8 Best Referral Program Software for Small Business Compared (2025)

There’s no better marketing than word of mouth from happy customers. But turning casual referrals into a consistent growth channel for your online store requires the right tools – something I learned while helping our partner brands set up their referral programs with AffiliateWP.

The challenge? Most referral software is either too expensive for small businesses or doesn’t have essential features. That’s why my team and I decided to put together this guide after testing dozens of options ourselves.

In this comparison, I’ll share the 8 best referral program tools that are perfect for small businesses. These solutions offer the perfect mix of affordability, ease of use, and powerful features to help you turn satisfied customers into your best marketing channel.

Quick Comparison: Best Referral Program Software for Your Business

Short on time? Here are my top picks of the best referral program software, side-by-side:

#	Referral Program Software	Best For	Pricing
🥇	AffiliateWP	Beginner-friendly plugin for a WordPress affiliate program	Starting at $149.60/year.
🥈	RewardsWP	Best refer-a-friend software for WooCommerce	Starting at $79.60/year
🥉	Easy Affiliate	Growing businesses that need advanced tools	Starting at $112.05/year
4	ShareASale	Access to a large network of affiliate partners	$500 one-time setup fee
5	Tapfiliate	Simplified referral tracking with custom-branded dashboards	Starting at $89/month
6	PartnerStack	SaaS companies and startups looking to automate their affiliate programs	Custom plans
7	Impact	Established companies, influencer marketing, and media networks	Custom plans
8	ReferralCandy	Online stores and word-of-mouth marketing	Starting at $59/month

Why Use Referral Program Software?

Referral programs are a great way to get more traffic and boost your sales. Companies like Dropbox and Coinbase became popular by using successful referral programs.

Referral programs are powerful because they use word-of-mouth marketing to help grow your business. People are more likely to trust recommendations from friends, family, and influencers they follow.

By growing with referrals, you can also save money on advertising and build customer loyalty.

However, managing your own referral program can be difficult and time-consuming. Referral program software makes it easy to create and manage referral marketing campaigns for your business or online store.

Referral programs have many moving parts, but using the right software can help to simplify the entire process.

What’s the Difference Between Referral and Affiliate Programs?

Referral marketing programs and affiliate marketing programs are very similar, although technically, they refer to different things.

A referral program offers incentives like gift cards, discounts, and commissions to existing customers when they refer a friend or family member to make a purchase.

Meanwhile, an affiliate program allows your customers or affiliate marketers to sign up for your program so they can receive an agreed-upon commission when someone purchases through their unique tracking link.

Affiliates are like your own sales team without the salary, and they are only paid when they deliver results.

For more details, see our step-by-step affiliate marketing guide for beginners.

How We Test and Review Referral Program Software

Referral programs are a powerful way to grow your business and expand your reach. With its wide range of plugins, WordPress makes it easier to access some of the best tools to track, reward, and incentivize referrals. That’s why it’s my favorite platform for everything!

But with so many options available, choosing the right referral program software can be overwhelming. Don’t worry – my team and I have done the heavy lifting for you.

We focused on the following key criteria when selecting the best referral program software for your WordPress site:

• Automation: We tested how well the software’s automation feature tracks referrals, sends rewards, and handles payouts automatically.
• Customizability: Referral programs should fit your brand. We checked if the tools let you customize referral pages, emails, and rewards to match your company’s unique look.
• Reporting and Analytics: We looked at how clearly each tool tracks referrals, conversion rates, and rewards to support data-driven decisions.
• Integration with WordPress: We tested how smoothly each tool works with WordPress and key plugins like eCommerce and email marketing tools.

Above all, we prioritized tools with a user-friendly interface, an intuitive setup process, and helpful documentation. We always aim to recommend solutions that make it easy for beginners to manage their referral programs.

That being said, let’s look at the best referral marketing software you can use with your small business website.

1. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is a beginner-friendly plugin that helps you add an affiliate program to your WordPress site. It’s great for small business owners who want something easy to use. And you can quickly set up and manage your program using AI-powered affiliate approval!

Some of our partner brands use AffilateWP to run and manage their programs. Feel free to see our complete AffiliateWP review to learn why we recommend this tool!

My favorite thing about AffiliateWP is the real-time reporting data.

This helps you accurately track your referral programs with detailed reports, including referral and affiliate performance metrics. You’ll also find data for your affiliate coupon revenue.

You also get full control over managing your referral partners, right from the dashboard.

Here, the plugin shows referral sales, affiliates, amounts, and more. Plus, you can automatically accept affiliate applications or manually review them.

One thing I want to highlight is the plugin’s AI Affiliate Review feature. This AI-powered tool can:

• quickly and accurately review your affiliate applications,
• give you an accept or reject recommendation, and
• provide a valid reason for the suggestion.

I also appreciate the automatic referral link generator, which can save you time. In addition, you can create and customize unique landing pages that your affiliates can send traffic to without using a tracking link.

Processing affiliate payments is handy, too. When testing the tool myself, I found that you can do it directly within the tool’s dashboard.

Regarding integration, you can use AffiliateWP with popular plugins and tools like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, WPForms, MemberPress, and more.

Other than that, you can set cookie expirations and easily pay out your partners without having to leave your WordPress admin panel.

Pros of AffiliateWP:

• Beginner-friendly setup in minutes
• Real-time reporting for accurate tracking
• AI-powered affiliate application review
• Automatic referral link generator
• Customizable affiliate landing pages
• Direct affiliate payments within the dashboard
• Seamless integration with popular plugins
• Easy cookie expiration management

Cons of AffiliateWP:

• AI review recommendations may still require manual oversight
• Advanced features may have a learning curve for some users
• No free plans

Why I recommend AffiliateWP: In my opinion, AffiliateWP is one of the most beginner-friendly tools with real-time reporting. It simplifies referral tracking, automates link generation, and allows direct affiliate payments within WordPress. Plus, the AI-powered affiliate review system can save time by quickly handling application reviews.

Pricing: AffiliateWP starts at $149.60 per year. If you need even more features like Zapier integration, custom affiliate links, recurring commission payments, and more, then the Pro plan is $299.50 per year.

2. RewardsWP

RewardsWP lets small business owners and WooCommerce store owners add a referral program widget to their store quickly and easily. During testing, my team and I found the setup to be super straightforward.

Here’s how it works: After a purchase, customers are automatically enrolled in the referral program. Then, the Rewards Widget will appear on their account page, allowing them to share links on social media, track referrals, and redeem rewards — all without leaving the site.

We also love that RewardsWP offers a double-sided reward system by default. With this type of setup, a customer who refers a friend can get, say $10 off, while the friend they refer receives a 15% discount on their first purchase.

This is great as it encourages both people to take part, helping increase your referrals and sales.

We actually have a complete guide on building a referral program. Go check out my team’s guide on how to create a referral program in WordPress!

Pros of RewardsWP:

• Automatic referral enrollment after purchase
• Double-sided rewards (advocate + friend)
• Smart email notifications to keep everyone updated
• Built-in fraud protection (IP, email, and referral checks)
• Works with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads
• Clean, brandable widget

Cons of RewardsWP:

• Not built for influencer-style affiliate campaigns, such as influencer recruitment tools, commission structures based on content performance, or integrations with social media analytics

Why I recommend RewardsWP: If you’re already using WordPress to run your store, RewardsWP fits right in. It gives you full control, doesn’t send users off to another platform, and makes referring friends feel easy and rewarding. We especially recommend it for store owners who want a no-hassle way to grow through referrals.

Pricing: RewardsWP starts at $79.60 per year for a single site, and you can try it risk-free with their 14-day money-back guarantee.

3. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate is a powerful and more advanced affiliate plugin. It’s best suited for online stores and growing businesses that need extra tools to manage their programs.

With built-in fraud protection, custom commission settings, and detailed sales tracking, it gives you everything you need to run a larger affiliate network. It also connects with email marketing services, which is very handy for bigger affiliate programs.

For this roundup, my team and I signed up to explore the features. Read all about it in our Easy Affiliate review!

Upon activating the tool, you can have your own referral program up and running in a few minutes. Then, in the dashboard, you’ll find an easy-to-understand stats widget that lets you quickly see your affiliate performance and leaderboard rankings.

I also appreciate that Easy Affiliate lets users monitor clicks, unique clicks, and sales in real time.

The plugin also offers built-in fraud detection to protect your program. In addition to that, I also found one-click payouts for hassle-free payments and customizable commission structures.

On top of everything, there are no transaction fees, making it a cost-effective choice for small business websites.

💡 If you run an online store, then you can use the tool with WooCommerce, MemberPress, PayPal, and Easy Digital Downloads.

Plus, you can keep your affiliates informed by integrating with some of the best email marketing services like ActiveCampaign, Kit, and more.

If you do run into any issues with the software, then there’s a knowledgeable customer support team ready to help.

Pros of EasyAffiliate:

• Simple dashboard with performance stats
• Click and sales tracking with built-in fraud detection
• One-click affiliate payouts
• Custom commission options
• No transaction fees
• Seamless integration with WooCommerce, MemberPress, PayPal, and more
• Email marketing integration for affiliate communication

Cons of EasyAffiliate:

• No free version is available
• Limited advanced reporting features compared to some competitors
• Requires additional plugins for full eCommerce functionality

Why I Recommend Easy Affiliate: Unlike many other affiliate program tools, Easy Affiliate does not charge per-transaction fees, making it a great option for small businesses. It’s a self-hosted referral tracking plugin for WordPress, allowing you to fully control and manage your affiliate program from your own site.

Pricing: EasyAffiliate currently starts at $112.05 per month. Users who want more integrations will need to opt for a higher-priced plan.

4. ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the longest-running affiliate networks in the world. Beyond providing thousands of affiliate products to promote, they also connect you with a network of over 225,000 affiliates ready to market your products.

✋ Did you know? ShareASale is used by major publishers like Business Insider, Forbes, BuzzFeed, and more. At WPBeginner, we also use the ShareASale referral program for our software solutions like WPForms, OptinMonster, MonsterInsights, and SeedProd!

During setup, we’ve seen firsthand how you can quickly and easily create a referral program for your own products.

We also found the affiliate dashboard to be detailed, with powerful tracking tools to monitor performance.

The built-in email marketing automation makes it simple to stay in touch with affiliates and keep them updated on sales and promotions.

We’ve also explored the customization options, which allow you to tailor the referral and recruitment program to fit different business needs.

Pros of ShareASale:

• Access to a vast network of 225,000+ affiliates
• Trusted by major publishers like Forbes and BuzzFeed
• Easy setup for creating a referral program
• Detailed and user-friendly affiliate dashboard
• Powerful tracking tools for performance monitoring
• Built-in email marketing automation for affiliate communication
• Customizable referral and recruitment options

Cons of ShareASale:

• Charges transaction fees on sales
• Less control compared to self-hosted affiliate plugins
• Interface may feel overwhelming for beginners

Why I recommend ShareASale: One of the biggest reasons our larger brands use ShareASale is that they handle all affiliate payments, local taxes, and related tasks. The major downside is the cost, as they charge a premium per transaction. For smaller businesses, AffiliateWP or Easy Affiliate may be better.

Pricing: ShareASale charges a one-time setup fee of $500 plus a transaction fee that’s equal to 20% of the commission amount you are paying affiliates.

5. Tapfiliate

Tapfiliate is an easy-to-use referral tracking software that takes the hassle out of creating your own referral marketing program. When setting it up, I was impressed by the simple onboarding process for new affiliates and the custom-branded dashboard to match the web design.

When exploring the payout options, I found them easy to set up. Based on my testing, configuring one-time or recurring commissions, percentage-based rewards, and performance bonuses was all pretty straightforward.

Additionally, Tapfiliate’s marketing tools let you create short referral links and unique coupon codes in just a few clicks.

Want to share your program on social media? Then, rest assured because I found generating shareable social media posts was a smooth process.

There are also integrations with popular tools like WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier, Shopify, and more. And there’s support for multiple currencies and languages so that you can run a global referral and affiliate campaign.

If you’re an advanced user, then you can take advantage of the REST API integration to create custom automated workflows.

Pros of Tapfiliate:

• Custom-branded affiliate dashboard
• Flexible commission options (one-time, recurring, percentage-based, bonuses)
• Short links, coupon codes, and social media sharing tools
• Integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, WordPress, Zapier, and more
• REST API for advanced automation
• Supports multiple currencies and languages for global campaigns

Cons of Tapfiliate:

• No free plans
• Advanced features may require technical setup
• Limited built-in reporting compared to some competitors

Why I recommend Tapfiliate: Based on my testing, Tapfiliate makes it easy to onboard affiliates and customize their experience with a branded dashboard. It offers flexible commission structures, built-in marketing tools, and seamless integrations with a lot of third-party platforms. Plus, it supports multiple currencies and languages, making it a great option for global referral programs.

Pricing: Tapfiliate starts at $89 per month and has zero transaction fees. This plan includes real-time reporting, third-party integrations and automation, and support for up to 1000 affiliates.

6. PartnerStack

PartnerStack is a powerful referral marketing platform for helping you create and manage your entire referral process.

This software is built to help SaaS companies and new online startups grow. Companies like Drip, Asana, Quickbooks, and Evernote all use PartnerStack to run their affiliate programs.

During testing, I found one of its most useful features to be the built-in partner and affiliate recruitment.

It’s also very flexible and lets you create different goals for your referral campaigns. For example, you can focus on traffic generation, new leads, or total sales.

It also allows you to create customer loyalty programs directly into your products. So let’s say when someone becomes a customer, the tool can trigger an automated sequence to bring them on as a referral partner.

On top of all that, the dashboard is easy to use and gives you a detailed breakdown of how your partners are performing, similar to a CRM. This means that you can create groups of partners and offer rewards based on different tiers.

Plus, I appreciate that it supports various payment methods, including credit card, ACH, Stripe, and PayPal.

Pros of PartnerStack:

• Built-in partner network for easy affiliate recruitment
• Flexible campaign goals (traffic, leads, sales)
• Customer loyalty program automation
• CRM-style dashboard for tracking performance
• Tiered rewards system for partners
• Multiple payment methods (credit card, ACH, Stripe, PayPal)

Cons of PartnerStack:

• No publicly listed pricing
• Primarily designed for SaaS and startups
• May have a learning curve for beginners

Why I recommend PartnerStack: Based on my findings, PartnerStack makes it easy to recruit affiliates and manage partnerships from one platform. I like how it supports flexible campaign goals, automated customer loyalty programs, and tiered rewards. The CRM-style dashboard also gives a clear view of partner performance, making it a great choice for SaaS companies and startups looking to scale.

Pricing: PartnerStack creates custom plans for every customer, including how much you will pay.

7. Impact

Impact is a great partnership management and affiliate software, well-suited for established companies. My team and I tested it thoroughly and found it to be a reliable tool used by top brands like HostGator, Constant Contact, McAfee, and Canva.

During our testing, we learned that Impact makes it easy to discover new partners and expand your referral network.

✋ This is how it works: Instead of relying only on existing customers and website visitors, you are able to connect with businesses, influencers, and media partners directly through the platform.

We also appreciate that the dashboard offers a seamless experience for recruiting, managing, and paying referrers.

Plus, the detailed performance metrics can help you track which affiliates and partnerships generated the most revenue. We always like tracking tools, as they help you focus on what’s working and boost your results even more!

Pros of Impact:

• Advanced partner and affiliate management
• Helps recruit new affiliates, influencers, and media partners
• Detailed performance tracking and reporting
• Automated payment processing for referrers

Cons of Impact:

• Can have a learning curve for beginners
• Pricing is custom and not publicly available
• More suited for established businesses

Why I recommend Impact: My team and I recommend Impact because it goes beyond traditional affiliate marketing by helping businesses connect with new partners, influencers, and media networks. Its dashboard is intuitive for managing referrers, tracking performance, and automating payments, making it a strong choice for scaling partnership programs.

Pricing: Impact pricing is completely custom. To get a quote, you need to reach out to their team.

8. ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy is an easy-to-use customer referral program software that’s great for beginner online store owners. My team and I tested it ourselves, and we found that this tool can help make word-of-mouth marketing easy.

During testing, we explored its A/B testing. With this feature, you can set up different referral incentives and run tests to compare them.

Plus, we like that automating the referral onboarding process was smooth. The software comes with options to set up email and popup sequences to invite new customers.

They also offer automatic affiliate payments, email templates, and flexible reward options.

Integration was another thing I wanted to highlight. We learned that connecting it with WooCommerce, Google Analytics, Shopify, Magento, and popular email marketing tools was straightforward.

Pros of ReferralCandy:

• Beginner-friendly and easy to set up
• A/B testing tools for optimizing referral incentives
• Automated referral onboarding with email and popup sequences
• Automatic affiliate payments and flexible reward options
• Integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Google Analytics, and more

Cons of ReferralCandy:

• Tiered commission fees on referral sales
• Limited customization for advanced users
• Lacks built-in multi-tier affiliate structures

Why we recommend ReferralCandy: After testing this tool in depth, we like that ReferralCandy is easy to use. This makes it a great option for beginners. Plus, the A/B testing tools, automated onboarding, and seamless integrations make it a solid choice for growing an online store through referrals.

Pricing: ReferralCandy starts at $59 per month plus a tiered commission rate that starts at 5% and decreases as you make more referral sales.

What is the Best Referral Program Software (Expert Pick)?

After trying the most popular referral program software, my team and I believe that AffiliateWP, RewardsWP, EasyAffiliate, ShareASale, and Tapfiliate are the best tools on the market. We wanted to highlight more than one because they each have unique strengths.

AffiliateWP is best for beginners who want to start an affiliate or referral program on WordPress. It’s easy to use, quick to set up, and works smoothly with the WordPress dashboard.

Meanwhile, RewardsWP is ideal for WooCommerce store owners who want a simple and effective way to launch a referral program. The widget is easy to add, the setup takes minutes, and it tracks referrals and rewards well.

Easy Affiliate is a top choice for growing businesses that need a more advanced affiliate management system. It comes with powerful features like fraud protection, detailed tracking, and email marketing integrations. So, if you’re managing a larger program, this plugin can help you scale with confidence.

On the other hand, ShareASale lets you get your products in front of a massive network of new affiliates, and it provides detailed analytics and reporting data.

Tapfiliate is another great choice that gives you complete control over your commissions, lets you create unique social media posts, and can be easily integrated with WordPress and WooCommerce.

Other Tools to Help Grow Your Referral Base

Having a referral program is only a part of the entire process. You need a way to make a blog, drive traffic, analyze your data, and continually optimize the process.

That’s why you shouldn’t just stop looking for referral program software. On top of that, you may also want to check out these tools to help you maximize the amount of affiliate revenue you earn:

• WPForms lets you easily create just about any type of form. You can even use it to create custom referral forms. These forms can be used to collect information from users who want to refer others to your products or services.
• RafflePress lets you run giveaways and contests in WordPress and automatically tracks all participants in the process. Want to drum up more interest in your referral-based marketing campaigns? One great way is to throw in giveaways and prizes to add some extra incentive. The more your audience refers to their friends, the more points they earn, which gives them a better chance of winning a big prize.
• MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution that brings advanced Google Analytics integration to WordPress sites. This is a must if you want to track the performance of your affiliate links, along with what sources or blog posts are contributing most to it. That way, you can see how your customers are spreading the word.

I hope this article helped you find the best referral program software for your small business. You might also want to see our guide on how to add affiliate links in WordPress with ThirstyAffiliates or our article on proven affiliate marketing tips to grow revenue from the founder of Pretty Links.

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