Affiliate network vs affiliate program
Rent their audience, or own your list?
An affiliate network is a marketplace that hosts many programs and sits between you and your affiliates. An in-house affiliate program is software you run yourself, where the partner relationship, the data and the payouts are yours. Networks bring reach and charge a share of what they produce; in-house software charges a flat fee.
- Networks charge a share of sales
- In-house software charges a flat fee
- Referly takes 0% of your sales
What an affiliate network is
A two-sided marketplace. What you are buying is distribution, and it is priced accordingly.
It sits in the middle
The network handles the introduction, the tracking and usually the money.
It brings working affiliates
Partners with audiences who already trust the payment process.
It keeps a percentage
Of everything the channel produces, forever, plus minimums and deposits at the door.
What an in-house affiliate program is
Software you run directly. No intermediary between you and a partner means no intermediary rate to negotiate.
You own the relationship
The affiliate list, the emails, the terms and the data, exportable any time.
You pay a flat fee
The cost does not climb because the channel worked.
Referly takes 0% of your sales
On every plan. The only optional percentage anywhere is Referly Payouts, a money-sending service you can decline.
Cost, control and who owns the relationship
The crossover comes fast: a percentage of a growing channel overtakes a flat fee within most programs' first year. The middle path is an in-house program with a public listing.
- Cost
- Percentage vs flat fee
- Control
- Their terms vs yours
- Leaving
- Rebuild vs export
One climbs with every sale. One does not.
Your commission rules, approval standards and payout terms
In a network, the partner accounts and payment details stay behind
Try it
A share of the channel against a flat fee
Difference over a year
$6,300
More on the network
The two costs meet at about $2,500 a month of affiliate revenue. Above that the percentage keeps climbing and the fee does not.
Affiliate network
$600/mo
3% of $20,000 in referred sales
- Reach: an existing base of working affiliates
- The network holds the affiliate relationship and the payment details
- Cost rises with every extra dollar the channel produces
In-house program
$75/mo
Flat monthly fee, whatever the channel produces
- Reach: a public marketplace listing, plus whoever you recruit
- The affiliate list, the contact details and the data are yours
- No percentage of your affiliate sales on any plan
In Referly
A public listing, without a middleman
Your program gets a page in Referly's marketplace that affiliates search and apply to. The partners who join are yours, in your system, on your terms.
See the marketplace listing
0%
Our cut of your sales
On every plan. Referly Payouts is separate and optional.
Yours
Affiliate list
Exportable, contact details included.
Built-in marketplace
Reach
A public program page affiliates apply to.
Related terms
All ten termsAffiliate vs referral program
An affiliate promotes you for income; a referrer recommends what they already bought.
Referral program
A program that rewards your existing customers for bringing you new ones.
Cookie window
How long after a click a sale still counts for the affiliate who sent it.
MLM vs affiliate marketing
MLM pays for recruiting people; affiliate marketing pays for referring sales.
Go deeper
Three places this continues