Referral Program Software
Turn Customers Into Your Best Growth Channel
Add a referral widget to your Shopify store or Stripe app, reward both sides, and pay only when a friend buys.
- An invite your customers actually see
- Rewards for both sides
- Fraud checks that catch self-referrals
14-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Referral program software gives every customer a personal link, coupon code and QR code, tracks who they bring in, and pays out the reward. Referly runs the widget, the on-site popups, two-sided rewards in cash or store credit, and the fraud checks that stop people referring themselves, across Shopify, Stripe, WooCommerce and 24 more.
The referral widget
Where your customers see the invite
Inside your product, on your storefront, and in the channels they already use.
A widget in your product or store
Business and upEvery customer gets a personal link, a coupon code and a QR code, plus one-click email invites. You see sent, opened, clicked and converted for each one.
- Personal link, code and QR
- One-click email invites
- Invite tab and earnings tab
- Sent, opened, clicked, converted
Popups and banners on your own site
Business and upFire on page load with a delay you set, or when the visitor moves to close the tab. Seven positions, page rules and audience targeting.
- Page load or exit intent
- Seven positions
- Page rules and audience targeting
- Frequency caps on re-show
Anywhere you cannot put code
On every planThe same personal code works in a podcast read, an Instagram story or a WhatsApp message, because a code does not need a click to be tracked.
- Codes made in Stripe or Shopify
- No click required
- Works in DMs and voice
- Tracked like any other referral
Ask when they were about to leave anyway
Set the trigger to exit intent, pick the corner, and add page rules so the ask only shows where it makes sense.
Explore the referral widgetTwo-sided rewards
Reward both sides, or just one
Rewarding the friend as well as the referrer lifts acceptance, and roughly doubles what each referral costs you.
Set what the referrer gets and what the friend gets, as a percentage or a flat amount. Pay on signup, on first purchase or on a bonus. Make it one-time or recurring with a cap. Hold rewards for a set number of days so a refund never becomes a payout you cannot recover.
- Reward type
- Percentage or flat amount
- Who gets rewarded
- The referrer, the friend, or both
- When it pays
- On sign up, on purchase, or on a bonus
- How long it pays
- Once, or recurring with a cap
- What it counts
- Before or after tax and shipping
- When it is payable
- After a holding period you set
Non-cash rewards
Pay in store credit, not cash
Shopify store credit, Stripe credits, a discount code, or a unit you invent yourself.
Credit is paid in margin and stays inside the business. Cash leaves it. Set the unit, the value and a cap per customer, and Referly issues the balance against their account when the referral clears.
See how rewards are configuredReward configuration
Modelled on an $89.00 first order
Live preview, as the widget renders it
Give your friends 20% off, you get 10 store credit ($10.00)
- First order
- $89.00
- Friend's discount
- −$17.80
- Credit issued
- −$10.00
- You keep
- $61.20
Credit stays inside the business: you are paying in margin, not in cash, and the referrer has a reason to spend it with you again. Caps stop a single customer from earning unbounded store credit.
Shopify store creditIssued to the customer's account in your store
Stripe creditsApplied against their next invoice
WooCommerce creditsHeld as a balance against their account
Referral or affiliate
Referral program or affiliate program?
The two get used as synonyms. They are different products, and Referly runs both.
What you searched for
Customer referral program
- Who promotes
- Your existing customers
- The shape of it
- Many people, small rewards, usually paid in credit
- Choose it when
- You have customers who like the product and no structured way for them to say so.
Runs on Referly
What you may also need
Affiliate program
- Who promotes
- Partners, creators and publishers
- The shape of it
- Fewer people, larger commissions, usually paid in cash
- Choose it when
- You want people with an audience promoting you, and you can pay real money for sales.
Runs on Referly
| Customer referral program | Affiliate program | |
|---|---|---|
| Who promotes | Your existing customers | Partners, creators, publishers |
| What they get | A discount, store credit or a gift | A cash commission, often recurring |
| How they share | A personal link or code, usually in-app | A link and a coupon code, on their own channels |
| Typical volume | Many people, small amounts | Fewer people, larger amounts |
| Tax paperwork | Rarely | W-9 or W-8 above a threshold |
| Runs on Referly | Yes | Yes |
Both models run on one engine. If a consumer refer-a-friend program with templated email flows is all you will ever need, a dedicated referral specialist will get you live faster. Choose Referly when the customer who refers a friend this month might promote you to an audience next quarter, because switching tools later means starting the tracking over.
Read the full comparisonFraud prevention
On every planCatch self-referrals before you pay for them
Email and IP matching, hold or reject, and proxy and VPN flags on every click.
The usual leak is a customer referring themselves from a second address. Referly matches the referrer's email and IP against the new customer's, then holds the reward for review or rejects it, your choice per program.
- 1
What happened
Maya shared her link, then signed up again as maya+2 from the same connection and used her own code.
- 2
What Referly noticed
The friend's email matches the referrer's, and the signup IP matches the click IP. Both checks fired on one referral.
- 3
What it did
The reward went to On Hold instead of into the next payout, with both matched values on the record.
- 4
What you do
Reject it, or accept it if the explanation is innocent, like a shared office IP. The decision is yours and it is logged.
- Email match
- The friend's address is the referrer's, with a plus or a dot
- IP match
- The signup came from the same connection as the click
- Proxy and VPN
- Flagged on the click, before a reward exists
- Refund reversal
- The order comes back, so does the reward
When it gets serious
Some customers turn into partners
A discount code is not a payout. Once real money moves, you have a different problem.
This is the part a referral specialist hands back to you. When a referrer earns cash rather than credit, you need a payout rail and a tax form, and Referly already has both.
Pay on a schedule
Business and upPayPal and Wise, daily, weekly or monthly, with a holding period, a minimum threshold and NET 0 to NET 60 terms.
Or let Referly move the money
On every planOne charge to you, and Referly pays every referrer worldwide. No PayPal or Wise account needed at either end.
Tax forms in the portal
On every planW-9, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E filled in by the referrer, tax IDs encrypted at rest, W-8 expiry tracked.
EU self-billing invoices
Business and upGenerated per payout, with VAT numbers validated against the EU registry.
Paying through your own PayPal or Wise costs nothing on top. Referly Payouts is opt-in and its fee is 5% bank and ACH, 8% card. Referly takes a 0% transaction fee on the sales themselves, on every plan.
Explore payouts
Customer stories
Take their word for it
The founders and affiliate managers behind three fast-growing programs, in their own words.
“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
Affiliate Manager, Moov
$6.9M
in total affiliate-driven revenue
- 1,154
- active affiliates
- 19,017
- affiliate sales
- 1,240,030
- clicks tracked
“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
Founder & CEO, OptimizePress
- 7 figures
- in affiliate-driven sales
- 4,554
- active affiliates
- 10,536
- referrals
“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
CMO & Co-founder, Letterly
- 300K+
- app users
- 689
- active affiliates
- 24,114
- clicks tracked
Pricing
One flat price. 0% of your sales.
Referly never takes a percentage of your revenue or your affiliates' commissions, on any plan.
FAQ
Before you turn it on
What people ask before launching a referral program.
14-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
Referral program software gives your existing customers a personal link and code to share, tracks who they bring in, and issues the reward on both sides. Referly does that with an in-product widget, popups and banners on your own site, rewards paid as cash or store credit, and fraud checks that hold anything that looks like a self-referral.
Keep reading
A referral program rarely stays the only program for long.
- Affiliate tracking softwareHow links, coupon codes, renewals and refunds get attributed, and what happens at the edge of the cookie window.
- Affiliate management softwareEverything after the sale is tracked: recruiting, approvals, groups, rates, messaging, payouts and reporting.
- Best affiliate softwareFive tools compared on price, caps, fees and payment coverage, each with a stated limitation. Referly included.
- Shopify referral trackingStore credit, coupon codes and orders read straight out of your store, with refunds reversing the reward.
- Fraud prevention in detailEmail and IP matching, proxy and VPN flags, and the hold or reject decision, on every plan.
- Pricing and plansWhat each plan meters on, what it caps, and which plan the referral widget starts on.