Dub Partners vs Cello

Dub Partners started as a modern link shortener (think Bitly, but built for performance), which is why their link tracking and attribution are best in class. They use first-party cookies when someone clicks a partner link, ensuring conversions are accurately attributed across browsers like Safari and on iPhones. Everything ties back to a single link with UTMs, so you can clearly see which videos, posts, or campaigns actually drive revenue. You never need to worry about bounce hops with Dub Partners, or ad blockers getting in the way of your tracking.

Dub Partners automates payouts and tax compliance by handling W-9 and W-8 collection, generating 1099-NECs, and supporting both US and international affiliates in one platform, with one-click global payouts and clear earnings dashboards that eliminate manual admin work for affiliate programs.

Dub has the best partner experience of any affiliate tool we’ve used. One unified login, a clean, intuitive dashboard, and everything we need to manage affiliate programs in one place. We regularly check our dashboards and our partners using Dub Partners are top of mind.

Nothing gives you deeper, more actionable insight than Dub Partners. Dub was originally built as a link-tracking tool (think Bitly, but better), so the entire foundation is designed for accurate, granular analytics.

Because Dub tracks UTMs natively, we can see exactly which platform and which specific piece of content converts best, without changing anything about how we already post or promote. The visibility is genuinely rare.

As an affiliate partner, we use this data to double down on what works, and your company gets the same level of transparency. It feels like a real partnership, not a black box.

In Dub Partners’ analytics dashboard, you can view performance for each individual affiliate, including: Earnings Per Click (EPC), Average Lifetime Value (LTV), Conversion rates from click to lead to sale, Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

Dub Partners has one of the best analytics experiences we have used. Nothing is buried or hidden. The moment you log in, you can see clicks, leads, sales, countries, and full UTM data, and filter everything however you want.

With most platforms, even basic insights like where leads are coming from require digging through layers of menus. With Dub Partners, it is all immediately visible and actually usable. I can quickly compare conversion rates between a specific video, another video, or a blog post and make real decisions based on that data. It is rare to find this level of clarity and flexibility in an affiliate platform.

Cello does not support conversion-level insight or detailed reporting, so you can't see which content or campaigns are actually driving conversions. You only get basic data showing who you referred and how much you earned, with no way to verify or analyze individual clicks or conversions.

This means you can't trust the numbers to reflect reality, and partners have to take everything on faith. If you need confidence that every click, conversion, and payout is tracked accurately, you still have to do your own monitoring or accept major blind spots.

You get automated payouts and tax handling, including W-9/W-8BEN collection and 1099 thresholds, so you don't have to chase paperwork or issue payments manually. But payouts only happen via PayPal or Venmo, which feels unprofessional and will instantly turn off experienced affiliates.

For affiliate partners, you're stuck with fragmented payments across multiple programs, with no unified dashboard or payment consolidation. This means you end up with a mess of small payments and a constant admin headache. This setup is fine for basic peer-to-peer referrals but falls apart if you need anything close to streamlined, professional affiliate payments and compliance.

Cello forces every affiliate partner to create and manage a separate login for each program, so you end up juggling countless accounts and links just to access basic program info. There's no unified dashboard to keep all your partnerships in one place, which means you constantly forget about programs and deprioritize them without even realizing it.

This setup might be passable for peer-to-peer referral users, but if you're a publisher, creator, or influencer, the main audience for affiliate marketing, it's a mess. You still have to manage multiple logins and get hit with scattered payments, so the whole thing feels clunky and forgettable. Cello technically gets the job done at a basic level, but it falls short of what partners actually want and need.

Cello does not support conversion-level insight for affiliates. You can't see which content or links are actually converting, so you're stuck with only basic data about who you referred and what you earned.

This kills motivation for serious affiliates and makes it almost impossible to double down on what's working. You still have to guess which of your efforts produce results, and the barebones reporting means you never get the feedback you need to improve.

Cello nails the basics for SaaS companies running in-product, peer-to-peer referral programs. Setup is fast and the embedded referral widgets make it easy for your users to invite others right inside your app, so you get frictionless participation for this specific use case.

But if you're actually running an affiliate program with publishers or creators, the experience falls apart. Every program requires a separate login, so affiliates have to juggle a mess of different accounts and dashboards, which means your program gets ignored. The reporting is barebones, with no visibility into which content is converting or even a clear record of payout history. Payouts through PayPal or Venmo feel unprofessional and add to the admin headache with scattered small payments.

If you're a SaaS business focused on peer referrals, the experience is fine. For affiliates, you run into constant friction and never feel like this is a tool built for you. You still have to fight the platform to get anything meaningful done.