01What FirstPromoter does well
FirstPromoter is $49/mo against Referly's $75, and it publishes the biggest, clearest feature comparison table in the category, grouped matrices covering email, portal, reports, tracking, payouts and fraud, row by row. If you want to know exactly what you're buying before a trial, nobody documents themselves better. Its built-in affiliate email automation is genuinely strong: onboarding sequences and announcement emails without wiring up a separate tool. And it runs 19 comparison pages, including 10 it isn't in. They understand their own market better than anyone in it.
For a Stripe-only SaaS under $5,000/mo in affiliate revenue, FirstPromoter at $49 is a rational default.
02Where FirstPromoter stops
Three limitations, each from their own pricing matrix:
- 1No Shopify. FirstPromoter tracks Stripe, Chargebee and Paddle. If any of your revenue goes through a store checkout, it isn't tracked, and no plan changes that.
- 2The $5,000 cap. The $49 Starter covers $5,000/mo in affiliate revenue. Half of what Tolt's $69 covers and a third of Rewardful's next tier. It also caps affiliates at 1,000 on Starter.
- 3The Starter gate list. Their own matrix gates SSO, custom roles, activity logs, managed auto payouts, post-back URLs, removing "Powered by", embedding the dashboard, and custom CSS/JS above Starter.
03What Referly adds on top of the tracking
Both products compute recurring commissions off the subscription lifecycle. The difference is scope and the stack after the sale.
Referly tracks store checkouts as well as subscriptions. Shopify, WooCommerce and coupon codes on the same program as Stripe. Downstream it runs PayPal and Wise batch payouts, a managed payout rail, W-9/W-8BEN/W-8BEN-E collection with the TIN encrypted at rest, and EU self-billing invoices with VIES VAT validation, all from Business up. The portal runs on your own domain (Business and above) in 15 languages. And the supply side exists: a marketplace listing (separate Marketplace Licence) and Influencer Discovery (a $199/mo add-on, 500 invitations a month).
04Pricing: $49 vs $75
FirstPromoter's Starter is $49/mo and Referly's Startup is $75/mo. Referly costs 53% more at the door.
The caps decide whether that gap is real. FirstPromoter's $49 covers $5,000/mo in affiliate revenue; Referly's $75 covers $10,000/mo. From $5,000 to $15,000 you are on FirstPromoter's $99 Business plan, while Referly is still $75 up to $10,000, then $149 to $30,000. Between $5,000 and $10,000 a month, the nominally cheaper tool bills $99 and the nominally pricier one bills $75.
Under $5,000/mo, FirstPromoter is simply cheaper, and this page says so plainly.
05Who should choose FirstPromoter
A subscription business on Stripe, Chargebee or Paddle, under $5,000/mo in affiliate revenue, that wants affiliate email automation built in and has no store checkout anywhere in the funnel. At that size the $49 plan is honest value and the gate list doesn't bite yet.
06Who should choose Referly
A business whose affiliate revenue is heading past $5,000/mo, or whose sales don't all run through a subscription processor. A brand with a Shopify store next to its SaaS. A program paying enough US or EU affiliates that tax forms and self-billing invoices stopped being a spreadsheet job. Or a team that wants supply, a marketplace and an influencer network, not just tracking.
