Dub Partners vs PartnerStack

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.

PartnerStack supports first-party tracking, but its core architecture is still rooted in traditional affiliate referral links and browser-based cookies. You can implement tracking via a JavaScript snippet, or server-to-server setup on your own domain (recommended). You want to choose the server-to-sever implementation so that you get more reliability and no bounce hops with Safari, iOS and other modern browsers.

PartnerStack centralizes commission payouts, collects W-8/W-9 forms, and issues 1099-NECs when you use PartnerStack-managed payments. However, it also allows partners to route payouts through Stripe or PayPal. In those cases, Stripe or PayPal (not PartnerStack) are responsible for tax form collection and 1099 issuance. In practice, if you are using PartnerStack, it makes the most sense to use PartnerStack for payments to keep payouts and tax compliance fully consolidated.

PartnerStack offers a strong partner experience overall. The unified login and built-in marketplace make it easy to manage affiliates and payments in one place. The main drawback is payouts on the affiliate side: partners have to manually trigger withdrawals and pay small fees each time. Automatic payouts or a smoother withdrawal flow would significantly reduce friction and mental overhead for affiliates.

PartnerStack was an early leader in affiliate analytics UX, giving partners better visibility than legacy platforms. However, it does not support standard pass-through UTMs. Instead, it relies on subIDs, which are manual, non-intuitive URL parameters that many partners (including us) simply do not use. As a result, attribution breaks down at the content level, and it is difficult to get truly granular insight into which specific pages, posts, or campaigns are driving conversions.

While PartnerStack’s UX is better than many legacy tools, meaningful data is still buried and slow to surface. We used it for six years before even discovering the geo-tracking tab. Key insights are hidden across dozens of wide, dense tables, making exploration unintuitive and analysis more time-consuming than it should be.