01What Dub does well
Dub is the best link infrastructure in the business, and that isn't a backhanded compliment, short links, custom domains, real-time analytics and conversion tracking with an open-source codebase and a developer experience most of this category can't touch. Dub Partners rides on top of that: if your team already runs its links through Dub, adding a partner program is a toggle, not a migration. The pricing is published and clean. Business $90/mo, Advanced $300, 14-day trials, yearly billing at a 10% discount, and payouts are built in, with the limits stated plainly.
If you think of your affiliate program as an extension of your link infrastructure, Dub is the native answer.
02Where Dub stops
Three numbers, all from dub.co/pricing:
- 1Payouts are capped by plan. $2,500/mo on Business, $15,000 on Advanced, unlimited only on custom-priced Enterprise. A program whose commissions grow crosses two plan boundaries on payout volume alone.
- 2Payouts carry a fee. 5% on Business and Advanced, 3% on Enterprise, on top of the plan price, on every dollar you pay partners.
- 3500 partners on Business. The entry plan caps partner count; unlimited starts on Advanced at $300/mo.
03What Referly adds on top of the tracking
Dub's core is the link; Referly's core is the program around it.
Referly meters tracked revenue, never payouts, $10,000/mo at $75, $30,000 at $149, and paying partners through your own PayPal or Wise batches costs 0%. The partner-facing side is a full white-label portal in 15 languages (your domain from Business), with W-9/W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E collection, encrypted TINs and EU self-billing invoices with VIES validation. Coupon-code tracking is first-class on every plan, attribution that survives when nobody clicks a link at all. And the marketplace plus Influencer Discovery add recruitment supply no link platform carries.
04Pricing: $75 vs $90 + 5%
The stickers are close; the fee and the caps aren't. A program paying partners $2,000 a month on Dub Business bills $90 + $100 in payout fees, $190/mo, with $500 of payout headroom left before the $300 Advanced plan. The same program on Referly bills $75 or $149 depending on tracked revenue, with $0 on the payouts.
Run it the other way to be fair: a small program paying out $500/mo on Dub is $90 + $25 = $115 against Referly's $75. That is much closer, and if the team already lives in Dub for links, the convenience can be worth the gap. The calculator below runs your actual payout volume.
05Who should choose Dub
A developer-led team already running its links, QRs and analytics on Dub, with modest payout volume, that wants one system and one bill. The open-source codebase and API-first design are genuine differentiators for teams that build.
06Who should choose Referly
A program where payouts are the point, growing commission volume, international partners needing W-8s and invoices, batch payments through your own rails at 0%. Or one that recruits through a marketplace and influencer network rather than bringing every partner itself.
