Simple Affiliate vs ReferralCandy

App comparison

Simple Affiliate vs ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy charges a success fee on top of its subscription: a percentage of what net-new referred customers spend, typically across their first three orders. The product itself is refer-a-friend, an automated post-purchase loop that rewards existing customers for bringing in new ones, rather than a dashboard for managing influencer affiliates.

Modeled at $10,000 affiliate-attributed GMV / month: Simple Affiliate Pro $78 vs ReferralCandy $429 on published list prices. Autopay math assumes a 10% commission ($1,000).

Simple Affiliate: Pro $39/mo ReferralCandy: App Store listing Updated August 18, 2026

Checked August 18, 2026 against the public App Store listing and vendor pricing page. List prices move; reread them before you buy.

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ReferralCandy is stronger when

The post-purchase loop does the recruiting: customers become advocates without you building a partner list.
Success-fee tiers are published and fall as you grow — 10.5% Basic, 3.5% Grow, 1.5% Scale, 0.25% Enterprise, all on net-new customers.
The whole product serves friend-gets-friend mechanics, with none of the overhead of roster management.
Merchants who have run referral campaigns before tend to know its vendor-hosted campaign pages.

Simple Affiliate is stronger when

You own the roster. Affiliates live on your Shopify store with customer-account sign-in, groups, links, and discount codes.
No success fee, period. Model $10,000 of net-new referred GMV and Grow comes to $429; Pro comes to $78 if you Autopay a 10% commission.
Partners you actually pay get Autopay and 1099s, not only friend-gets-friend rewards.
When margins differ across the catalog, per-product commissions (Pro and up) let the rate follow the margin.

Who each one is for

These two apps mostly do not compete. Buy ReferralCandy to automate refer-a-friend on net-new customers. Buy Simple Affiliate to run an in-house program: named partners, links, discount codes, Autopay, 1099s. Match the tool to the job you are actually hiring for.

Pricing

Every ReferralCandy tier pairs a subscription with a success fee: Basic $39 plus 10.5%, Grow $79 plus 3.5%, Scale $249 plus 1.5%, Enterprise $799 plus 0.25% (referralcandy.com/pricing). The fee applies to net-new referred customers, usually their first three orders, not to every affiliate-attributed order; that distinction matters when you model it. We charge no success fee on sales at all.

Line item	ReferralCandy	Simple Affiliate
Published starting price	Basic $39/mo + 10.5% success fee on net-new customers	Starter $0; Pro $39/mo
Grow plan	$79/mo + 3.5% on net-new customers (first 3 orders)	No success fee
Revenue share	Success fee on net-new customers only	None
Payout processing	Per ReferralCandy payout settings (confirm on listing)	PayPal, store credit, and Premium manual 0%; Autopay 3.9% bank / 8.9% card on Pro
Modeled at $10,000 net-new GMV	$429 on Grow ($79 + 3.5% of $10,000)	$78 on Pro with Autopay bank

One assumption does the heavy lifting: all $10,000 counts as net-new referred customers inside ReferralCandy’s first-three-orders window. If your affiliate GMV is mostly repeat buyers or influencer traffic, the success fee lands differently and the $429 shrinks; referralcandy.com/pricing has the definitions. Our Autopay fee applies to commission payouts (10% of GMV assumed), never to GMV itself.

Features

Capabilities below are for a typical Shopify store. Plan and add-on limits apply. ReferralCandy features come from its App Store listing and public docs, not from a paid trial of every SKU.

Yes: included for a typical setup Partial: limited, plan-tier, or human-in-the-loop Add-on: extra product or usage cost —: not offered or not the product

Feature	Simple Affiliate	ReferralCandy
Platform
Shopify Admin embedded app	YesShopify Admin app home	Yes
Shopify App Store listing	Yes	Yes
In-house program on the merchant store	YesProgram stays on the merchant store	Partial
Affiliates use Shopify customer accounts	YesAffiliates use Shopify customer accounts	—
No revenue share	YesFlat monthly Shopify subscription	—
Automated refer-a-friend loop	PartialIn-house referral program	Yes
Program tools
Affiliate roster and groups	PartialUnlimited on Basic+	PartialAdvocate program
Unique discount codes	PartialPro+	Yes
Per-product commissions	PartialPro+	Partial
Klaviyo integration	PartialBasic+	Partial
CSV program import	YesPaid Shopify plan and store-age safeguards	—
Payouts and tax
Automatic commission payouts	YesStripe; merchant pays the fee	Partial
PayPal, store credit, and manual with no processing fee	YesPayPal and store credit every plan; manual on Premium	Partial
Merchant pays Autopay processing fee	YesStripe; merchant pays the fee	Partial
IRS 1099-K / 1099-NEC facilitation	YesEligible U.S. Autopay affiliates	—

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about Simple Affiliate vs ReferralCandy. Updated August 18, 2026.

What would the same store pay Simple Affiliate?

A flat subscription: Starter $0, then Basic $19, Pro $39, or Premium $69 per month, with a 14-day trial on the paid ones. No success fee, no percentage of referred sales. Autopay adds 3.9% (bank) or 8.9% (card) on Pro, charged to the merchant on commission payouts; the affiliate’s commission arrives whole. ReferralCandy’s subscription-plus-success-fee numbers come from its published pricing page; recheck them before you sign.

Can customers join the affiliate side without creating a new account?

Yes: that is the point of building on Shopify customer accounts. Someone who has bought from you already has the login they need. The dashboard lives on your domain (new customer accounts) or on a branded theme page such as /pages/simple-affiliate (classic). ReferralCandy hosts campaign pages on its side. See /pages/sc-faq/why-use-simple-affiliate-instead-of-a-network.

What about Shopify Collabs?

Collabs comes with Shopify: an included creator marketplace, mentioned here in prose and linked at apps.shopify.com/collabs and shopify.com/collabs, with no dedicated vs URL. These pages do not recommend uninstalling Shopify products such as Shopify Collabs.

Is ReferralCandy an affiliate app?

Not really. It is a refer-a-friend product billed as subscription plus a success fee on net-new customers (first three orders on the published tiers). An affiliate app manages partners who share links and codes, which is what Simple Affiliate is. If friend-gets-friend automation is the job, ReferralCandy is the right tool.

Does the modeled $429 assume every sale is net-new?

Yes, deliberately. $79 plus 3.5% of $10,000 equals $429 only when every dollar is net-new referred customers inside the first-three-orders window; repeat or influencer orders may dodge the fee entirely. We would rather state the assumption than invent a blended rate.

Sources and other comparisons

ReferralCandy is a trademark of its owner. Simple Affiliate is not affiliated with ReferralCandy. 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 August 18, 2026.

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