Web hosting affiliate programs with recurring commission, and what renewals really pay
By the LinkedAffiliate team ·
A hosting customer who launches a site and stays for five years pays the host for five years. Most hosting programs pay you once, on the first order, and the rest of those years belong to the host. A smaller group keeps paying you a share of every renewal, and for a product people rarely leave, that share can end up worth more than any first-sale bounty.
This guide is about that smaller group. It covers which kinds of hosting tend to pay recurring commission, how intro prices, long prepaid terms and usage-based bills change what a renewal is worth, and how to compare a recurring hosting program with one that pays a single bounty.
Where to start in the directory
These are the 14 web hosting programs in the directory with published terms, best rate first. Each name links to its listing, which shows the terms we read and the page we read them from.
| Program | Best rate | Cookie window | Networks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Servebolt | 100% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| SiteGround | 60% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| HostSailor | 34% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Icedrive | 20% | 60 days | Direct (in-house) |
| UptimeRobot | 20% | 30 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Middlehost | 15% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Ecenica Hosting | 10% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| Lifetime Commissions with Cherry Servers | 10% | 90 days | Direct (in-house) |
| BigCloudy | See listing | 365 days | Direct (in-house) |
| HostPapa | See listing | 30 days | Direct (in-house) |
The directory does not yet record recurring payment as its own field, so a rate in this table may be paid once or on every renewal. Open the listing, follow the link to the source page and look for the words that describe duration: "recurring", "lifetime", "monthly", "for 12 months", "renewals". Treat the table as a shortlist to check, and expect it to change as we add programs and companies correct their own listings.
For the programs ranked by rate, and for bounties, tiers and qualifying plans on the first sale, see our guide to the highest paying web hosting affiliate programs. This page picks up after that first sale, once the customer starts renewing.
Which hosting products pay recurring commission
Recurring shares are not spread evenly across hosting. They follow the way the product is billed.
Shared hosting is usually sold on a long prepaid term at a low intro price, and most programs pay a one-off bounty for it. A recurring share on shared hosting is the exception.
Managed WordPress hosting is often billed monthly, at a higher price, to customers who stay because moving a live site is a chore. This is where recurring shares turn up most.
VPS and cloud hosting are billed monthly and, on many platforms, by usage. Programs here may pay a share of each bill for a set period, or a credit-based bounty once the customer has spent a minimum amount.
Reseller and agency hosting is bought by people who host client sites, and their bill grows as they add clients. A recurring share here follows that growth, which is why some programs cap it.
Our guide to affiliate commission types shows how to put a one-off bounty and a recurring share on the same scale.
Does a recurring hosting commission pay on the renewal price or the intro price?
It pays on what the customer is actually charged for each payment. The first payment is usually at the discounted intro price, and renewals are usually at the regular price, so a recurring share on a renewal can be worth more than the first commission. Check whether the program counts renewals at all, and whether a renewal on a long prepaid term counts as one payment or several.
This is the main way hosting differs from other subscriptions. A percentage on the first order of a cheap intro plan can look small, and the same percentage on the regular price a year later is a different number. Read the terms for the word "renewal" specifically. A program that pays "recurring commission on monthly plans" may say nothing about a customer who prepaid for three years and renews for three more.
Long prepaid terms and what they do to recurring pay
Hosting customers often pay for one, two or three years at once. That changes the shape of a recurring share in three ways.
Fewer, larger payments. A customer on a three-year term pays once every three years. A lifetime share still pays on each renewal, but you wait a long time between payments, and the customer may have left by the time the next one is due.
Caps counted in payments. A share capped at a number of payments can treat one three-year renewal the same as one monthly bill. On a long term that can mean one renewal and nothing more.
Caps counted in months. A share capped at, say, the first year of payments may never reach a renewal at all on a customer who prepaid for two. Check which way the cap is counted before you count on renewal income.
Usage billing on cloud and VPS hosting
Cloud bills move. A customer can spend very little in the first month and much more once a project goes live, or the reverse when it ends. A percentage share of usage rises and falls with them.
That makes three lines in the terms worth finding. The first is whether the share applies to all usage or only to certain products, since bandwidth, storage and managed databases are sometimes excluded. The second is whether there is a cap per customer per month. The third is whether credits given away free at signup count as revenue, because a customer who only uses free credits often earns you nothing, however busy their account looks.
What ends a recurring hosting commission early
The duration on the terms page is the longest a share can run. These cut it short:
- The customer moves host. Hosting customers leave less often than other subscribers, but when they do, the share stops. Content that helps readers pick the right plan the first time protects it.
- A move to a different plan or product line. A customer who moves from shared hosting to a VPS at the same host may be treated as a new sale, as an upgrade on your referral or as nothing at all.
- Refunds and chargebacks on a renewal. A renewal that is refunded usually reverses its commission, just as the first sale would. Many hosts refund unwanted renewals, so a renewal commission may sit on hold before it is approved.
- A change of reseller or account owner. When an agency hands a client site over, or a reseller moves accounts between its own customers, the link to your referral may not survive.
- Program changes or closure. Hosting companies change hands and merge brands. When that happens, the program may be kept, merged into the buyer's or closed, and the closure clause decides what happens to the shares you were already earning.
Our guide to SaaS affiliate programs with recurring commission covers cancellations, win-backs, new terms and platform moves in more depth. They apply to hosting too.
How to compare a recurring program with a one-off bounty
Estimate what one referred customer is worth over a realistic period, with the same assumptions for both programs:
- Pick the plan and billing term your typical reader would choose.
- Work out the first commission on the intro price they would actually pay.
- Work out the renewal commission on the regular price, if the program pays on renewals.
- Count how many renewals fall inside the share's duration on that billing term, and how many you can expect before a customer like that moves on.
- Subtract nothing for refunds yet, but note the refund window and how long renewal commissions are held. Our guide to affiliate payout terms explains holds and thresholds.
Use a cautious guess for how long customers stay. A bounty is paid within weeks. A recurring share may take years to pay back, so it is only better if the renewals actually arrive.
Keep your own records
Renewals happen far apart, and a lot can change between them. Once a year, check:
- the terms you joined under, saved with the date;
- the number of active referred customers, and whether it drops without explanation;
- renewals that were due and never showed up as a commission;
- any news of the host being bought, rebranded or moving its program to a new platform.
A short note with dates is enough. It turns "my renewals stopped" into a question the program team can answer.
Match the program to readers who stay
Recurring hosting commission rewards readers whose sites last. A freelancer moving a client to managed WordPress, an agency adding sites to a reseller account and a developer running a production app on a VPS all tend to stay for years. A reader spinning up a test site for a weekend does not. The program that suits a site full of tutorials for first-time bloggers is often a bounty program, and that is fine.
Where to go from here
Browse every program in the web hosting category, open the listings on your shortlist and read the source pages for four things: whether renewals pay, whether the rate applies to the intro or the regular price, how a cap is counted on a prepaid term, and what happens if the host is sold. Save a copy of what you find, with the date.