Affiliates for a SaaS with a free plan: what do you pay for?
If your product has a free plan, most of the people an affiliate sends will never pay. So what do you pay for? We read nine public SaaS programs on 28 October 2026. Most pay only when a referral buys a paid plan. One states a payment for a trial.
A free plan lets people use the product without paying. A product-led SaaS is one where people try the product first and buy later. An affiliate is someone who recommends your product and earns a commission, a cut of each sale they send. An activation is the moment a new user does the first thing that shows the product works for them.
What do SaaS programs pay for when a free plan exists?
We tried the public affiliate pages of well-known software companies and kept nine that loaded. We picked them by name, so this is not a random sample. "Silent" means the page does not say, not that no rule exists.
| Program | What it states it pays for | Free-plan or trial rule |
|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | 60% recurring, for as long as the referral stays subscribed | Commission starts when a referral buys a paid plan. The page is dated April 2026 |
| Typeform | 15% of the monthly subscription, up to $500 per referral | You earn when someone subscribes to a paid plan. Free sign-ups do not pay |
| GetResponse | Up to 60% recurring | Only paying customers earn commission |
| Semrush | Up to $450 per sale, and $10 per trial activation | Pays a flat sum for a trial activation, except one toolkit |
| Notion | Up to $50 per activated sign-up, plus 20% of year-one revenue | The referral must upgrade to a paid plan within 180 days. The page says it is closed to new affiliates |
| HubSpot | 30% recurring, up to 1 year on sales. A higher tier lists "cost per sign up" | Starter tier: sales only. Higher tier: "subject to restrictions", not spelled out |
| Moosend | Up to 40% recurring per paying customer | Silent on free plans and trials |
| ActiveCampaign | 30% of the subscription for each paying customer, up to 12 months | Silent on trials |
| Lovable | Up to $100 per first-time subscriber | Pays on a subscriber, not a sign-up |
Three pages say plainly that only paid plans pay: Systeme.io, Typeform and GetResponse. Notion and Lovable also pay at the moment of a paid plan. Semrush is the one clear case of paying for a trial, and HubSpot hints at a pay-per-sign-up tier without giving rules. Moosend and ActiveCampaign are silent.
Nine pages cannot tell you the market norm, and we claim none. Our other table covers the rates in more detail: what SaaS programs say they pay.
Why not pay for every free sign-up?
It sounds fair, since the affiliate did send a person. But a free sign-up costs the person nothing, so it is easy to fake. Anyone can open ten accounts with throwaway emails and claim ten payments.
There is a second cost. You pay out on people who may never use the product. Say you pay $5 for each free sign-up. Say 20 in 100 sign-ups ever pay you. The $500 you spent works out to $25 for each paying customer, before any commission on their plans.
The made-up numbers are only for the sum. Run it with your own conversion rate before you set a price.
What is a better trigger than a sign-up?
Pick one event that is hard to fake and easy to measure. Three common choices, from safest to riskiest:
- First paid plan. The cleanest trigger, and the one most pages above use. There is nothing to fake. The wait can be long for a free-plan product.
- An activation that costs effort. For example, a user who connects a real data source or sends a first campaign. Semrush's "trial activation" is a version of this. Your own database must record it.
- A verified sign-up. A confirmed work email, or a card on file. It is cheaper for you to check, but easier to game than the first two.
Our view: for most small teams, start with the first paid plan. Move to an activation payment only when the wait is hurting, meaning affiliates leave because months pass before they earn. Whatever you choose, make sure your tracking tool can record that event before you promise it. Our guide to software for SaaS affiliate programs lists what to check.
How long should attribution last?
Attribution means crediting a sign-up to the affiliate who sent it. Free-plan users often upgrade months after they sign up. A short cookie window then cuts the affiliate out. A cookie window is how many days after a click a sign-up still counts for the affiliate.
Systeme.io is the example. Its page says a referral who joins free and upgrades months later still counts for the affiliate, with no 30 or 60 day limit. You need not go that far. But a 90-day window leaves little room for a free-plan buyer. Think about attributing the account for life at sign-up, and pay only on the paid plan. The failure cases are in our post on SaaS affiliate terms.
How do you stop a downgrade from costing you?
A clawback is money you take back after you have already paid it. In a free-plan product it matters twice. A customer can ask for a refund, or drop back to the free plan.
Notion's page says it may claw back a reward if a user moves from a paying plan to a free plan, or gets a refund in the first two months. The simplest version needs no clawback at all. Hold each commission until the refund window ends, then pay. The same rule works for a downgrade. Wait a month or two before you count the sale.
What should the page for affiliates say?
Say the trigger in the first lines. "We pay 25% of the first 12 months once your referral buys a paid plan" tells a promoter what the work is worth. Add the attribution rule, the hold, and the payout day. Affiliates judge a program by its page before they reply, as our post on the landing page every SaaS program needs explains.
Then find the people. Reviewers, tutorial makers and newsletter writers all send free-plan users. The method is in how to find affiliates for your SaaS. RecruitAffiliates.ai finds those people, and AffiliateRail runs the program and the payouts.
Frequently asked questions
Should I pay affiliates for free sign-ups?
Three of the nine state that only paid plans earn: Systeme.io, Typeform and GetResponse. Free sign-ups are easy to fake, so a payment on them invites fake accounts.
What is activation, and can I pay on it?
An activation is the first action that shows the product works for someone. You can pay on it if you can record it in your own data. Semrush states a $10 payment for a trial activation.
How long should attribution last for a free plan?
Longer than for a paid-only product. People who start free often upgrade weeks or months later. We would start at 90 days or longer, and consider lifetime attribution as Systeme.io states.
What if a referral downgrades to the free plan?
Hold the commission until your refund window ends. Notion states it may claw back a reward if a user drops to a free plan or gets a refund in the first two months.
Is a referral program better for a free-plan product?
It can be. Customers who already use the product may refer friends for credit. Our guide to affiliate or referral first covers the choice.
Find people to offer your terms to
Try RecruitAffiliates.ai free. The 7-day trial includes 20 email lookups, and it needs no card.
Sources
All read on 28 October 2026. Only the Systeme.io page carries a date, April 2026.