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.
| GrowSurf | Rewardful | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $125 | From $49 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | Not stated | None |
| Runs on | Web | Not stated |
| Covers | Giveaways & Referrals, Affiliate & Referral | 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 |
Referral programs priced by participant
GrowSurf runs a refer-a-friend program for a product rather than a one-off giveaway: every participant gets a link, the rewards fire automatically, and the tax paperwork on the payouts is handled. It bills on how many people are in the program rather than on how many you refer, which is unusual and worth understanding before you launch.
Our note
The pricing model is the thing to think hardest about: paying per participant is generous if your referrals convert and punishing if they do not. Run the trial with real traffic before committing to a year.
Only on this side
Affiliate programs built on top of Stripe
Rewardful attaches an affiliate program to a business that already bills through Stripe or Paddle, and the install really is two scripts. Commissions adjust themselves when a referred customer upgrades, downgrades or cancels, which is the part people get wrong doing it in a spreadsheet. It sees only what those two processors see, so a Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy checkout sits outside it.
Our note
Rewardful and FirstPromoter cost the same and do the same job. Choose Rewardful if you want it working in an afternoon, and FirstPromoter if the affiliate dashboard needs to look like part of your product.
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.