Affiliate software features, in one honest list.
These are all of AffiliateTracking's affiliate software features, grouped by job. Each one says where you use it: the admin screen, the API or the command line. What isn't built yet is at the bottom, with what to do meanwhile.
Where you use it: Screen admin screen API REST API CLI command line Webhook automatic, from your billing tool Database recorded for you Business cloud plan needed. Self-host gets every feature.
Tracking and attribution
Who sent the sale, worked out the same way every time. First touch wins and the customer stays with that affiliate.
Setup for each billing tool- Tracking links
Every affiliate gets a short link. Clicks redirect to your site in one hop.
- Custom link names
Give a partner a readable link like /r/podcast instead of a number.
- Signed attribution cookie
Remembers the click for 1 to 365 days, 30 by default. It's signed, so nobody can forge it.
- Lifetime customers
Once an affiliate brings a customer, renewals keep crediting that affiliate.
- Coupon attribution
A sale with an affiliate's coupon credits them, even with no click. Coupons arrive by CSV import, and your checkout passes the code along.
- SubIDs and UTM tags
Affiliates tag links with a subid, UTM fields or any extra parameter, then drill into results.
- Bot and datacenter filter
Stats skip known bots, and the fraud rules watch datacenter traffic.
- Visitor country
Read from your CDN's geo header, only when the request came through a proxy you trust.
- Unique visitors per day
A daily unique count per affiliate, next to the raw click count.
- Redirect allowlist and rate limit
Links only send people to domains you allow, and each IP gets 120 clicks a minute.
Commissions
Set the rate once. AffiliateTracking handles renewals, refunds and holds from there.
- Percent or fixed rates
Pay a share of each sale or a flat bounty. Every amount is whole cents.
- Per-product rates
A different rate per Stripe price, Paddle price, Lemon Squeezy variant or Chargebee item.
- Per-affiliate rates
Give one partner a better deal without touching everyone else.
- Volume tiers
Rates step up once an affiliate passes a sales threshold you set.
- Recurring commissions
Renewals credit the affiliate who brought the customer, for as long as they stay.
- Refund clawbacks
Full and partial refunds take back the same share of the commission, down to the cent.
- Refund window
Commissions wait 30 days before they can be paid. Set your own wait per program.
- Usage-based commissions
Affiliates earn on metered spend, like credits or tokens, for customers already linked to them.
Fraud and money safety
Bad sales wait on hold before payday, and the ledger writes every cent down twice.
The 12 rules, one by one- 12 fraud rules
Coupon hijacks, self-referrals, click bursts, bot traffic and more, each with a published threshold.
- Money holds
A rule that fires holds the commission. No payout run can pay it until you decide.
- Release or uphold
Release a hold and it pays as normal. Uphold it and the ledger claws the money back.
- Dry-run mode
Run every rule and read the verdicts without holding anything.
- 5-minute sweep
Rules run on each sale and again every 5 minutes, since some patterns only show over time.
- Double-entry ledger
Every sale, refund and payout is a journal that sums to zero. Nobody edits a journal.
- Replay-safe webhooks
Each billing event counts once, however many times it arrives.
- Doctor
One command runs 6 checks on your books and exits with an error if anything is off. SQLite installs.
- Payout runs
One payout per affiliate and currency, covering whole commissions, above your minimum.
- Dry run
See every payout a run would make. The real run uses the same plan.
- Refund netting
Refunds after payday come off the next payout.
- Tax form gate
A W-9 or W-8BEN that's pending or rejected keeps that affiliate out of the run.
- Approval
Approving re-checks holds, tax forms and refunds, then records the payment in the ledger.
- Audit log
Every payout and tax form status change lands in an append-only log in your database.
Affiliate portal
Your affiliates see their own numbers, worked out from the same ledger you use.
- Earnings
Pending, approved, payable and paid amounts, plus clicks, conversions and earnings per click.
- Their own ledger
Every journal that touched their balance, each with a sum of 0 and a running total.
- Link builder
Affiliates make tracking links to any allowed page, with their own subid.
- Levels and badges
XP from real earnings, 6 badges and a public leaderboard.
- Tax hold notice
If a tax form blocks payment, the portal says so, so they know why.
- Your name and color
Your program name and accent color on the portal.
- 5 billing integrations
Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Lemon Squeezy, each checked by signature or password.
- REST API
36 routes: 26 for admins, 5 for affiliates and 5 public ones.
- Scoped API keys
Admin keys or keys that only see one affiliate. Stored hashed, made from the command line.
- Postbacks to affiliates
Send each conversion to an affiliate's own tracker, signed, with 5 retries.
- Read-only MCP server
Ask an MCP client like Cursor about holds, earnings and usage. It can't change anything.
- Test conversions
Push a test sale through the real engine, fraud checks included.
Privacy and running it
A single binary with SQLite built in. It covers the boring parts too.
Run it on your own server- SQLite or Postgres
SQLite needs no setup. Postgres works too, with an optional two-role setup.
- Backup and restore
Copy the database while it runs, then restore with a check before the swap. SQLite only.
- IP trimming
Drop the last part of each IP before it's hashed. Raw IPs are never stored.
- Click retention
It deletes raw clicks after 90 days by default. Totals stay.
- GDPR export and erase
Export or erase an affiliate's data, and the books still balance.
- CSV import
Bring affiliates, links and coupons from Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tapfiliate or Tolt. Dry run first.
- Benchmarks
Run the click benchmark on your own hardware and see the numbers yourself.
- One file per system
Linux, Mac and Windows builds of about 25 MB each, with nothing else to install.
Before you ask
Not built yet
Most tools list what they do. Here's what AffiliateTracking doesn't do today, and what to do meanwhile. When one ships, it moves up the page.
- Sending payouts for youPay through your own PayPal, Wise or bank, then approve each payout.
- Emails to affiliatesSend login codes and updates yourself for now.
- An affiliate signup formImport affiliates by CSV, or post your own form to the apply endpoint.
- Fraud and payout buttons in the admin screenRelease, uphold and approve with one API call each.
- Multi-level commission payoutsIt tracks sponsor trees and team volume. Paying out on them isn't built.
- Portal on your own domain, with your logoYour program name and accent color work today.
- Sales from other checkouts, like ShopifyOnly the 5 billing integrations can report sales.
Features FAQ
Does self-host get every feature?
Yes. Self-host has no plan limits. On cloud, Starter has the core, Business adds postbacks, usage-based commissions, the MCP server and portal colors, and Scale adds more brands. See which plan unlocks what.
Which billing tools does it work with?
Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Lemon Squeezy. Each sends its events to your install, and AffiliateTracking checks each one's signature or password first.
Does it have an API?
Yes, a REST API with 36 routes. You make admin keys, or keys that only see one affiliate, from the command line.
Can affiliates sign up on their own?
Not from a form yet. You can import affiliates by CSV, or point your own signup form at the apply endpoint. You approve each application in the admin screen.
Does it email affiliates?
No, not yet. You send approved affiliates their one-time login code yourself.
Can I bring my affiliates from another tool?
Yes. CSV import from Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tapfiliate and Tolt brings affiliates, their links and coupons. Balances stay behind, so pay those out first.
Everything above,
for $99 once.
Self-host gets every feature on this page, with no plan limits. Or let us run it, free for 14 days.