FirstPromoter vs Refersion Comparison 2026
FirstPromoter tracks affiliates for a software or subscription business, with a brandable portal on your own domain, at $49 a month flat for revenue up to $5,000. Refersion tracks affiliate sales for ecommerce brands using first-party tracking, plus a marketplace where affiliates browse and apply, at $39 a month plus 3 percent of affiliate-driven sales on Launch. FirstPromoter's price is flat once you are under its revenue band. Refersion's rises with success, in exchange for affiliates who come looking rather than ones you have to recruit.
Affiliate tracking and a brandable portal
Affiliate programs for ecommerce brands
At a glance
- Refersion starts cheaper, at $39.
- Only Refersion has a free tier.
Side by side
FirstPromoter | Refersion | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $49 | From $39 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
FirstPromoter
Affiliate tracking and a brandable portal
FirstPromoter is the other half of the Stripe affiliate duopoly, and the difference that matters is the portal: affiliates get a dashboard on your own domain with your CSS on it, rather than one that says somebody else's name. Tax forms and broadcast emails to promoters are built in. Setup asks more of you than Rewardful does.
Refersion
Affiliate programs for ecommerce brands
Refersion tracks affiliate sales first-party, without a third-party cookie, which is what keeps attribution working now that browsers throw those away. Its marketplace is the other half: affiliates browse offers and apply, so a new program is not starting from an empty list. Pricing charges a percentage of affiliate-driven sales on top of the monthly fee, and that percentage falls as the plan gets dearer.
Our note
The percentage on top is what separates this from Tapfiliate's flat pricing. A program doing $20,000 a month through affiliates pays around $640 here and $89 there, so Refersion has to win on the marketplace to be worth it.
Why people weigh these two
- Refersion instead of FirstPromoter
- Refersion is built specifically for ecommerce brands and carries a free tier, something FirstPromoter does not offer, with paid plans from $39.
- FirstPromoter instead of Refersion
- FirstPromoter tracks affiliates and gives them a brandable portal at $49.
Which one should you pick
Pick FirstPromoter if you run a software or subscription business whose affiliates are a channel rather than a favour, and you want a portal on your own domain. There is no percentage cut on top of the banded fee, unlike Refersion.
Pick Refersion if you sell physical products and want affiliates recruited as well as tracked, since its marketplace means a new program is not starting from an empty list. A business selling one digital product will find the percentage on sales harder to justify than FirstPromoter's flat fee.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper to start?
- Refersion's base price is lower, $39 a month against FirstPromoter's $49, but Refersion adds 3 percent of affiliate-driven sales on top at that tier. FirstPromoter's $49 is flat for revenue up to $5,000, with no percentage layered on.
- Which one is built for selling physical products?
- Refersion, explicitly, with first-party tracking that keeps working now that browsers block third-party cookies. FirstPromoter is built for software and subscription businesses instead, tracking recurring revenue rather than one-off ecommerce sales.
- Does either help recruit new affiliates, not just track existing ones?
- Refersion does, through its own marketplace where affiliates browse open offers and apply, so a new program is not starting from an empty list. FirstPromoter is tracking and portal infrastructure; recruiting affiliates is left to you.
- Which one charges a percentage of what affiliates sell?
- Refersion does, 3 percent of affiliate-driven sales on its Launch plan, falling to 2 percent on Growth. FirstPromoter charges a flat monthly fee banded by revenue instead, with no percentage on top at any tier described here.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.