20 SaaS Affiliate Programs To Consider

If you want to earn more as a publisher and affiliate, joining a SaaS affiliate program is the next thing to do. Once you have created winning content that helped you get sustainable traffic to your website, it’s time to level up your game and monetize your website through a SaaS affiliate program.

However, with so many SaaS affiliate programs out there, making sense of the best SaaS product to promote can be tricky. Instead of going with the most popular one you can find, you should consider your audience’s interests and needs. After all, what works for some publishers or advertisers may not work for you.

In fact, promoting the wrong brand or product can easily ruin your reputation and lose your audience, so it’s crucial that you learn all the important details about the program and product before promoting them.

Before we suggest some great SaaS affiliate programs in the business, let’s explain what SaaS affiliate marketing is and how it works so you can make a well-informed decision.

What Is SaaS Affiliate Marketing?

SaaS affiliate marketing is an online marketing technique where publishers such as website or blog owners get rewarded for promoting the SaaS (Software as a Service) product of other companies. Basically, they get a commission every time someone from their audience makes a purchase using their original affiliate link.

So overall, there are three parties involved, the merchant or SaaS product creator, the affiliate who spreads the word about the product, and the customer who buys the product. With SaaS products becoming more popular than ever, being a SaaS affiliate will make you part of the growing industry. You just need to find the right SaaS affiliate program to join!

Does Affiliate Marketing Work for SaaS Businesses?

The SaaS market is booming, and brands are fighting for customers’ attention on a daily basis. So the question is, how to get more people to hear about your SaaS product? As one of the best ways to promote a service or product, including a SaaS product, affiliate marketing can help SaaS brands spread the word about their product and grow their businesses.

When used properly, affiliate marketing allows you to personalize your promotions, target the right audience, and build customer loyalty in a cost-efficient manner. You can even provide your affiliates with the necessary promotional materials or even free trials for users to test your SaaS product and see how it works. All this makes affiliate marketing a low-risk marketing strategy for SaaS businesses.

Why Should You Become a SaaS Affiliate?

Today, promoting a SaaS product can be more profitable than promoting a physical product for reasons such as:

• Higher commissions – most SaaS products offer higher commissions than physical products despite costing less, and they have excellent profit margins.
• A variety of products to choose from – there’s something for everyone, and you don’t have to worry if the product you promote will ever go out of stock.
• Recurring commissions – some SaaS affiliate programs pay you every month as long as your referral stays active.
• Plenty of comparison keywords available – you can use them as they are or combine them to create endless options to promote the SaaS product.

You may not have to buy the SaaS product to promote it – most SaaS brands allow you to join their affiliate program without buying the product itself, although using it yourself will probably drive you better results.

Full Providers Review

We’ve found some of the top SaaS affiliate programs out there that can help you monetize your traffic and boost your profits. We also share some of the most important details about each program so you can decide which one is best for you.

1. Pawns.app

Pawns.app is a free app that lets you share your bandwidth and take online surveys for money. It’s a great app for anyone who wants to make some side income in their spare time. Besides taking paid surveys during commuting or commercial breaks, you can also earn money by letting the app run in the background while you do anything on or off the phone, including sleeping.

You can see why promoting Pawns.app is easy, as any audience would want to make some extra money that easily. The affiliate program pays fantastic recurring commissions of up to 20%, meaning anyone who clicks on your link and installs the app on their phone or desktop will bring you 20% of their earnings for life.

As long as the app is running on their device and they are withdrawing their earnings, you will get your bonus. Plus, it’s available everywhere in the world, so you don’t have to worry about any location-based limitations.

• Commission rate – up to 20% recurring commission on every invited user payout.
• Getting paid – the referral should be active for at least 30 days so you can be able to receive the commission.
• Payment method – PayPal, BTC currency, and virtual gift cards.
• Cookie duration – 90 days.
  

2. Ipsos iSay

Ipsos iSay is a survey platform that allows people to make some passive income by taking online surveys. The platform is totally legit, so you can recommend it to your audience without worrying about losing their trust. Once you take each survey, you’ll be rewarded with points that can be exchanged for gift cards, virtual prepaid cards, or donations.

The affiliate program is free to join and pays a one-time commission for each referral that registers on the platform. You can get up to $2.74 per registration and email address confirmation, which is not bad. Although there’s no recurring commission, it’s still worth considering it if you have an audience who cares about a legit online survey platform that pays you for sharing your opinions about different topics and products.

• Commission rate – up to $2.74 per registration and email address confirmation.
• Getting paid – five days after your referral completes their first survey.
• Payment method – PayPal, gift cards (Target, Amazon, Starbucks, etc.)
• Cookie duration – N/A
  

3. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a great place to do regular online activities and earn some side money at the same time. The site enables members to get paid for taking online surveys, playing games, searching the web, watching videos, shopping online, etc. After completing each activity, you get rewarded with SB points which can be exchanged for cash or gift cards. This makes it quite attractive for almost any type of audience, as who doesn’t want to earn a few extra dollars by doing online tasks they do anyway?

Joining the affiliate program is free and doesn’t have any requirements. As long as someone uses your affiliate link to register on Swagbucks, you get a $2.20 flat commission. The easy-to-use dashboard makes this program ideal for beginners, allowing you to track performance, clicks, and payouts at any time. The lack of recurring commissions may be a flop, but if you manage to refer a good number of new users every month, it can become a decent passive income source for you.

• Commission rate – flat rate of $2.20 per new user.
• Getting paid – N/A
• Payment method – bank transfer or PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.
  

4. Awin

Awin is the place to find an advertiser from any sector and join the perfect SaaS affiliate program for you. You can choose from over 21,200 advertisers and partner with some of the world’s biggest brands. The platform doesn’t require owning a website to accept you as a publisher, making it ideal for beginners. You can own a social media or YouTube channel and be eligible to connect to a brand close to your niche.

Joining Awin, however, is not free. You have to pay $5, but the good thing is that you can get the money reimbursed after earning $20, which is the first payment threshold. The commission rate depends on the advertiser or the seller, and the cookie duration is 30 days.

• Commission rate – depends on the advertiser.
• Getting paid – on the 1st or 15th of the month, for last month’s commissions.
• Payment method – ACH, BACS, or international wire transfer.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.
  

5. Commission Junction (CJ)

Similar to Awin, CJ or Commission Junction connects thousands of advertisers with publishers online and manages their relationships. For that reason, it’s a good choice for beginners that don’t want or know how to communicate with their advertisers. You can easily find the right SaaS affiliate program for your audience, as there’s something for everyone.

Registering on CJ and applying with the desired advertiser requires owning a site, blog, or social media channel. Once you get approval, which can take a few minutes or days depending on the advertiser, you can start marketing the chosen SaaS product and earn from each sale or subscription.

• Commission rate – depends on the advertiser’s commission rates.
• Getting paid – within 20 days of the end month after reaching the minimum payment threshold of $50 if you’re in America or $100 if you’re somewhere else.
• Payment method – Payoneer, check, or direct deposit.
• Cookie duration – depends on the advertiser which can be anywhere between 1 and 120 days, but the average cookie duration is 45 days.
  

6. Survey Junkey

Here’s another survey platform that lets you earn some side money by taking online surveys in your spare time. It may not offer as many surveys as other similar platforms on the market, but it’s still an option to consider if you have an audience located in the US, Canada, or Australia interested in making passive income. After taking each survey, Survey Junkey gives you points that can be redeemed for cash or gift cards.

The affiliate program is free to join and pays a flat commission of $1.15 per lead you generate. Although it’s not the highest commission, it can quickly add up if you have an active audience interested in making money online.

• Commission rate – a flat $1.15 per referral.
• Getting paid – once a month, after reaching the minimum payment threshold of $10.
• Payment method – PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.

7. ConvertKit

If you have an audience full of bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, or course creators, promoting ConvertKit can be a smart thing to do. This email service provider will help them increase their email lists and monetize their audience with ease. There’s even a 14-day free trial you can promote and convince more people to sign up on the platform.

The affiliate program has a great recurring commission, allowing you to earn up to 30% per referral every month for an entire year. Of course, your referral has to stay active the whole time so you can get your monthly commission. And if your referral’s account grows in time, your commission will also grow, which is great.

• Commission rate – a 30% recurring commission, every month for an entire year.
• Getting paid – at the beginning of every month, with the possibility of a 60-day delay.
• Payment method – PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 60 days.

8. ClickBank

With over six million clients worldwide, ClickBank is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms for online creators and affiliate marketplace. If you become a ClickBank affiliate, you can promote any of the 4,000 available products, most of which are SaaS products, and earn a commission from each sale.

Joining the ClickBank affiliate program is free, and there are no limitations as to how many products you can promote on your blog, site, or social media channel. Although the commission rate depends on the vendor, it’s usually high. This is why we recommend analyzing their sales pages before marketing any product. On the downside, the cookie duration is very short – only 24 hours.

• Commission rate – depends on the vendor, but 75% commission is common.
• Getting paid – weekly and bi-weekly payments are available, two days after the end of the pay period (60 days). The minimum payment threshold is $50.
• Payment methods – Payoneer, wire transfer, check, and direct deposit.
  Cookie duration – 24 hours.

9. Semrush

The popular SaaS platform called Semrush is used by companies, agencies, course creators, publishers, and paid search specialists to improve their online visibility and discover marketing insights. If this sounds like your audience, you can consider joining its affiliate program and earn a commission for every trial activation or sale made through your affiliate link.

The commissions are one of the best out there. For everyone that signs up on Semrush using your link, you get $0.01. For every new lead made through your link, you get $10, and for every new subscription sale, you get a whopping $200. So although the commissions are not recurring, they are more than enough to earn a decent passive income only by promoting Semrush to your audience

• Commission rate – depends on the referral type.
• Getting paid – the affiliate program is launched on Impact Radius, which lets you schedule a specific day of the month for getting paid after reaching the set payment threshold.
• Payment methods – electronic funds transfer or PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.

10. ClickFunnels

This online tool is used by entrepreneurs worldwide, helping them build high-converting websites and sales funnels. By allowing them to keep track of their funnel’s performance, ClickFunnels helps them to market and sell their services and products. This is why joining their affiliate program is great if you have an audience full of entrepreneurs.

The ClickFunnels affiliate program is free to join, allowing you to be part of one of their three tiers. If you’re a beginner, you’ll be part of Tier 1, which pays you a commission for each sale made through your link. The commissions range from $1 for each sale to 40% on upsells. If you’re an affiliate that sells a minimum of $1,000 per month, you’ll be part of Tier 2 and earn between 30% and 40% commission.

Last but not least, if you’re an approved affiliate that has managed to sell 40 ClickFunnels accounts in one month, you’ll be part of Tier 3 and earn a 40% commission.

• Commission rate – depends on the product sold and the tier (up to 100% on specific products).
• Getting paid – twice a month, on the 1st and 15th, through Tipalti.
• Payment methods – direct deposit, PayPal, international ACH, ACH, and check after signing up on Tipalti.
• Cookie duration – 45 days.

11. Thinkific

With over 50,000 users that have earned over 500,000 million in sales, Thinkific is one of the most successful online learning platforms out there. Content creators use it to create online courses and communities from their knowledge and sell them to their audience under their own brand.

As an affiliate, you can earn a high recurring commission whenever someone uses your link to sign up on Thinkific. To be more specific, you’ll get a 30% recurring commission regardless of which plan they choose. The only condition is that your referral has to stay active so you can get your part of the share. If they stay active for an entire year, you can earn up to $1,700 annually only for one referral.

• Commission rate – 30% recurring commissions, regardless of the plan selected.
• Getting paid – monthly, after the 13th of every month, once the platform verifies the referral.
• Payment methods – Stripe or PayPal, with a $25 minimum payout threshold.
• Cookie duration – 90 days.

12. Flywheel

Flywheel allows you to build, scale, and manage numerous WordPress websites without worrying about their security. With the Google Cloud Platform behind the hosting platform, you can rest assured your sites will be fast, secure, and easy to manage. Promoting it to an audience full of web developers, designers, and agencies can be a great way to earn some side income.

Flywheel allows you to market their SaaS product anywhere you want online. They pay a high one-time commission worth 300% of your referral’s first payment, regardless of the plan they choose. The best part is that if your referral chooses more than one plan, the affiliate program will pay you a separate commission on each of them, up to $500 per referral. The lack of a minimum payment threshold and minimum performance metrics is another advantage worth mentioning.

• Commission rate – a one-time 300% commission of the referral’s first payment.
• Getting paid – the first week of every month, with a 90-day holding period and no minimum payout threshold.
• Payment methods – PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 90 days.

13. Elementor

This popular WordPress page builder allows you to customize your website based on your brand’s image and vision using a set of great tools and features. If you have an audience full of digital entrepreneurs, web educators, YouTubers, influencers, bloggers, or anyone else with an online audience, you could easily promote it and earn from it.

The Elementor affiliate program pays a one-time 50% commission on any sale made through your original link. In other words, whenever someone from your audience uses your link to make a purchase on Elementor, you get a 50% share. Although the minimum payment threshold is $200, it probably won’t take long to reach it if your audience is interested.

• Commission rate – a flat 50% commission on any sale made through your link.
• Getting paid – within a month, after reaching the $200 minimum payment threshold.
• Payment methods – direct bank transfer through Stripe or Partnerstack.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.

14. Easy1Up

Easy1Up sells online courses that teach you how to be successful in affiliate marketing. But the main purpose of the network marketing platform is to help you make money from selling the course you’ve bought to your own audience. This makes it a great SaaS product to promote if your audience is interested in making money online as an affiliate.

In other words, joining the Easy1Up affiliate program is not free. You have to buy the course and the license you need to be able to promote it on your blog, site, or channel. Once you buy it, which can cost thousands of dollars, you can promote it and receive a handsome 100% sale commission. The best part is that the affiliate program pays you daily, so you don’t have to wait weeks or months to get your share.

• Commission rate – 100% commission of the sale, once you buy the SaaS product yourself.
• Getting paid – instantly.
• Payment method – N/A.
• Cookie duration – N/A.

15. TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is a great browser extension that helps YouTubers grow their channels. It has some very useful features, such as in-depth analytics, YouTube SEO tools, and productivity tools to help you research topic ideas and optimize your content accordingly. It’s super easy to use so it’s a good choice for both beginners and experts in the YouTube world.

This is why joining the TubeBuddy affiliate program is great if your audience consists of YouTubers. If someone uses your affiliate link to make a purchase, you get a 30% recurring commission. So as long as your referral stays active, the affiliate program will pay you every month. Another great thing is the uncommonly long cookie duration of 365 days.

• Commission rate – a 30% recurring commission per sale.
• Getting paid – monthly, between the 1st and 15th of every month, once you reach the $10 payment threshold.
• Payment methods – PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 365 days.

16. Coursera

Partnering with more than 200 leading universities and companies such as Yale, Princeton, and Google, Coursera offers thousands of online courses on data science, businesses, psychology, etc. There are individual courses as well as bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.

The affiliate program of Coursera is quite generous, offering a one-time 10% to 45% commission on every sale. If you have strong performance, the program will give you bonuses.

On the downside, you won’t get paid every month if your referral enrolls in a monthly subscription product. As an affiliate, you can earn a commission from purchases made by someone who’s already a Coursera user.

• Commission rate – a one-time 10% to 45% commission per sale, plus bonuses for strong performance.
• Getting paid – N/A.
• Payment methods – PayPal or direct deposit, even on international bank accounts, once you reach the $50 payout threshold.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.

17. Shopify

As one of the most commonly used eCommerce platforms for online stores, Shopify gives people a chance to start their own businesses and sell to customers worldwide. This makes its affiliate program ideal for content creators, entrepreneurs, educators, and influences who inspire or teach their audience about entrepreneurship with Shopify.

As an affiliate, you can earn a fantastic 100% commission on the first two payments of any subscription plan bought by your referral. In other words, if someone uses your link to subscribe to any Shopify plan, you’ll get the entire sum of the purchase.

Plus, you can get another 100% of the payment if your referral stays for a second month. There’s no limit to the number of merchants you can refer on the platform.

• Commission rate – 100% commission on the first two payments of a subscription.
• Getting paid – after reaching the $10 minimum payment threshold, you can either be paid bi-weekly or when you earn a specific amount.
• Payment methods – direct deposit or PayPal.
• Cookie duration – 30 days.

18. TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor helps people plan their trips and read reviews and comments from members of the platform on what to do and where to stay. This allows them to learn everything about a certain accommodation so they can better decide if they want to book their stay there. Promoting TripAdvisor to an audience interested in traveling is a great idea to make some side cash.

As an affiliate, you can earn at least 50% of the commission TripAdvisor receives from its hotel booking partners. As long as someone uses your link to visit the site and then clicks out to hotel property, you’re eligible for a commission. In other words, your affiliate revenue doesn’t depend on purchases but on clicks. You can get anywhere between $0.15 and $0.75 per click out.

Although this may not seem much, it can quickly add up if you promote it to the right audience. Just keep in mind that you can only bring traffic to TripAdvisor from content projects and YouTube.

• Commission rate – 50% of the site revenue, or $0.15 to $0.75 commission per click-out.
• Getting paid – N/A.
• Payment methods – via paycheck or a direct deposit in your designated currency.
• Cookie duration – 14 days.

19. MaxBounty

MaxBounty has been around for over 17 years, bringing together marketers and advertisers from across the world. The CPA affiliate network focuses on click-per-action or CPA offers and has thousands of active campaigns from popular advertisers like GoDaddy, NortonLifeLock, and Microsoft.

As an affiliate, you can earn a commission whenever someone completes a form or installs a piece of software using your original affiliate link. And if you’re one of the top affiliates, you’ll get performance bonuses. The commission rate and cookie duration depend on the offer, but there are plenty of offers to choose from, so you can easily find the ones that match your niche.

• Commission rate – depends on the offer.
• Getting paid – once you earn at least $100, you’ll be paid on the 15th of the following month. Top affiliates can be paid weekly.
• Payment methods – check, eCheck, direct deposit, wire transfer, and Payoneer.
• Cookie duration – depends on the program selected.

20. LiquidWeb

LiquidWeb is a popular web hosting platform for large businesses, helping them to maintain their online presence. Some of the most important features it offers include cloud hosting, fully managed dedicated servers, managed WordPress hosting, VPS hosting, as well as custom and enterprise solutions.

This makes it a great SaaS product to promote to an audience consisting of developers, designers, and others in that market. Joining its affiliate program is free, and you get a chance to earn an impressive 150% commission per sale. Even if your referral buys a $29 per month package, you’ll still get your $150. On top of that, prepaid plans can help you earn an additional 50% commission, so it’s definitely worth considering it.

• Commission rate – a 150% commission per sale, regardless of the plan selected.
• Getting paid – monthly.
• Payment methods – EFT or ACH.
• Cookie duration – 90 days.

Is an Affiliate Program Right for Your SaaS?

Affiliate marketing is a partnership program that can create extremely successful distribution channels for your SaaS product. Investing in an affiliate program is an excellent idea for any SaaS company. The program allows people who already use your SaaS product to promote it to others in exchange for a commission.

Affiliate programs are a great marketing strategy for new products as well. It can help you spread out the word about your new SaaS product with the help of your affiliates. This way, you reach your affiliates’ audiences and pay only for leads or sales generated through their links.

Why Are SaaS Affiliate Programs Beneficial?

SaaS affiliate programs are beneficial for both the SaaS product creators and the affiliates. As a product owner, you get a great way to promote your product to your affiliates’ audiences, paying them only when they manage to generate a sale. It’s an excellent way to grow your business.

As an affiliate, you get a chance to earn high, recurring commissions without even buying the SaaS product yourself. As long as you have an audience interested in a certain niche, you can find the ideal SaaS product for them and earn by promoting it on your site, blog, or channel.

Find and Select Affiliates Carefully

Affiliate marketing can be a powerful tool for growing your business, but it’s important to select your affiliates carefully to ensure that they will represent your brand in a positive way. This is why it’s crucial that you have a plan and know your customers. Only in that way can you choose the right affiliates for your SaaS product. Consider their content, audience, and overall brand alignment and pick only the ones that will be a good fit for your business.

The most important thing is to ensure there’s an overlapping audience. This means selecting affiliates whose audiences overlap with your target market.

Conclusion

Joining the right SaaS affiliate program can be the best thing you can do for your passive income. Why not take advantage of your audience to promote a SaaS product they may be interested in and earn a commission every time someone buys it using your link?

We hope our list of the 20 best SaaS affiliate programs will help you choose the right SaaS product to promote according to your audience’s needs and interests. And remember, when done properly, affiliate marketing can even become your first source of income!

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