Best Affiliate Platforms for E-commerce 2025

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Affiliate Strat Team

We, the Affiliate Strat Team, are a group of writers and experts in affiliate marketing. We passionately believe that affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money. We have years of experience navigating the world of affiliate marketing. We offer a detailed breakdown of all the information you need to know. We also provide honest reviews on different affiliate programs. We geek out over all things affiliate marketing

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Ecommerce business growth can thrive through affiliate partnerships, and it might sound “easy” to launch one… until you start doing research and you’re encountering unfamiliar terminology, “request demo” buttons, and a lack of transparent pricing that brings the old saying, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it,” to mind.

(In truth, a lot of programs are custom-built based on a number of factors, so don’t let the lack of a clear pricing schedule scare you. Too much.)

At the same time, it’s important to consider what you need, along with your resources, goals, and even product category, when you’re weighing affiliate platforms.

Best E-commerce Affiliate Platforms at a Glance

Note: Affiliate platform costs tend to be quite customized, so for detailed pricing information, it’s best to contact the platform(s) you’re most interested in directly.

It’s a lot to take in, but this article will cut through the confusion and help you access what you need (or don’t), along with giving you the rundown on the best affiliate management platforms to consider and what they offer.

How to Choose the Right Affiliate Platform for Your Business

The best affiliate platform is ultimately the one that provides you with exactly what you need and want. Some questions to ask yourself right now include:

• Do I want to self-manage my program? (Direct management puts everything in your hands, but if you prefer a more hands-off approach, you may want a platform that provides management.)
• Will affiliate marketing be a major part of my overall strategy? (If yes, you’ll want a more robust platform for onboarding, reporting, and automated payouts.)
• What kind of affiliate partners do I want? (Whether review sites, content creators, influencers, or coupon/deal sites, you’ll want to select an affiliate platform that makes their recruitment easy.)
• What platform integrations do I need to consider alongside my current e-commerce or CRM? (The affiliate platform you choose should support all of the integrations you require.)
• What sort of budget can I afford to allocate toward platform fees and commissions? (Based on your answer, this will affect platform selection based on pricing models, examining hidden fees or transaction costs ahead of time, but also in making sure you can customize your commissions easily.)

Managing your own affiliate program with a dedicated tool (like Everflow, as an example) can provide a lot more control at a much more cost-effective price point.

That said, some publisher partners prefer to work with brands and businesses that have a presence on a larger, well-known affiliate network like CJ or Awin, not only for the platform’s perceived stability, but because the publisher is already active there and doesn’t want “yet another” platform to log into.

(That said, it’s worth pointing out that many publishers use third-party reporting tools to track all of their clicks, conversions, and transactions in one place, no matter where they come from. Affilimate, for example, is a popular solution for this.)

Beyond all of this, you’ll want to make sure that any affiliate platform you go with provides fraud protection and ensures FTC compliance, and that it’s reputable and is (ideally) used by similar businesses. After all, if it works well for them, it’ll likely work well for you too.

The Best E-commerce Affiliate Platforms, Ranked

We’ll break down the top five ecommerce affiliate platforms below, and hopefully, by the end of this article, you’ll have figured out which one aligns best with your business and needs.

Everflow

Designed to let you directly own and control your partner marketing relationships and performance, Everflow is not an affiliate network like some of the other platforms on this list.

One of the best things about Everflow is the curated marketplace, where you can filter through potential partners that are the best match for your business. You can sort by “top match,” which lets you see the best fits first, but you can also filter your recruitment by type (influencer, deal site, paid placements, in-app ads, and more).

This makes it easy to close gaps in marketing coverage so you can boost your program in any of the areas currently lacking. Once partners are onboarded, you can track engagement through the Everflow dashboard so you can see who is (or isn’t) driving engaged users and conversions. Your top-of-funnel affiliates (typically content publishers and influencers) are the ones most likely to deliver repeat customers, and the expansive data provided through Everflow helps you to track and reward those top partners to scale faster and drive even more revenue.

Particularly for “non-traditional” affiliates like ambassadors or influencers, it’s easy to set new partners up with a promo code or tracking link, and they only need to share their bank details and receive dashboard access when they’ve seen success. Which means you aren’t wasting a bunch of time fully onboarding folks who might not make a single conversion later on.

The fact that Everflow tracks everything (engagement and conversion) means that you can make decisions faster as they relate to partner performance and scaling.

Although Everflow has a mandatory four-week onboarding process, this is not simply time that’s spent “waiting” on their tech support to get things situated. Instead, this is a period of training that helps to ensure your success.

This is, by far, the heaviest and most hands-on support you’re likely to find from any affiliate platform, anywhere.

Everflow Pros

• Offers transparency into curated potential partners (including their traffic!) so you can find and connect to high-quality affiliates that will drive revenue and provide high-performing placements. Potential affiliates can be found by promotion type, which includes review websites, email lists, and media.
• Outside affiliate programs and networks can be integrated into Everflow’s reporting so you can see everything in one place.
• E-commerce integrations include Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, CJ Affiliate, ClickFunnels, Sticky, Konnektive, ThriveCart, BuyGoods, ClickBank, and Ecwid (Lightspeed).
• Provides seamless onboarding of influencers, ambassadors, and other partners through a customizable Partner Sign Up page, along with DocuSign integration for the digital paperwork.
• Extensive Dimensional Analytics lets you drill deep into the data and make the best decisions, quickly. 
• Every tracking link can be generated as a QR code for offline marketing campaigns or partnerships.
• Payment terms are fully customizable, and it offers several payout models beyond just purchases or leads, including Cost Per Click, Cost Per Sale %, or Cost Per Action.
• Built-in fraud prevention and monitoring.
• Excellent customer service and support whenever you need it, and the four-week onboarding and training sets you on the path to success.

Everflow Cons

• May be a little too robust for start-ups or small merchants who have no traction or who lack the time to learn and manage it.
• May have a higher price point compared to other options.

CJ

Formerly known as Commission Junction, CJ is one of the most well-known global affiliate networks, and reaching more than a billion customers every month, it’s a marketing ecosystem that connects you with some of the biggest brands as affiliate partners.

Whether you’re seeking partnerships with content creators or deals sites, CJ gives you access to a massive pool of affiliates so you can scale quickly. Payments to affiliate partners are handled by CJ automatically, keeping payouts consistent for your partners so you can spend your valuable time elsewhere.

The biggest drawback to CJ is probably the learning curve, onboarding, and setup. This is not a plug-and-play solution, and initial setup can take a week or more to complete, especially if you’re taking that on yourself. CJ actually recommends making use of their onboarding help, and to be honest, I recommend that too.

The user interface (UI) has definitely seen some improvements in recent years; however, it can still be a bear to master and isn’t the most intuitive dashboard system out there. 

That said, it is a truly powerful affiliate platform with one of the largest databases in the world, which makes it a great choice when you’re looking to expand your marketing across diverse markets or verticals.

CJ Pros

• Offers a self-service option that lets you run your entire program yourself, but also offers full program management if you’d prefer to hand that off.
• Very large network of publishers and advertisers to partner with, thanks to its brand recognition and long-established presence.
• Provides cookieless and cross-device tracking for accurate reporting, with real-time conversion data and robust reporting tools.
• E-commerce integrations include Shopify, Etsy, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce, and Shoplazza.
• Offers flexibility in commission structures to suit different partners and campaign goals. 
• Strong, built-in fraud prevention tools.
• Integrates with HubSpot, Shopify, Google Analytics, Stripe, and Google Tag Manager. 

CJ Cons

• Setup can be slow (7 to 10 days or longer), especially if you’re taking it on entirely by yourself. Onboarding help is available, however.
• There is quite a bit of a learning curve associated with the UI, and new partners require manual review and approval. 
• Although the site is mobile responsive, as of this writing, there is no mobile app, and most “major” tasks (like exporting data or making edits to campaigns) needs to be done from a desktop. 
• Tech support and assistance is not always timely or especially helpful, so you might find yourself spending more time troubleshooting or problem-solving on your own.

Awin

Once the parent of ShareASale (which transitioned into Awin proper in 2025), Awin is another global marketing platform that works with thousands of businesses and publishers and more than one million affiliate partners. 

One of the best things about Awin is the tiered access structure that caters to your needs and goals:

• Awin Access is the simple, self-managed entry-level solution if you’re a small business dipping your toes in affiliate, and it’s free for the first three months.
• Awin Accelerate is more sophisticated, with API automations that save you time and money, along with in-depth reporting and metrics.
• Awin Advanced grants unrestricted access to the entire technology suite, with fully customizable commission settings and even a Private Network Solution to integrate the platform with your branding. 

All of these provide access to find and select affiliate partners, although only Accelerate and Advanced give you the ability to plan placements for maximum exposure or view every customer journey to gauge each partner’s value and success.

Although Awin is a powerful tool, there were some technological hiccups during the period when ShareASale merged all the way into Awin (finishing in August 2025), although those have seemingly been ironed out (for the most part). That said, if you’re joining up, you’re not transitioning from one platform to another (as those who were previously on ShareASale did), so that’s unlikely to affect you; however, tech support may be busy helping those still experiencing problems.

Awin Pros

• Awin offers tiered platform access based on your business size and goals.
• E-commerce integrations are pretty extensive and include Shopify, Squarespace, Shoplazza, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Shopware (5 and 6), Opencart, Prestashop, Lightspeed, and Magento.
• Very robust tracking and reporting to measure affiliate success and ROI.
• Has a lower price structure compared to some other platforms, so it may be more cost-effective for mid- to large-scale businesses.
• Is one of the most well-known and reputable affiliate networks with reach on a global scale.

Awin Cons

• Although the partner pool is huge, it has its share of less valuable affiliates with low traffic, low conversions, or both that might dilute your ROI.
• There have been some technical difficulties since ShareASale merged fully into Awin, primarily with tracking conversions and duplicate conversions.
• Onboarding and setup can take a matter of hours for Awin Access, but extended setups may take several weeks to complete.
• Awin’s tech support is often slow to respond to high-priority concerns unless you’re a big player.

Impact

Formerly ImpactRadius, Impact is more than just a traditional affiliate network. It’s a full-on unified partnership management program that’s an all-in-one solution for performance marketing. Here, you can discover and recruit affiliate partners, manage them, and handle tracking and attribution across devices.

Where Impact shines is in its flexibility and automation. Contracts can be fully customized for content creators, affiliates, and referrals, so all of your partnerships can be in one singular place, and payments and reporting can be automated for easier management. 

Impact’s reporting gives precise data relating to lifetime value, conversions, and ROI from any partner (including social media influencers), so you can scale your most successful affiliates and replicate those returns.

That said, successful onboarding can get a little sticky, with “most brands” achieving it in less than 30 days. And historically (although similarly to CJ, Awin, and Partnerize, which we’ll discuss next), tech support isn’t always quick.

Impact Pros

• Advanced tracking (cookieless and cross-device) and multi-touch attribution, along with compliance tools and fraud detection.
• Payout terms and contracts are entirely customizable for each partner, so you have a lot of flexibility and control over your relationships.
• Offers deep analytics and reporting, giving you clear visibility into partner success and value.
• E-commerce integrations include Shopify, Squarespace, Square Online, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Ecwid (Lightspeed), Salesforce Commerce Cloud, PrestaShop, and Magento.

Impact Cons

• This might be a bit much for smaller merchants, as the pricing is not as transparent as others, and it takes a lot more resources to set up and manage.
• The learning curve with Impact can be steep, and the setup can take up to a month (or even longer in some cases).
• Support responses and troubleshooting assistance is known to lag.

Partnerize

Formerly known as Pepperjam and often by Ascend, Partnerize is a large-scale affiliate platform that provides a lot of partnership automation through a machine-mediated market. This is an end-to-end ecosystem where everything takes place from partner discovery and recruitment to tracking, analytics, and payment, along with collaborations and referrals powered by AI.

Like Everflow, Partnerize’s deep reporting helps you ‌determine which partners (or types) are driving the most valuable conversions so you can make the best marketing spend decisions to optimize your ROI over time.

Although Partnerize is a really powerful platform, it can almost seem too powerful and borderline over-engineered for smaller businesses or those in very early stages. It’s a great option if your business already has the volume and margins to support its implementation, however. 

Partnerize Pros

• The AI-driven platform is a one-stop shop in terms of affiliate platforms and offers exceptionally strong support for large businesses.
• Provides advanced, real-time data and analytics on partners and campaigns so you can drill down on key performance indicators.
• E-commerce integrations for Shopify, BigCommerce, Ecwid (Lightspeed), OpenCart, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
• Commission structures are flexible and customizable, and payments can be automated so partners are paid on time in accordance with their contracts.
• Fraud protection and monitoring are continuous.

Partnerize Cons

• This is more of an enterprise-level platform; smaller merchants may find the setup and management to be a heavy lift.
• As with CJ, implementation can take some time depending on your setup, with full program launch usually being completed within 15 days.
• As with other all-in-one platforms, the learning curve can be steep for some, especially if they’re new to affiliate marketing.
• Uses a custom pricing model, which can be pretty cost-prohibitive for smaller merchants or businesses.
• Like some other platforms (Impact or Awin, for example), support can be lacking unless you’re a major player.

Closing Thoughts

When you’re trying to grow your business through affiliate marketing, there are a lot of options out there, but not every platform is perfect for every business. 

Especially if you’re new to affiliate marketing, Everflow’s onboarding and training is far and away the most supportive option. Awin’s entry-level tier, Access, is another newbie-friendly platform for very small businesses and startups.

If your business is established and mid- to large-sized, however, CJ or Impact might be more your speed, but if it’s enterprise-level and on a global scale, Partnerize may be exactly what you need.

Truth be told, the “best” e-commerce affiliate platform is the one that meets you where you’re at right now, but can ultimately take you where you want to go in the future.