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:
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 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.
Displaying lists of partners & discovery for customers. The main company that we see leading this category is PartnerPage. They also have a deep relationship and integration with PartnerStack.
Example customers include: Zapier, Airtable, Notion, FullStory
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The modern business bank built for teams of all sizes. What if you could actually enjoy your bank? With Mercury, you will.
I have tried literally every single business bank out there over the years. Not the boring big banks with an awful banking experience (I've tried those too), I mean the modern business banks when the advent of Neo banks started to exist (think tech layer atop a traditional bank).
I first started my journey with Seed.co bank in 2016—and it was amazing. No fees, modern banking experience, integrations. It was the closest thing to Simple Bank but for business (for anyone that remembers Simple). I'll cut to the chase though, 2 years later I was greeted with this email (and no—you don't lose your money when this happens) 😅
So then the search began again, unable to settle on a traditional business bank after what I experienced with Seed. A few days after Seed announced they were closing, I came across Azlo. The promise was everything that Seed was, and more. And to that they delivered. I loved them. Over the years even built a close relationship with their product and API team—and yes, modern banks especially have proper product teams—blew my mind 🤯
Got just over a couple years out of them before they were acquired by one of their largest investors (the traditional bank they were built atop—BBVA Compass). Not a huge deal right? Wrong. They trashed all of their tech (genuinely no idea why), before ultimately selling them off a second time to PNC. I somehow just went from having a modern business bank back to having an awful, tech-challenged business bank again.
While it was a lot to go through, these 2 faithful banks got me from 2016–2021, and all I knew for certain is that banks could do better. So alas my search began again. 👋 Hello Bank Novo. They were pretty good, I used them for 6 some odd months, but was constantly frustrated with their non-standard QuickBooks Online integration, which was different from what Azlo had to offer (it didn't use the QBO bank feed, just synced over directly to chart of accounts, so all the smart auto-matching features of QBO no longer worked).
I was fed up, I missed Azlo. And then I ended my journey with Bank Novo in the tail end of 2021 after finding Mercury. They were barebones: no mobile app, basic web app, and QBO integration coming soon 👀 (I was skeptical, but gave them a shot nonetheless). Lo and behold, they managed to do everything, well, better...
Their QBO integration is top-notch, their UI/UX is the best of any bank I've used, and their feature-set is incredible. Baked in treasury accounts where you can get high-interest on the funds sitting in your account, quick spinning up of additional checking accounts, virtual and physical credit cards (still way prefer Divvy for this), streamlined bill pay. It just does everything. Incredibly well.
They are lightyears ahead of what Seed and Azlo ever were, and a completely different category than Brex (please... Don't use Brex as your business bank—they aren't in any way a proper bank...)
That said, if you're on the edge, look no further. This is the best business bank available regardless of if you're a small business or large enterprise. Don't believe me? Go check it out for yourself with their interactive demo page (I mean... how cool is that?! And why don't more companies do this??)
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There is currently no promo code for this app but we are close partners, so if you use the link above to visit the site and then let their team know that Efficient App sent you, you may just get a little something... extra 😉
There is currently no promo code for this app—we'll update it here if that changes in the future!
Get $250 when you use the link above and deposit $10,000 into your Mercury account in the first 90 days
A spend management (virtual credit card) platform for venture-backed startups and large teams. They also have a barebones checking account product called Brex Cash.
Brex has run into a bit of an odd situation in recent years—while focusing on growth, they apparently took on too many small-mid size businesses, which led to them axing accounts of many of their customers out of nowhere. They are now only allowing venture-backed startups onto their platform, or mid-size businesses doing at-least $400k/mo in revenue ($4.8m/yr).
We actually had a Brex account for many years when first evaluating it (checking in on how it evolved over the years), and recently, we were actually one of the many that were pulled into the axing account mess (luckily we ultimately decided on Divvy after initial evaluation of Brex, and have been happily using Divvy for 5+ years now). That said, when trying to log back into my account to add some screenshots to this post, I was met with a redirection loop and the following message from support upon reaching out:
While they have a "banking" component, it's more of just a simple checking account, and their banking features are not as robust as that of a full-fledged business-focused bank like Mercury.
All-in-all, they seem to be relying quite heavily on their YC network, getting most YC companies to use them by offering as many perks to them as possible. When actually comparing Brex against the competitors though when it comes to automatic reconciling of your expenses in your accounting software, and just overall UI/UX, there's a lot to be desired—Divvy and Ramp are far superior in many of those areas.
There is currently no promo code for this app but we are close partners, so if you use the link above to visit the site and then let their team know that Efficient App sent you, you may just get a little something... extra 😉
There is currently no promo code for this app—we'll update it here if that changes in the future!
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