What's the main difference between Referly and Rewardful?

Payment coverage. Rewardful supports Stripe and Paddle only. Their own FAQ says so. Referly supports Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, Paddle, Chargebee, Polar and Zylvie among 27 listed integrations. Referly also collects W-9 and W-8 tax forms from its Business plan and includes an affiliate marketplace; Rewardful does neither. Rewardful is $49/mo and Referly is $75/mo.

Is Rewardful a good product?

Yes. It's a Stripe Premier Partner, rated 4.5/5 on G2 by its own homepage, installs in about 15-20 minutes by their own measure, charges a genuine 0% transaction fee, and offers a 30-day no-questions-asked refund. If you bill only through Stripe or Paddle and don't need tax forms collected, it costs less than Referly and does the job.

Does Rewardful have an affiliate marketplace?

No. Rewardful has no marketplace and no partner discovery. Every affiliate is one you recruit yourself. Referly has a built-in marketplace (a separate Marketplace Licence) and Influencer Discovery, a $199/mo add-on with 500 invitations a month, included on Enterprise and Agency Scale.

When should I choose Rewardful over Referly?

When you bill entirely through Stripe or Paddle and expect that to stay true, when $49/mo against $75/mo matters at your stage, when you don't need W-9s or W-8s collected, or when you want the shortest install. Under $7,500/mo in affiliate revenue on Stripe-only billing, Rewardful is the cheaper correct answer.

Can I move my affiliates from Rewardful to Referly?

Yes. Referly has a direct Rewardful importer that brings across your affiliates, their referral links and their commission rates, and migration is free. Historic click data stays in Rewardful, and commissions already accrued there should be paid out from Rewardful before you switch. Most moves take an afternoon plus a few days of overlap.

How does Referly's pricing compare to Rewardful's?

Rewardful starts at $49/mo and Referly at $75/mo, so Rewardful is cheaper to start. The caps differ: Rewardful's $49 covers up to $7,500/mo in affiliate revenue, Referly's $75 covers $10,000/mo. Above that, Rewardful is $99 to $15,000/mo and Referly is $149 to $30,000/mo. Both charge a 0% transaction fee. Neither takes a cut of your sales.

Referly vs Rewardful

Rewardful is $49 and Referly is $75. Here's what the difference buys, and when it doesn't.

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14-day free trial · No credit card required · Free migration, including a direct import from Rewardful

Referly

Startup

$75/mo

Covers: $10,000/mo affiliate revenue
Fee: 0% transaction fee
Tracks: Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, Paddle, Chargebee, Polar, Zylvie

Rewardful

Starter

$49/mo

Covers: Up to $7,500/mo from affiliates
Fee: 0% transaction fee
Tracks: Stripe, Paddle

Referly and Rewardful both run affiliate programs on Stripe. Rewardful is $49/mo and its own FAQ says it supports only Stripe or Paddle. Referly is $75/mo and also tracks Shopify, WooCommerce, Chargebee and Polar, collects W-9 and W-8 forms in the partner portal, and includes a marketplace to recruit from. Both cap revenue on their entry plans.

The case

Why choose Referly over Rewardful?

The three differences that decide it against Rewardful, with the plan each one is on.

Stores as well as subscriptions.

Rewardful's FAQ answers it directly: "Not at this time. We currently support only Stripe or Paddle." Referly tracks Shopify orders and coupon codes alongside Stripe subscriptions, on the same program, with 27 integrations listed in total.

Tax forms collected in the portal.

Referly collects W-9, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E from affiliates inside the partner portal, with the TIN encrypted at rest, from the Business plan up. Rewardful has no tax-form collection, so you chase PDFs by email or you don't collect them at all.

Partners you don't have to find yourself.

Referly has a built-in affiliate marketplace and Influencer Discovery, which searches creators who joined Referly to find programs to promote, with real revenue and conversion numbers attached. Rewardful has neither. The listing needs a Marketplace Licence; Discovery is a $199/mo add-on.

Referly or Rewardful: which should you pick?

Choose Referly if

You sell on Shopify or WooCommerce as well as Stripe
You need W-9 and W-8 forms collected without chasing anyone for them
You want a marketplace to recruit affiliates from, not just a tracking link
You pay affiliates in more than one currency, or you're an agency running client programs

Choose Rewardful if

You only sell on Stripe or Paddle, and you're confident that won't change
$49 versus $75 matters at your stage. That is $312 a year
You don't need W-9s or W-8s collected, and you never will
You want the shortest possible install. They measure it at 15-20 minutes

Referly vs Rewardful, full comparison table

Compiled from real research into both platforms.

Comparison	Referly	Rewardful
Entry price / month	$75 (Startup)	$49/mo (Starter)
Real cost at $10,000/mo	$75/mo on Startup	$99/mo on Growth
What the price meters on	Affiliate revenue	Affiliate revenue
Revenue cap, entry plan	$10,000/mo	Up to $7,500/mo from affiliates
Next tier	$149 (Business), $30,000/mo cap	$99 (Growth), Up to $15,000/mo
Transaction or payout fee	0% transaction fee	0% transaction fee
Stripe
Shopify
WooCommerce
Paddle
Chargebee, Polar, Zylvie
Coupon-code tracking	Every plan, including Startup	Stripe coupons
Cookie window	60 days default, configurable	Configurable
W-9 / W-8 collection	Business and above, TIN encrypted at rest
EU self-billing invoices	Business and above, with VIES VAT validation
Automated payouts	Business and above, through PayPal and Wise with no percentage fee	One-click PayPal on Enterprise
Affiliate marketplace	Built in
Influencer Discovery	$199/mo add-on, 500 invitations/mo
Branded portal on your domain	Business and above	Growth ($99) and above
Portal languages	15 + custom languages you define	English
Sub-affiliate tiers	2 levels, Business and above
Free tier	Referly has none
Trial	14 days, no card	14 days
Refund policy	Standard	30-day, no-questions-asked refund
Direct import into Referly	n/a	Direct importer
Bulk approve, decline and edit	Bulk approve and decline affiliates	Not stated
Cancel without contacting support	Self-serve in billing settings; billed via Stripe	30-day no-questions refund
Per-link and per-affiliate reporting	Link-level and per-affiliate, every plan	Not stated
Payout proof and audit trail	Proof required on manual payouts, with an audit trail. Business and above for automation	One-click PayPal on Enterprise only
New-sale and new-affiliate alerts	Email alerts to program owners	Not stated

Run your numbers

What each plan would cost you

Both tools price on monthly affiliate revenue, with cliffs in different places. Drag to your number and see which plan you'd actually be on, including the band where the $49 tool costs more than the $75 one.

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Your monthly affiliate revenue$8,000

Referly

Startup

$75/mo

Covers up to $10,000/mo

Rewardful

Growth

$99/mo

Covers up to $15,000/mo

You're in the inversion band: at $8,000/mo, the tool with the lower sticker price is the more expensive one.

In depth

Why teams compare Referly and Rewardful

Six questions answered in full, including what they do better than us.

01What Rewardful does well

Rewardful is a good product and it is cheaper than Referly. $49/mo against $75, which is $312 a year. It is a Stripe Premier Partner, and it shows: the Stripe integration is the cleanest in the category and they measure install at 15-20 minutes, which matches what their customers report. They advertise a 0% transaction fee and that is genuinely true. There is no percentage of your sales on any plan. They offer a 30-day, no-questions-asked refund, which nobody else in this band does. They are rated 4.5/5 on G2 by their own homepage chip. And their $49 plan carries $7,500/mo of affiliate-revenue headroom, which is 50% more than FirstPromoter gives you for the same money.

If you sell subscriptions on Stripe, you don't need tax forms collected, and you're recruiting affiliates yourself, Rewardful does that job well and costs less. That is a real recommendation, not a setup.

02Where Rewardful stops

Three limitations, each traceable to a sentence on rewardful.com:

1Stores. "I don't use Stripe or Paddle. Can I still use Rewardful? Not at this time. We currently support only Stripe or Paddle." There is no plan that adds Shopify, WooCommerce, Chargebee or Polar. This is a product boundary, not a pricing tier. The Enterprise plan doesn't fix it either.
2Tax. No W-9 or W-8 collection anywhere in the product. If you pay US affiliates $600+ in a year you need a W-9, and Rewardful leaves that to you and your accountant.
3Recruitment. No marketplace, no discovery, no supply side. Every affiliate you get is one you found yourself.

03What Referly adds on top of the tracking

The tracking is table stakes; both products do it. What differs is everything downstream.

Payouts through PayPal, Wise, Referly Payouts or manual-with-proof, in multiple currencies with rates refreshed three times a day. W-9, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E collection in the portal, from Business up. EU self-billing invoices with VIES VAT validation, from Business up. A branded portal on your own domain in 15 languages, plus custom languages you define. The custom domain starts on Business. Fraud prevention with email and IP matching. A marketplace and Influencer Discovery on the supply side, where the listing needs a Marketplace Licence and Discovery is a $199/mo add-on with 500 invitations a month.

04Pricing: $49 vs $75

Rewardful's Starter is $49/mo and Referly's Startup is $75/mo. Referly is 53% more expensive at the entry point and there is no version of this page where that isn't true.

What the difference buys is headroom and scope. Referly's $75 covers $10,000/mo in affiliate revenue; Rewardful's $49 covers $7,500/mo. At $8,000/mo you are on Rewardful's $99 Growth plan and still on Referly's $75 Startup plan, so the gap inverts in that band. Above $15,000/mo Rewardful is Enterprise at $149+ and demo-gated; Referly's Business is $149 with a $30,000/mo cap and no sales call.

Both cap. Neither is Partnero, which charges a flat fee and caps nothing.

05Who should choose Rewardful

A subscription business billing entirely through Stripe or Paddle, under $7,500/mo in affiliate revenue, recruiting affiliates from its own customer base, with no US tax-form obligation it cares about. That describes a large number of early-stage SaaS companies and Rewardful is the right tool for them.

06Who should choose Referly

A business that sells more than one way, a SaaS with a merch store, a subscription product with a Shopify checkout, a brand that bills through Stripe and Paddle and Chargebee. Or a business paying enough US affiliates that W-9s have become a real problem. Or one that needs partners it hasn't found yet.

Free migration

Switching from Rewardful to Referly

Connect Rewardful directly and your affiliates, their links and their commission rates come across mapped. Free on every plan, including Startup.

1Scope and plan~30 min: List your campaigns, commission rules and open payouts. Decide what happens to commissions accrued but not yet paid.
2Export and map~30 min: Export affiliates from Rewardful. Referly's direct Rewardful importer maps affiliates, their referral links and their commission rates.
3Configure and import~1 hour: Recreate your commission plans in Referly, run the import, and swap the tracking script and the payment connection.
4Verify and go live3 to 7 days overlap: Run both in parallel, compare attributed sales daily, then switch off Rewardful.

What does not come across

Historic click data and per-click attribution history stay in Rewardful. Referly imports your affiliates, their links and their commission rates; it does not import Rewardful's click log. Commissions already accrued in Rewardful should be paid out from Rewardful before you switch.

The full Rewardful migration guide

Move my program over

FAQ

Questions you may still have

All are honest, unbiased answers, even when not flattering.

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