Making the work
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.
Referral programs priced per advocate
Run your own affiliate program
Genius Referrals | Post Affiliate Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $71 | From $89 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial (they differ) | 14 days | 30 days |
| API | Yes |
Referral programs priced per advocate
Genius Referrals runs customer referral schemes rather than affiliate marketing, which is a different job: the people doing the referring are buyers rather than publishers, and the rewards go both ways. Plans are metered on new advocates a month with a stated overage rather than a cliff, so a good month costs a known amount. Payout automation is an add-on rather than a tier. Existing advocates are not counted twice, which the page states, and that is what stops the meter running on people who joined last year.
Our note
The 20-cent overage is worth more than it looks, because it turns a good month into a known cost rather than an upgrade conversation. Check that your program really is customer-to-customer before buying here, since the pricing meter counts advocates and an affiliate program with ten hard-working publishers would waste the whole allowance.
Only on this side
Run your own affiliate program
Post Affiliate Pro is the software behind an affiliate program you run yourself, tracking clicks and sales back to the partner who sent them and paying out on your terms. Plans are sized by tracking requests a month rather than by how many affiliates you sign, so recruiting is never the thing that raises the bill. It has been around long enough that most shopping carts already have an integration for it.
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.
| Not stated |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
|---|
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
|---|
| Runs on | Web | 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 |
|---|
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Our note
Count your monthly clicks before choosing, because tracking requests are the only thing separating an $89 plan from a $649 one. If a promotion is still running when you sign up, the first year is materially cheaper than the list price suggests.