Simple Affiliate, if you want the program on your own store with no percentage of referred sales. It starts free, and paid plans are a flat $19 to $59 a month. Stay on UpPromote if you need its marketplace to recruit new publishers, which is why staying is on this list too. GoAffPro has a free Hobby plan and MLM. ReferralCandy runs refer-a-friend and affiliate programs in one app, with a success fee on net-new customers. Shopify Collabs is the included creator marketplace.
Connect Claude or ChatGPT on every Simple Affiliate plan, including the free Starter plan. Ask it to review results, explain missing referral credit, create groups, set product commissions, build group automations, or update signup, email, and dashboard settings. You approve every change, and plan limits apply. Your AI cannot send payouts.
Other apps also offer AI connections. UpPromote lists Sidekick on Free and API/MCP on Professional. GoAffPro has a third-party MCP connection from viaSocket. Compare the tasks, plan terms, and provider requirements before you choose.
The facts come from our Simple Affiliate vs pages and from each vendor’s pricing page and App Store listing. Check the current rates there before you buy. We do not invent review counts for Simple Affiliate.
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Simple Affiliate
In-house program, flat monthly, Autopay + 1099s
The program runs on your store and affiliates sign in with your Shopify customer accounts, so nobody lands on a vendor portal. Billing is flat, with no percentage of referred sales anywhere. Autopay moves commissions through Stripe, and eligible U.S. affiliates can receive 1099-K / 1099-NEC when IRS thresholds apply.
Pricing. Starter $0, Basic $19, Pro $39, Premium $59. Modeled at $10,000 GMV with 10% commission and Pro Autopay bank: $78 vs UpPromote Growth $229.99.
GoAffPro’s pitch is simple: a free Hobby plan with unlimited affiliates and no sales fee, and multi-level commissions if your program pays across tiers. Affiliates use a GoAffPro portal (on your own domain from Premium) rather than your store’s customer accounts, which is the main structural difference from an in-house app.
Pricing. Hobby free (recommended below 100 daily orders); Premium $49/month; Business from $99/month. No percentage of referred sales is published on goaffpro.com/pricing.
ReferralCandy runs referral and affiliate programs from one app, with every feature on every plan. It charges a success fee on the first three orders of net-new referred customers, where UpPromote’s paid plans charge a percentage of successful referral sales.
Pricing. Basic $39/month plus a 10.5% success fee on net-new customers; Grow $79 plus 3.5%; Scale $249 plus 1.5%; Enterprise $799 plus 0.25% (referralcandy.com/pricing, re-checked October 24, 2026).
For high-volume DTC brands that want checkout itself to do the recruiting: buyers get affiliate links automatically after purchase. The floor is $249/month plus 3% of affiliate revenue, a price that only makes sense at real scale.
Pricing. Snow Day from $249/month plus 3% of affiliate revenue; Blizzard from $899/month with no usage charges (Social Snowball’s App Store listing, re-checked November 8, 2026; entries without their own date keep the page date).
Marketplace recruitment and a sales-percentage plan you already accepted
Sometimes the best alternative is none. If the marketplace keeps sending you publishers you couldn’t reach otherwise, or you lean on the combined affiliate-plus-referral product, paying Growth’s percentage of successful referral sales may beat any migration.
Pricing. Free ($0, capped at $3,000/month referral review), Growth $29.99 plus 2% of successful referral sales, Professional $89.99 plus 1.5%, Enterprise $199.99 plus 1% (uppromote.com/pricing).
Simple AffiliateYour partners already exist, the program belongs on your store, and a percentage of referred sales is a dealbreaker.
GoAffProA free plan with no sales fee, or MLM, decides it.
ReferralCandyYou want refer-a-friend and affiliate programs in one app and accept a success fee on net-new customers.
Social SnowballYou run high-volume DTC and want checkout converting buyers into affiliates.
UpPromoteMarketplace recruitment matters more to you than the percentage of referral sales.
Frequently asked questions
Direct answers. Updated August 18, 2026.
Is Simple Affiliate cheaper than UpPromote?
Not always: both have a $0 plan. On paid plans, Pro at a flat $39 costs less than Growth ($29.99 plus 2% of successful referral sales) once referral sales pass $451 a month, before any Autopay fee. Model $10,000 of affiliate-attributed GMV: Growth lands at $229.99 once the sales fee is counted, while Pro lands at $78 with Autopay on a 10% commission, or a flat $39 if you pay commissions yourself. Details: https://simple-affiliate.com/pages/sc-faq/how-much-does-simple-affiliate-cost.
Does Simple Affiliate have a publisher marketplace?
No. When the job is recruiting publishers you’ve never met, UpPromote is the better buy. What we offer instead is an in-house program: /pages/sc-faq/why-use-simple-affiliate-instead-of-a-network.
Do these pages tell me to leave Shopify Collabs?
No. Shopify Collabs is Shopify’s included creator marketplace and sits happily beside a third-party app.
Can I migrate from UpPromote?
Often, yes. Import eligible affiliates by CSV when your paid Shopify plan, store age, and Simple Affiliate subscription meet the import safeguards. If they do not, rebuild the program in the app and invite your affiliates again. Eligibility details: https://simple-affiliate.com/pages/sc-faq/can-i-migrate-an-existing-affiliate-program.
Named apps are trademarks of their respective owners. Simple Affiliate is not affiliated with them. Shopify is a trademark of Shopify Inc. Simple Affiliate is a third-party Shopify App Store app and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Shopify. These pages compare independent App Store products and do not recommend uninstalling Shopify products such as Shopify Collabs. See shopify.com. List prices verified .