WooCommerce Affiliate Plugin

One plugin. Every order attributed.

Upload the Referly plugin, paste your program id, and every WooCommerce order that came from a partner arrives with its coupon, its tax and its shipping already separated out. No theme file is edited and no code is written.

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Plugins
YesReferly Affiliate TrackingTracks referrals, orders, coupons and refunds. Serves the tracking script.ActiveSettingsDeactivate
WooCommerce
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Why this is different

Four things self-hosting makes harder

None of these apply on a hosted platform, which is why plenty of affiliate tools quietly handle WooCommerce worse than they handle Shopify.

  • You own the uptime

    A self-hosted store is your server, your plugin conflicts, your PHP version. Anything that reports sales has to survive all three.

  • Coupons live in two places

    A partner's code exists in WooCommerce and in your affiliate tool. If nothing keeps them in step, redemptions go uncounted.

  • Refunds happen in the store

    A refund is issued in WooCommerce, not in the affiliate tool, so the reversal has to travel back the other way.

  • Tax and shipping are in the total

    A WooCommerce order total includes both. Paying a percentage of it means paying partners on postage.

Under the hood

Exactly what the plugin sends, and when

Four calls, outbound only. Referly never reaches into your database and the plugin never opens a port.

  • /api/wp/capture-sale

    An order is paid

    Total, products, tax, shipping, currency, coupons

  • /api/wp/capture-email

    Someone registers

    The email, as a referral with no revenue

  • /api/wp/coupon-used

    A coupon is redeemed

    Which code, so redemption counts stay honest

  • /api/wp/delete-sale

    An order is refunded

    The order id, so the commission can be reversed

Your program id is what tells Referly which account an order belongs to. Treat it as you would any other site setting.

In practice

An order completes. The commission is already net.

Tax and shipping come off before the rate is applied, so a partner is paid on what you actually sold rather than on postage and VAT. Both deductions are on by default and both are switchable.

  • YesOrder total, line items, tax, shipping and currency all arrive
  • YesCoupons on the order are matched back to the partner who owns them
  • YesRepeat orders from the same customer are tracked too
  • YesA refund inside your payout window removes the sale and its commission

Attribution

A link, or a code. Both end in the same order.

Partners can be given either, or both. Nothing about the commission changes depending on which one the customer used.

The link route

A click on the partner's link is stored for sixty days by default, with a local-storage fallback for browsers that block one but not the other.

  • YesWorks on every page of the store, not just the landing page
  • YesCarries an rsubID through to the sale for ad platforms to match
  • YesCookie window is configurable per program

What connects

What Referly tracks in WooCommerce

Fourteen rows. Three of them depend on whether you added the optional REST API keys, and each of those says so.

Referrals trackedSales tracked
A signup, trial or new customer is recorded against the partner who sent them, before any money moves.
Yes
Every completed payment arrives as a sale with its amount, products and currency, and a commission is calculated from it.
Yes
Every order a customer places is tracked, including repeat orders. There is no subscription schedule to follow.
With a condition
A refund inside your payout window removes the sale and its commission. Once that window closes the payout has already gone out, so the sale stands.
With a condition
A customer who types a partner's discount code at checkout is attributed to that partner, with no link click and no cookie involved.
Yes
Codes are created in WooCommerce when a partner joins, once the REST API keys are added.
Yes
Add the optional WooCommerce REST API keys and Referly reads your product catalogue.
With a condition
Target a whole collection instead of listing its products one by one, and new products in that collection inherit the rate.
No
Tax is subtracted before the commission is calculated, so you are not paying a percentage of money that belongs to a tax authority. On by default, and switchable.
Yes
Shipping is subtracted before the commission is calculated. On by default, and switchable.
Yes
A partner's balance can be issued as WooCommerce credit instead of cash.
Yes
Upload the plugin, paste your program id. No theme files are edited.
Yes
You authorise the connection from inside Referly. There is nothing to configure on the other side afterwards.
Yes
An `rsubID` on the inbound link travels all the way to the sale, so an ad platform or a network can match the conversion back to its own click.
Yes
Partners are added to a named list or group in your email platform as they join, so onboarding and announcements go out from the tool you already write in.
No
Money actually leaves through this platform. Referly hands it the batch, and it moves the funds to each partner.
No
One approval sends every partner what they are owed, rather than one transfer at a time.
No

Every row above is read from what WooCommerce actually reports to Referly, not from a feature list. Hover a label for the detail.

Customer stories

Programs already running on Referly

Three businesses, three different stacks.

Moov
EcommerceFitness

Affiliates drive a serious share of our revenue across three countries. Since we moved to Referly everything runs from one place, tracking has been spot on, and our partners get paid without me chasing spreadsheets.

Alexander Koppers

Alexander Koppers

Affiliate Manager, Moov

$6.9M

in total affiliate-driven revenue

1,154
active affiliates
19,017
affiliate sales
1,240,030
clicks tracked
OptimizePress
SaaSSite builder

We have been running affiliate programs for over a decade, and ours is one of the biggest parts of how OptimizePress grows. Referly is the first platform where an operation with thousands of partners actually feels manageable, from recruiting new affiliates to tracking every sale they send.

James Dyson

James Dyson

Founder & CEO, OptimizePress

7 figures
in affiliate-driven sales
4,554
active affiliates
10,536
referrals
Letterly
Mobile appAI writing

This platform is quite simple and easy to use, and you can start attracting people to your affiliate program very quickly. A big plus is that the founder, Ayo, is super responsive.

Ilfat Khayrullin

Ilfat Khayrullin

CMO & Co-founder, Letterly

300K+
app users
689
active affiliates
24,114
clicks tracked

The short version

Seven jobs, and who does them

Most WooCommerce stores start by building some of this. These are the parts that get expensive.

The jobRolling your ownWith the plugin
Tracking script on every pageA snippet in your theme, re-added after every theme changeYesThe plugin serves it
Order totals net of tax and shippingYour own arithmetic, per orderYesDeducted before the rate, switchable
Coupon codes per partnerCreated by hand in WooCommerce, one at a timeYesCreated for you when a partner joins
Redemption countsTwo numbers that drift apartYesKept in step by the coupon endpoints
Refund reversalA cron job you wrote, and hope still runsYesThe plugin posts the refund back
Tax forms before payoutA folder of PDFsYesW-9 and W-8 collected in-house
Paying partnersA spreadsheet and a bank portalYesPayPal, Wise, bank transfer or store credit

Not on WooCommerce, but on WordPress? The WordPress page covers the other two routes.

Setup

Connect WooCommerce in four steps

Nothing here is written by hand. Step three is optional and is what turns on coupons and per-product rates.

  1. 1

    Download the Referly plugin and upload it to WordPress

    Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin, Activate. The plugin serves the tracking script for you.

  2. 2

    Paste your program id into the plugin and connect

    Copy the id from your Referly dashboard into the Referly panel in the WordPress sidebar.

  3. 3

    Add WooCommerce REST API keys

    Read/Write keys under WooCommerce, Settings, Advanced, REST API. Optional, and what turns on coupons and product rules.

  4. 4

    Set your commission and invite partners

    Pick a rate, choose whether partners get a coupon code, then send your first invites.

No theme files are edited and no code is written. Step 3 is optional: without the API keys the plugin still tracks referrals, orders and refunds, you just do not get per-partner coupon codes or per-product rates. A refund inside your payout window removes the sale; once that window closes the payout has already gone out.

Read the WooCommerce setup docs

Guides

Step by step for WooCommerce

Written for the checkout you actually have.

Browse the help centre

FAQ

What store owners ask

The questions founders ask in the first ten minutes.

14-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime

  • No. You upload the plugin, activate it and paste your program id. The plugin serves the tracking script itself, so there is nothing to add to a template and nothing to maintain when you change themes.