Best Shopify Affiliate Apps

Last Updated on December 4, 2023 by Ewen Finser

Owning a Shopify store is by itself an enriching experience, but if you’re looking to take things to the next level, then you should look into Shopify affiliate apps. A study by Statista indicates that affiliate marketing spending is bound to reach 8.2 billion by 2022.

Going by this startling statistic, it would be a mistake not to include affiliate marketing as part of your Shopify business strategy. The Shopify ecosystem is vast, with many affiliate marketing apps for merchants to consider. While this can be a good thing, it can also make it difficult to determine which app is right for your business. 

To help you out, we’ve put together a list of the best Shopify affiliate apps worth considering. In addition, this article will explore the basics of affiliate marketing and what to look for in an affiliate marketing app.

Best Shopify Affiliate Apps

The best Shopify affiliate marketing apps make it easy to manage your program, track affiliates and sales, and reward your best partners.

Understanding the features and benefits of each app will help you choose the perfect one for your business. Refersion stands out as a powerhouse Shopify affiliate app with its extensive features and capabilities. 

Top 6 Best Shopify Affiliate Apps

1. Refersion
2. UpPromote 
3. ReferralCandy
4. LeadDyno
5. Social Snowball
6. Goaffpro

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing. Essentially, a merchant rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. This reward can be commissions, discounts, or free products. 

Shopify merchants can use affiliate marketing to increase their sales by leveraging the power of affiliates. Affiliates have an audience and can drive traffic and sales to Shopify stores. They promote Shopify products and services on their websites, emails, social media, and other channels. 

The process is a win-win for everyone involved. Shopify merchants get more sales, affiliates get paid for their efforts, and customers benefit from an increased choice of products and services. By using Shopify affiliate apps, you can get started with affiliate marketing quickly and easily.

Benefits of Using Shopify Affiliate Apps

Businesses that use Shopify affiliate apps can enjoy several benefits, including:

1. Increased sales: Shopify merchants can increase their sales by leveraging the power of affiliates. Affiliates have an audience and can drive traffic and sales to Shopify stores.
2. Increased brand awareness: Affiliates can help Shopify merchants increase their brand awareness by promoting their products and services on their websites, emails, social media, and other channels.
3. Increased product exposure: Shopify merchants can gain more product exposure by featuring their products on affiliate websites.
4. Easier recruitment of affiliates: Shopify affiliate apps make it easy for merchants to recruit new affiliates. Affiliate applications can be processed and approved quickly, and affiliates can start promoting products and services right away.
5. Reduced marketing costs: Shopify affiliate apps can help Shopify merchants reduce their marketing costs. Affiliates are often willing to promote merchant products and services for a free or reduced cost.
6. Automates process: Shopify affiliate apps automate tracking sales and commissions so that merchants can focus on other aspects of their business.
7. Creates a referral loop: Affiliate marketing creates a referral loop, where customers are referred to merchants by affiliates, and then those customers refer others to the merchant. This possibility helps Shopify merchants build a long-term customer base.

Criteria for Choosing the Best Shopify Affiliate Apps

When choosing the best Shopify affiliate apps for your business, you’ll need to consider the following factors:

1. Ease of use: The affiliate marketing app you choose should be easy to use. It should be easy to add affiliates, track sales and commissions, and process payments.
2. Functionality: Like all Shopify apps, the affiliate marketing app you choose should be well-designed and easy to use. It should also offer all the features you need to successfully run your affiliate marketing program.
3. Pricing: The app should offer a pricing plan that fits your business needs. All Shopify affiliate apps offer a free trial, so you can test the app before committing to a subscription.
4. Customer support: The app should offer excellent customer support. You should easily contact customer support if you have any questions or problems using the app.
5. Seamless integrations: The app should seamlessly integrate with Shopify, making it easy to add affiliates, track sales and commissions, and process payments.

Features to Look Out for In Shopify Affiliate Apps

When choosing a Shopify affiliate marketing app, look for one that offers the following features:

1. Easy affiliate recruitment: The app should easily recruit new affiliates. You should quickly add affiliates, track their performance, and process payments.
2. Efficient commission tracking: The app should track commissions efficiently so that you can focus on other aspects of your business. The app can help you save time and money by tracking sales and commissions automatically.
3. Unlimited affiliates: The more affiliates you have, the more sales and traffic you generate. In addition, the app should offer a variety of commission structures to fit your business needs.
4. Full-on brand customizations: Branding is a key part of affiliate marketing. The app should let you fully customize your brand, including your logo, colors, and website design.
5. Automated reports: The app should offer automated reports so you can track the success of your affiliate marketing program. You should be able to see how many sales affiliates are generating, what products they’re promoting, and how much commission you’re earning.
6. Easy coupon code creation: Coupons are a great way to attract new customers and increase sales. The app should easily create coupon codes for your affiliates to promote.

Best Shopify Affiliates Apps

Consider the following Shopify affiliate marketing apps when looking for the best app for your business:

1. Refersion

Refersion is a Shopify affiliate marketing app that offers all the features you need to run your affiliate marketing program successfully. It’s an excellent tool for Shopify merchants looking to expand their customer base and boost sales.

Refersion stands out for its customized dashboard, which offers a wealth of information on affiliate performance. You can see how many sales affiliates generate, what products they’re promoting, and how much commission you should pay your affiliates.

By combining automated commission tracking, various commission structures, and full-on brand customization, Refersion makes it easy to create and manage your affiliate marketing program. It also offers automated reports to help you track the success of your program.

Refersion gives access to over 5,000 subscribers with the potential for limitless growth. Affiliates have access to individualized dashboards, real-time commissions, and the ability to track their progress once they sign up.

Refersion Pricing 

Installing Refersion is free and also comes with a 14-day free trial. A one-time free plan of $89 is available for the professional plan with a limit to 130 conversions. The Enterprise and Enterprise pro plans offer unlimited conversions alongside more features. However, you have to contact support for a customized quote.

Refersion Pros

• Track any digital sale
• Automated tracking of sales and conversions
• Unlimited affiliates 
• Fully customizable brand
• Robust reporting features
• Features automated coupon code creation 
• Automated affiliate registration
• Ready access to over 5,000 members 
• Merchants can list for free on the Refersion marketplace

Refersion Cons 

• The professional plan limits conversions to only 130 every month 
• The pricing plans don’t favor small business owners 

2. UpPromote Affiliate Marketing

UpPromote is perhaps the most well-rounded Shopify affiliate marketing app on the market. It boasts a consistent 4.9 rating on the Shopify app store with over 1,450 reviews.

UpPromote offers a variety of features that make it an excellent tool for Shopify merchants. These features include a reliable tracking process, comprehensive management tools, and the possibility of expanding the network to include an unlimited number of affiliates.

UpPromote makes it easy to get your affiliate marketing program off the ground by creating unlimited affiliate programs and providing an easy-to-use interface. The app empowers affiliates by making it possible to quickly access coupons and affiliate links to help them drive traffic and sales. In the spirit of empowerment, referred customers get discounts for using an affiliate’s special link.

Affiliates also have access to real-time reporting to track performance on orders, clicks, and sales. What’s more, UpPromote supports multiple languages, syncs with Shopify’s built-in Shopify payments, and integrates well with other subscription apps.

UpPromote Pricing 

UpPromote comes with a free plan alongside three other paid plans.

• Growth: $21.99/month
• Professional: 69.99/month
• Enterprise: $139.99

Most merchants choose the professional plan as it offers value for a growing business. 

UpPromote Pros 

• Features an intuitive interface 
• Comes with a free plan 
• Offers comprehensive management tools 
• Supports an unlimited number of affiliates 
• Real-time reporting for affiliates 
• Auto-generates referral links, banners, and coupons 
• Integrates well with Shopify and other subscription apps 
• Multiple language support 
• Full-on brand customization 

UpPromote Cons

• The support team is not always timely in their responses 
• Doesn’t offer CRM integrations 

3. ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy is a top-tier Shopify affiliate marketing app that powers over 3,000 brands and merchants. It stands out as a highly automated and efficient tool that makes it easy to build, manage, and optimize your affiliate marketing program.

We can attribute its growth to post-purchase popups and emails that recruit existing customers to the referral program. ReferralCandy automatically sends rewards to affiliates for every successful referral, making the process straightforward.

It allows for business customization in landing pages and emails with brand colors, logos, and fonts. You can also track your program’s performance in near real-time with detailed reports on clicks, conversions, and sales.

ReferralCandy is one of the only Shopify apps with anti-fraud features that detect suspicious activity and secure your program. Merchants can receive alerts and identify customers with suspicious activity to prevent fraudulent orders. In addition, merchants have the power to disqualify affiliates who attempt to game the system.

ReferralCandy Pricing

ReferralCandy offers 30-day free trial alongside two pricing plans.

• Premium: $49/month
• Enterprise: $3,999/Year

RefferalCandy Pros

• Powerful and highly automated 
• Secure anti-fraud features 
• Detailed reports on referrals, clicks, and conversions 
• Customizable landing pages and emails 
• 30-day free trial on the Premium plan

ReferralCandy Cons 

• The Enterprise plan isn’t ideal for small startups 
• The dashboard UI can be challenging for beginners 

4. LeadDyno

The LeadDyno Shopify affiliate marketing app is perfect for small to medium-sized businesses. Boasting over $200 million in affiliate sales in 2020, LeadDyno is a well-established player in the affiliate marketing space. The app offers a simple, intuitive interface with all the features you need to manage and track your affiliate marketing program. It stands out as the number one Shopify affiliate app for its impressive customer support.

Merchants get a fully customized affiliate portal with real-time clicks, conversions, and sales tracking. It features built-in multi-level marketing (MLM) feature that lets you recruit and manage an unlimited number of affiliates.

Onboarding your affiliates is easy with LeadDyno’s pre-made referral links, banners, and coupons. In addition, it offers tools that allow you to engage your affiliates with automated email campaigns, time-based incentives, and newsletters.

LeadDyno’s robust tracking system and advanced reporting help you identify your top-performing affiliates and optimize your program for better results. Moreover, it offers fraud protection to keep your program safe from scammers.

LeadDyno Pricing 

LeadDyno offers a 30-day free trial alongside four pricing plans.

• Starter: $29/month 
• Biz Builder: $49/month
• Accelerator: $79/month
• Rainmaker: $149/month

LeadDyno Pros

• Powerful and easy-to-use affiliate management tools 
• Unlimited number of affiliates 
• Robust tracking and reporting system 
• Pre-made referral links, banners, and coupons 
• Easy onboarding for affiliates 
• Responsive customer support 

LeadDyno Cons 

• Assistance is only available for those in the U.S.
• It may be a little techy for beginners 

5. Social Snowball

Social Snowball is an affiliate marketing app designed specifically for the Shopify app store. It offers a simple and easy-to-use interface with all the features you need to manage and track your affiliate marketing program.

Social Snowball makes it easy to onboard new affiliates because it allows your customers to become affiliates once they sign up automatically. In addition, affiliates can access their interface immediately after approval, so they can start promoting your products right away.

Customizing your brand’s affiliate program is easy with Social Snowball. You can create several programs and group affiliates into different programs to better manage your affiliate marketing efforts. It’s also possible to track referral sales by discount codes and links.

Social Snowball integrates seamlessly with other tools such as Zapier, PageFly, and Postscript, ensuring you have everything you need to run a successful Shopify affiliate program.

Social Snowball Pricing 

Social Snowball is free to install, offers a 14-day free trial, and comes with two pricing plans.

• Snow Day: $39/month 
• Blizzard: $249/month 

Social Snowball Pros 

• Seamless integration with other Shopify apps 
• Automatic affiliate sign-up 
• Easy to use and navigate 
• No need for coding or technical expertise 
• Extensive customer support 
• Personalized coupon codes

Social Snowball Cons 

• Impossible to use tracking links and coupon codes simultaneously
• Limited reporting

6. Goaffpro

Goaffpro is a Shopify affiliate marketing app that offers all the features you need to create, manage, and track your affiliate marketing program. It’s perfect for beginners as it offers a comprehensive free plan with all the features you need to get started.

Once you sign up, you can create an affiliate program in minutes with Goaffpro’s easy-to-use interface. Adding products and setting up your affiliate program is a breeze with Goaffpro. In addition, you can manage your affiliates and track their progress with detailed reports.

Converting your customers to affiliates is easy with Goaffpro’s built-in referral system. Essentially, your customers turn into partners as soon as they sign up for your affiliate program. You can also reward your best affiliates with exclusive perks and incentives.

Like other Shopify affiliate apps, the affiliate portal is custom branded to match your Shopify store. Real-time tracking, automatic coupon codes, and link sharing ensure that your affiliates have everything they need to promote your products. Moreover, it offers multi-level marketing with up to 10 levels of affiliates.

Goaffpro Pricing

Goaffpro offers a free plan along with a single paid plan.

• Premium Plan: $24/month

Goaffpro Pros 

• Multi-lingual support 
• Intuitive and easy-to-use interface 
• One-click setup 
• Robust tracking and reporting 
• Automatic coupon codes 
• Real-time affiliate tracking 
• Payouts are simple with PayPal
• Doesn’t require coding or technical expertise 

Goaffpro Cons 

• Customer service isn’t as comprehensive 

Other Shopify Affiliate Apps Worth Considering

If the Shopify affiliate apps we’ve covered don’t quite fit your needs, other Shopify affiliate apps worth considering include: 

1. Affiliate Marketing and Referral
2. Affiliate Marketing and programs 
3. Growthero Affiliate Marketing 
4. Affiliatly Affiliate Marketing 
5. MLM Affiliate Marketing 
6. Referral and Affiliate Marketing

FAQs

Conclusion

The best Shopify affiliate apps are those that offer a comprehensive set of features for creating, managing, and tracking your affiliate marketing program. The six apps discussed above offer a range of features, from real-time affiliate tracking to automatic coupon codes. 

I recommend using Refersion as your Shopify affiliate app as it offers the most comprehensive set of features. If you’re looking for an easy-to-use interface with all the features you need to get started, Goaffpro is a great option.