Highest paying SaaS affiliate programs, and what they really pay
By the LinkedAffiliate team ·
A SaaS commission is rarely one payment. You refer someone, they subscribe, and the program pays you a share of what they pay, often month after month. That makes the rate on the program page a poor guide on its own, because the same rate can be worth one payment or three years of them.
This page ranks the SaaS programs in our directory by the best commission they publish, then covers what turns that rate into money: how long the recurring share lasts, how long customers stay, what annual billing does to the maths, and which terms quietly take commission back.
SaaS affiliate programs ranked by commission
These are the 32 SaaS programs in the directory with published terms, best rate first. Each name links to its listing, where you can see every program the company runs, the terms we read and the page we read them from.
| Program | Best rate | Cookie window | Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| GanttPRO | 50% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Simplified | 40% | 45 days | Direct (in-house) |
| BillingNow | 35% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| MacPaw | 35% | 180 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Rytr | 30% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Chatfuel | 30% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Frase.io | 30% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| KrispCall | 30% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| MailerLite | 30% | 45 days | Direct (in-house) |
| OneSuite | 30% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
Here is how the category looks as a whole:
- Programs with published terms
- 32
- Median best commission
- 25%
- across 24 programs that publish a percentage
- Median cookie window
- 60 days
- across 32 programs that publish one
The list is not every SaaS program in the world, and it changes as we add programs and as companies correct their own listings. A program with no rate in the table states more than one rate, or a rate with conditions, so the listing shows the full terms instead of a single number. Treat the table as a shortlist, then read the source page before you write about any one program.
Recurring, capped or one-off
SaaS programs tend to pay in one of three shapes, and the shape matters as much as the rate.
Lifetime recurring. You earn a share of every payment for as long as the customer keeps paying. Nothing ends it except the customer leaving, the program changing its terms, or your account closing.
Capped recurring. You earn a share of each payment for a fixed period, such as the first 12 or 24 months, and then it stops even if the customer stays.
One-off. You earn once, either a percentage of the first payment or a fixed amount per new customer. Some programs call this a bounty.
A one-off payment is money now and no risk from cancellations later. A recurring share is a bet on the product keeping its customers. Neither is better by default. Our guide to commission types has a simple way to put them on the same scale. Once a recurring customer is paying, plan changes, cancellations and new program terms all move what it is worth, which our guide to SaaS affiliate programs with recurring commission covers.
Is a lifetime recurring commission worth more than a capped one?
Only if customers stay past the cap. A lifetime share and a 12-month share pay exactly the same for a customer who cancels in month eight. The lifetime version only pulls ahead for customers who stay longer than the cap, so compare the two over how long a customer of that product is likely to keep paying.
That is why churn, the share of customers who cancel each month, decides more of your SaaS income than the rate does. A tool people build their work around, such as accounting, a website builder or a help desk, tends to keep customers for years. A tool people use for one project tends to lose them after it. You rarely get the churn figure from the company, but you can judge it: is the product something your reader would have to migrate away from, or something they could simply stop opening?
Annual billing changes the maths
Many SaaS customers pay yearly for a discount. Programs handle that in different ways, and the terms page usually says which one applies:
- one commission on the full annual payment, paid once a year;
- a commission on the discounted price, which is lower than twelve monthly payments would have earned;
- for capped programs, a cap counted in payments rather than months, so one annual payment can use up a whole year of the cap at once.
A large annual commission also tends to sit in a longer hold, because the company waits until its refund window has passed. Our guide to affiliate payout terms explains holds, thresholds and net terms.
Trials, free plans and when a referral counts
Most SaaS products let people try before they pay, with a time-limited trial or a free plan with no end date. A percentage-based program pays nothing until the customer's first real payment, so a trial that converts on day 14 needs a cookie that lasts at least that long, and a free plan that converts in month five needs far more. Our guide to cookie windows covers how attribution works when a decision takes weeks.
Some programs tie the referral to the account as soon as the person signs up, so the later upgrade is credited to you whenever it happens. Others only check the cookie at the moment of payment. If a product has a generous free plan, that difference can matter more than any rate in the table. Our guide to SaaS affiliate programs with the longest cookie windows ranks the category by window and covers the sales a cookie never sees, like marketplace purchases.
Terms that take commission back
Recurring commissions keep moving after you have earned them. Read these parts of the terms before you count on the income:
- Refunds and chargebacks. A refunded payment almost always reverses its commission, sometimes after it has already been paid out.
- Downgrades. If a customer moves to a cheaper plan, the recurring share usually drops with it.
- Plan and product exclusions. Some programs pay on the core subscription only, not on add-ons, extra seats, usage charges or services such as onboarding.
- Self-referrals and existing customers. Signing up through your own link, or referring someone who already had an account, rarely counts.
- Inactive affiliate accounts. A few programs stop recurring payments if your account sends no new customers for a set period. It is worth checking, because it turns a lifetime share into a conditional one.
How to compare two SaaS programs
Answer the same questions for both:
- Which plan would your typical reader choose, for how many seats, on monthly or annual billing?
- What counts as a conversion: a sign-up, a trial start, or a first payment?
- Is the commission one-off, capped recurring or lifetime recurring, and for how long?
- How long do customers of this kind of tool usually stay?
- How long is the cookie window, and is the referral tied to the account at sign-up?
- How long are commissions held, and what is the minimum payout?
Multiply the realistic monthly payment by the rate, then by the months you can reasonably expect before the cap or the customer leaves. The result is a fairer figure than any headline, and it often reorders the table above.
Match the program to your readers
The highest rate earns little on a tool your readers do not need. A blog for freelancers suits invoicing, time tracking and proposal tools. A channel for small online shops suits store builders and the apps around them. Content for developers suits hosting, monitoring and developer tooling, and the highest paying web hosting affiliate programs covers how hosts pay, bounties and tiers included. Readers who care about privacy suit VPNs and password managers, which the highest paying VPN affiliate programs covers, plan lengths and refunds included. If your readers are marketers, the highest paying marketing tool affiliate programs looks at email, SEO and social tools in detail. If they buy software for a team, the highest paying B2B affiliate programs covers sales-led tools with longer buying cycles.
Fit also decides how long a customer stays. With a recurring commission, every month they keep paying is paid to you, so a reader who chose the right tool is worth more than two who chose the wrong one.
Where to go from here
Browse every program in the SaaS category, open the listings on your shortlist and read the source pages for the recurring terms, the cookie window and the refund rules. If affiliate marketing is new to you, how affiliate programs work covers the basics first.