7 Best Affiliate Marketing Plugins for WordPress (Complete Comparison Guide)

Affiliate marketing is a great way to boost your WordPress site’s income. They promote your products, and you pay them a commission for each sale. But your success can hinge largely on the affiliate marketing plugins you use.

As a growth marketer, I’ve used various tools and solutions over the years. I’ve learned a lot about which work (and which aren’t worth the headache).

I created this guide to save you time and simplify the process of finding, comparing, and choosing the best affiliate marketing plugins for your WordPress site.

Best WordPress Affiliate Plugins: My Rankings

If you want to get straight to the point, here’s a quick look at my top picks for the best WordPress affiliate plugins.

Plugin	Price	Best For
🥇 AffiliateWP	$149.60/yr	Complete affiliate program management for WordPress users.
🥈 ThirstyAffiliates	$99.60/yr	Simple link management for tracking links and shortening/cloaking referral links.
🥉 Pretty Links	$99.60/yr	Users who need advanced link shortening and redirect and tracking capabilities.
Easy Affiliate	$99.60/yr	Businesses wanting a user-friendly platform for managing affiliates; AffiliateWP alternative.
MonsterInsights	$99.60/yr	Users looking to track affiliate link clicks and conversions with Google Analytics integration.
AdSanity	$89/yr	Websites focused on displaying and managing ads, including affiliate links.
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates	$179.80/yr	WooCommerce stores wanting to create their own affiliate program.

How I Tested & Ranked the Best Affiliate Plugins

I compiled this list based on the factors that matter most to users.

Figuring out how to choose an affiliate plugin for WordPress doesn’t really have a one-size-fits-all solution. The best WordPress affiliate plugin depends on your specific needs.

That’s why I compared and ranked the top options according to a range of factors, including:

• Link management features: Link tracking, shortening, and cloaking, as well as keyword targeting and automatic redirection.
• Ease of use: Interface, learning curve, technical settings and configuration, customer support, etc.
• Pricing: Free version with basic features, starting pricing options, money-back guarantee, etc.
• Tracking and reporting: Data on clicks, conversions, earnings, top-performing affiliates, etc.
• Testimonials: WordPress ratings and reviews from other users.
• Payments and commissions: Supported payment methods, options for setting affiliate commission structures, etc.
• Affiliate portal: Options and availability for dedicated affiliate portal to access resources, track performance, receive payouts, etc.
• Integrations: Addons and support for other tools and platforms, including those for eCommerce plugins, analytics, marketing, landing pages, email marketing, etc.

Easy Digital Downloads uses both AffiliateWP and ThirstyAffiliates regularly. I’ve also personally tested and worked with all of the tools in this list. To form a more well-rounded perspective, though, I’ve also gathered key insights and first-hand experiences from others in the WordPress community.

Best Affiliate Marketing Plugins Compared

Let’s take a closer look at the best affiliate marketing plugins and see how they stack up against each other. This WordPress affiliate plugin comparison breaks down what each tool is used for, its key features, pros/cons, pricing, and more.

1. AffiliateWP

In my experience, AffiliateWP is hands down the best WordPress plugin for affiliate marketing. It’s like a complete control center for managing your entire affiliate program. From registering affiliates to tracking referrals and payouts, this plugin handles it all.

It’s a popular choice for businesses of all sizes, particularly those wanting a WordPress referral plugin or dedicated solution for starting and managing their affiliate marketing efforts. It’s trusted on over 30,000 active WordPress installations, showcasing its reliability among users.

That’s exactly why we use it for our own affiliate program at EDD.

With a wide array of features and integrations, it offers an excellent solution for scaling your affiliate program effectively. AffiliateWP’s reliable tracking and flexible commission structures make it a top contender in the best affiliate marketing plugins competition.

You can customize registration fields, create tiered commission levels to reward top performers, and even offer lifetime commissions. Detailed reporting helps you understand which affiliates are performing best and where your most valuable referrals are originating.

In addition to a quick and easy setup, AffiliateWP integrates seamlessly with popular eCommerce and membership plugins, including Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and MemberPress.

If you use EDD to sell your digital products, you’ll appreciate its dedicated AffiliateWP extension.

Some of AffiliateWP’s other notable features include a referral link generator, custom affiliate coupon creation and tracking, and more.

🔑 Key Features

• Unlimited affiliates
• Built-in intuitive affiliate dashboard
• Setup wizard for new affiliate onboarding
• Manual or automatic affiliate registration
• Automatic and one-click payouts (Stripe, PayPal)
• Unlimited creation of banner images & other creatives
• Real-time reporting to monitor & track referrals, clicks, & earnings
• One-click integrations with Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, WPForms, Elementor, MemberPress, Gravity Forms, and more
• Advanced fraud detection
• Simple & flexible commission settings (flat rate or percentage, varying commission rates, etc.)
• Add-ons for additional functionalities & enhanced customization (like tabs & shortcodes)

Pros and Cons of AffiliateWP

Pros: AffiliateWP’s detailed reporting is a significant advantage, providing valuable insights into your WordPress affiliate program performance. The flexible commission structures allow you to create tailored reward systems for your affiliates, encouraging higher performance.

Intuitive integration with a wide range of eCommerce and marketing platforms simplifies setup and automates your workflow. The reliable tracking ensures accurate attribution of referrals, and the excellent customer support provides assistance when needed.

You can get the setup configured in. minutes, and then manage everything from the same interface.

Cons: While powerful, AffiliateWP can be slightly more complex for beginners compared to some simpler link management plugins. Some users have reported occasional minor conflicts with other plugins, though these are typically resolvable.

🏆 Best for: Businesses of all sizes seeking a powerful and reliable affiliate program.

I chose AffiliateWP because of its comprehensive features and reliable performance. Its ability to manage the entire affiliate lifecycle from registration to payout makes it a valuable tool for maximizing your affiliate campaign success.

Pricing: AffiliateWP plans start at $149.60 per year for a single site license. Higher plans are available for more advanced features and multiple sites.

2. ThirstyAffiliates

ThirstyAffiliates is a popular choice for managing affiliate links, especially for bloggers and small businesses. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to cloak, organize, and manage your links without any technical headaches.

It’s like a helpful assistant, tidying up your URLs and making them look presentable to your audience. It offers a good balance of simplicity and functionality, providing essential features without overwhelming users with complex options.

This plugin helps you cloak your affiliate links, making them shorter, more aesthetically pleasing, and easier to remember. TA also protects your commissions by preventing affiliate link hijacking. It provides basic link statistics so you can track clicks and see which links are performing well.

You can categorize your links for better organization and easily insert them into your content using a convenient interface. ThirstyAffiliates offers add-ons for features like automatic keyword linking and geolocation links.

🔑 Key Features

• Simple & user-friendly affiliate link management
• Link cloaking to create clean, branded links
• Link automation, categorization & optimization
• Automatic keyword linking
• Banners & link images
• Amazon API importing
• Detailed reports & statistics for tracking link performance (clicks, conversions, redirects, etc.)

Pros and Cons of ThirstyAffiliates

Pros: ThirstyAffiliates shines in its ease of use, making it great for beginners and non-technical users primarily interested in simple, straightforward affiliate marketing plugins. It efficiently cloaks links, improving their appearance and protecting commissions.

The plugin’s affordable pricing also makes it accessible to budget-conscious users. It’s definitely among the best free affiliate plugins for WordPress. The ability to categorize and organize links simplifies management, especially for users with many affiliate partnerships.

Cons: While user-friendly, ThirstyAffiliates doesn’t offer the kind of advanced reporting and analytics as other affiliate plugins on this list. Many of the more advanced features require paid add-ons, potentially increasing the overall cost.

Some users have mentioned that customer support can be slow to respond at times.

🏆 Best for: Bloggers and small businesses wanting basic and affordable link management.

I included ThirstyAffiliates because of its user-friendliness and affordability. It can help you simplify link management without making a significant financial investment.

Pricing: ThirstyAffiliates offers a limited free version. Paid plans start at $99.60 per year for a single-site license.

3. Pretty Links

If your primary concern surrounding affiliate marketing is the appearance and management of URLs, this could be the best plugin for you.

Pretty Links specializes in creating clean, memorable shortened links. But it’s more than just a link cloaker; it’s a powerful tool for managing your links and understanding how users interact with them.

Think of it as a combination of a link shortener, a tracker, and a redirect manager all rolled into one. If you need more than basic link management and want in-depth click statistics, it has you covered.

Pretty Links allows you to create custom, branded short links, which are easier to share and remember. The detailed tracking features give you insights into click counts, unique clicks, and other valuable metrics.

You can even track clicks based on geographic location and other criteria. The redirect feature is invaluable for managing broken links or updating affiliate programs. It also allows you to create custom and dynamic redirects.

🔑 Key Features

• URL shortening & link cloaking
• Detailed link reports in the WordPress dashboard
• Pretty Bar tool for branding & advertising links
• Configurable slugs
• Customized checkout links
• Keyword & URL replacement
• Redirect management (301, 302, 307)
• Customizable link parameters
• Expiring links
• Weekly link health scans

Pros and Cons of Pretty Links

Pros: Pretty Links excels at creating aesthetically pleasing, shareable short links. The in-depth tracking features provide valuable data for optimizing your affiliate campaigns. The ability to create custom redirects helps maintain a professional online presence.

The plugin also offers excellent documentation and support resources. Any time I’ve run into an issue or had a question (which hasn’t been often), the answer is a quick search away.

I’ve also enjoyed and made use of the Growth Tools integrations. Most are well-known solutions that I’ve used for years.

Cons: The pricing is higher than some link management plugin alternatives. It’s potentially less suitable for users on a tight budget or those looking for basic link cloaking. The sheer range of features can feel overwhelming for some users, especially those who are new to link management.

🏆 Best for: Users who need advanced link shortening, tracking, and redirect capabilities.

I chose Pretty Links because it offers a significant upgrade from basic link cloaking. The detailed tracking and redirect management features set it apart from others I’ve used for the same purpose.

Pricing: Pretty Links has a limited free version. Paid plans begin at $99.60 per year for a single-site license.

4. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate is designed to make managing your in-house affiliate program simple and efficient. And it does.

It’s like having your own WordPress affiliate management team built right into your site. You can easily track affiliate registrations, referrals, commissions, and payouts all within your dashboard.

You can use it to create and manage your own affiliate program without the complexities of a larger, third-party platform. It streamlines the process of recruiting, onboarding, and rewarding affiliates, all within a user-friendly interface that’s super easy to navigate.

Easy Affiliate lets you customize the affiliate registration process. You can build tailored commission structures and easily track affiliate performance. It provides integrated payment options and offers detailed reporting on your affiliate program’s progress.

It also includes features like built-in email notifications for communicating with affiliates and marketing materials to keep them engaged and motivated.

🔑 Key Features

• Intuitive, pre-styled affiliate dashboard
• Integrations with MemberPress, Easy Digital Downloads & WooCommerce
• One-click affiliate payouts
• Fraud detection
• No hidden fees
• Real-time tracking & performance insights with customizable charts
• Fast & beginner-friendly setup wizard
• CSV imports
• Setting options for commission rates & type
• Unlimited affiliates

Pros and Cons of Easy Affiliate

Pros: Easy Affiliate is an excellent and slightly more straightforward alternative to AffiliateWP. Even without any technical know-how, you can use it to start your own affiliate program. In addition to the clean, user-friendly interface, I particularly appreciated the integrated payment options for payouts and the ability to customize your rewards program.

Cons: The reporting features, while adequate, are not as comprehensive as some dedicated affiliate marketing platforms. This may not be a con, depending on the depth level of insights you’re looking for.

🏆 Best for: Businesses wanting a user-friendly platform for creating and managing their own affiliate programs.

I chose Easy Affiliate for its focus on in-house affiliate program management that offers greater control over affiliate relationships.

Pricing: Easy Affiliate offers a 14-day free trial. Paid plans begin at $99.60 per year.

5. MonsterInsights

If you’re even moderately familiar with WordPress, you likely already know about MonsterInsights.

But if that’s not the case, MonsterInsights is a powerful plugin that connects your WordPress site to Google Analytics. It tracks your website traffic and gives you a wealth of data.

Think of it as a detective for your website. It helps you understand where your visitors are coming from, what they’re doing on your site, and what’s making them leave.

For affiliate marketing, this means you can see which links are getting clicked and which are being ignored. This helps you optimize your link placement and choose the most effective affiliate products to promote.

While not solely an affiliate marketing plugin, MonsterInsights can be extremely valuable for tracking your affiliate link clicks and conversions.

It’s especially helpful if you want to understand how your affiliate links are performing within the larger context of your website traffic. You can integrate it with a handful of affiliate tools, including Easy Affiliate and AffiliateWP.

🔑 Key Features

• Google Analytics integration for monitoring key metrics in WordPress
• Affiliate link tracking & enhanced eCommerce tracking
• Customizable, in-depth reports for affiliate URLs, most profitable pages, & traffic sources, etc.
• Support & integration with tons of WordPress tools (EDD, WooCommerce, AffiliateWP, WPForms & more)

Pros and Cons of MonsterInsights

Pros: MonsterInsights makes understanding complex website data easy. I personally think it’s a must-have for any WordPress site, especially those in the eCommerce space.

It presents information in clear, digestible reports. The ability to track affiliate link clicks and conversions within the broader website traffic analysis is a major advantage for data-driven marketers.

The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and interpret data without feeling overwhelmed. The insights help you optimize your affiliate marketing as well as your overall website strategy.

Cons: The full range of features requires a paid version. While the free version offers basic tracking, the in-depth affiliate link and conversion tracking is only available in the premium plans.

Some users have noted that the sheer amount of data available can be initially overwhelming, requiring time to learn how to best use the platform.

🏆 Best for: Users focused on data and analytics.

I included MonsterInsights because it provides a broader perspective on affiliate marketing. It’s not just about managing links; it’s about understanding the user journey and learning how affiliate marketing fits into your overall strategy.

Pricing: MonsterInsights offers a limited free version. Paid plans, which include the more advanced affiliate tracking features, start at $99.60 per year.

6. AdSanity

Next up is another plugin that, while not a dedicated affiliate tool, does come in handy.

AdSanity is primarily an ad management plugin. But its flexibility makes it a suitable option for managing affiliate links as well. Think of it as a versatile organizer for all your display ads, including affiliate promotions.

It allows you to rotate different ads, schedule when they appear, and track their performance. This control and organization can be particularly useful for websites that rely heavily on display advertising, including affiliate marketing.

AdSanity helps you organize your ads into groups and insert them into content via shortcodes or widgets. You can schedule specific ads to run during certain timeframes and track impressions and clicks to measure their effectiveness.

This level of control is super useful for optimizing ad placements and maximizing earnings. I also really appreciate the ability to A/B test different ad creatives to see which perform best.

🔑 Key Features

• Affiliate campaign & ad management
• Targeted campaign creation
• Option to insert ads into sidebars, widgets, or posts via shortcodes, template tags, etc.
• Performance tracking
• A/B testing, retargeting, & ad scheduling
• Automatic ad block detection
• Start/end date publishing options

Pros and Cons of AdSanity

Pros: AdSanity provides a centralized platform for managing all your display ads, including affiliate links. The scheduling and rotation features offer great control over your ad campaigns. The ability to track impressions and clicks helps measure ad performance effectively.

Cons: While suitable for affiliate links, AdSanity’s primary focus is on general ad management. So it may not offer the specific features found in other dedicated affiliate marketing plugins that you might prioritize. It has a learning curve, particularly for users unfamiliar with ad management concepts.

🏆 Best for: Websites heavily reliant on display advertising, including affiliate promotions.

I included AdSanity for its versatility. It’s a useful tool for websites using display advertising or a combination of ad types, even if affiliate marketing isn’t the primary focus.

Pricing: AdSanity offers various pricing plans, starting at $89 per year for a single site license.

7. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

Rounding out my list of the best affiliate marketing plugins for WordPress is YITH WooCommerce Affiliates.

This plugin is designed specifically for WooCommerce stores that want to create and manage their own affiliate programs. It’s tightly integrated with WooCommerce and provides the tools needed to recruit, track, and reward affiliates selling your products.

YITH allows you to set different commission rates for individual affiliates or groups of affiliates.

It provides a dedicated area for affiliates to manage their accounts and access marketing materials. This integrated approach keeps everything within your WooCommerce environment, simplifying the affiliate management process.

🔑 Key Features

• Affiliate program management for WooCommerce
• Easy set up
• Affiliate dashboard
• Tracking & reporting for clicks, conversions, & commissions
• Flexible commission rates (based on products, categories, or individual affiliates)
• Automatic payout scheduling via PayPal or Stripe & refund calculations
• Coupon & discount creation
• Affiliate referral IDs

Pros and Cons of YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

Pros: YITH WooCommerce Affiliates offers unmatched integration with WooCommerce. The ability to set individual commission rates allows for flexible reward structures. The dedicated affiliate area provides a professional experience for your affiliates.

Cons: It isn’t suitable for websites not using WooCommerce. Some essential features, such as advanced reporting and payout functionalities, require purchasing the premium version. Also, it has a steeper learning curve compared to other plugins.

🏆 Best for: WooCommerce stores looking to set up and manage their own affiliate programs.

I chose this plugin because it offers everything WooCommerce users need for affiliate success, without unnecessary features meant for non-WooCommerce sites.

Pricing: YITH WooCommerce Affiliates offers a free version with limited features. The premium version, which includes essential functionalities like advanced reporting and mass payments, starts at $179.80 per year.

Best Affiliate Marketing Plugins: Final Thoughts

Choosing the “best” plugin truly depends on your specific needs. Each of the affiliate marketing plugins above offers a unique advantage.

However, considering its comprehensive features, robust performance, and countless integrations, AffiliateWP takes the top spot. The all-in-one toolbox is equipped to handle everything from basic link management to complex affiliate program structures.

However, if you’re just starting and need simple link management, ThirstyAffiliates is an excellent choice. It eases you into the world of affiliate marketing without overwhelming you with complex features.

If your only focus is affiliate marketing plugins that offer advanced link tracking and shortening, Pretty Links is a strong contender. It provides the tools you need to manage your links effectively and understand user behavior.

On the other hand, if you’re already using MonsterInsights, you could also use it to track your referral links.

Ready to supercharge your WordPress site with affiliate marketing? Follow our guide on how to start an affiliate program with AffiliateWP.

To learn more ways to increase WordPress sales with affiliates, check out our digital seller’s guide on making money with affiliate marketing!

FAQs: WordPress Affiliate Marketing Plugins

I’ll wrap up with some frequently asked questions about affiliate WordPress plugins.

Integrate Your Affiliate Marketing Plugins

With the right WordPress affiliate marketing plugins and tools, you can implement an effective affiliate program to significantly increase your reach, drive sales, and boost your online business.

If you’re looking for the best WordPress affiliate marketing plugins to use with your Easy Digital Downloads store, you can’t go wrong with AffiliateWP or Easy Affiliate.

Don’t have Easy Digital Downloads yet? Grab a pass today to get started in no time.

Want to learn more ways to diversify your revenue? Learn how to create digital passive income selling online.

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