Affiliate networks vs in-house programs: what actually changes for you

Many companies give you two doors into the same affiliate program. One is a sign-up page on their own site. The other is a listing on an affiliate network, where you apply from inside an account you may already have.

The product, the customer and usually the commission are the same. What changes is who tracks your sales, who pays you, whose rules you follow and who you call when a sale goes missing. This guide walks through each difference, so you can pick the door that fits how you work.

If the terms are new to you, how affiliate programs work covers the basics, and what an affiliate network is explains the network side in depth.

How to tell which one you are looking at

The sign-up link gives it away. Follow the "become an affiliate" or "partners" link on a company's site and look at where it lands.

• In-house: a form on the company's own domain, or on a subdomain such as partners. or affiliates.. Many in-house programs run on licensed tracking software, so the dashboard may carry another brand's name in small print. The company still runs it and pays you.
• Network: a page asking you to log in or join a network first, then apply to the company from inside it.

Some companies link to both. When they do, the terms on each are not always the same, which is the main reason to look closely.

The differences, side by side

None of these rows is good or bad on its own. They matter differently depending on how many programs you run and how much you sell for each.

Why the rates can differ

A network charges the company, usually through setup fees, monthly fees or an override added on top of each commission. A company paying that cost has less margin left for you, so some offer a slightly better rate in-house to pull affiliates onto the cheaper channel.

That is a tendency, not a rule. Some companies pay the same everywhere, and a few pay more on a network because they run promotions there. Compare the commission type as well as the rate: a one-off bounty in-house and a recurring cut on a network are not the same deal even when the headline number looks close.

Tracking and attribution

Each system only sees its own links. If you promote the same company through both an in-house link and a network link, neither system knows about the other, and the company has to decide which one gets the sale.

Most settle it on a last-click basis inside their own setup, and many remove duplicates so that only one commission is paid per order. In practice that means two links for one company rarely earn you twice, and can make it harder to work out which one is actually converting. Pick one per company and stick to it.

The cookie window can also differ between the two. A company may set one length on its own software and accept a network's default on the other. Read both before you decide.

Getting paid

This is where networks earn their keep for most affiliates.

On a network, commissions from every program land in one balance, and that balance is paid once it clears the network's minimum. Five small programs can clear one shared minimum much faster than each would clear its own.

An in-house program pays you on its own schedule, against its own minimum, by its own payment methods. If you send it a steady stream of sales, that is fine and sometimes faster. If you send it a sale a month, your money can sit below the threshold for a long time. Our guide to payout terms explains pending periods, net-30 and thresholds in more detail.

When something goes wrong

Three problems come up often enough to plan for.

A sale is reversed without a clear reason. On a network you can raise it with the network, which has its own rules and a reason to keep both sides on the platform. In-house, the company that reversed the sale is also the one you appeal to.

The company leaves a network. Your network links stop tracking, often with little notice. If you want to keep promoting the company, you apply to its new program and replace every link. With an in-house program this risk is smaller, though the company can still close or change its program.

The program changes its terms. Both kinds can do this. A network usually sends the notice through its dashboard alongside every other program you run, while an in-house program emails you directly, or does not. Keep an eye on both.

When a network is the better choice

A network tends to suit you when:

• you promote many programs and want one login, one report and one payment;
• you are starting out and need a shared minimum to get paid at all;
• you want a third party involved if a company reverses sales without explanation;
• you are looking for new programs and want to browse them in one place.

When an in-house program is the better choice

An in-house program tends to suit you when:

• you send a lot of sales to one company and want a direct line to its team;
• its terms are better in-house than on the network;
• the company only runs its program in-house, which many smaller software companies do;
• you want to avoid a network's account rules on top of the company's own.

Can you join the same company in-house and on a network?

Often you can, but you should only promote one of them per link. Each system tracks its own clicks, so a sale is credited to whichever link the customer used last. Some companies ask you to pick one program, so check the terms before you apply to both.

Do in-house affiliate programs pay more?

Sometimes. A company that skips a network also skips the network's fee, and some pass part of that saving on as a higher rate. Others pay the same everywhere. The only way to know is to compare the actual terms for each version of the program.

What to compare before you apply

When a company offers both, put these side by side:

1. The rate and the commission type.
2. The cookie window.
3. The pending period and the minimum payout, counting what you already have on that network.
4. The payment methods and currency.
5. The traffic rules, such as brand bidding, coupons and email.

Every program listing in this directory shows each network a company runs on, with the terms we read for each and a link to the page we read them from, so you can do this comparison in one place. The network pages show which companies run on which network. Then check the source page before you sign up, because terms change and the program's own page is the one that counts.