affiliate program.
Using Shopify affiliate marketing apps makes tracking and measuring your campaign a breeze. They’re all updated in real-time and purposely built to integrate with your store.
With unique tracking codes for each affiliate, you can easily track sales and pay out commissions – this can even be automated if you use the right tool.
Summary: The benefits of affiliate marketing
With so many apps offering “one-click” options, it’s becoming even easier to get started on Shopify.
However, there is some groundwork that needs to be done to really make the most of your marketing tools.
Here are a few important steps to keep in mind when you’re building your affiliate program:
Define what your sales and marketing objectives are and what kind of affiliate commission you are willing to offer. This can be discounts, free products, coupons, or other incentives.
Then, consider your budget range and the features that are a high priority for you.
For some businesses, all they need is a straightforward affiliate tool, while others might require additional communication features such as bulk emailing, automatic payouts, custom dashboards, and so on.
Now that you’ve outlined your basic strategy, it’s time to find the right tool. Here are a few quick ways you can start researching:
Once you’re ready to try or purchase an app, you simply have to log in to your Shopify account, navigate to your chosen app’s listing page, click on “Add app,” and follow the instructions to set it up.
Decide on how and why you’ll be communicating with your affiliates.
Email communication is usually the best way to onboard new affiliates and keep in touch throughout the campaign.
Certain emails can be automated through your Shopify affiliate marketing platform, and some require more of a personal touch (such as onboarding emails, customer support, payment queries and so on).
You can also promote your affiliate program on social media, on your website, or by other marketing channels.
With the right tool, you can start recruiting your ideal affiliates.
It’s important that you clearly define what criteria you’re looking for and what you are willing to pay out, and what you are paying out for: sales, clicks, leads, and so on.
You can use your app to find affiliates on their owned networks, or you can start with your own customer base (as with referral marketing).
Track performance and manage your affiliate program with ease using the dashboard provided by your Shopify affiliate marketing plugins.
Using the analytics and insights you receive, you can optimize your affiliate program even further.
While having a diverse marketing mix is always a good strategy, we really believe that affiliate marketing should be a big part of that effort.
While there are quite a few apps that perform similar tasks out there, it’s important to get the most out of your monthly fees. Therefore, we recommend doing your research on each app.
Use articles like these to help you narrow down the search, and sign up for as many free trials and software demos as possible to give you the best opportunity to “try before you buy”.
Yes! Shopify can be integrated with most of the affiliate management software, so you can easily set up and launch your affiliate program. In order to find the best affiliate solutions for Shopify, check out our list of the best Shopify friendly affiliate apps.
The best Shopify apps to streamline your affiliate marketing campaign are: Refersion, LeadDyno and GoaffPro. Go and check out our article for the top 6 Shopify apps and see how to build a successful affiliate marketing program.
Get in touch with other companies within your niche market, to find out what commission rates they currently offer affiliates. Then browse through their terms and conditions sign up page. This will go a long way in helping you determine a competitive affiliate commission rate. For further details, take a look at our Shopify affiliate marketing guide, covering all you need to know for your affiliate campaign.
Once you have found a suitable marketing tool for your affiliate program, you can then start recruiting affiliates. Start by connecting with affiliate networks and directories, such as ClickBank and ShareASale. Here affiliates are more likely to come directly to you, then you needing to go out and search for them. See our full, step by step guide on how to find and recruit the right affiliates for you.
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Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective growth strategies for e-commerce brands a...
Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective growth strategies for e-commerce brands a...
Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective growth strategies for e-commerce brands a...