6 Best WordPress Referral Plugins to Create Your Own Affiliate Program

Are you looking for the best WordPress referral plugins to create an affiliate program? Are you confused about whether should you go for a paid plugin or the free one? Well, grab a coffee because this is going to be a little longer but exciting.

In today’s article, we are going to disclose best WordPress referral plugins (both free and paid). All plugins are unique in their own way. After extensive research, we have found that nobody answers or narrated the blog post about this topic in a sensible way. That’s why we first learned about the customer needs and then researched about the best plugins in the market and finally comes up with our final list.

Note: For people who are in rush and don’t want to spend time reading the whole article can directly jump to the conclusion section where we have mentioned the summary which helps you to decide on referral plugins quickly.

What is Referral or Affiliate Program?

Referral or Affiliate Program is the low-cost marketing approach to boost your business income. In this, the business or website owner is required to create their own affiliate program and invite affiliates to join and promote their products, services. In return, the affiliates marketers earn commission on each sale or lead they drive to the website owners.

Why Should I Create My Own Referral or Affiliate Program

Before welcoming any new strategy into the business, first, we have to truly understand or be aware of the benefits, implementation, pros, etc that we can expect in the upcoming future. Isn’t it?

That’s why in this section we are going to first discuss the real-life benefits that you should expect by creating your own referral or affiliate program on your WordPress website.

Seize the Hidden Revenue Opportunities

Yes, revenue comes from various streams and in fact, we always desire to keep our hands on each possible revenue source for our business. Whether you are running a direct product selling site or maybe a membership-based site, the affiliate program will definitely give or boost your income up to 30%.

Not just it increases our revenue percentage but also this strategy will reduce the marketing cost which is a huge advantage.

Effortless Branding and Marketing

Branding and Marketing are the 2 major subjects that play a huge role in business success. No wonder, we constantly working hard, implementing new marketing strategies in our online business to earn a sale or to increase the popularity of the brand.

When you do this on your own, the workload will increase, and sometimes it is very hard to maintain the schedule and focus on other important activities like content creation, etc.

By creating a referral program, these additional tasks will automatically be handled by the affiliates. They are marketing experts and they know how to promote the products effectively. This way the workload will be reduced in no time and you have plenty of time for other important tasks.

Immense Growth in Backlinks

We all know how crucial backlinks are for increasing organic traffic. Earning quality backlinks takes a lot of effort, money, and time. But guess what when you allow affiliates to promote your affiliate program products or services they automatically give you a link from their website. You don’t have to invest in creating backlinks manually.

Suppose 100 affiliate marketers have featured your products on their blogs then search engines will receive a positive signal and they give your site a huge ranking boost. As a result, your website traffic for both channels: Referrals and Organic will grow in no time.

Zero Risk Marketing Strategy

Generally, people are afraid of investing any money in advertising, marketing their business. In online business, we have a lot of options for marketing including paid campaigns, social media marketing, influencer marketing, and whatnot.

But in 90% of the marketing strategies, there is a risk involved. You never want your money to get dumped into the poor marketing campaigns, right?

Then why don’t you use WordPress referral plugins and set up your own affiliate program? In this marketing approach, the cost is minimum and risk is almost zero because you only require to give commission to an affiliate when they bring you a lead or sale.

What Makes a Great WordPress Referral Plugin?

Before disclosing the referral plugins list, you should see the below points. We have researched a lot and based on the customer’s demands and reviews a WordPress referral plugin is only considered great when it has the following features:

  • It should have an option that allows the admin to personalize the affiliate dashboard.
  • Links, Banners, and other creatives should be accessible right from the main affiliate dashboard page.
  • It should support popular payment services for making payments to affiliates.
  • It should provide a proper joining process for affiliates. For example by filling up the application form.
  • It should have a feature that allows an admin to set affiliates rates per user. 
  • It should have a mechanism to detect affiliate frauds.
  • The dashboard and interface for both the admin and affiliate marketer should be simple to use.
  • It should give affiliate marketers the option to generate custom tracking links.
  • It should provide an option to integrate with popular store creation plugins including WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
  • It should allow an affiliate to create both text-based and image-based tracking links
  • It should have an option of bulk payout.
  • It provides a mechanism to contact affiliate marketers.
  • It should have an option to track canceled commissions.
  • It supports migration from other plugins without any data loss.
  • It should have a 100% refund policy.
  • It should allow the website owners to create custom commission rules.
  • It offers an advanced reporting dashboard that works in real-time.
  • Allow admin to test the tracking system before deploying the affiliate program.
  • It doesn’t restrict you to add unlimited affiliates
  • It should not charge additional money during affiliate payout.

Note: If you are in hurry, here is the spoiler alert. EasyAffiliate is the only plugin that has all the great or must-have features that we have mentioned above. So don’t waste your time, just install the EasyAffiliate WordPress referral plugin on your site and you’re good to go.

Best WordPress Referral Plugins – The Complete List

Video Tutorial:

For the reader’s convenience, we always create a video tutorial. Either you can watch and learn or simply skip the video and continue with the steps mentioned afterward.

It’s time to go through the main section of this article. Under here we are going to introducing both paid and free WordPress referral plugins so that users can choose according to its need.

The list of Best WordPress Referral Plugins are as follows:

1. EasyAffiliate: Best Paid WordPress Referral Plugin

1. EasyAffiliate: Best Paid WordPress Referral Plugin

EasyAffiliate is only the best-paid WordPress affiliate program plugin out there in the market. The reason we put this plugin on the top of our list is that it has all the features a referral plugin should have. This plugin is created by the same Caseproof company which already introduced popular affiliate plugins in the market including Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates, etc. EasyAffiliate is not just the best because of its advanced features but it provides the cheapest annual plans too.

EasyAffiliate Features

The Multiple Ways for Joining the Affiliate Program

EasyAffiliate is a versatile plugin. To make the admin life easier, EasyAffiliate has allowed them to enroll affiliate marketers in 3 ways: Public, Private, and Application. 

The popular mode is Application. By setting this registration mode, the affiliate marketers first require to fill the form and waiting for approval. But in case if you want to enroll users manually you can easily achieve this by setting a registration mode to private.

EasyAffiliate Feature - The Multiple Ways for Joining the Affiliate Program

Advanced Commission Tracking System

In a referral or affiliate program, commission tracking plays a huge role. With EasyAffiliate you can set different types of commission rates, commission types, etc. When we talk about commission rates, both fixed and percentage-based rates can be configured. Similarly, you can customize whether you want to pay commission on the first sale or all sales (recurring commission).

Further, you can go beyond and take advantage of advanced commission settings. This includes setting different commission rates per user and configuring multiple commission levels.

EasyAffiliate Feature - Advanced Commission Tracking System

Simple and Smooth Setup

The majority of the WordPress referral plugins in the market offer great features but almost all of them have a bad complex interface. Since creating your own affiliate program is a little bit time-consuming task and complex user interface even makes it worsen. 

Gladly, EasyAffiliate is not that kind of a plugin. It organizes reports, payout settings, commission settings, etc in a nice manner. As an admin, you will be introduced to the setup wizard when you install this plugin on your WordPress dashboard. 

This setup wizard helps you in onboarding as well as configuring the affiliate program. In hardly 5 to 10 minutes you will see your affiliate program live and ready to act.

EasyAffiliate Feature - Simple and Smooth Setup

The Customizable Affiliate Dashboard

EasyAffiliate does care about affiliate marketers along with the referral program owner. The time affiliates marketers spend on your affiliate program will completely depend on the affiliate program dashboard.

EasyAffiliate designed their affiliate dashboard in a way that your affiliates would never face a problem in accessing reports, links, and banners, current balance, clicks, payment history, etc. Even they have added the option to generate a custom link at the top of the dashboard. 

The affiliate dashboard is fully customizable. Admin can change brand color, Accent Color, Menu Text Color, Logo, Welcome message, and much more.

EasyAffiliate WordPress Referral Plugins - Affiliate Dashboard
EasyAffiliate - The Customizable Affiliate Dashboard

Various Payouts Options

Your affiliate program would be failed if it doesn’t have a payment system that your affiliates would prefer. With EasyAffiliate you can pay your affiliates via PayPal 1-Click, PayPal Mass Payments, and offline mode (cash, cheque, gift cards, and so on.)

EasyAffiliate - Various Payouts Options

Robust Real-Time Reporting System

In a referral program, as an admin, you will be more likely to spend your time reviewing your reports and stats. EasyAffiliate makes it very simple. To access the 7-day performance overview report from your main /wp-admin page you can enable their dashboard widget. Apart from this they also have a separate reports page where you can access numerous important data including Clicks, Unique clicks, Sales, Transactions, Commissions, Voided amounts, etc.

Not just these basic reports, you can go deep and check the exact time of the click, the name of the affiliate whose link was clicked, affiliate URL, IP address of the user, etc. Further CSV export support is also there.

EasyAffiliate - Robust Real-Time Reporting System
EasyAffiliate Affiliate Program Clicks Reports

Highly Secure Environment

Most of the WordPress referral plugins in the market lacks when we talk about security. In affiliate programs security is a must because you never know what’s going on inside your affiliate marketer’s mind. They might hack into the system and increase their commission rates or they hack the ongoing transaction. 

To prevent any affiliate fraud EasyAffiliate has an inbuilt fraud detection mechanism that constantly monitors the affiliates behavior and flag or reject them automatically before you initiate the payout.

Various Third-Party Integrations and Addons

To increase the capability and power of this WordPress referral plugin lots of third-party integrations and add-ons are available. Just remember, the addons are inbuilt but you have to install third-party integrations and then sync with EasyAffiliate.

The list of EasyAffiliate Integrations and Addons are as follows:

  • WooCommerce
  • Easy Digital Downloads
  • Pretty Links
  • MemberPress
  • PayPal 1-Click Payouts (Built-in)
  • ConvertKit
  • ActiveCampaign
  • EasyAffiliate Fraud Prevention (Built-in)
  • EasyAffiliate Commission Rules (Built-in)
  • EasyAffiliate Commission Levels (Built-in)
  • GetResponse 
  • Mailchimp

Premium Customer Support

Although EasyAffiliate is simple and clear to use, in case you are stuck somewhere their customer support got your back. Knowledge base, Ticket support system, priority support can be a quick help to deal with all the queries.  

EasyAffiliate Other Important Features

  • Unlimited affiliates can join the affiliate the program
  • Migration from Affiliate Royale Plugin to EasyAffiliate is possible
  • Stores created from WooCommerce, MemberPress, and Easy Digital Downloads can automatically be sync with EasyAffiliate and track transactions seamlessly.
  • Separate dashboards for affiliates are available
  • Detailed reports
  • Any size of banners can be acceptable
  • Bulk payouts
  • Option to block any affiliate is available
  • The admin has an option to test whether the commission tracking process is working or not.
  • Cookies can be customized
  • Custom commission rules can be created
  • Zapier integration coming soon
  • Minimum Payout can be customized
  • Text-based and Graphic based links can be generated
  • The Affiliate login and Registration page are created by default. But you can replace or customized easily.
  • Shortcodes to quickly embed registration form or login form anywhere in the website

EasyAffiliate Pricing and Plans

EasyAffiliate Referral Program - Pricing and Plans

Don’t worry EasyAffiliate plans are pocket-friendly compared to other WordPress referral plugins. EasyAffiliate currently offering yearly plans only:

Basic ($99.50/year)

  • For 1 site only
  • Unlimited Affiliates
  • Unlimited Tracking Requests
  • AdBlock-Proof
  • Works with WooCommerce, MemberPress, and Easy Digital Downloads
  • Affiliate Application Management
  • Affiliate Dashboard
  • Commission Tracking
  • Link-Based Attribution
  • Banner Ads
  • 1st Party Cookies
  • Prevent Commission Theft
  • One-Click PayPal Payouts
  • No Transaction Fees
  • No Monthly Fees
  • Other Payout Methods
  • Advanced reports
  • Access to Members-Only Training
  • Standard Support

Plus ($149.50/year)

  • Everything is in Basic plan plus
  • Can be installed on 3 sites
  • Ability to create multi-level affiliate commissions
  • Automatic fraud detection feature
  • Email Marketing Integrations (ConvertKit, MailChimp, GetResponse)
  • Tax reports add-on
  • Priority Support

Pro ($199.50/year)

  • Everything in Plus and:
  • Can be installed on 5 sites
  • Ability to create advanced commission rules
  • Works with ActiveCampaign
  • Zapier Integration (Coming Soon)
  • Premium Support

EasyAffiliate Pros

  • All major features (advanced) are included in the plugin. Security is a big advantage.
  • No Payout and monthly fees
  • 14-day money refund policy
  • Commissions for refunded or canceled purchases can be tracked.

EasyAffiliate Cons

  • Free trial is not available
  • No bank account or direct payout facility
  • Stripe payout is also missing
  • The live chat support system is missing from the website
  • Captcha Integration is missing and hence the user has to use an external plugin like WPForms for applying for captcha protection on the Affiliate registration and login form. 
  • Cannot be integrated into any form-based plugin like Gravity forms.
  • Not Possible to track products manually that you sell without any eCommerce plugin integration. For now, To use this plugin, Your store must be built with any of the supportable eCommerce integrations: WooCommerce, MemberPress, or Easy Digital Downloads.
  • Monthly plans are absent.

2. WP Affiliate Manager: Best Free WordPress Referral Plugin

2. WP Affiliate Manager Best Free WordPress Referral Plugin

WP Affiliate Manager is the 2nd best affiliate program plugin. This is the perfect place to learn for users who are new to affiliate marketing and want to test and understand how the affiliate program works. Yes, some advanced features are missing from this plugin compared to EasyAffiliate but despite the free plugin, you can do a lot with this. The only thing we really like most about this plugin is that it can be easily integrated into a lot of eCommerce store plugins, not just WooCommerce. 

When we talk about its popularity and reliability we found that this WordPress referral plugin has top-rated (4.5/5) and is currently used by more than 10,000 websites. Affiliate Manager has beaten every other affiliate program plugin available on a WordPress plugin repository.

The major disadvantage of this plugin is the lack of security which is a very important element. The affiliate programs involve ongoing transactions and you would never want any fraud. This is the major reason why we always recommend premium WordPress referral plugins like EasyAffiliate.

WP Affiliate Manager Features at a Glance:

  • The admin has the option to add affiliates manually or with the help of a registration form.
  • Option to export various kinds of data into the CSV format including affiliate members’ details, affiliate earnings that need to be paid, etc. 
  • The admin can easily block any affiliate member.
  • Supports both image and text-based creatives.
  • Custom links can be generated within the affiliate dashboard.
  • Minimum payout, cookie duration can be set.
  • 2 Commission types are available: Percentage of sales, Fixed amount per sale.
  • Impressions on creatives can be tracked which is a huge advantage but might impact the server and hence website performance.
  • Affiliate Registration Homepage, Login Page, and Terms of condition page are Fully customizable. But you have to edit in WordPress classic editor mode. Glutenberg editor is not supportable.
  • 3 Payout Modes Available: Check, PayPal Mass Pay, and Manual.
  • Automatic messages and emails can be initiated to affiliates in various situations including application approval, application declined, a commission earned, etc.
  • An affiliate login form widget can be plug into the sidebar using shortcodes.
  •  The admin has an option to disable or enable the commission on affiliate own sales
  • Under click tracking you will see different metrics including clicks, date, affiliate ID, tracking key, referring URL, and IP address.
  • Popular Integrations Includes MailChimp, WooCommerce, WP eStore, reCaptcha, MemberMouse, Sell Digital Downloads, Gravity Forms, AWeber, etc.

WP Affiliate Manager Pros

  • This referral program plugin is completely free and has all features that a beginner requires to create an affiliate program on the WordPress platform.
  • Check payout mode is available.
  • No additional charges on the payout.
  • Allows to onboard affiliates manually.
  • Manual commission mode is there for rewards, bonuses, etc.
  • No limit on affiliate members to be joined.

WP Affiliate Manager Cons

  • Not able to track the canceled or refunded commissions due to cancellation of purchases.
  • The user must have an eCommerce store built with the supported eCommerce integrations.
  • No direct bank transfer payout facility
  • No option to enable commission only on the first sale.
  • Unlike EasyAffiliate, here you cannot able to personalized the affiliate dashboard according to the website look and feel.
  • The exact time of referral clicks cannot be tracked.
  • No option to assign different commissions per user.
  • Lacks in security and fraud protection compared to EasyAffiliate.
  • Migration from other affiliate plugins is not possible.
  • Advanced or custom commission rules cannot be set.
  • Multiple commission levels cannot be configured.
  • The quick setup wizard is missing.
  • Only basic reports for both admin and affiliates. Visuals reports are missing.
  • Since it is a free plugin, you cannot expect customer support.
  • Commission testing cannot be possible.
  • Easy Digital Downloads and Zapier integration is missing.
  • Not has an option that allows affiliates to shorten the affiliate links.

3. Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce – Only WordPress Referral Program for WooCommerce Coupons

3. Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce - Only WordPress Referral Program for WooCommerce Coupons

Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce plugin comes in both free and paid versions. We are going to discuss the features of both of them.

Are you running a WooCommerce store on your WordPress site? Are you often attached coupons on your WooCommerce products? Well, this referral plugin is different from all. With the help of this plugin, you can add WooCommerce coupons in an affiliate program and allow affiliates to promote them for a commission. 

We all know that coupons and offers are one of the main elements for increasing sales. Public digest coupons like a hungry dinosaur. And when affiliates promote your product’s coupons then imagine the flood of sales you are going to receive with the help of this plugin.

So if you are interested in creating a coupon-based affiliate program and allow affiliates to promote your WooCommerce coupons in exchange of commission then this WordPress referral plugin would be the savior for you.

Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce Features at a Glance:

Under the free version you will get:

  • A separate affiliate dashboard for each coupon shows valuable reports and statistics including sales, discounts, the total commission, commission graph, monthly summary, monthly totals, and more.
  • The setup wizard is available in a free version which helps you to deploy the affiliate program in hardly 5 minutes.
  • Commission modes are flexible: Fixed/Percentage per order or per product.
  • Can be integrated with the WooCommerce Subscription plugin.
  • Custom referral URLs can be generated from the affiliate dashboard. The affiliate can track or view total clicks, usage, conversion rate, etc.
  • The coupon would be automatically applied to the product page when someone comes on the product page with the affiliate referral URL.
  • Cookie duration is changeable.
  • Email notifications
  • Automatic deduction in commission whenever refund happens
  • Real-time reporting is always be enabled.
  • Unlimited affiliates and referral links.
  • Translation support
  • Rapid support with their UK team. This is a huge advantage.
  • Despite the free tag, you will still find an attractive or visually pleasing affiliate dashboard.
  • Migration from other plugins is possible.
  • Since this plugin is new in the market, you can expect regular updates and new features
  • The affiliates can be onboard privately without any application filling process.

Under the paid version you’ll get:

  • No limit on the date range for accessing reports.
  • Comparison between reports of two different dates can be possible.
  • The monthly orders report table can be extracted.
  • Refunded commissions can be tracked.
  • The affiliates get the option to request manual payouts.
  • Minium threshold can be set only in a paid version.
  • Gives affiliate an option to upload invoices for manual payouts requests.
  • The affiliates could also create their own referral commissions along with custom URLs to track conversions.
  • Social sharing buttons were added under the referral URLs tab to enable quick sharing on social media channels.
  • A shortening URL feature is included.
  • Commission reports can be visualized by line graphs.
  • The creative section is added to the affiliate dashboard where banners and images can be accessed.
  • Affiliates registration through the application is only possible in the Paid version.
  • An affiliate landing page can be built and linked with the coupons.

Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce Pros

  • Cheap plans and lifetime plan is available for the pro version.
  • Premium support in the free version as well.
  • Professional and good-looking affiliate dashboard.
  • The migration facility is available in a free version.
  • Social buttons are a unique feature.
  • Shortening the URL without any plugin is possible.

Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce Cons

  • Most of the features are available in the pro version which is rather supposed to be in the free version.
  • Integrations with email marketing services are not available.

4. Affiliate WP – Another Paid WordPress Referral Plugins

4. Affiliate WP - Another Paid WordPress Referral Plugins

Affiliate WP is something that you can choose over EasyAffiliate when you want to pay your affiliates directly into their bank accounts or credit/debit cards. Another major reason to choose this plugin is the customization. It is a developer-friendly plugin that allows the admin to add custom code for adding new features and functionality.

Affiliate WP has all the advanced features you saw in EasyAffiliate but it lacks security. Compared to EasyAffiliate there is nothing like a fraud system is available here. 

So if your preference is direct bank account payout then you should definitely go with Affiliate WP. But remember, Affiliate WP is using “Payouts Service” to make it happen and you have to pay a lot of extra charges per transaction for this facility.

And the Affiliate WP plans are expensive than other paid affiliate programs like EasyAffiliate.

Affiliate WP Features at a Glance:

  • Multiple ways are available for payouts including Payouts Service, PayPal mass payment option.
  • Lots of powerful integrations come by default with this plugin including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, WP Easy Cart, Ninja Forms, WPForms, Gravity Forms, MemberPress, MemberMouse, Paid Memberships Pro, Lifter LMS, etc.
  • 15 Pro Addons, 18 Free Addons, 30+ Third Party Add-ons are also available.
  • Affiliate coupon tracking is also included in this plugin.
  • The name of the topmost valuable affiliates is shown on the WordPress dashboard. You can use this information to motivate or reward top affiliates.
  • The admin can moderate, accept or decline any manual registrations.
  • Built-in referral link generator attached to the affiliate dashboard
  •  Fixed/Percentage based rates can be set globally or to an individual affiliate.
  • Shortcodes for embed login, registration forms anywhere on the website.
  • Email notifications support.
  • RestAPI is available to connect external applications and interact with the data available in Affiliate WP.
  • Translation friendly
  • Compatible with all major WordPress themes
  • In an affiliate area/dashboard and admin dashboard, various kinds of valuable stats can be collected including Unpaid/Paid referrals, Visits, Conversion rate, Unpaid/paid earnings, commission rate, etc.
  • Visual reports can be presented in a trending graphical way.
  • Both text and picture-based creatives are supported.
  • Under the admin overview dashboard stats like today’s earnings, monthly earnings, latest affiliate registrations, top affiliates, recent referrals can be accessible.
  • The admin has an option to manually record a new referral entry associated with a particular affiliate.
  • The referrals/affiliate sales records can be edit any time.
  • A minimum payout threshold can be set.
  • A notification can be triggered once payment is reached to the affiliate account.
  • You can track the source of traffic that comes to your site from the affiliate’s unique URLs.
  • Under the export/import tab, affiliates reports with their status, referrals data, settings can be exported into the CSV format.
  • Migration from Affiliate Pro and WP Affiliate is 100% possible. 
  • Taxes and shipping costs can be applied or discarded from referrals commissions.
  • Option to allow affiliates to join your affiliate program without any approval process.
  • reCaptcha protection can be turned on the registration form.

Affiliate WP Pricing and Plans:

Affiliate WP offers 3 plans: Personal ($149/year), Plus ($199/year), Professional ($299/year). The only main difference in these plans is the number of websites and the availability of Pro addons. 

Affiliate WP Pros:

  • All major or core features of this plugin are present in all plans.
  • Bank account and debit/credit cards payment facility.
  • Allows you to develop or create WooCommerce coupon-based affiliate program.
  • Supports major eCommerce integrations.
  • Developer friendly (Major advantage)
  • Complete documentation with docs and screenshots available on the site for user help.
  • Supports Rest API.
  • Longer (30-days) refund policy.

Affiliate WP Cons:

  • Price is higher compared to other paid plugins for example EasyAffiliate.
  • A free trial is not available.
  • Recurring commission tracking is possible by installing the “Recurring Referrals” pro addon which is only available in the professional plan.
  • PayPal payouts facility is not inbuilt. The user has the option to enable the PayPal payouts addon.
  • Monthly plans and lifetime plans are not available.
  • The admin has to pay extra charges for direct bank transfer transactions.

5. Social Boost – A Unique Social Media Based WordPress Referral Plugin

5. Social Boost - A Unique Social Media Based WordPress Referral Plugin

Social Boost is a unique referral plugin that allows you to run a referral program on a WordPress website but with a goal to increase your presence on social media. 

Do you ever strategize to increase your brand’s social media presence? Well, there are a lot of social media techniques you can use to increase your fan base. This one is unique and there are higher chances that you never hear about it.

This plugin allows you to create hundreds of campaigns under the categories: Instant win, Giveaways, Contests, Sweepstakes, Refer-a-friend campaign, Festivals Contests campaigns, etc. Through these marketing campaigns, referrers can be rewarded by sharing your message on social media. 

To understand how this plugin works let’s have a look at the example.

Suppose you wanted to increase your social media followers. Then you choose a “Follow and Save” campaign template available in this plugin. This campaign help you to embed a form on your WordPress website and Facebook Page. When a visitor signup/fill the form, visits, and follow your social media page, he/she will be rewarded instantly. The rewards can be a coupon, discount offers, digital file, etc.

Similar to the “follow and save” campaign, hundreds of campaigns templates with different goals are available to choose from. Some of the popular campaigns you can implement in minutes are:

  • Share and save
  • Follow and save
  • Enter to win
  • Subscribe and refer for a chance to win
  • Facebook Giveaway
  • Recipe Contest
  • Black Friday Cyber Monday Share for Instant Win
  • Christmas Share for Instant Win
  • Custom Campaigns

Social Boost Features at a Glance:

  • Allows you to embed campaign form on a WordPress Website with the help of shortcodes.
  • Very simple campaign creation process.
  • Custom templates can be built from scratch.
  • Different types of actions can be configured with any campaign including Sharing, Following, Watching, Referring, Commenting, Visiting, Answering, and Reviewing, Buying, Signups, etc.
  • Campaigns can be displayed on your website in a popup or a tab form. 
  • Referral campaigns are 100% mobile-friendly.
  • Can integrate with Google Analytics.
  • Unlimited campaigns.
  • Instant rewards (Points, Coupons, etc)
  • Marketing campaigns can be created for all major social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. 
  • The appearance of the readymade campaigns can be customized.
  • All leads can be exported into the CSV format.

Social Boost Pricing and Plans

It is a completely free plugin for up to 50 leads. Apart from this monthly, yearly, and lifetime plans are available. 

Social Boost Pros

  • Unique WordPress Referral Plugin
  • The free plan is available
  • Ease of use.

Social Boost Cons

  • Cash rewards cannot be added
  • Customer support is bad (24 hours)

6. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

6. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is another referral plugin on our list specially made for users who just want to create an affiliate program for their WooCommerce store. This plugin has both free and paid versions. The free version has basic features but enough for beginners to first try their hands on the affiliate program. Just remember, this plugin only works when you created a store on your WordPress site with WooCommerce.

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Features at a Glance:

  • Affiliate link tracking.
  • Cookie duration can be set in seconds or disabled completely.
  • Affiliates registration through the application filling process is possible.
  • Commission deletion option
  • Shortcodes friendly
  • Basic reports
  • Affiliates can be disabled or banned at any time
  • The affiliate dashboard page can be changed
  • Social buttons can be added to the affiliate dashboard
  • General/Global commission rate
  • Tax can be excluded or included from the affiliate’s commissions.
  • Discounts can be excluded or included from the affiliate’s commissions.

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Pricing and Plans

Apart from the free version, you can grab its paid version with complete features for $99.99/year.

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Pros

  • The free version is available
  • Can be a good choice for starting out affiliate program marketing.

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Cons

  • Lack of important features in the free plan including payout facility, reports, percentage-based commission, automatic notifications, etc.
  • Support is absent
  • Lack of security
  • CSV Export

Conclusion: Best WordPress Referral Plugins

That’s it. We are done with today’s list of WordPress Referral Plugins. Now there are chances that the confusion is still stuck in your head which prevents you to make a decision. If I am right then don’t worry, consider the below summary and finalize your decision now.

Go For EasyAffiliate:

  • When you want the best professional paid affiliate program plugin for your business.
  • When you care about the security and want to protect your affiliate program from affiliate frauds at any cost.
  • When you want to implement the best affiliate program for WooCommerce based store or for MemberPress based membership or for digital store created by Easy Digital Downloads.
  • When you want to create custom commission rules.
  • When you want to design and customize the look of the Affiliate dashboard according to your website colors and brand identity.
  • When you don’t want to pay extra charges while making payout to the affiliates.

Go For WP Affiliate Manager:

  • When you don’t want to spend any money on the affiliate program and yet want to enjoy the best free affiliate program.
  • When you want to use the most popular referral program plugin.
  • When you are ok to use an insecure WordPress referral plugin on your website.

Go For Coupon Affiliates for WooCommerce:

  • When you want to create a coupon-based affiliate program for your WooCommerce based WordPress store.

Go For Affiliate WP:

  • When you want to pay your affiliates directly into their bank account or credit/debit cards.
  • When you want to customize the affiliate program code. 
  • When security is not a concern for you.
  • When you want to connect external applications with the Affiliate WP with the help of Rest API.

Go For Social Boost:

  • When you want to run a social media-based affiliate program on your WordPress website to increase your social presence.

Go For YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

  • When you’re running a WooCommerce based store and looking to start an affiliate program with a free plugin with just basic features.

Now creating an affiliate program is just one thing. To attract affiliates towards your referral program you must set an attractive commission rate and various rewards. To get an idea, you should look at the rates offered by competitors in your niche space. When you start gaining affiliates, keep in touch with them, motivate them, and don’t forget to give a bonus or extra perks to your top affiliates. Only this way, you are able to successfully run a healthy affiliate program for a long time. 

I hope you like our list of Best WordPress Referral Plugins. When you find any affiliate program plugin, let us know through the comment section. Want more blogging tips, follow BlogVwant on FacebookTwitter and YouTube.

FAQ: WordPress Referral Plugins

Which is the best paid WordPress referral plugin to create an affiliate program?

EasyAffiliate.

Which is the best free WordPress referral plugin?

WP Affiliate Manager.

Which is the best plugin to create an affiliate program for WooCommerce based store?

EasyAffiliate, WP Affiliate Manager, and Affiliate WP.

Which affiliate program supports direct bank transfer payout?

Affiliate WP. This plugin uses “Payouts Services” for providing a direct transfer payout facility. The charges are higher though.

Which is the best affiliate program in terms of security and fraud detection?

EasyAffiliate.

Which method should I set for the affiliate registration?

Application.

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