Best WordPress Affiliate Plugins in 2026: Run a Program or Earn From One

“WordPress affiliate plugin” means two different things. Some plugins let you run your own affiliate program, so other people sell your products for a commission. Others help you earn as an affiliate, by managing the links and product boxes you put in your own content. This guide covers both, split in two parts: eight plugins for running a program and five for earning from one.

How we tested. We installed twelve of the thirteen plugins on a WooCommerce test store, one at a time, measured what each adds to the storefront and, with AffiliatePress, placed test orders through an affiliate’s link. Five of our test copies had licence checks patched or paid features switched on, so for those, plan details come from the developers’ pricing pages, read on 4 October 2026. The full method is near the end.

The short answer

• Run a program on WooCommerce and other platforms: AffiliateWP, if you need Stripe, PayPal and store credit payouts and its integrations on every plan. Its renewals are $299 a year for one site.
• Start free: SliceWP, whose free version covers WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and eight other platforms, or AffiliatePress Lite, which credited our test order once its setup wizard was finished. FluentAffiliate’s free version does not track WooCommerce sales.
• Cheapest on one site: AffiliatePress’s $179 lifetime licence, in what it calls a limited-time offer, then FluentAffiliate at $199 once (an early-bird price; normally $399). Of the yearly plans with a published renewal, Ultimate Affiliate Pro is lowest: $323.30 over three years.
• Earn as an affiliate: Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates for links (both free to start, from the same company), AAWP for Amazon boxes, Content Egg for prices across networks, and MonsterInsights to send affiliate clicks to Google Analytics.

All thirteen at a glance

Part 1: Plugins for running your own affiliate program

The deciding question: what do you sell through?

A program plugin can only credit an affiliate for a sale it can see, so start with your checkout. Two of the eight are built for WooCommerce alone: Solid Affiliate (its FAQ says it “integrates primarily with WooCommerce”) and YITH WooCommerce Affiliates. Ultimate Affiliate Pro lists more platforms but keeps several on its higher plans, and FluentAffiliate keeps WooCommerce for its paid version. If you sell through Easy Digital Downloads, a membership plugin or a form plugin, the field narrows.

Price over three years

Most of these sell a cheap first year and renew at the full price, so the first-year figure is a poor guide. These totals use each developer’s published first-year and renewal prices for the plan with one site.

AffiliatePress’s pricing page says “Renewal Also at Discounted Price” without giving the renewal figure, so its range runs from the $79 first-year price to the $159 normal price. AffiliatePress also sells a $179 lifetime licence for one site in what it calls a limited-time offer, and SliceWP a $429 one during what it calls a sale. FluentAffiliate sells only lifetime licences, though its pricing page also says “Special introductory pricing, all renewals are at full price”.

YITH does not state a site count for Premium, and AffiliatePress’s Enterprise plan (10 sites, $249 the first year, “normally $499”) has the same unstated renewal. These figures assume each developer keeps its published prices.

1. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP lists the most platforms of the eight and is the one to pick if you sell through something other than WooCommerce: its features page lists WooCommerce plus 28 other eCommerce and form plugins. Every plan pays affiliates through Stripe, PayPal or store credit and checks for self-referrals; recurring, lifetime and multi-tier commissions and its Fraud Prevention Suite are on Pro. On our store its Overview screen showed $939.00 in unpaid earnings across our example affiliates.

Two things to know. Its renewals double the first-year price: Personal is $149.50, then $299, on one site. And its code says its own Payouts Service “was shut down on September 30, 2026”, so guides that walk you through that service are out of date; its pricing page still lists Stripe and PayPal payouts on every plan. Its refund window is 14 days. Our full AffiliateWP review covers every screen.

2. Solid Affiliate

Solid Affiliate is for WooCommerce stores that want to be running quickly: its setup wizard creates the affiliate portal page, sets the default commission and creates a template coupon in one pass. Starter includes affiliate groups, PayPal payouts, store credit and coupon tracking; lifetime commissions, subscription renewal commissions and its Fraud Prevention Suite are on Pro. It pays through PayPal or store credit, or exports a CSV, with no Stripe. Starter is $149.60 the first year, then $374, the highest one-site renewal here. Its refund window is 30 days. See our Solid Affiliate review.

3. SliceWP

SliceWP is the free program plugin we would start with on a WooCommerce store. The free version on WordPress.org (10,000+ active installations, rated 4.9 from 111 reviews) tracks ten platforms, records referrals and visits, blocks self-referrals by default and lets you pay affiliates by hand. The paid plans add PayPal, Stripe and store credit payouts, recurring and lifetime commissions and multi-level affiliates, all as add-ons included in both paid plans. Pro is $169 the first year, then $229, on one site; Pro Plus covers ten sites. Its refund window is 30 days. On our store its dashboard showed 69 commissions from 428 visits. See AffiliateWP vs SliceWP.

4. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

YITH’s plugin lives inside WooCommerce: the affiliate dashboard sits in the customer’s My Account area. The free version on WordPress.org (6,000+ active installations, rated 4.2 from 19 reviews) registers affiliates, tracks referrals and visits, and records commissions you pay by bank transfer by hand. Premium, at $179.99 a year, adds PayPal MassPay, automatic payouts, recurring commissions with WooCommerce Subscriptions and “Calculate commissions permanently” for lifetime commissions. Stripe needs YITH’s separate Stripe Connect plugin. Two things we found in testing: its referral cookie defaults to one day, and the free version loads six scripts on every storefront page (see Performance below). Its refund window is 30 days, with none on renewals. See AffiliateWP vs YITH WooCommerce Affiliates.

5. Ultimate Affiliate Pro

Ultimate Affiliate Pro has the lowest published renewal of the yearly plans: Pro is $79.30 the first year, then $122, or $323.30 over three years on one site. It works through extensions: 43 standard add-ons come with Pro, and Full Package adds 48 Pro add-ons. Recurring, lifetime and multi-level commissions are on Pro, but tracking WooCommerce Subscriptions renewals and its IP-based Fraud Protection need Full Package ($149.40, then $249, three sites). Its referral cookie defaults to 360 days, the longest of the plugins we installed. Its refund window is 14 days. See AffiliateWP vs Ultimate Affiliate Pro and our Ultimate Affiliate Pro review.

6. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate comes from the team behind MemberPress and fits membership sites best: recurring commissions are on every plan, and its plan table lists MemberPress, WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and five other platforms. It pays through PayPal (one click or a mass-payment file) or offline, with no Stripe listed. Commission levels are on Plus; its Fraud Prevention Suite is on Plus and Pro. Basic is $99.60 the first year, then $249, on one site. Its refund window is 14 days. We have not tested it; see AffiliateWP vs Easy Affiliate for the vendor facts.

7. AffiliatePress

AffiliatePress is a newer plugin with a free Lite version, which one roundup calls the best free affiliate program plugin. Two facts it leaves out. First, its WordPress.org listing was closed on 1 February 2025 for a “Guideline Violation”; Lite now downloads from the developer’s own site. Second, until you finish its setup wizard, it does not credit WooCommerce sales: its WooCommerce integration is off by default.

Our test, step by step. We signed up a new affiliate, Nina Patel, through the signup page AffiliatePress created; she was approved automatically. We followed her link to the store and placed a $39 order with Cash on Delivery: no commission. Her link carries an encoded ID (?afref=a19 for affiliate 1), and the order was placed before we had finished the wizard. After we finished it (five steps, with WooCommerce chosen in step two), a second order through her link recorded a $3.90 commission, 10% of $39, the default rate. The commission stayed Pending even after we marked the order completed, because AffiliatePress’s default is to leave new commissions for you to approve. Her affiliate panel showed 2 visits and 0 commissions while that commission was pending. Finishing the wizard also changed the refund grace period from the 10 days set in its code to 0.

Lite includes unlimited affiliates, manual payouts, a 30-day cookie, CAPTCHA on its forms and three creatives. Recurring, lifetime and multi-level commissions, PayPal and Stripe payouts, coupon tracking and its fraud protection are Premium. Premium starts at $79 the first year on one site (“normally $159”), with a 14-day refund. On the storefront it added nothing to the home or shop pages: it tracks on the server with a cookie.

8. FluentAffiliate

FluentAffiliate, from the team behind Fluent Forms and FluentCRM, sells only lifetime licences: $199 once for one site, $399 for five, $699 for fifteen and $949 for fifty, under an “Early Birds” banner that shows each price struck through from double. Its pricing page says “Every plan gives you full access to everything”, and its refund window is 14 days. The free version on WordPress.org (2,000+ active installations, rated 4.6 from 7 reviews) is a different matter for WooCommerce stores: its own Integration Settings screen marks WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and six other platforms “Pro”, and the free plugin’s code ships integrations only for FluentCart, Fluent Forms, FluentBooking (which needs FluentBooking Pro) and Paymattic. Its settings also mark renewal commissions and lifetime commissions “Pro Required”. So the free version suits a site that sells through Fluent’s own plugins; on a WooCommerce store, budget for the $199. Its defaults are sensible: a 20% rate, a 30-day cookie and self-referrals blocked.

Commissions by plan

Payouts

Fraud and self-referrals

Performance

We activated each plugin alone, loaded the home and shop pages in a browser first, then counted the files each one added to those pages against the same store with no affiliate plugin. Neither page has any affiliate content.

AffiliatePress Lite, Pretty Links and Content Egg added nothing to the storefront, and AAWP only a few bytes in the page head. MonsterInsights added no files because no Google Analytics account was connected; its 404 bytes are HTML comments saying it is not configured. YITH added the most files: besides its own script and stylesheet, it loads WooCommerce’s selectWoo and country-select scripts with the Select2 stylesheet, jQuery UI’s core and datepicker, and (free version only) WordPress’s polyfill script. FluentAffiliate and ThirstyAffiliates each add one script at the end of the page, which is why their page-head figure is 0. AffiliateWP’s figures are from its JavaScript tracking mode, which it switches to after a visitor’s browser runs its check. Sizes are not like for like: AffiliateWP’s add-ons and the paid versions of the free plugins would add to them.

Part 2: Plugins for earning as an affiliate

9. Pretty Links

Pretty Links turns long affiliate links into short ones on your own domain, counts the clicks and lets you change the destination in one place. The free version on WordPress.org has 200,000+ active installations and is rated 4.8 from 1,320 reviews. We created one link, /grinder, and followed it three times: all three were counted, and each sent us on with a 302 redirect, its default. It stores the referring page with every click. New links are nofollow by default but not marked sponsored, which Google recommends for affiliate links, so switch that on in its options. Its pricing page contradicts itself on the paid plans: the plan cards put automatic keyword links and link disclosures on Marketer, while the comparison table on the same page marks them, and geographic redirects, as included with Beginner. Product displays are on Super Affiliate only. Beginner is $99.60 the first year, then $249, on one site; refunds within 14 days. Our Pretty Links Pro review covers the paid plans.

10. ThirstyAffiliates

ThirstyAffiliates does the same job and comes from the same company: both pricing pages carry “© 2026 Caseproof, LLC”. The free version has 30,000+ active installations and is rated 4.6 from 251 reviews. Its links live under /recommends/ by default and redirect with a 302; our test link’s two clicks showed in its Link Overview report. Every paid plan includes automatic keyword linking, Amazon product importing and geographic redirects; product displays are on Advanced. Basic is $99.60 the first year, then $249, on one site; Plus covers five sites and Advanced ten; refunds within 14 days. Pretty Links has the larger user base; ThirstyAffiliates lists Amazon product importing on every paid plan.

11. AAWP

AAWP is built for Amazon Associates. Its developer says it shows Amazon products as boxes, bestseller lists and comparison tables, with prices kept up to date. It needs access to Amazon’s product data: either your own Amazon API keys or AAWP’s own API, an optional paid service for sites without official API access. Prices are €79 a year for one site, €129 for three, €199 for five and €299 for ten, before tax, with lifetime licences from €299; the money-back guarantee is 30 days, and new customers get a free one-year licence of ClickWhale (Pro), the developer’s own link manager. We installed version 5.0.7: its settings open on the Amazon API tab, showing “Disconnected” until you enter credentials, and its AAWP API tab says “Use of the AAWP API is charged”. Without either, it shows no products, so we could not test the boxes themselves. See our AAWP review.

12. Content Egg

Content Egg works across networks: its developer lists 30+ affiliate networks and says its Amazon support works “API or not”. It can show the same product’s offers side by side as a price comparison. A free version is also on WordPress.org (10,000+ active installations, rated 3.9 from 56 reviews). Content Egg Pro is $59 a year for one site, $99 for five and $179 for twenty-five, or $149, $249 and $449 once. If a subscription lapses, its pricing page says, the plugin keeps working without updates or support. We installed the free version 11.9.0: its module screen listed three product modules (GdeSlon, Offer and Sovrn) and said “Free version supports up to 3 Feed modules. Upgrade to Pro for 50 modules and more features.” See our Content Egg review.

13. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is not an affiliate plugin but a Google Analytics plugin. The link managers already store the page each click came from; MonsterInsights sends affiliate clicks to Google Analytics, next to the rest of your traffic. The free version on WordPress.org (2,000,000+ active installations, rated 4.5 from 3,152 reviews) records clicks on affiliate links as events, switched on by default for links under /go/ and /recommend/; its Publishers Report, which lists top affiliate links inside WordPress, is on the paid plans. When we activated it with ThirstyAffiliates already active, it added ThirstyAffiliates’ /recommends/ path on its own. Pretty Links’ links sit at the root of the site (our test link was /grinder), so for those you add a path or a prefix by hand. It needs a Google Analytics account connected before it records anything, so on our store it recorded nothing. Paid plans are $99.50 the first year, then $199, for one site (Plus); $199.50, then $399, for five (Pro); and $399.50, then $799, for 25 (Agency). Refunds within 14 days.

Which one, for which store

What other lists get wrong

• AffiliateWP’s plans. One roundup says Plus covers three sites and Pro unlimited sites. AffiliateWP’s pricing page says two and five. Another gives Plus as $199.60 and Pro as $262.15; the page says $199.50 and $299.50.
• Solid Affiliate’s price. One roundup says it starts at $99 a year with a lifetime licence. Its pricing page sells Starter at $149.60 the first year, then $374, and lists no lifetime plan.
• AAWP’s price. Two lists give €49 a year; AAWP’s page says €79. Another says renewals are about half the first-year price; AAWP’s page says licences renew automatically and gives no renewal discount.
• AffiliatePress “free”. The roundup calling it the best free affiliate program plugin says it has “a genuinely useful free tier on WordPress.org”. WordPress.org closed that listing on 1 February 2025; Lite now comes from the developer’s site.
• Easy Affiliate’s commission tiers. One roundup says its affiliates can’t “be paid on tiers”. Easy Affiliate’s pricing page covers both meanings of tiers: “Add Multiple Commission Levels” on Plus and Pro, where “Affiliates can refer other Affiliates and both can receive commission on the same sale”, and “Create Custom Commission Rules” on Pro, which it says can “bump someone’s commission once they’ve gotten to 10 sales”. The same roundup’s other point stands: Easy Affiliate’s guides describe the store owner creating a WooCommerce coupon and assigning it to an affiliate, and we found nothing that lets affiliates make their own codes.
• FluentAffiliate and WooCommerce. One list says it integrates with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads without saying both need Pro.
• Smaller slips. Pretty Links has 200,000+ active installations on WordPress.org, not 300,000+; ThirstyAffiliates’ paid plans start at $99.60, not $79.50; Easy Affiliate’s start at $99.60, not $99.50.

How we tested, in full

We installed twelve of the thirteen plugins on a WordPress test store running WooCommerce and the Twenty Twenty-Five theme, one at a time, and measured each one’s size, database tables and what it adds to the storefront on the same day. For AffiliatePress, whose free version works with WooCommerce, we ran a real test: we signed up an affiliate through its own form, visited the store through that affiliate’s link and placed orders with Cash on Delivery. For FluentAffiliate we ran its setup wizard and read its settings and integration screens. For the two link managers, we created a link and followed it to check the click was counted. We installed MonsterInsights next to ThirstyAffiliates to see which affiliate links it tracks, and we installed AAWP and the free Content Egg and walked their settings. AAWP shows no products without Amazon or AAWP API access, and Content Egg’s network modules need an account with each network (its Offer module, for products you add by hand, does not), so we show their settings, not product boxes. The five other program plugins we installed were tested in depth for our separate reviews and comparisons, with example affiliates, referrals and payout screens; their screens here come from those tests. Easy Affiliate was not installed: we had no Easy Affiliate copy to test. No money was sent. Our Solid Affiliate copy had lines added to its main file that switch on every Pro feature, our Ultimate Affiliate Pro copy had lines added to its main file that write licence settings, and our YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Premium copy had its licence check patched, so for those three, which plan includes each feature comes from the developer’s pricing page, not from what the screens showed. Our AffiliateWP copy had every paid feature switched on and we could not compare it with the developer’s own release. Our AAWP copy had its licence checks patched to report a valid licence. The free versions of FluentAffiliate, Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates, SliceWP, YITH WooCommerce Affiliates, Content Egg and MonsterInsights matched WordPress.org file for file, and AffiliatePress Lite was downloaded from its developer’s site. Prices were read from each developer’s site on 4 October 2026; the sources are linked below.

On PureGPL

We sell GPL copies of several of these: AffiliateWP 2.37.0, Solid Affiliate 3.1.0, YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Premium 3.27.0, AAWP and Content Egg at $3.49 each, and Ultimate Affiliate Pro 9.5.9.2 and Pretty Links Pro 4.0.15 at $4.99. We also run an affiliate program of our own.

What a GPL copy does and does not include

Plugins licensed under the GPL can be redistributed, which is why we can sell copies; check each developer’s own licence for the terms. Ultimate Affiliate Pro is split-licensed: its licence file puts the PHP code under the GPL and its CSS, images and design under its marketplace licence. A GPL copy comes without a licence from the developer, so it comes without the developer’s support, and anything that runs through the developer’s own account or service, such as AAWP’s paid API, is not part of it. Updates come from us. If you want the developer’s support, buy from the developer. We explain the licence in Is GPL legal?

Sources

Prices, plans and installation counts were read from these pages on 4 October 2026. The screens, settings, test orders and measurements are from our own test store.

• AffiliateWP pricing and features
• Solid Affiliate pricing
• SliceWP pricing
• YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
• Ultimate Affiliate Pro pricing
• Easy Affiliate pricing and WooCommerce coupons guide
• AffiliatePress pricing and Lite vs Pro
• FluentAffiliate pricing and Free vs Pro
• Pretty Links pricing
• ThirstyAffiliates pricing
• AAWP pricing
• Content Egg pricing
• MonsterInsights pricing
• WordPress.org plugin directory listings for SliceWP, YITH WooCommerce Affiliates, FluentAffiliate, Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates, Content Egg, MonsterInsights and AffiliatePress

Frequently asked questions

Which is the best WordPress affiliate plugin?

For running a program on WooCommerce and other platforms, AffiliateWP. For a WooCommerce store starting free, SliceWP. For earning as an affiliate, Pretty Links for links, AAWP for Amazon boxes and MonsterInsights to send affiliate clicks to Google Analytics.

What is the best free WordPress affiliate plugin?

For running a program on WooCommerce, SliceWP: its free version covers WooCommerce and nine other platforms. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates’ free version also works, with a one-day default cookie. For links, Pretty Links.

Do I need WooCommerce to run an affiliate program?

No. AffiliateWP, SliceWP, Easy Affiliate, AffiliatePress and Ultimate Affiliate Pro also work with Easy Digital Downloads and other plugins, and FluentAffiliate with Fluent’s own plugins (Easy Digital Downloads and others need its paid version). Solid Affiliate and YITH WooCommerce Affiliates need WooCommerce.

How do I cloak affiliate links in WordPress?

Install a link manager such as Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates (both free on WordPress.org), add the merchant’s link and choose a short path on your own domain. Visitors follow your link and are redirected to the merchant; both plugins use a 302 redirect by default and count each click. Then check the link attributes: Pretty Links adds nofollow by default but not sponsored, and ThirstyAffiliates adds neither unless you switch them on in its settings.

How do I track affiliate sales on WordPress?

If you run the program, a program plugin records the sale: in our test, AffiliatePress credited a 3.90 dollar commission for an order placed through an affiliate’s link. If you are the affiliate, the merchant’s network reports your sales; on your own site you can track clicks with a link manager or MonsterInsights, not the sales themselves.

Do I need an affiliate plugin for WordPress?

To run your own program, yes: something has to record referrals and pay affiliates. To earn as an affiliate, no, but a link manager saves time when a merchant changes its links, and it tells you which links get clicked.

What is the best affiliate plugin for Amazon?

AAWP, which is built for Amazon Associates; its developer says it keeps prices current through Amazon’s API or its own paid API. Content Egg’s developer says it also covers Amazon, alongside 30+ other networks.

Which affiliate plugins have a lifetime licence?

FluentAffiliate (only lifetime licences, from $199), AffiliatePress (from $179, in what it calls a limited-time offer), SliceWP (from $429 during what it calls a sale), AAWP (from €299) and Content Egg (from $149). Ultimate Affiliate Pro’s own comparison page also lists a $69 one-time price, though its pricing page sells yearly plans.

What is a good AffiliateWP alternative?

SliceWP if you want to start free, Ultimate Affiliate Pro for the lowest published yearly renewal, FluentAffiliate to pay once, Solid Affiliate for a WooCommerce-only store, and Easy Affiliate for a MemberPress site.

Can I use these plugins on more than one site?

With a developer licence, on as many sites as your plan covers. The GPL itself places no limit on the number of sites.

Related: AffiliateWP vs Solid Affiliate, Solid Affiliate vs SliceWP, AffiliateWP review and Solid Affiliate review.