How to Create an Affiliate Program in 2026: A Step-by-Step Guide for Software Companies

To create an affiliate program, decide what you will pay partners and for which sales, write that down as program terms, connect affiliate software to the billing system that takes your payments, give every partner a tracked link or discount code, then recruit a small group of well-matched partners and pay them on a fixed schedule. For a software company on Stripe or Paddle, the software part is a 5-10 minute setup; the real work is the decisions before it and the recruiting after it.

This guide walks through those steps in order, with the numbers real programs use. Every benchmark statistic below comes from the SaaS affiliate benchmarks (121 campaigns, September 2026 snapshot), so you can see what other software companies actually chose rather than what a vendor hopes you will pay.

The steps at a glance

Step	What you decide	Go deeper
1. Check you are ready	Whether your margins and trial-to-paid rate can carry a commission	Readiness quiz
2. Set the commission	Percentage or flat fee, the rate, one-time or recurring	Commission structure guide
3. Write the terms	Attribution window, approval wait, refunds, banned tactics	Agreement generator
4. Pick the software	Which tool connects to your billing system and pays partners	Affiliate tracking software compared
5. Set up tracking	Links, discount codes, and how sales come back from billing	Stripe setup or Paddle setup
6. Build the partner side	Join page, approval, the dashboard partners log into	Launch checklist
7. Recruit partners	Who you invite first and what you say	How to find affiliate partners
8. Approve and pay	When a commission becomes payable and how money moves	How to pay affiliates

Step 1: Check you are ready to pay for referrals

An affiliate program pays out of the margin on each sale, so two numbers decide whether one makes sense yet.

• Customer lifetime value and gross margin. A commission is a customer acquisition cost. If you would happily pay $60 to acquire a $30-a-month customer who stays a year, a 20% recurring commission (about $72 over that year) is in the same range. If that sum makes you wince, fix pricing or retention first.
• Trial-to-paid conversion. Affiliates send visitors; your product has to turn them into customers. If very few trials convert, partners see clicks with no commissions and quietly stop promoting you.

You do not need a large customer base. You need a product that converts the people a good recommendation sends you. The affiliate program readiness quiz runs through these checks in a couple of minutes, and the budget planner turns a commission rate into a monthly cost.

Step 2: Set the commission

This is the decision partners look at first, and the one most founders overthink. The benchmark data narrows it quickly:

• Percentage beats flat fee in software. 81% of campaigns pay a percentage of the sale and 19% pay a fixed amount. Percentages grow with upgrades and annual plans; flat fees suit a single price point.
• 20% is the middle of the market. The median percentage commission is 20%, the average is 22.9%, and the 20-25% band is the single most common choice. Campaigns paying a fixed bounty offer a median of $30 per sale.
• Recurring is a minority choice, and that is an opening. 26% of campaigns pay recurring commissions on renewals rather than only the first sale. Offering recurring makes your program stand out to partners comparing offers.

Model	How it pays	Best for	Watch out for
Percentage, one-time	A share of the first payment only	Annual plans and one-off purchases	Partners earn nothing from renewals, so they may favor tools that pay recurring
Percentage, recurring	A share of every renewal, for a limited time or for the customer's lifetime	Subscription products with healthy retention	Set a cap you can afford, such as 12 months or 12 payments
Flat fee (bounty)	A fixed amount per new customer	One price point, or a predictable first payment	Does not grow when customers choose bigger plans
Tiered	The rate rises as a partner makes more sales	Rewarding your best few partners	More rules to explain on day one

A practical default for a monthly SaaS plan: 20-25% recurring for 12 months. If you cap recurring commissions, be precise about what the cap counts. A duration cap counts months from the customer's first payment, while a payment-count cap counts total payments including the first one, so "12 payments" means the first payment plus 11 renewals.

To test numbers before you commit, use the SaaS commission calculator, and see what affiliate programs pay by industry for wider context, or the short answer to what commission rate to offer affiliates.

Step 3: Write the program terms

Terms protect you and give partners confidence that they will be paid fairly. Keep them short and specific. At a minimum, cover:

• The commission and what triggers it. The rate, which plans it applies to, and whether renewals pay.
• The attribution window. How long after a click a partner still gets credit. 30 days is a common choice for software, long enough to cover a trial and the first payment.
• The approval wait. How long a new commission stays pending before it becomes payable. Match it to your refund window so you never pay on a sale that is later refunded.
• Refunds and chargebacks. A refunded sale reverses the commission.
• Promotion rules. Whether partners may bid on your brand name in paid search, use coupon sites, or buy with their own link (self-referral should be banned).
• Disclosure. Partners must tell their audience they earn a commission. In the US the Federal Trade Commission requires it.
• Payment details. How often you pay, the minimum payout, and the payment methods you support.

The affiliate agreement generator produces a starter template with editable clauses you can adapt. It is informational only and not legal advice, so have your own counsel review the final version. The affiliate agreement template post explains each clause.

Step 4: Pick software that connects to your billing system

You have three ways to run the program:

• Join an affiliate network. The network brings partners but charges its own fees and sits between you and them. Networks suit consumer retail more than software.
• Build it yourself. Possible, but you own link tracking, attribution, renewals, refunds, a partner dashboard, payouts and fraud checks. Most teams underestimate how long that list takes to build and to maintain.
• Use affiliate software. The software tracks clicks, reads sales from your billing system, calculates commissions and handles payouts, and you keep the relationship with every partner.

For most software companies, affiliate software is the right call. The single most important question when choosing one is whether it reads sales directly from the system that takes your payments, because that is where renewals and refunds happen. Here is what to check, and how LinkJolt answers each point:

What to check	Why it matters	LinkJolt
Connects to your billing system	Sales, renewals and refunds arrive on their own, with no manual entry	Stripe, Paddle, Polar, Creem, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, Apple In-App Purchases and more, on every plan, up to each plan's monthly tracked-sales allowance (see costs below)
Link and coupon tracking	Partners who post a code rather than a link still get credit	Links on every plan and every billing system; discount codes credit partners on Stripe, Paddle, Polar, Creem and Apple offer codes, and are created automatically in your Stripe, Polar or Creem account when it is connected
Recurring commissions with caps	Pay on renewals without paying forever if you choose not to	Professional plan and above
Tiered commission rates	Reward your best partners with a higher rate	Professional (up to 5 levels), Ultimate and Scale (up to 10 levels)
Partner dashboard and join page	Partners sign up, get links and see earnings without emailing you	Every plan; a yourcompany.linkjolt.io address on Professional and above
Payouts	Paying partners is where programs most often fall behind	Stripe Connect payouts from the dashboard and CSV export for PayPal/Wise on every plan; automatic scheduled payouts on Professional and above
Fraud checks	Self-referrals and fake sales cost you money	Rule-based fraud detection on every plan
Fees	A cut of your revenue grows as the program works	0% fees on the revenue you track

For a wider comparison of tools, see the best affiliate tracking software. If you take payments through Stripe or Paddle, the Stripe affiliate program and Paddle affiliate program posts compare the tools that work with each.

Step 5: Set up tracking for links and codes

Tracking is what connects a click on a partner's post to a payment in your billing system. In LinkJolt it works like this:

1. A visitor clicks a partner's link. The tracking script on your site reads the partner's details from the link and remembers them in the visitor's browser for 30 days.
2. The visitor buys. The referral travels with the payment: the script adds it to Stripe payment links automatically, and a custom Stripe checkout or a Paddle checkout passes one value the script provides into the payment, a small change for whoever built the checkout.
3. Your billing system reports the sale. Connecting your Stripe account is the whole webhook setup; for Paddle you paste an API key once and LinkJolt creates the connection on your account. The sale is credited to the right partner as a pending commission.
4. Renewals and refunds follow. Renewals pay recurring commissions if you offer them, up to your cap, and a refund reverses the commission.

Discount codes are the second route, and they matter for partners who talk about you in videos and podcasts where nobody clicks a link. They work on Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Creem, and as offer codes on Apple In-App Purchases; on other billing systems, rely on links. You can register codes you create in your billing system, or turn on automatic codes so every partner you approve gets their own code in your connected Stripe, Polar or Creem account. When a customer pays with a partner's code, the sale is credited to that partner even without a click.

The setup steps for each billing system live on their own pages, so they stay current: Stripe affiliate tracking, Paddle affiliate tracking, and the one-approval Stripe setup. Before you invite anyone, make one test purchase through a partner link from start to finish and confirm the sale appears.

Step 6: Build the partner side

Partners judge your program in the first few minutes. Make those minutes easy:

• A join page that sells the program. Say what you pay, how long a referral counts, and who your customers are. LinkJolt gives every campaign a join page partners can sign up on.
• Decide who gets in. You can approve every application by hand or approve automatically. Most software companies stay selective: only 17% of campaigns auto-approve partners, while 83% review every application manually.
• A dashboard partners actually use. Their link, their codes, their clicks and their earnings in one place, so they never have to email you to ask.
• A short welcome kit. A paragraph on who buys your product and why, your best-performing angle, logos and screenshots, and a sample post or email.

The affiliate program launch checklist has the full pre-launch list.

Step 7: Recruit your first partners

Software affiliate programs are a quality game. A handful of partners whose audience matches your buyer will outsell a long list of low-fit sign-ups. Start in this order:

1. Your happiest customers. They already know why the product is worth it, and their recommendations sound genuine.
2. Creators and writers who already cover your category. Someone who has reviewed a competitor has an audience that wants what you sell.
3. Consultants and agencies. They recommend tools to clients every week; being on their shortlist is a steady source of customers.
4. Affiliate marketplaces. LinkJolt's Discovery marketplace lists your campaign in front of affiliates browsing for programs to join, on the Professional plan and above.

When you write to someone, mention a specific piece of their work, explain why your product fits their audience, state the commission plainly, and end with one clear next step. The full playbook, with outreach examples, is in how to find affiliate partners.

Step 8: Approve commissions and pay on schedule

Late or confusing payouts are the fastest way to lose a good partner. Set a routine and keep to it:

• Approve after the refund window. New commissions start as pending. Approve them by hand, or set a campaign to approve them automatically after 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days unless the sale is refunded.
• Pay on a fixed day. Monthly is standard. Pick a date and keep it.
• Use the payment method partners prefer. LinkJolt pays through Stripe Connect for automated payouts in supported countries, and gives you a CSV export for PayPal/Wise for everyone else. Automatic scheduled payouts are available on Professional and above.
• Watch for fraud. Rule-based fraud detection flags self-referrals, where a partner buys through their own link. Read affiliate fraud detection for the patterns to watch.

The how to pay affiliates guide covers payment methods, timing and taxes in more detail.

What it costs to run an affiliate program

There are two costs: the software and the commissions.

Software. LinkJolt costs $19.99 a month on Starter, $39.99 on Professional and $99 on Ultimate, or $13.99, $27.99 and $69 a month billed annually. Starter covers up to 10 active affiliates and 5 campaigns; Professional and above remove the affiliate and campaign limits and add recurring commissions, tiers, Discovery and automatic payouts. Each plan also includes a monthly tracked-sales allowance: $5,000 on Starter, $25,000 on Professional and $50,000 on Ultimate, with no cap on Scale ($249 a month). Commissions on sales above the allowance are not payable: depending on the billing system and whether the sale is a renewal, they are either held until you move to a plan whose allowance covers the month or not recorded at all, so choose a plan with room to grow. Every plan starts with a 7-day trial (card required), with no fees on the revenue you track. Full details are on the pricing page.

Commissions. You pay only when a partner brings a paying customer. At the 20% median rate, a $50-a-month customer earns the partner $10 a month while the commission applies. Run your own numbers in the affiliate commission calculator.

Common mistakes when starting an affiliate program

• Launching to everyone at once. A mass email to your whole list brings sign-ups who never promote. Invite a small, well-matched group first.
• Paying before the refund window closes. You end up chasing money back from partners. Let commissions wait as pending first.
• A rate below the market. Partners compare offers. If you pay well under 20%, give them another reason to choose you, such as recurring commissions.
• No discount codes. Partners on video and podcasts need a code, not a link.
• Going quiet after launch. Check in with your top partners every month, share what is converting, and fix anything that blocks them.

Ready to set yours up? LinkJolt is affiliate program software for SaaS and online businesses: connect your billing system, create a campaign and invite your first partners in a 5-10 minute setup, with 0% fees on the revenue you track.