Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover giveaways & referrals and affiliate & referral. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| ReferralCandy | ViralSweep | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $39 | From $49 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 7 days | 7 days |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | 10.5% of what you earn | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Giveaways & Referrals, 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 | 1 |
Refer-a-friend for a shop, on a success fee
ReferralCandy runs the customer referral program for an online store: the reward, the emails chasing it, the fraud checks and the payout. Every plan has every feature and the tiers differ only in the split between a fixed monthly fee and a percentage of the sales the program brings in. Working out which tier is cheapest for you is real arithmetic, and the dearer plans can genuinely cost less.
Our note
Do the arithmetic rather than reading down the price column, because the cheapest plan is the most expensive one past a few thousand dollars of referred sales. The break-even between the first two tiers lands near $600 a month in referred revenue.
Sweepstakes and contests that stay compliant
ViralSweep runs the giveaway and, more to the point, runs the legal side of it: official rules, entry records, winner selection and the bonding a US sweepstakes needs above a prize threshold. Gleam is cheaper and lighter. This is the one to use when the prize is big enough that getting it wrong matters.
Our note
Gleam does the mechanics for less. The reason to pay four times as much here is the rules, the records and the bonding, which only matter above a prize value most creators never reach.
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.