We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
The referral category deserves a bit of an explanation because we continually see confusion arise when it comes to the competitors in this space. You'll often hear terms like "affiliate", "referral", "link tracking", and "partner portals" all used interchangeably.
And with that, not all referral tracking tools are created equal, nor are they focused on the same needs. They can actually be broken up more into 5 main sub-categories:
Dub is the modern link attribution platform for you to create short links, track conversions, and run affiliate programs.
Whether you're looking for a full-fledged affiliate/partnership tracking platform (Dub Partners), or you're just looking for the most modern link shortener on the market, Dub is the answer for both.
Dub Partners is a product that their team has been building in stealth and just dropped. It's the most modern and powerful affiliate and referral tracking platform on the market. Because Dub originated as a link tracking platform, they've thought through how to give the most robust and solid tracking of any of the other platforms on the market.
With Dub Partners, we know exactly what content we post across our site and YouTube is leading to the most revenue for our partner companies. Once you experience this, you can't live without it (as a creator or the software company). They automatically handle all the tax compliance and global payouts, no manual admin work required (unlike half-baked affiliate platforms like Rewardful).
While PartnerStack used to be our favorite affiliate platform (as an affiliate partner), Dub Partners has taken our top pick spot as it's just everything PartnerStack was, and more, at a better overall price as well. It's abundantly clear that they've worked directly with top affiliates to build what the software companies need to excel, as well as the creators/influncers. This can't be said about any other platform on the market (from our experience at least).
Read this post around starting an affiliate program to see exactly where Dub Partners fits into the affiliate tracking space when compared to the best affiliate & referral platforms out there, the leading platforms in the space are quite flawed when you actually start looking more deeply into it.
Get 20% off your first 3 months of Dub Partners.
Let us save you the time and research: whether you're a creator, marketer, or a company looking for a link infrastructure there is no better solution than Dub—trust us, we've tried them all.
Dub is the most modern link shortening/analytics platform. If you've tried to use Bitly's analytic dashboards (or Short's), but they are horrendously kludgy 🙈 So much so, that they cause dread to even go into the back-end.
Dub on the other hand, provides a minimal UI, providing you with the analytics in crystal clear dashboard. With Dub you can easily spin up short links, QR codes, add tags for organization, and even enable things like password protection, expiring links, or geo-targeting.
All of this, AND they have the most generous free tier of all the tools out there to try it out. If you're looking for a new link shortener, Dub is hands down the best on the market.
Manage your affiliate and customer referral programs seamlessly — and get started with the affiliate marketing software built for SaaS professionals, digital creators and marketers.
Rewardful is an affiliate management platform that falls short where it matters most: making life easy for partners. Your affiliates will not care about your program, in fact they will avoid logging in because they are juggling 30+ separate Rewardful accounts. You will be stuck chasing invoices, sending PayPal payments one by one, and drowning in hundreds of tiny transactions… all while your affiliates have zero idea which of their content is converting.
The good? It technically works for setting up an affiliate program quickly (great, you have a program). The bad? Everything else that impacts your partners' willingness to promote you.
Compared to tools like Dub Partners or PartnerStack, Rewardful feels a generation behind and will be the reason you go from thinking "affiliate is a growth channel" to instead "affiliate is a headache".
Curious how this app compares to others?