I talk to a lot of merchants in this situation asking me the same question, so I decided to write a blog post about it. So if you’re looking for a GoAffPro alternative because paying affiliates has become a monthly chore, stay with me because this is going to answer a lot of your questions.
And I’d start with how much of that work the next app can handle for you.
If you’re experiencing the same as the merchants I speak with, you probably want commissions calculated and partners paid, with time to step in if an order is refunded or a referral looks suspicious.
If you were sitting across the screen from me, I’d tell you that ReferralCandy lets you set a purchase review period around your return policy, which gives you time to check referred orders before rewards become payable. With an automated cash payout method, eligible commissions move to payment once the review period ends and funding is confirmed. The whole idea is that you no longer have to approve every routine commission by hand.
That’s the kind of setup I’d look for: the app handles the regular work, and you can deal with anything that needs your attention.
Here are four GoAffPro alternatives to put on your Shopify shortlist.
GoAffPro alternatives to consider
| App | When to consider it | Starting price and relevant plan |
|---|---|---|
| ReferralCandy | You want reward choices through Tremendous and Shopify store credit, plus one platform for affiliates, customer referrals and cashback loyalty. | Basic: $39/month + 10.5% success fee. Higher monthly plans have lower success-fee rates. |
| UpPromote | You want to organize partners into separate programs, each with its own commission rules. | Free for one program. Growth: $29.99/month + 2% of successful referral sales, with unlimited programs. |
| Refersion | You want to evaluate first-party tracking, or set different commission terms for new and returning customers. | Launch: $39/month + 3% of affiliate-driven sales. New-versus-returning customer commission rules are on Growth: $199/month + 2%. |
| Social Snowball | You want to evaluate Safelinks, which generate single-use discount codes for individual shoppers, alongside automated payouts. | Snow Day starts at $249/month + 3% of affiliate revenue. |
What should get easier when you switch?
Before moving your program, check whether your current GoAffPro setup can solve the problem. Its commission groups let you apply rules across partners, and its payout tools support payment batches, so check the options available on your plan. A setting change or an upgrade (I know) may remove the task that has been taking up your time.
For the work that remains, use your most recent payout run as the basis for comparing alternatives. If you’re going to talk to us, or any other affiliate app, make sure to walk through three things in a demo:
- Work out what each partner is owed. Find the orders behind a commission and the rule used to calculate it, and if you regularly change rates, ask how that change affects orders still waiting for review.
- Handle the orders that need attention. Use a refund or a disputed referral as an example. See where you investigate it, how you adjust or exclude it, and when the commission becomes payable.
- Pay partners and keep them informed. Follow an eligible commission through to payment, meaning, check who sends the money, what you need to do, and where the partner can see their earnings and payment status.
Then write down the steps you would still handle yourself, because those are the steps you’ll repeat next month (and for the foreseeable future), so a useful switch should remove enough of that work to justify the cost and effort of moving, while giving you a clear way to inspect and resolve exceptions (which will definitely arise).
ReferralCandy: reward your partners and run referrals and loyalty in one place
Obviously, I’m going to tell you to consider ReferralCandy if you want a wide choice of partner rewards, fraud protection and the option to manage customer referrals and cashback loyalty alongside your affiliate program. You’re basically bringing all of these parts of your word-of-mouth and customer retention work into one platform.
I’d start with how you want to reward your partners. ReferralCandy’s Tremendous integration gives you access to a catalog with hundreds of reward options, including monetary payouts, prepaid cards, gift cards and charity donations. From all of these, you can choose the options to offer, and recipients see the choices available for their country and reward amount. You can also offer Shopify store credit, giving affiliates or customer advocates a balance they can spend on a future order, while setting expiration dates for those credits.
FlexiTiers is a feature that lets you give partners more to work toward as they bring in qualifying affiliate sales (you can do this for referral programs too). You can increase commissions at different affiliate milestones, combine a regular reward with a milestone bonus, or change the reward type between tiers. Each tier supports up to two rewards, depending on the reward types available in your campaign. For example, you could keep paying a percentage commission and add a cash bonus at the tenth qualifying referral.
ReferralCandy brings more than 15 years of experience running ecommerce programs. Its fraud protection blocks clear self-referrals and flags suspicious patterns, such as repeated referrals from the same IP address or unusual referral volume. In the Fraud Center, you can see why activity was flagged, inspect the purchases and decide what action to take during the review period, which gives you automatic checks and a place to investigate the commissions that need attention.
The same platform can also support the customers who buy from you. For example, a referral campaign rewards them for introducing friends, and a cashback loyalty campaign gives enrolled customers a percentage of their own qualifying purchases back as Shopify store credit, ready for a future purchase. You can run those campaigns alongside your affiliate program, with rewards suited to each relationship in one single platform (and one single price).
If you’re going to sit on a demo with me, bring the reward preferences of a few existing partners and an example of a commission you would want to review. Then look at how a customer referral or cashback campaign would fit your plans. That will help you judge both the day-to-day affiliate work and the other programs you could manage in the same app, with all features included in all plans.
UpPromote: organize partners into programs with different commission rules
Consider UpPromote if you want separate programs for groups of partners, each with its own terms. Their free plan supports one program; paid plans support unlimited programs, and if you upgrade to Professional, auto-tier commissions can move affiliates between programs when they meet performance thresholds.
Refersion: evaluate tracking and commissions for new versus returning customers
Consider Refersion if a first-party tracking domain matters to your setup, or you want different commission rates for new and returning customers. If you want their new-versus-returning feature, you’ll need to upgrade to Growth. For an established store, ask how your existing customer list will be loaded and which orders build the returning-customer record.
Social Snowball: evaluate single-use codes and automated payouts
Consider Social Snowball if you want to give shoppers discounts through affiliate links while reducing reliance on reusable partner codes. Safelinks generate a separate, single-use code for each shopper who claims an offer. Its Snow Day plan also lists automated payouts and tiered rewards.
How to move your GoAffPro program to ReferralCandy
You can work through much of the setup with Referral Expert, our AI assistant. Tell it what you want your program to do, and it can help configure rewards, audiences and campaign copy. You review the proposed changes before it applies them. You can also work with a human account manager from our team when you need help with the move.
For an existing affiliate program, I’d focus on three parts of the handover.
1. Bring your contacts and their agreed reward terms
Prepare your existing affiliate list and the commission terms you want to carry over. You can invite affiliates through a CSV upload and set up the welcome email so they receive their new sharing details when they enroll in the live campaign.
If you’re also bringing customers into a referral program, import them into a segment and include it in that campaign’s target audience. Enable the welcome email if you want ReferralCandy to introduce them to the program.
2. Update where people join and share
Check the places on your website that point to the existing program. That might mean updating a menu link or replacing a signup form with ReferralCandy’s join page or Shopify Join block.
Agree which links and codes partners should use after the move, and send them those details. Include links already shared in social profiles or emails when planning the changeover.
3. Agree when the new program takes over
Choose a start date and agree how you’ll settle any commissions still owed from GoAffPro. With a few partners, check the welcome email, portal and first referred orders, then follow a qualifying commission through to payment.
Bring those details to our team so we can work through the handover together.