Affiliate vs Referral vs Reseller: Types of Affiliate Platforms Explained

Affiliate tracking tools are focused primarily on one-way link tracking (think Amazon Affiliate links), by which the end-user usually has no idea money is being made off of their purchase. This is also because the end user rarely gets an incentive for using the link, maybe an extended free trial, or it can even be just a way for them to support their favorite creator.

More of a 2-way relationship, the purchaser usually knows that a transaction is taking place, might even be a benefit to the end-user (e.g. get $50 credit for signing up).

This is where things get a bit more difficult, as you're not really going to get referral functionality out of the cheaper affiliate software options mentioned above.

So if you're planning on having a more serious partnership strategy around referral tracking (especially important if you're a higher ticket SaaS product or focused on larger seat counts like mid-market/enterprise).

3rd party license management. This is more common in the IT space where an IT services company may purchase software licenses in bulk, and then resell them to customers of theirs, billing them directly, and making margin. Think for example a Google Workspace reseller.

It's more uncommon, convolutes things quite a bit (for both the partner and software company), as it introduces difficulties such as sales tax onto the reseller partner.

We've seen this work well mainly for companies that solely sell their software as a white-labeled solution, and their sole software sales motion is to their resellers. This takes a lot to get right.

Strategic partner initiatives & distribution. If you're just starting out your partnership, affiliate, or referral strategy, this is where this category comes into place. The reason being is that they can actually help you build out your partnership ecosystem.

So yes, you should definitely work to build out your affiliate and referral partners, but a partner ecosystem platform software will actually make it their mission to find great partners that'll promote your software for you. Some of the best companies already have deep relationships with some of the top affiliate sites out there (e.g. Forbes Advisor). The leader in this category is Dub Partners & PartnerStack. There's a reason why about 50–60% of the apps listed on this site that have partner programs use them. More on this below.