Have you ever noticed influencers promoting a product on their social media accounts? They have unique links that you can click to buy that product. If you buy a product, the influencer will get a commission. This is affiliate marketing and it has become a mutually beneficial programme for both the business and the influencer. 

WordPress affiliate plugins can help you ditch the work it takes to create affiliate links, manage the affiliates you’re collaborating with and so much more. They’re designed to help you use affiliate marketing to sell your products.

Here’s what we’ll talk about: 

• What are the best affiliate plugins for a WordPress site?
• What features do those affiliate plugins have?
• How should you expect to spend on the affiliate plugin?

If your mind is swarming with the same questions and equally excited to get started with your own affiliate program, this is the right article for you.

TL;DR: The Affiliates Manager plugin is the best WordPress affiliate plugin. It’s easy to use, has an amazing free version, and has all the essential features you need to get started. Before you begin, we recommend backing up your site with BlogVault. Incompatible or badly written plugins can cause your site to crash and a backup protects you from that. 

In this list, we’re looking for plugins that not only help you create affiliate links but also help you manage your affiliates, monitor traffic and so much more. So, starting from our favorite, here’s our list of the best WordPress affiliate plugins:

1. AffiliateWP

Over 30,000 active users have been able to easily create affiliate programs with AffiliateWP. It integrates well with WooCommerce, WooCommerce Subscriptions, and WooCommerce Memberships. You have full control on the approvals, emails, and income your affiliates bring in. The plugin also has reliable logs and tracking so you know how successful the program is. It’s easy to grow revenue with AffiliateWP.  

What does it do?

• Approve affiliates
• Track product referrals 
• Helps with payments
• Offer email support
• Real-time reporting
• Make application forms
• Customise emails

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy install and setup
• Works with Woo extensions
• Own all your own data
• No plugin fees

Price: They have plans that start at $149 a year. The higher the plan, the more sites you can use the plugin on.  

2. Affiliates Manager

Affiliates Manager is a cost effective way to make more money. It makes it easy to manage an affiliate programme and gives you a lot of control. You can disable affiliates from being able to make money from their own purchases. You can add banners and ads for your programmes. You can approve or reject applicants manually or automatically. It helps you grow and manage your business easily. 

What does it do?

• Automate approvals
• Customise payout rates
• Facilitate payments 
• Manage creatives
• Add banners or ads
• Disable own referrals

Why do we recommend it?

• Works with different language users
• Easy to manage affiliates
• Integrates with WooCommerce

Price: It has a free version and a premium version that starts at $39 a month. The free version is good enough though. 

3. Affiliates

Affiliates by Itthinx is an amazing WordPress affiliate plugin that can be used to manage and recruit new affiliates. Create a great affiliate programme by using an easy to navigate dashboard. Easily manage your links with real-time reporting of your traffic. The plugin has no limit on the number of affiliates you can recruit. It also integrates well with other Itthinx plugins and extensions that make managing affiliate programs easy.. 

What does it do?

• Recruit unlimited affiliates
• Generate traffic reports
• Report on link statistics
• Install an affiliate dashboard
• Automate affiliate approvals

Why do we recommend it?

• Quick and easy installation
• Easy to use plugin
• Great documentation

Price: The licences start at $49 for 1 site and can go up to $159 a year.

4. Easy Affiliate

Easy Affiliate is easy to set up after installation. It has a great support team and integrates really well with other plugins like MonsterInsights, MemberPress, WPForms, and more. They also have a really helpful blog with tips and tricks on improving your affiliate programme. The plugin has a great fraud prevention feature. It alerts you if an affiliate is behaving suspiciously and makes sure your payments are secure. 

What does it do?

• Generate custom links 
• Manage applicants
• Flag fraud behaviour
• Facilitate payments

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy to set up
• Great for admins 
• Secure plugin

Price: They have three plans that start at $199 a year. The higher the plan, the more sites you can set up and the more affiliates you can have. 

5. Ultimate Affiliate Pro

Ultimate Affiliate Pro helps you customise your whole commissions system. You can encourage your affiliates by rewarding them or depending on which products were sold. The plugin lets you easily pay the commissions with PayPal or Stripe too. You can integrate it with a membership system and allow affiliates to earn commissions for sign-ups. 

What does it do?

• Create commission levels
• Recruit unlimited affiliates
• Customise commission rates
• Recruit affiliates with promos
• Set performance bonuses
• Manage banners and ads
• Pay affiliates with PayPal

Why do we recommend it?

• Easy to recruit new affiliates
• Easy setup and install
• Full control of commissions

Price: $69 a year. 

6. YITH WooCommerce Affiliates

YITH’s affiliate plugin works really well with WooCommerce and adds affiliate functionality to your site. It offers a dashboard to manage payments, commission rates, and traffic as well as one for the affiliates to manage their profile. You can easily create registration forms and add affiliates to your site. It’s a reputable plugin that helps you find a way to drive traffic to your site. 

What does it do?

• Create registration forms 
• Add new affiliates manually
• Manage on one dashboard
• Monitor affiliate information
• Set all commission rates
• Choose payment method
• Create affiliate dashboard

Why do we recommend it?

• Detailed documentation
• Amazing support team

Price: $164.99 a year

Note: If you’re new to WordPress, we recommend installing other WordPress plugins that will help you maintain your site a bit easier. 

What should you look for in WordPress affiliate plugins?

There are so many WordPress affiliate plugins that bring their own pros and cons to the table. So it’s important that you take a minute to think about what you need and which plugin fits those needs the best. Here are some of our recommendations for what to look for:

• Ease of use: Your ideal affiliate plugins need to be easy to navigate. You should be able to easily create links and share them. You should be able to manage your affiliates from the plugin dashboard. 
• Reporting: It’s important that the plugin can track the traffic that’s coming to your site. You should be able to see which affiliate links are bringing in the traffic and how your call to action buttons are being used. 
• Support: Check the reviews of the plugin to see what people think about the support team. Are they easy to reach out to? Are they helpful? A great support team is important for anybody, but especially beginners. 
• Documentation: A plugin’s documentation contains information about the plugin’s install process, general information, tips, and FAQs. It’s the instruction manual for a plugin. Much like a support team, this documentation is great for finding out how to use the plugin correctly anc optimally. 
• Compatibility: Your plugin needs to be compatible with the other plugins you’ve already installed on your site and the WordPress PHP version. In fact, we recommend backing up your site with BlogVault first and testing the affiliate plugin install using the staging site feature. An incompatible plugin can cause your site to crash. A staging site and backup are protective measures against that.  
• Cost: Affiliate plugins can be expensive. Keep in mind how much you can afford and what the best plugins are that fit that budget. Your plugin shouldn’t eat up a large chunk of the revenue that your affiliate links are bringing in. 

What are the benefits of a WordPress affiliate plugin?

We’ve talked about how affiliate plugins can help you save time and effort. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the benefits:

• Add affiliate links: You can create affiliate links that you can share with your affiliates.
• Monitor traffic: Once the affiliate links are live, you can monitor how much traffic each link brings in. This is especially helpful if you’re offering commissions based on performance.
• Manage applications: You can create application forms, approve or reject applicants and keep track of your affiliates. You can even automate this operation, saving you time.
• Manage commissions: You can set commissions, use payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal to make those payments or even reward your best performing affiliates are.

Final thoughts

WordPress affiliate plugins can be a powerful tool to sell to the right audience and sell more products. If you do some research, find the right affiliates and cherry-pick the applications, you can be on your way seeing lots of traffic. We hope this article helped you find the perfect WordPress affiliate plugin. 

FAQs

What is the best WordPress affiliate plugin?

Affiliates Manager is a great WordPress plugin to get started with affiliate marketing. It’s easy to use and has all the basic features. It also has an amazing free version so you have a really small investment into the plugin. It’s great for beginners and small shop owners. 

Can you use your WordPress site for affiliate marketing?

Yes. You can. Once you’ve set up a shop on your WordPress site, install an affiliate plugin like Affiliates Manager. You then have a dashboard to create, monitor and manage your affiliate links. You can even manage your payment methods and commission payments. 

Is WP Affiliate plugin free?

No. AffiliateWP has three premium plans at $149.50, $199.50, and $299.50 a year. The basic plan is meant for 1 site and has all the core features. Compare the three AffiliateWP plans before you make a decision. 

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a mutually beneficial marketing model for businesses and affiliates. It’s where businesses share custom links with influencers or affiliates that they then promote. The affiliate then earns a commission depending on how much traffic and sales the link generates.