# Best affiliate prospecting tools, by job, free and paid | RecruitAffiliates.ai

Source: https://recruitaffiliates.ai/blog/affiliate-prospecting-tools

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# Best affiliate prospecting tools, by job, free and paid

Jimi Barkway · 20 October 2026 · 8 min read

The best affiliate prospecting tools depend on the job, because no single tool does all four well. The four are finding people, finding their emails, sending the message, and tracking replies. A founder with no budget can cover all four for $0. A founder with $79 a month can cover most of it in one tool.

**Prospecting** means building the list of people to ask. For affiliates, that's the blogs, review sites, newsletters, podcasts and YouTube channels that already send buyers to products like yours. This post is the toolkit, sorted by job. If you want all-in-one platforms compared, read the [recruitment software roundup](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/blog/best-affiliate-recruitment-software) instead.

## What are the four jobs in affiliate prospecting?

Every prospecting run goes through the same four steps.

1. **Find prospects.** Work out who promotes your competitors.
2. **Find emails.** Get a real address for each one.
3. **Send and follow up.** Write the email, then chase it.
4. **Track the pipeline.** Know who replied and who went quiet.

Some tools do one step well. Some do two or three. Pick by the step that hurts most. For most founders that's step one, because without a good list the other three don't matter.

## Which tools find affiliate prospects?

These tools answer one question: who already promotes my competitors?

| Tool | What it does | Price | Free tier or trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| RecruitAffiliates.ai | Reads your site, suggests competitors, finds sites promoting them, ranks them | Launch $79 a month, Grow $199 | 14 days free, no card; first 20 emails free |
| AffiliateFinder.ai | Finds bloggers and creators who promote similar brands, pulls emails, sends sequences | Pro $99 a month, Growth $249 ([pricing](https://affiliatefinder.ai), checked 20 October 2026) | 7-day trial on Pro and Growth, no free tier listed |
| Reditus | Affiliate software with an Affiliate Finder on every plan | Growth 149 a month, Scale Up 399 ([pricing](https://getreditus.com/pricing), checked 20 October 2026) | 14-day trial, no card |
| Ahrefs or Semrush | Backlink reports show who links to a competitor | Semrush from £95.07 a month on annual billing ([prices](https://www.semrush.com/prices/), checked 20 October 2026) | Free plans, with limits |
| Google search operators | Free searches that surface review pages and "best of" lists | $0 | Free |

**RecruitAffiliates.ai** suits a founder who wants the list built for them. It reads your website and finds the websites, blogs, review sites, newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels, and Instagram and TikTok creators already promoting your competitors. Each one comes with the page that shows it, and the best fits sit at the top. We're the maker of this one, so weigh our entry the way you'd weigh any vendor's. For a side-by-side with the next tool, see the [AffiliateFinder.ai comparison](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/compare/affiliatefinder).

**AffiliateFinder.ai** does a similar job. Its home page lists a Kanban pipeline and a unified inbox too ([AffiliateFinder.ai](https://affiliatefinder.ai), checked 20 October 2026).

**Reditus** is mainly affiliate software. Its pricing page says the Affiliate Finder comes on all plans, and the vetted affiliate database only on Scale Up and above ([Reditus pricing](https://getreditus.com/pricing), checked 20 October 2026). The page shows no currency symbol. Read the [Reditus comparison](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/compare/reditus) before choosing.

**Backlink tools** are the classic route. Type in a competitor's domain and see every site that links to it. Ahrefs' free tier only covers sites you've verified as yours. Its own page says paid plans are what let you analyse competing websites ([Ahrefs Webmaster Tools](https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools), checked 20 October 2026). So for competitor research, the free tier won't do it.

**Google search operators** are free and underrated. Try `"best [competitor] alternatives"` or `"[competitor]" review "affiliate link"`. Google's own help notes that `site:` results are not always exhaustive ([Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site), checked 20 October 2026), so a search gives you a sample of the list. The full method is in [how to find affiliates for SaaS](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/blog/how-to-find-affiliates-for-saas).

## Which tools find affiliate email addresses?

You have a name and a site. Now you need an address. These tools guess or look up addresses from a domain.

| Tool | Price | Free tier or trial |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter | Starter £41 a month, or £28 billed yearly, for 2,000 credits ([pricing](https://hunter.io/pricing), checked 20 October 2026) | Free plan, 50 credits a month |
| Snov.io | Starter $39 a month for 1,000 credits ([pricing](https://snov.io/pricing), checked 20 October 2026) | Trial with 50 credits, renewing every 30 days |

A **credit** is one unit you spend per lookup. On Hunter's free plan, 50 credits covers every lookup you make that month. That's a few dozen prospects a month, which is enough to start.

Both tools guess from patterns, so check each address. Tools built for prospecting often skip this step. RecruitAffiliates.ai finds the email and shows the page each address came from. Role addresses like partnerships@ come first.

## Which tools send and follow up?

Cold outreach tools send the email and chase the reply. Some come from the link-building world, which is close to affiliate recruiting. You're asking a site owner for a favour either way.

| Tool | Price | Free tier or trial |
|---|---|---|
| lemlist | Email $69 a month, Multichannel $109 ([pricing](https://www.lemlist.com/pricing), checked 20 October 2026) | 14-day trial |
| Pitchbox | Pro $300 a month, with a one-year commitment ([pricing](https://pitchbox.com/pricing), checked 20 October 2026) | Trial after a demo call |
| BuzzStream | Plan prices not readable on its site when we checked | "Try it Free" button on its [home page](https://www.buzzstream.com/), checked 20 October 2026 |
| Respona | Plans not confirmed when we checked | See its site |
| Gmail with a template | $0 | Free |

**Pitchbox** is priced for agencies. Its page says all plans need a one-year commitment, even when billed monthly. **BuzzStream** and **Respona** are built for link outreach, so they fit if you already do that work. We couldn't confirm their current plan prices, so check their sites before you plan around them.

**lemlist** is a general cold email tool. It suits you if you send to many kinds of lists.

The catch with all of these: they send what you write. You still write each email. Our [recruitment email guide](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/blog/affiliate-recruitment-email) covers what a good one says. RecruitAffiliates.ai drafts a personal first email for each person from real facts about them. Three follow-ups come after it, four emails in one thread. It sends from your own Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or IMAP inbox after you approve. A new mailbox starts at 5 first emails a day and builds up to 30. It stops on a reply, bounce or unsubscribe.

## How do you track an affiliate pipeline?

A **pipeline** is a list of people sorted by stage: from found to joined. You need one from day one, or you'll email the same person twice.

| Option | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| A spreadsheet | $0. Anyone with a Google Account can create one in [Google Sheets](https://workspace.google.com/products/sheets/) (checked 20 October 2026) | Under 50 prospects |
| A CRM | Many have free plans; check the vendor | You already use one for sales |
| RecruitAffiliates.ai's board | Included in every plan | Moving people from found to joined without copying data |

A spreadsheet needs five columns: name, site, email, stage, date last contacted. That's enough. Move to a board when you can't see who needs a follow-up at a glance.

When someone signs up, you still need a way to track their sales and pay them. One click in RecruitAffiliates.ai hands a signed-up affiliate to AffiliateRail, which tracks sales and pays commission. It's the same founder's other product.

## What is a free affiliate prospecting stack?

A founder with no budget can run all four jobs for $0. It takes more hours, and you work with smaller numbers.

| Job | Free tool | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Find prospects | Google search operators | You do the reading |
| Find emails | Hunter free plan | 50 credits a month |
| Send | Gmail and a saved template | You send each by hand |
| Track | Google Sheets | You update it |

Here's the routine. Spend an hour a day for a week. Search for your competitors' names plus "review", "alternatives" and "affiliate". Put every site you find in the sheet. Look each one up in Hunter. Write the first email by hand and send five or ten a day.

You'll get a short list of good people. You'll also spend most of that week on copy and paste. That's the real cost of free.

If you'd rather skip the hours, RecruitAffiliates.ai gives you 14 days free with no card, and the first 20 emails are on us. It's the same four jobs in one place. Before you send, read [what to offer affiliates](https://recruitaffiliates.ai/blog/what-to-offer-affiliates), so your first email has a clear offer.

## In short

### What are the best affiliate prospecting tools?

Pick by job. Use RecruitAffiliates.ai or Google operators to find prospects, Hunter or Snov.io for emails, lemlist or Gmail to send, and a spreadsheet or a board to track. No tool is best at all four.

### Is there a free way to find affiliates?

Yes. Google search operators, Hunter's free plan (50 credits a month), Gmail and Google Sheets cover all four jobs for $0. You'll spend hours instead of money.

### Do I need Ahrefs or Semrush to find affiliates?

No. Backlink reports help, but Ahrefs' free tier only covers sites you've verified as yours, so competitor research needs a paid plan. Google searches for "best [competitor] alternatives" find most of the same pages.

### How many affiliates should I contact first?

Start with 20. That's enough to learn what your offer sounds like to a stranger, and small enough to write each email with care.

[We find your first 20 emails free](https://app.recruitaffiliates.ai/signup?from=blog-affiliate-prospecting-tools). It's 14 days free, no card.

## Sources

- AffiliateFinder.ai home page, plans and trial: https://affiliatefinder.ai (checked 20 October 2026)
- Reditus pricing, Affiliate Finder and plans: https://getreditus.com/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
- Semrush prices: https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (checked 20 October 2026)
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, free tier limits: https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools (checked 20 October 2026)
- Google Search Central, `site:` operator: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site (checked 20 October 2026)
- Hunter pricing: https://hunter.io/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
- Snov.io pricing: https://snov.io/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
- lemlist pricing: https://www.lemlist.com/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
- Pitchbox pricing: https://pitchbox.com/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
- BuzzStream home page: https://www.buzzstream.com/ (checked 20 October 2026)
- Google Sheets: https://workspace.google.com/products/sheets/ (checked 20 October 2026)

## We find your first 20 emails free

[Find my affiliates](https://app.recruitaffiliates.ai/signup?from=blog-affiliate-prospecting-tools)

14 days, no card.