In 2024, many affiliate websites experienced significant drops in traffic following Google’s March core update. This update seems to favor sites with large brand search volume, affecting smaller affiliate sites that lack brand recognition.
For example, HouseFresh, a site that reviews air purifiers, experienced a massive 91% drop in Google traffic. In contrast, more prominent sites like The Spruce, which have more brand search volume, kept or even improved their rankings.
This trend indicates that Google’s algorithm now emphasizes brand search as a ranking factor, making it increasingly difficult for smaller, less recognized affiliate sites to compete.
In this challenging landscape, having the right tools is crucial. With the right WordPress Affiliate plugins, you can optimize your website to maximize earnings, improve user experience, and stay competitive. Here, we introduce the top 13 WordPress affiliate plugins designed to help you navigate these algorithmic shifts, enhance site performance, and ultimately boost your affiliate revenue.
These plugins give website owners and marketers the tools they need to survive in the competitive affiliate marketing world. Before diving into the plugins, lets understand what a WordPress affiliate plugin and key features is to look out for in a plugin.
What is a WordPress Affiliate plugin?
A WordPress affiliate plugin is a tool that helps you manage and make money from affiliate links on your WordPress site. It lets you easily add, track and organize links to products or services you’re promoting, so you can earn a commission when people click or buy through those links. It assists in managing your own affiliate program in an efficient way. Especially beginners can take help of these plugins to set up their affiliate marketing program.
For example, if you’re a blogger reviewing tech gadgets, a plugin like ThirstyAffiliates allows you to create clean, easy-to-remember links (like yourwebsite.com/go/productname) instead of long, messy affiliate URLs. It also tracks how often people click on your links, so you know which products are the most popular.
Features to look for in a WordPress Affiliate plugin
- Integration with affiliate programs: Choose plugins compatible with networks like Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate and ShareASale for easy product access.
- Customizable links and banners: Look for link cloaking, keyword additions and branding options to boost clicks and engagement.
- Advanced tracking: Detailed analytics help monitor clicks, conversions and revenue for data-driven strategies.
- SEO-friendly link cloaking: Keeps URLs clean for better click-through rates and compliance with Google’s SEO standards.
- Automatic link insertion: Saves time by auto-linking specified keywords, enhancing monetization.
- Geo-targeting: Directs users to regional stores, improving conversions with localized offers.
- Plugin compatibility: Works seamlessly with essential plugins like SEO, caching and security tools.
- User-friendly dashboard: Simplifies link management and performance tracking, even for beginners.
- Regular updates and support: Ensures compatibility with WordPress updates and offers quick issue resolution.
- Policy compliance: Supports affiliate program policies and displays necessary disclaimers to maintain audience trust.
Top 13 WordPress Affiliate plugins
1.YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is a plugin designed to help WooCommerce store owners establish and manage affiliate programs effectively. By leveraging this tool, businesses can collaborate with affiliates—such as customers, bloggers and influencers—to drive traffic and boost sales. Designed as a user-friendly affiliate program, YITH offers both free and premium packages.
Key features:
- Affiliate registration: Customize the affiliate registration form to gather necessary information from potential affiliates. This form can be integrated into your site’s pages using a shortcode.
- Affiliate dashboard: Provide affiliates with a dedicated dashboard where they can monitor their performance, including visits, conversions, commissions and payments, all in real time.
- Commission management: Set default commission rates and create specific rules for different products or user roles. The plugin also supports manual or automatic commission payments, with payment processing options via PayPal or Stripe.
- Referral tracking: The plugin uses cookies to track user activity, enabling affiliates to earn commissions even if a purchase is made days after the initial referral.
- Integration capabilities: The plugin integrates seamlessly with other YITH plugins, enhancing its functionality and providing a comprehensive solution for affiliate marketing.
- Money-back guarantee: Offers a 100% full refund with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Affiliate coupon functionality: Affiliates can receive unique discount codes to promote, which helps in sales growth.
- Multilingual support: Fully compatible with WordPress Multilingual plugin, allowing multilingual support.
- Scalability: Can handle a growing number of affiliates and transactions.
By recruiting affiliates, store owners can drive more traffic to their site, boost sales and pay only for actual results. The plugin’s robust reporting and management features ensure that affiliates are effectively motivated and rewarded.
This plugin is one of the favorite WordPress plugins for WooCommerce stores, particularly for those looking to grow their customer base through strategic partnerships.
2.AffiliateWP
AffiliateWP is a WordPress plugin designed to help website owners create and manage their affiliate programs directly from their WordPress dashboards. By integrating seamlessly with popular eCommerce and membership plugins, AffiliateWP enables businesses to track referrals, manage affiliates and process payouts efficiently.
Key features:
- Easy setup: Quick setup with one-click integrations for over 28 WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and MemberPress.
- Advanced tracking: Tracks referrals via links, coupon codes, custom landing pages and direct links.
- Affiliate management: Manage registrations, approvals and payouts with a customizable affiliate dashboard.
- 1-Click Payouts: Streamline payouts through Stripe or PayPal to your affiliate partners.
- Customizable commissions: Supports various commission types—one-time, recurring, tiered and more.
- Fraud detection: Built-in fraud detection to safeguard against fraudulent activities.
- Internationalization: Supports 30+ languages for global affiliate programs.
- Money-back guarantee: All plans offer a 14-day money-back guarantee for risk-free trials.
AffiliateWP is a versatile WordPress affiliate management plugin ideal for eCommerce stores, membership sites, digital product vendors and service-based businesses.
3.SliceWP
SliceWP is designed to help website owners create and manage their affiliate programs seamlessly from their WordPress dashboard. It integrates with popular eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, enabling automatic tracking of affiliate referrals and commissions.
Key features:
- Unlimited affiliates: Manage an unlimited number of affiliates without restrictions.
- Affiliate approval process: Approve new affiliate registrations manually or automatically.
- Dedicated affiliate area: Provide affiliates with a personalized dashboard to monitor their performance, access promotional materials and manage their accounts.
- Customizable commission rates: Set fixed or percentage-based commissions globally, per product
,or per Affiliate to suit your business model. - Email notifications: Keep affiliates informed with automated email notifications about their commissions and account status.
- Real-time reporting: Access real-time statistics on referred visits, commissions and affiliate registrations to monitor your program’s performance.
- PayPal payouts: Process affiliate payments directly through PayPal from your WordPress dashboard.
- Money-back guarantee: Offers a full refund for all its plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
SliceWP is well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs looking to start or manage an affiliate program directly within WordPress.
4.WP Affiliate Manager
Are you interested in creating a cost-effective affiliate program on WordPress? Look no further than Affiliates Manager to develop and manage your affiliate programs. This plugin has a user-friendly interface that allows you to manage, track and remunerate your affiliate partners straight from your WordPress site.
Key features:
- Seamless integration: Compatible with major eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce, Simple Shopping Cart and more.
- Real-time reporting: Provides immediate tracking of affiliate referrals, clicks and sales, allowing affiliates to monitor their performance instantly.
- Unlimited affiliates: Supports an unlimited number of affiliates, enabling businesses to expand their affiliate network without restrictions.
- Flexible Commission Options: You can set flat-rate or percentage-based commissions and customize payout rates for each Affiliate.
- Customizable registration and emails: Allows affiliate registration forms and email template customization, ensuring alignment with the brand’s identity and communication style.
- Manual adjustments and payouts: Enables manual crediting of affiliates for certain situations, such as bonuses. It also supports manual payout processing.
- PayPal integration: Facilitates easy commission payments to affiliates through PayPal, streamlining the payout process.
- Unlimited creatives: Allows the addition of multiple banners and text links for affiliates, with easy activation or deactivation as needed.
- Autoresponder integration: Integrates with email marketing services like Mailchimp, AWeber and GetResponse, enabling automatic subscription of affiliates to mailing lists.
- Affiliate coupon tracking: Links affiliate accounts to WooCommerce coupon codes, tracking them to reward commissions accordingly.
Overall, Affiliates Manager is a versatile tool suitable for businesses aiming for a free affiliate marketing solution.
5.Ultimate Affiliate Pro
Ultimate Affiliate Pro is a comprehensive WordPress plugin designed to assist website owners in creating and managing affiliate programs effectively. It’s the most favorite affiliate marketing plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce.
This plugin’s key features include seamless interfaces with systems such as WooCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, EasyDigitalDownloads, BuddyPress and others, allowing it to cater to a wide range of business needs.
Key features:
- Unlimited affiliates: Recruit and manage unlimited affiliates to promote your products or services.
- Flexible commission structures: Set up various commission types to suit your business needs. It can be percentage-based, flat-rate and performance-based.
- Multi-level marketing (MLM): Implement MLM strategies to encourage affiliates to recruit others, expanding your network and potential reach.
- Recurring commissions: Reward affiliates for recurring subscriptions. This ensures they benefit from ongoing customer engagements.
- Affiliate dashboard: Provide affiliates with a personalized dashboard to track their performance, access marketing materials and manage their accounts.
- Advanced tracking and reporting: Monitor affiliate activities with detailed reports on clicks, conversions and earnings, enabling data-driven decision-making.
- Seamless integrations: Integrate smoothly with popular platforms like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and various membership plugins, enhancing functionality.
- Automated payouts: Streamline the payment process with automated payouts through PayPal or Stripe, ensuring timely compensation for affiliates.
- Customizable registration forms: Design affiliate registration forms that align with your brand and capture necessary information.
- Email notifications: Keep affiliates informed with customizable email notifications for important events and updates.
Ultimate Affiliate Pro is a premium plugin with lifetime updates and six months of support. It’s versatile and ideal for businesses aiming to grow through a scalable affiliate strategy.
6.Post Affiliate Pro
Post Affiliate Pro, an award-winning plugin, has received praise from sites like SourceForge and GetApp. It’s a comprehensive affiliate management solution that integrates seamlessly with WordPress. This plugin enables website owners to manage and track their affiliate programs from their WordPress dashboard.
Key features of Post Affiliate Pro:
- WordPress integration: Integrates seamlessly with WordPress to enhance affiliate management efficiency.
- Affiliate registration & management: Simplifies user sign-ups and affiliate management.
- Click tracking: Monitors affiliate-driven traffic with precise tracking.
- Top affiliates widget: Displays statistics for quick insights into top affiliates.
- Shortcodes for affiliates: Customizable shortcodes enhance affiliate content functionality.
- Plugin compatibility: Integrates with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and more for flexibility.
- Mobile application: Offers mobile applications for iOS and Android platforms, enabling users to manage their affiliate programs on the go.
- Multilingual: Supports 35+ languages and allows merchants to add additional language translations from the settings, increasing accessibility and worldwide reach.
While there is no free version of the plugin, it does provide a 14-30-day free trial for users to explore its features. Overall, Post Affiliate Pro is a versatile tool for businesses of all sizes seeking to grow their affiliate marketing programs.
7.Solid Affiliate
Solid Affiliate is a feature-rich, user-friendly and well-supported WooCommerce affiliate plugin. The plugin facilitates a smooth procedure by providing users with a step-by-step installation wizard accessible directly from the WordPress dashboard, allowing a simple or fully featured affiliate program to be set up.
Key features:
- Seamless WooCommerce integration: Solid Affiliate is built specifically for WooCommerce, ensuring smooth operation.
- Flexible commission structures: Store owners can set default commission rates and customize them for specific products, categories
,or individual affiliates. - Affiliate portal: Affiliates have access to a user-friendly frontend dashboard to monitor their performance, access marketing materials and manage their accounts.
- Automated payouts: The plugin supports automatic payouts via PayPal, streamlining the payment process for affiliates.
- Detailed reporting: Solid Affiliate offers comprehensive reports on referrals, commissions and affiliate activities, aiding in the analysis and optimization of affiliate strategies.
Solid Affiliate is a powerful solution for WooCommerce store owners seeking to implement an affiliate program. Its deep integration with WooCommerce makes it an attractive tool for businesses to expand their reach.
8.ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates is a popular WordPress plugin known for its ability to manage affiliate links from many merchants. It’s designed to streamline affiliate link management for bloggers and marketers. It comes in free and premium versions, with the latter offering add-on features. Notably, all premium plans have a fully refundable 14-day money-back guarantee.
Key features:
- Link cloaking: Transform lengthy affiliate URLs into concise, branded links, enhancing user trust and click-through rates.
- Centralized link management: Organize and manage all affiliate links from a single dashboard.
- Automatic keyword linking: Automatically link specified keywords to affiliate URLs throughout your content, saving time and ensuring consistent monetization.
- Advanced reporting: Access detailed statistics on link performance, including click counts and geographic data, to inform your marketing strategies.
- Geolocation targeting: Redirect users to region-specific affiliate URLs based on their location, optimizing conversions by presenting relevant offers.
- Link health monitoring: Automatically check for broken or inactive links, ensuring all affiliate URLs remain functional and up to date.
- Amazon API integration: Search and import affiliate links from Amazon’s Product Advertising API directly within your WordPress dashboard.
- CSV import/export: Easily import or export affiliate links via CSV files. This facilitates bulk management and migration across multiple sites.
These features make ThirstyAffiliates the best for Affiliate marketers with a global audience.
9.Easy Affiliate Links
Easy Affiliate Links provides website owners a consolidated solution for managing their connections. This plugin is compatible with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg, providing a user-friendly interface for easy maintenance.
Key features:
- Link management: Organize affiliate links by assigning categories, making managing and locating specific links easier.
- Link cloaking: Create shortlinks to cloak your affiliate links, enhancing aesthetics and improving click-through rates.
- Editor integration: Easily access and insert affiliate links directly within the visual and HTML editors, streamlining the content creation process.
- Tracking: Monitor monthly and lifetime click counts for each link, providing insights into performance and effectiveness.
- Import/export: Import affiliate links from XML and CSV files and export them, similarly facilitating bulk updates and backups.
- Compatibility: Ensure specific links remain uncloaked for platforms like Amazon, adhering to their affiliate guidelines.
Premium features:
For users seeking advanced functionality, the Easy Affiliate Links Premium add-on offers:
- Click statistics and charts: Gain valuable insights with detailed click statistics and visual charts.
- Broken link checker: Receive automatic broken link checks with email notifications, maintaining link integrity.
- Tooltip disclaimers: Display automatic tooltip disclaimers when hovering over links, enhancing transparency.
- Conditional targeting: Implement geo or device-targeted links, directing users to region-specific or device-optimized content.
- Replacement links: Temporarily swap affiliate links using replacement links, which are valid for time-sensitive promotions.
Easy Affiliate Links is well-suited for bloggers, marketers and website owners with Amazon affiliates, small businesses and niche sites.
10.EasyAzon- Amazon associates affiliate plugin
EasyAzon is a free WordPress plugin designed to streamline the process of creating Amazon affiliate links directly from your WordPress dashboard. This eliminates the need to manually generate links on Amazon’s website, saving time and effort. It’s the quickest and easiest way to create Amazon affiliate links within WordPress.
Key features:
- Quick link creation: Generate text affiliate links to any Amazon product directly within your WordPress post editor.
- Time-saving: Eliminates the need to manually create links on Amazon, streamlining the affiliate linking process.
- Versatile options: Customize affiliate links with various settings, including image affiliate links and automated link shortening.
- Boost commissions: Access additional support features to increase affiliate commissions, such as link localization and product pop-ups.
- Automatic localization: Transforms links to match their geographical areas. For example, visitors from the United Kingdom will be smoothly routed to amazon.co.uk.
This makes EazyAzon best suited for Amazon affiliate marketers.
11.Pretty Links
Pretty Links earns a place among the best WordPress affiliate plugins. This plugin instantly converts long and unappealing affiliate links into more memorable and visually appealing variants, making a lasting impression on website visitors. Notably, Pretty Links allows users to add links to postings, easing the process quickly.
Thanks to its outstanding user interface, pretty Links is the most user-friendly WordPress referral plugin for novices. Moreover, this plugin offers a 100% refundable 14-day money-back guarantee with all its premium plans.
Key features:
- Link shortening: Turn long, complex URLs into short, branded links that are easy to share.
- Advanced redirect types: Choose from different redirect options, like permanent or temporary, to control how users are directed.
- Automated keyword replacement: Automatically turn specific keywords in your content into affiliate links, saving time on monetization.
- Comprehensive link tracking: Track link performance with detailed stats, like click counts and sources, to help improve marketing.
- Link categorization and tagging: Keep links organized using categories and tags for easy management.
- Product displays: Showcase affiliate products with attractive displays to boost engagement and sales.
- Google Analytics integration: Connect to Google Analytics for deeper insights into link performance and user behavior.
- Link health monitoring: Regularly check for broken links to keep all links working and up to date.
By leveraging these features, Pretty Links helps affiliate marketers streamline their link management process.
12.MonsterInsights
Integrating Google Analytics is critical for business insights. MonsterInsights is a popular option among affiliate marketers as it directly integrates Google Analytics into your website. Doing so, it offers comprehensive insights into visitor behavior and site performance. For affiliate marketers, it provides specialized features to enhance tracking and optimize strategies.
Key features:
- Affiliate link tracking: Automatically monitors clicks on affiliate links, enabling you to identify top-performing links and optimize your marketing efforts.
- Outbound link tracking: Tracks clicks on outbound links, helping you understand which external sites your visitors engage with.
- Enhanced link attribution: Identifies which specific call-to-action buttons or links receive the most clicks, enabling optimization of your content for better engagement.
- Custom dimensions: Allows tracking of specific metrics such as authors, categories, tags and more, providing deeper insights into content performance.
- Real-time stats: Offers real-time analytics to monitor current visitor activity and affiliate link interactions.
- eCommerce tracking: Enables tracking of affiliate product sales, including metrics like total revenue
,order value and conversion rates to assess the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing efforts.
Affiliate marketers can leverage these features to refine their strategies and boost conversions by gaining valuable data. Its user-friendly interface is intended for people who need substantial Google Analytics training. Additionally, it offers a 14-day money-back guarantee and a highly supportive support team.
13.AdSanity
AdSanity is an Ad management plugin for WordPress. It’s a lightweight premium plugin whose plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. It enables users to create, manage and display self-hosted seamlessly and network advertisements within their WordPress sites.
Key features:
- Boost earnings: Efficient ad management helps optimize placements, boosting click-through rates and revenue.
- Ad blocker detection: Detects ad blockers and displays messages encouraging users to disable them.
- Custom Ad sizes: Create Ads in various sizes to fit your site’s layout and enhance visuals.
- Easy dashboard: AdSanity’s intuitive dashboard simplifies ad management, even for non-tech users.
- Flexible display options: Supports image and video ads with placement options like widgets, shortcodes and template tags.
- Ad scheduling: Set start and end dates for ads to automate display timing.
- Performance tracking: Built-in analytics track ad views and clicks, giving insights into ad effectiveness.
Therefore, AdSanity is a crucial plugin to build a successful affiliate marketing program.
Final thoughts: Choose the best WordPress affiliate plugin
Ready to take your affiliate marketing to the next level? With these powerful WordPress affiliate plugins, you’ll have all the tools you need to manage, optimize and grow your affiliate program effectively.
Whether you’re running a WooCommerce store, managing a blog, or promoting digital products, these top 13 affiliate plugins can be instrumental in scaling your business and maximizing your earnings. Selecting the right plugin will ultimately depend on your specific needs, budget and business model.
However, a successful affiliate site needs a reliable foundation. Choose Bluehost for your WordPress hosting to ensure fast load times, robust security and seamless integration with these top affiliate plugins. Get started with Bluehost today to create a high-performing affiliate site that stands out in 2025!
FAQs
No, WordPress itself does not take any commission from affiliate plugins. WordPress is solely a CMS (content management system). All the commissions are decided by the specific affiliate programs or payment gateways you utilize. These commissions typically go to the affiliates who promote and generate sales for the products or services.
Integrating an affiliate program into your website involves several steps.
– Choose a reliable affiliate program or plugin that suits your needs.
– Install and activate the plugin on your WordPress site.
– Configure the settings, including commission rates and payout methods.
– Create affiliate links for products or services you want to promote.
– Finally, promote those links through your content or marketing channels.
The specific steps may vary depending on the chosen affiliate program or plugin.
While having a website is highly beneficial for selling affiliate products, it’s not strictly required. Many affiliate marketers successfully promote products through social media, email marketing, YouTube, or forums. However, a website provides a centralized, professional platform for content, SEO benefits and greater control over branding and user experience, which can boost credibility and conversions in the long term.
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates, ThirstyAffiliates and Affiliate WP are among the best WordPress affiliate plugins.
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates, EazyAzon and Affiliates Manager are the free affiliate plugins for WordPress.
2 Comments
Slice no longer offers a free version.
Hi Roger, thanks for the heads up. We’ve reviewed the article and have made the necessary changes to Slice WP. Best of luck in your affiliate endeavors!