Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover affiliate & referral. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| FirstPromoter | Viral Loops | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $49 | From $35 |
| Pricing model | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 14 days |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Everything, in an open format |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Not stated | Web |
| Covers | Affiliate & Referral | Giveaways & Referrals, Affiliate & Referral |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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.
Referral programs from templates, per campaign
Viral Loops ships templates for the referral mechanics that already worked for somebody else, a waiting list, a milestone giveaway, a straight refer-a-friend, and lets you run one without building it. Participants import and export as a list, so it plugs into whatever you already send email with. Pricing rises with the number of participants rather than with features.
Our note
The ten-participant cap on the trial is the thing to plan around: it proves the mechanics work and tells you nothing about scale. Against UpViral this is cheaper at the entry tier and gives away less of the API.
Only on this side
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.