Refersion
Refersion alternatives: tracking and finding affiliates (2026)
Four apps can run your programme instead: UpPromote and GoAffPro, plus Social Snowball and Shopify Collabs. Modash and RecruitAffiliates.ai find people to join it. Pick by the job that hurts. Do you need to track and pay, or to fill the programme?
Refersion is an affiliate app that tracks sales and pays commission. An affiliate is anyone who sends you buyers for a cut of each sale. That cut is the commission. A creator is someone with an audience on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.
Why do brands look for a Refersion alternative?
Two App Store reviewers gave reasons. These are their views, not a verdict. The first is price and flexibility. One brand called Refersion "overpriced" and "completely inflexible" (Shopify App Store review, 13 November 2025). The second is return on the fees. A brand wrote "it hasn't generated enough sales to even cover its fees" (1 March 2024).
Many reviewers praise it too: 88% of its ratings are five stars. The listing is rated 4.8 from 495 reviews, and several reviews single out support (Shopify App Store, checked 23 October 2026). Our view: if a programme is quiet, more people may help more than a new tracker. We have no data on how often.
Refersion alternatives, side by side
Run means the tool tracks sales and pays commission. Find means it helps you reach new people.
| Tool | Job | How it helps you find people | Starting price | Free trial | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refersion | Run, some find | Free marketplace listing, "Personalized affiliate discovery" on Launch (Refersion pricing, checked 23 October 2026) | Launch $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) plus 3% of affiliate-driven sales | Not stated | A free listing before you pay |
| UpPromote | Run, some find | Marketplace listing on Growth, Creator Discovery add-on | Free plan, Growth $29.99 a month plus 2% of referral sales (UpPromote pricing, checked 23 October 2026) | 14 days on paid plans | A free plan with a marketplace on top |
| GoAffPro | Run, some find | Marketplace listing, plus a Recruit tab to invite influencers (Premium), per its docs | Free plan, Premium $49 a month (GoAffPro pricing, checked 23 October 2026) | 15 days, per its pricing FAQ | Tight budgets |
| Social Snowball | Run, some find | Customers into affiliates, plus Creator Search and Outreach on Blizzard | $249 a month plus 3% of affiliate revenue (Shopify App Store, checked 23 October 2026) | Not stated on its listing; a 2021 help article mentions 14 days | Turning buyers into affiliates |
| Shopify Collabs | Run, some find | Search of creators who have a Collabs profile (Shopify Help Center) | Free, plus 2.9% on automatic payouts (Shopify Help Center, checked 23 October 2026) | No trial needed, free to install | Starting with gifts and codes |
| Modash | Find | Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators | From $199 a month (Modash pricing, checked 23 October 2026) | 14 days, no card | Creator campaigns |
| RecruitAffiliates.ai | Find | Sites, blogs, newsletters, podcasts and creators who appear to promote or write about your rivals, with a verified email | Launch $79 a month | 7 days, no card | Finding new affiliates outside your customers |
Sources are at the foot of this page, all checked on 23 October 2026. Prices change. Check each tool's page before you buy. We make RecruitAffiliates.ai, so its row holds the same kind of facts as the rest.
What does Refersion list on its own pages?
Its listing says tracking links work without browser cookies. It lists commissions that are a percentage, a flat amount, recurring or tiered. It lists payouts through PayPal and bank transfer (Shopify App Store, checked 23 October 2026). Flat-rate, per-product and tiered commissions are listed on Growth and above. We haven't tested these, and the other apps list their own versions, so check each against what you need.
On finding people, its recruiting guide lists Affiliate Recommendations. It also lists a paid service, Premium Ecommerce Affiliates, where "Refersion's Publisher team" helps find partners (Refersion blog, last modified 14 June 2024). The blog gives no price. Our guide to the Refersion marketplace covers its free listing.
How much does Refersion cost against the others?
Fees on sales are percentages, so the total depends on how much your affiliates sell. We priced two example months: $5,000 and $20,000 of affiliate sales. For UpPromote we took the cheaper of two paid plans, Growth and Professional.
| Affiliate sales in a month | Refersion Launch | Refersion Growth | UpPromote | Social Snowball Snow Day | GoAffPro Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | about $189 | about $299 | about $130 (Growth) | about $399 | $49 |
| $20,000 | about $639 | about $599 | about $390 (Professional) | about $849 | $49 |
Each sum is the listed monthly plan price plus the listed fee, using monthly billing:
- Refersion Launch is $39 plus 3%. Growth is $199 plus 2%, so Growth costs less from $16,000 of affiliate sales a month. Refersion's yearly billing lowers both prices ($29 and $159 a month). We did not price the yearly discounts of other tools.
- UpPromote Professional is $89.99 plus 1.5%. Growth would cost about $430 at $20,000, so Professional is cheaper there.
- Social Snowball Snow Day is $249 plus 3% (Shopify App Store).
- GoAffPro lists no fee on sales (GoAffPro pricing).
- Shopify Collabs charges 2.9% on automatic payouts instead, so it isn't comparable here.
The fees apply to different bases: affiliate-driven sales, referral sales or affiliate revenue. Read each pricing page. Features may push you to a paid plan sooner, so match plans to what you need.
What did our scans find?
Most of the people our scanner returned had a review, roundup or comparison page as their strongest evidence. We ran our scanner on public Shopify brands. We counted the sites, shows and creators that cover them.
We ran this · 22 October 2026
64% of the people our scan showed have a review or roundup page
- 64% of 2,924 people shown had a review, roundup or comparison page as their best evidence (1,877).
- Blog-style pages were 573 (20%). Podcasts were 399 (14%).
- Median 92 people shown per brand, from 35 to 188.
A first search for a brand, 22 Oct 2026, 30 public Shopify brands in all. It stopped at finding addresses and ran no email checks, which the product runs when a campaign starts (what each result means). In a 30-row check, 9 were not promoters (likely 17% to 48%). Full method and limits.
| Category | People shown, median | With a review, roundup or comparison page, median |
|---|---|---|
| Health and supplements | 126 | 62 |
| Beauty and skincare | 100 | 72 |
| Fitness and sports | 94 | 58 |
| Home and garden | 92 | 64 |
| Fashion and apparel | 78 | 47 |
Each median is the middle value of six brands, rounded to a whole number. The scan covered 30 public Shopify brands on 22 October 2026. We picked the brands by hand and did not record which use Refersion. Our scan did not test the apps above. It can't show what their own search tools miss.
How do you choose?
- You like Refersion and need more people. Keep it. Add a finding tool and send people your Refersion sign-up link. Our recruiting guide shows how.
- You mostly pay the fee and want it lower. Compare a fee on sales with a flat plan. Refersion, UpPromote and Social Snowball charge a fee. GoAffPro lists none.
- You want a marketplace listing. Refersion and UpPromote list one, and so does GoAffPro.
- You want free to start. Shopify Collabs is free to install, and UpPromote and GoAffPro have free plans. See Collabs vs UpPromote and Social Snowball alternatives.
Questions people ask
What is the best free alternative to Refersion?
Shopify Collabs is free to install. UpPromote and GoAffPro have free plans. Refersion's own free plan lists your offer. Its pricing FAQ says reviewing and approving affiliates needs a paid plan. See Shopify Collabs alternatives, UpPromote alternatives and GoAffPro alternatives.
Is there a Refersion alternative that finds affiliates for you?
Modash's creator search finds people. Its pricing page lists affiliate management only on the $499 plan (Modash pricing). RecruitAffiliates.ai finds people but doesn't track or pay. UpPromote sells Creator Discovery as an add-on, from $39 a month (UpPromote docs).
Can you use two affiliate apps at once?
We'd avoid it, since two trackers can both claim the same sale. We haven't tested that. Use one app to track and pay, and a separate way to find people.
Is RecruitAffiliates.ai a Shopify app?
No. It is a web app that works alongside your affiliate app. It has no Refersion integration. You can also size your list with our free affiliate calculator.
Sources
All checked on 23 October 2026, apart from the review and article dates shown.
- Refersion, pricing, plans, fees, FAQ.
- Shopify App Store, Refersion, plans, features, 4.8 from 495 reviews.
- Shopify App Store, Refersion reviews, the quoted reviews.
- Refersion blog, affiliate recruiting solutions, last modified 14 June 2024.
- Shopify App Store, Social Snowball, $249 plus 3%.
- UpPromote, pricing, plans, fees, 14-day trial.
- UpPromote docs, pricing details, Creator Discovery $39 and $79.
- GoAffPro, pricing, Hobby, Premium, Business.
- GoAffPro docs, recruit influencers, the Recruit tab.
- Social Snowball help center, is it right for me, 2021 mention of a 14-day trial.
- GoAffPro docs, pricing FAQ, 15-day trial.
- Shopify Help Center, Collabs payments, 2.9% fee.
- Shopify Help Center, recruiting creators, creator search.
- Modash, pricing, plans, trial.