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Shopify Affiliate Apps

11 Best Shopify Affiliate Apps (Review) that I personally like (2024)

One of the more profitable marketing initiatives you can do with your Shopify store is having an affiliate program. Although setting up an initiative like this can take quite a bit of time (particularly if you’re fairly new to doing an affiliate program), however, luckily enough, there are some amazing app options on the market with years of helping brands scale their affiliates/ambassadors, which I have collated for you in this guide.
June 12, 2023
Dan Siepen
min
16
Shopify
January 2, 2024
Updated on
Author: Dan Siepen (Founder & Editor)
I've been a Growth Marketer for 8+ years (eCommerce/DTC 6+ years), and love developing strategies and executing channels for eCommerce/Shopify brands. I've used hundreds (and hundreds) of software tools to help execute on key strategies for eCommerce growth, and I'm here to help highlight which tools, software and apps can help you scale your store.
Connect with Dan

I’ve setup and been running numerous eCommerce affiliate programs for quite some time now, especially brands using the Shopify CMS, and I can tell you all these awesome platform options, which I touch on below, are really good for setting a program up in pretty much next to no time. 

Just a quick refresher, why do I believe having an affiliate program is so key when it comes to growing an eCommerce brand?

These are the reasons why I recommend this channel to clients of mine and any brands that get in touch with me. 

  • Low-risk to setup and costs barely anything to get going - it’s mainly subscribing to a paid plan of an app, and then creating a good landing page, and time to then reach out to desired people you want to promote. 
  • Leveraging ambassadors/influencers networks - audiences who follow respective influencers/ambassadors already trust their word with any of the content they share, so you already have ‘an in’ when it comes to getting your brand in front of the right eyeballs. 
  • Lower CAC - when this marketing channel really starts to scale, affiliates bringing in revenue is usually cheaper than paid acquisition channels (particularly during busy seasonal periods/general fluctuations) such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads. 
  • Increase brand reach and awareness - utilising ambassadors and influencers will help amplify your brand name, especially as audiences start to cross over between each -  meaning you’ll start to create an ‘echo chamber’ of your brand name as people start to see/hear it often. Remember, people start to build trust/credibility when they start to see your brand being recommended everywhere. 
  • Viral growth potential - in conjunction with the above, if you really start to see some traction, then double down on it as you start to ramp things up, as people will just start talking about your brand everywhere, both ambassador/affiliate-level and consumer-level. 

All in all, you can really see the benefits of having a marketing initiative like this can be for your brand. 

In case you still need a little more convincing, I created a guide on the top affiliate marketing programs in eCommerce that exist (which include landing page examples of each), where you can see the types of top brands using affiliates to help scale their growth marketing efforts. 

What do you recommend as the key attributes Shopify store owners need to look out for in choosing affiliate software?

Something I like to do when it comes to reviewing any software that requires time to research/play around to see if it’s going to be a good fit or not, I like to have a bit of a ‘filtered checklist’ of attributes I particularly look for when it helps with decision-making. 

This I’ve found to be really important to save time as there are so many solutions (for most categories) in the market. So, here are some things in affiliate platforms to look out for in order to achieve all the major tasks of running a great program. 

  • Are there self-serve signup capabilities for those wanting to participate and signup automatically into your program?
  • How deep does the tracking and analytics suite go for the performance of ambassadors? Is the reporting clear over various periods you set and certain campaigns, and can you do all of this within the app?
  • Is it easy to create custom coupon codes and tracking campaigns for those you’re working with?
  • Many of them have great integrations, but which integrations suit best for your needs?
  • How do payments and payment terms operate? Are these easily disclosed for self-serve signups?

By no means is this a completely exhaustive list, but certainly some of the more important considerations I personally take into account when choosing the right affiliate software for eCommerce brands (and what I recommend to clients to keep in mind).

Now let’s take a look into my deep dive into some of the top affiliate options available for Shopify store owners.

1. ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy helps small and medium businesses to scale and succeed by boosting the number of word-of-mouth referrals (on-site and through affiliates/influencers) around the globe.  

Why I like it & Pros

  • The Referral Candy platform lets you easily choose from different reward types to send to your customers who have made referrals - i.e. what affiliates can use as special offers.
  • You can invite as many customers to your referral program through a landing page, post-purchase popup, and referral widgets. 
  • It lets you keep an eye on any suspicious or fraudulent referrals to prevent fraud and increase ROI. 

Average Shopify Rating – 4.8/5 stars based on over 2,000 reviews

Customers they work

  • Secretlab
  • Critical Pass
  • Riff Raff & Co
  • Farm Hounds
  • Evolve 

Integrations they offer

  • Shopify
  • Recharge
  • MailChimp
  • Google Analytics
  • Klaviyo

Pricing 

With a 30-day free trial period, this tool has 3 paid plans. The premium and plus plans are priced at $47 and $239 per month, respectively. Enterprise is a custom plan. 

2. Social Snowball

Social Snowball is an affiliate and referral tool for eCommerce with automated affiliate marketing and a simple interface to make your marketing efforts efficient.

Why I like it & Pros

  • Social Snowball allows you to send cash, gift cards, or store credit payments directly to affiliates with just 2 clicks. 
  • This platform gives you access to attribution and ROI data for your influencer partnerships to have a clear view of your customer journey.
  • You have control over every touch point of the affiliate journey, from storefront elements and emails to SMS, for increased engagement.
  • You can get quickly notified when your affiliate codes leak on coupon sites, and you can change the codes in just a few clicks. 

Average Shopify Rating - 4.9/5 stars based on over 140 reviews

Customers they work

  • Fanjoy
  • Sok-It
  • Goorin Bros
  • Tabs Chocolate
  • Latico Leathers

Integrations they offer

  • Tremendous
  • Klaviyo
  • Zapier
  • Postscript
  • PageFly

Pricing

Social Snowball offers two paid plans with a 30-day free trial. Snow Day and Blizzard plans come with a price tag of $99 and $499 per month, respectively. There’s also an enterprise tier for any custom needs you require.

3. UpPromote

UpPromote is a robust affiliate management software with real-time tracking to help you grow your Shopify business. 

Why I like it & Pros

  • UpPromote’s real-time tracking system lets you accurately and instantly record conversions via various tracking methods like links, emails, and coupons.
  • With the help of white-labelled affiliate pages and 100% customised email templates, you can make campaigns more attractive.
  • I really like the auto-tier commission structure feature where you can add any type of bonus related to your existing offers.
  • The in-depth analytics lets you view the top affiliates and best-selling products to help you make the right business decisions.

Average Shopify Rating – 4.9/5 stars based on over 2,400 reviews

Customers they work

  • Double Dip
  • SaleDress
  • ALT Fragrances
  • Fandomaniax
  • Mysteek Naturals

Integrations they offer

  • PayPal
  • Omnisend
  • Referral Candy
  • Refersion
  • Goaffpro

Pricing

Along with a 100% free plan, you can take advantage of the three paid plans. Grow affiliate costs $29.99 per month, professional $89.99 per month, and enterprise $199.99 per month. 

4. GoaffPro

GoaffPro is a great affiliate marketing option I’ve used before and have had great experiences with. Certainly one of my top recommendations to consider for Shopify marketers and owners.

Why I like it & Pros

  • GoaffPro allows automatic payouts through PayPal payouts and offers a referral link generator for affiliates.
  • You can have a custom-branded affiliate portal under your domain so affiliates don’t have to exit your site. 
  • The analytics feature takes advantage of machine learning and AI to facilitate your growth.
  • Affiliates can create network links to hire others and create teams for multi-level marketing.  

Average Shopify Rating – 4.8/5 stars based on over 1600 reviews

Customers they work

  • Lakme
  • Minimalist
  • Closet Candy
  • Nama
  • Green Soul

Integrations they offer

  • Mailchimp 
  • Klaviyo 
  • Omnisend
  • Tipalti
  • ReCharge Payments

Pricing

In addition to a completely free plan, you can get your hands on the premium plan that costs $24 per month with a 15-day free trial. 

5. Refersion

Refersion is a pretty popular affiliate solution on the market and is one of the more ‘mature’ options for serious heavy hitters in this space. It has a plethora of really nice capabilities, including the likes of attribution and privacy, even affiliate discovery (which is quite handy for those looking to recruit more influencers/supporters). 

Why I like it & Pros

  • Refersion lets you pay your affiliates custom commissions on time with numerous payment options. 
  • You can onboard a plethora of affiliates without any hassle and keep track of their performance through in-built reporting. 
  • This tool allows you to track sales with first-party & multi-domain/store tracking without having to worry about privacy issues.
  • This software offers you a network of 3.6 million affiliates, so you can reach out to them and scale your business.

Average Shopify Rating – 4.8/5 stars based on over 950 reviews

Customers they work

  • Simply Earth
  • Harney & Sons
  • Fuego
  • Goorin Bros
  • Boardroom Socks

Integrations they offer

  • Paypal 
  • Klaviyo 
  • ReCharge 
  • Bold Recurring Order 
  • Yotpo

Pricing

Refersion offers two paid plans – professional at $99 per month and business at $249 per month. You can also try them out for 14 days for free. Enterprise is a custom plan.

6. LeadDyno

LeadDyno allows you to easily set up affiliate programs, manage them, and track what’s working in your favour to speed up your growth.

Why I like it & Pros

  • LeadDyno lets you quickly pay all your affiliates with Paypal Mass Pay while maintaining healthy relations with them. 
  • Its dashboard gives you a clear overview of all clicks, leads, sales, and the most successful campaigns. 
  • You can automate email comms to both the affiliate side and the customer side. 
  • This platform makes it easier for you to import your affiliates list and set up your affiliate program.  

Average Shopify Rating – 4.4/5 stars based on over 640 reviews

Customers they work

  • Shine Cosmetics
  • Cents of Style
  • Snappa
  • Synergy Science
  • Beddy’s

Integrations they offer

  • ReCharge 
  • Klaviyo 
  • HubSpot 
  • Zapier 
  • Jotform

Pricing

LeadDyno comes with four different paid plans (plus a good trial period) – starter at $49/month, plus at $129/month, pro at $349/month, and premium at $749/month. 

7. BixGrow

BixGrow is an all-in-one affiliate and referral marketing app to facilitate you in skyrocketing your revenue and incentivising engagement.

Why I like it & Pros

  • BixGrow helps you grow your affiliate network by sharing registration links with your prospective ambassadors. 
  • This tool generates referral links for each of your affiliates, so you can review and monitor them.
  • You have the option of white-label email and can also personalize affiliate sign-up pages and email templates as you like.
  • With graphs, charts, and valuable metrics along with your top affiliates, you can tailor your marketing strategy accordingly. 

Average Shopify Rating - 5/5 stars based on over 440 reviews

Integrations they offer

  • PayPal
  • Klaviyo 
  • Mailchimp
  • Recharge Subscriptions 
  • Appstle Subscriptions

Pricing

In addition to a free plan, you can also avail of the scale and pro plans that come with a price tag of $9.99 and $19.99 per month, respectively. 

8. Buzzbassador

Buzzbassador is quite impressive in terms of its feature suite and has some great workflows that can help with end-to-end management of running, plus scaling with volume, affiliate and ambassador programs. 

Why I like it & Pros

  • This software helps you save time and stay organised by automating and centralising everything from emails to auto-updated logs.  
  • Its real-time reporting and analytics feature provides data on every sale your affiliates refer, every commission they bring in, and more.
  • Its campaigns tool lets you create and assign custom missions, sales goals, and more to your ambassadors to drive success effortlessly. 
  • Your ambassadors can integrate their social media accounts with this tool to help you track social engagement, audience demographics, and more.

Average Shopify Rating – 4.9/5 stars based on over 85 reviews

Customers they work

  • GoNanas
  • Brava Fabrics
  • Young King Hair Care
  • Novus Runway
  • Made To Standout

Integrations they offer

  • PayPal 
  • Klaviyo
  • TikTok
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Instagram

Pricing

Buzzbassador features four paid plans with a 14-day free trial. Launch, build, scale, and plus plans cost $39, $79, $229, and $499 per month, respectively. 

9. Tapfiliate

Tapfiliate is an all-in-one affiliate marketing tool that helps you launch, track, and scale your influencer, affiliate, and referral programs.  

Why I like it & Pros

  • Along with real-time, in-depth reporting, you can get a quick overview of your program, export it in CSV format, and refine your search with filters and segmentation.  
  • You can create white-labelled pages that match your brand and domain and even send customised email notifications. 
  • From fixed and one-time to lifetime commissions, you can engage your affiliates better with the right rewards.

 

  • You can accurately and automatically track conversions through links and coupons and even give your affiliates an option to customise their links.

Average Shopify Rating – 4.4/5 stars based on over 2 reviews

Customers they work

  • Boldking
  • Krisp
  • Selz
  • Degiro
  • Kickresume

Integrations they offer

  • Stripe 
  • Paywhirl 
  • Zapier 
  • PayPal 
  • MailChimp

Pricing

Tapfiliate has two paid plans (which you can test first with a free trial) plus a custom plan (enterprise). The essential plan costs $89/month and pro costs $149/month.  

10. ShoutOut

ShoutOut is a robust affiliate, multi-level marketing, and influencer app that drives traffic to your store and boosts sales. 

Why I like it & Pros

  • ShoutOut is quick and easy to set up without needing any coding/technical skills and offers a free video course. 
  • You can easily create as many affiliate links or coupons as you want for your affiliates without paying extra.
  • This tool lets you conveniently create a professional, branded look for your dashboard. 
  • You can pay your affiliates on time using your preferred payment provider without harming your reputation. 

Average Shopify Rating – 4.8/5 stars based on over 90 reviews

Customers they work

  • The Flourishing Stone
  • Monsoon Ridge
  • Eagle Rock Werkshop
  • Honey Girl Collection
  • West Virginia Wholesale

Integrations they offer

  • ReCharge
  • MailChimp
  • Google Sheets
  • PayPal

Pricing

Along with a 100% free plan, you have access to either of the three paid plans with a 7-day free trial. 

There’s an essentials plan, kicking off from $39/month, growth with $59/month, and pro with $79/month. 

11. Automizely Referral & Affiliate

Automizely Referral & Affiliate I’ve quite liked using it in the past, and it has a really nice UX, as well as UI. The good thing is that you can also have a referral marketing tool and affiliate manager ‘all-in-one’. 

Why I like it & Pros

  • Automizely gives you complete freedom over how you customise your referral widget and where you place it on your site’s page.  
  • This tool identifies and prevents individuals from referring themselves to minimise referral fraud. 
  • Its two-sided referral feature allows you to reward both parties with discounts, free shipping, and products to gain greater benefits.
  • You can set up referral campaigns with a single click and automate reward emails to save you time and effort. 

Average Shopify Rating – 4.9/5 stars based on over 1500 reviews

Customers they work

  • Yahoo
  • GymShark
  • Anker
  • Secret Lab
  • Watsons

Integrations they offer

  • Shopify 
  • Shopify Plus
  • AfterShip

Pricing

This app is completely free to use, and you can even leverage a custom plan, namely enterprise.

⚡ Frequently Asked Questions ⚡

Out of the numerous Shopify affiliate tools you’ve outlined, what would be your top three (3) recommendations?

I’ve used many of these affiliate tools for growing brands and stores on the Shopify platform, and I can say all of them are pretty good (otherwise, I wouldn’t have included them on this list in the first place). If I did have to narrow it down to three to focus on if you’re fairly new to this world (regardless of your growth level in terms of MRR), they would have to be Tapfiliate, Social Snowball, and Automizely. Each of them are really good when it comes to UX and easily setting up an affiliate program (literally should take you minutes with each), a great integration with the Shopify CMS, and also really good tracking/analytics, particularly as you scale.

Which is the best Shopify affiliate tool for beginners?

For me, the best recommendations I can give for Shopify affiliate tools for beginners would be Referral Candy and Social Snowball. Both of these solutions have been around for a long-time and are used by some of the biggest household brands you and I know, and make it really simple, regardless of your skill level, to set up. Additionally, they’re cost-effective as well, especially when you do have a large network of affiliates/ambassadors that you’re dealing with.

What are some of the core components of an affiliate marketing strategy Shopify store owners need to take into account to scale this channel?

I’ve run a few eCommerce affiliate programs myself, and there are a few components to executing this strategy for scaling, particularly if you’re fairly new-ish as a channel. I’ll explain some of the key factors/areas you need to consider/look out for when it comes to eCommerce affiliate marketing (and developing successful programs). First, you need to decide on the offer/commission in terms of how you incentivise those who are going to promote your brand to their respective audience. Working out the commission based on a cheaper CAC than what you either normally pay now or are willing to pay is the goal. A classic standard commission example is providing a 20% coupon code for audiences whilst the affiliate also receives 20% off the purchase. Of course, you can play around with various offers to see which works more effectively both on the affiliate side and the customer side. Second, you need to define who would be a good fit for the affiliate program you’re going to run. It’s important to ensure you set a good guideline of criteria so you don’t get randoms signing up - remember, these people are representing your brand, so you want to ensure they aren’t spammers and are going to reflect your brand well. Third, you need a dedicated platform/tool (such as the apps I’ve spoken about in this guide) to manage the key areas of communication, tracking/analytics, as well as payouts. Trust me, from my experience, having done this over the years, the last thing you want to do is a manual process. You need to ensure each of these three areas is covered in a tool in order to help you scale this channel. Fourth, consider having different tiers of programs/incentives for different types of influencers/ambassadors based on factors such as audience size, content output, and, ultimately, sales performance. My suggestion is to incentivise those who are high-performing so they can continue to promote across their audiences. Last and not least, make sure to have a really good affiliate landing page. If you really want to have the best influencers/ambassadors sign up for your program and start promoting your amazing brand, then you need to treat it like any other converting page you have on your website. That includes having key USPs, how incentives work, beautiful imagery/video, and more. If you take into account each of these factors, you’ll certainly increase your chances of having a thriving affiliate program that can really generate a good amount of sales for your store.

Which of the affiliate apps you’ve outlined has great integrations with other apps?

So from the affiliate apps I’ve outlined in this guide, the ones with really good integrations that can make your operations and workflow a breeze when it comes to this marketing initiative include Tapfiliate (including the likes of Stripe, as well as Zapier, which we know can unlock even more workflow capabilities), LeadDyno, GoAffPro, Buzzbasador, and Social Snowball. Each of them make it super easy to integrate from a UX point of view with these other popular Shopify platforms.

Which Shopify affiliate app is the cheapest/lowest cost?

Most of these options are pretty cost-effective when you really start to ramp things up and make it an effective sales channel (quite a profitable channel too, so you should start to see ROI fairly soon when you really start to get some traction). However, if you’re starting out and still on the smaller side when it comes to MRR/total revenue, then affordable options are Bixgrow, Shoutout, Referral Candy, and Buzzbassador. You’ll be able to see their exact pricing in the above when I share the details about each of the apps, as well as on the Shopify app store.

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