No. Polar is your merchant of record and billing platform: checkout, subscriptions, tax, invoicing, and a webhook event for every order. What it does not include is the affiliate layer: partner accounts, tracking links, commission rules, refund handling and payouts. That is what LinkJolt adds on top, using the order.paid event as the record of what was sold.
This page covers the tool and the setup. For commission rates, program structure and how other SaaS programs are set up, read the SaaS affiliate benchmarks.
Every sale is recorded from the order.paid event, server-side. A closed tab, an ad blocker on the thank-you page or a slow redirect cannot lose a sale Polar has confirmed, because Polar is the source of truth for what was sold.
You approve LinkJolt for one Polar organization. LinkJolt creates its own webhook endpoint there, with Polar handing back the signing secret, and checks once a day that the endpoint is still on, still ours, and still on the API version it was created with.
Polar carries the affiliate reference onto the subscription and every renewal order, so each renewal can pay the affiliate who referred the customer, with a cap by month or by payment count. Available on the Professional plan and above.
Polar sends order.refunded with the total refunded so far. LinkJolt reverses the commission, in proportion for a partial refund, and cancels any payout still queued for it. A redelivered event never reverses twice.
Add a code for an affiliate and it is created as a discount in your Polar organization, or let every approved affiliate get their own code automatically. Podcast and video audiences who never click a link still land with the right partner.
Partners get their own branded dashboard with links, codes, live earnings and payout setup, included on every plan.
The same steps the Integration Hub walks you through after you sign up, with your real merchant ID filled in.
After you connect, the Polar tab asks one question, how do your customers pay on Polar, with three answers: a Polar checkout link on my site, my code creates the checkout, or discount codes only. It shows only the instructions for your answer. Steps 2 to 4 are those three.
How to Set Up an Affiliate Program for Your Polar SaaS (6:02)
Snippybee is a demo account made for this tutorial.
Watch on YouTubeThis is a sale made through Polar, credited to an affiliate called Jordan, with a twenty percent commission worked out for me. In this video, I'll set that up from zero.
We'll connect Polar, create the affiliate program, give an affiliate a link and their own discount code, track the first sale, and pay it.
Polar is a great place to sell software. It handles checkout, subscriptions and sales tax. What it doesn't have is an affiliate program: no partner sign-ups, no tracking links, no commission rules, and no affiliate payouts.
So we add that layer with LinkJolt. My demo product is Snippybee, a twelve dollar a month app, sold through a Polar checkout link.
This is a brand new LinkJolt account. The quick setup list shows the whole job: a campaign, a connection to where you take payment, affiliates, and a first sale. I'll start with Polar, so the campaign can create a Polar discount code for every affiliate.
Open Integrations and pick the Polar tab. Right now, Polar sales aren't being recorded.
Click Connect Polar. LinkJolt asks for four permissions: read your organization, manage webhooks, manage discounts, and read orders.
Polar opens its own approval screen. Pick the organization you sell from, and approve. That's the whole connection: there's no webhook to create, and no secret to copy.
Back in LinkJolt, it says Done. LinkJolt added a webhook called LinkJolt to your Polar organization, so sales, renewals and refunds are recorded automatically.
Then one question: how do your customers pay on Polar? The Snippybee website links to a Polar checkout link, so I'll pick the first option.
The instruction is one line: add the tracking script to your site. When someone arrives from an affiliate link, the script adds the affiliate to every Polar checkout link and embedded checkout on the page.
If your own code creates the checkout with Polar's API, pick the second option, and pass the reference as metadata.reference_id. And if you can't change your site at all, pick discount codes only: each affiliate gets a code, and Polar tells LinkJolt when it's used.
I'll copy the script and paste it into the head of my site.
Now the campaign: the deal every affiliate gets. Go to Campaigns, then New campaign.
The name is just for you. The description is for affiliates: it's what they read when deciding to join. And the page to promote is where their link sends people. Mine is the Snippybee home page.
The commission is twenty percent of each sale. You can also add your product price, so affiliates can see what a referral is worth. It's for display only, and it doesn't change your Polar prices.
Snippybee is a subscription, so I'll switch on recurring commissions. Renewals pay twenty percent too, and I'll stop after twelve months. Recurring commissions are on the Professional plan and above.
Polar copies the affiliate onto the subscription, so every renewal Polar charges is credited to the affiliate who brought that customer.
Down here: a coupon code for every affiliate. Because Polar is connected, each affiliate gets their own Polar discount code. Customers save ten percent on their first payment, and the code is named after the affiliate.
By default, you approve each affiliate who applies to join. Click Create campaign.
The campaign is live. There are three ways affiliates get in: Discovery, where affiliates browsing LinkJolt can find you; a join link for your website; and personal invitations.
I'll invite Jordan, who writes a newsletter for developers. Add their name and email, and send. Jordan gets an email naming the campaign and the commission, with a link to join.
This is what Jordan sees: the deal, in your name, and one step to join.
Jordan is approved on the campaign straight away, and gets two things: a tracking link to share, and their own discount code, JORDAN10, which LinkJolt created as a discount in my Polar organization.
A few days later, one of Jordan's readers clicks their link and lands on Snippybee. LinkJolt records the click, and remembers the referral for thirty days.
Hover the buy button: the tracking script has added Jordan's reference to the Polar checkout link.
The customer pays on Polar's checkout, as usual. Polar sends LinkJolt the paid order, with Jordan's reference attached.
Back in LinkJolt, there's the new sale: twelve dollars, and Jordan's commission of two dollars forty, waiting for my approval.
And the Polar tab shows the event arriving. LinkJolt checks the connection every day, and tells you if anything stops working.
Refunds are handled too. If the customer is refunded in Polar, the commission is reduced or removed, and any payout still waiting for it is cancelled.
Nothing is paid until you approve it. Open Commissions, check the sale, and approve it.
Then go to Payouts. Each affiliate chooses how they're paid. Jordan picked PayPal, so LinkJolt shows their PayPal address and what you owe. Send it in PayPal, then click Mark as paid. Or export a CSV for PayPal or Wise.
Affiliates who connect Stripe can be paid automatically: with Stripe payouts, your saved card funds the payout and Stripe sends each affiliate their share, in the US, the UK, the European Economic Area, Canada and Switzerland.
That's the whole setup. Polar is connected, there's a campaign with recurring commissions, an affiliate with a link and a code, a tracked sale, and a commission ready to pay.
LinkJolt charges zero percent transaction fees, and plans start at nineteen ninety-nine a month. There's a seven-day free trial; a card is required. The link is in the description.
Sign up, create a campaign with your commission terms, then open Integrations, choose Polar and click Connect Polar. Approve LinkJolt for one organization on Polar's site. Takes about 30 seconds.
Paste one script tag into the head of your site. It captures affiliate clicks and adds the affiliate reference to every Polar checkout link and embedded checkout on the page.
Creating checkouts with Polar's API or SDK? Set metadata.reference_id to the value the script exposes. Polar carries it onto the order and every renewal.
Add a code for an affiliate and it is created in your Polar organization, or switch on automatic codes for a campaign. A sale using the code credits that affiliate.
Polar asks you to allow LinkJolt to read your organization, manage webhooks and discounts, and read orders, for one organization you pick. LinkJolt then creates its webhook endpoint in that organization, named LinkJolt, subscribed to the events below and pinned to one API version. There is no webhook URL to paste and no secret to copy; Polar hands the secret to LinkJolt directly. Revoke it in Polar's settings, or press Disconnect in LinkJolt, at any time.
order.paidthe sale: purchases, first payments, trial starts and every renewalorder.refundedrefunds, full and partialrefund.created / refund.updatedlogged; order.refunded is what reverses commissionsubscription.created / active / canceled / revokedlogged; renewals themselves arrive as paid ordersorganization.updatedkeeps your organization name current<script src="https://www.linkjolt.io/api/tracking.js?id=YOUR_MERCHANT_ID"></script>Links to buy.polar.sh and Polar checkout pages get the affiliate reference added as reference_id automatically, embedded checkouts included. Polar merges it into the checkout's metadata and onto the order.
// 1. In the browser: send the referral with your checkout request
const referral = window.linkjolt?.referral || '';
const res = await fetch('/api/create-checkout', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
body: JSON.stringify({ productId: 'prod_123', referral }),
});
window.location.href = (await res.json()).url;
// 2. On your server: set it as metadata.reference_id when you create the checkout
// (a Next.js route handler; with Express, add app.use(express.json()) and read req.body)
const { productId, referral } = await req.json();
const checkout = await polar.checkouts.create({
products: [productId],
successUrl: 'https://example.com/thanks',
// Polar refuses an empty metadata value: leave the key out when there is no referral
metadata: referral ? { reference_id: referral } : {},
});
return Response.json({ url: checkout.url });The page sends window.linkjolt.referral to your server as JSON, and your server sets it as metadata.reference_id. With no affiliate there is no referral, so metadata stays empty: Polar refuses an empty value.
Most affiliate platforms are built for Stripe first. These 3 name Polar on their own integration or pricing page. Every figure is read from the vendor's page, pricing checked October 2026; vendors change pricing, so confirm before you buy.
| Tool | Entry price | Fees | Billing integrations | Payouts | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LinkJoltLinkJolt pricing | $19.99/mo | 0% on affiliate revenue on every plan. Automated Stripe Connect payouts pass Stripe processing through at cost; CSV export is free. | Stripe, Paddle, Polar, Creem, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, GoPay, Apple In-App Purchases | Stripe Connect on every plan, scheduled automatic payouts opt-in from Professional, CSV export for PayPal or Wise | 7 days, card required |
| AffonsoAffonso alternatives | €15/mo (Launch, billed yearly only) | No cut of partner revenue. Managed payouts, from Growth, add a $25 service fee per invoice (waived on Elite), a 3.25% surcharge when you pay that invoice by Stripe (2.8% by Revolut) and $0.50 per payout after the first 25. | Stripe, Paddle, Polar, Creem and Dodo Payments | PayPal mass, Wise bulk or wire transfer exports on every plan, or managed payouts from Growth, where Affonso invoices you and pays affiliates by PayPal or wire | 14 days |
| RefgrowRefgrow alternatives | $29/mo (Starter) | 0% transaction fees; payment providers may charge their own processing or payout fees | Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Dodo Payments | Automated through your own PayPal or Wise credentials from Pro; bank transfer, Payoneer or crypto recorded by hand. Self-billing invoices with EU VAT handling | 7 days, card required |
Choosing on tracking method rather than price? The tracking software comparison explains what webhook, script and coupon tracking each catch and miss.
What Polar merchants ask before setting a program up
No. Polar is your merchant of record and billing platform: checkout, subscriptions, tax, invoicing, and a webhook event for every order. Partner accounts, tracking links, commission rules, refund handling and payouts are not part of it. LinkJolt adds that layer on top, using the order.paid event as the record of what was sold and order.refunded as the record of what was given back.
With one approval on Polar's site. You pick the organization, Polar asks you to allow LinkJolt to read your organization, manage webhooks and discounts and read orders, and that is the whole setup. LinkJolt creates its webhook endpoint in your organization itself, with Polar handing back the signing secret, so there is no webhook to configure and no secret to copy. You can revoke the access in Polar's settings at any time, and the Polar tab in LinkJolt has a Disconnect button that removes the endpoint again.
Usually not. If your site links to Polar checkout links, the LinkJolt tracking script adds the affiliate reference to every Polar checkout link and embedded checkout on the page, and Polar carries it through to the order as metadata. If your own code creates the checkout with Polar's API or SDK, pass the reference the script exposes as metadata.reference_id: one line. If you cannot change anything, coupon codes work on their own: a code registered against an affiliate credits them on any order that uses it.
order.paid is the sale: a one-time purchase, the first payment of a subscription, a trial starting, and every renewal arrive as paid orders. order.refunded reverses commission. LinkJolt subscribes to these for you when it creates the endpoint, along with the refund, subscription and organization events it logs, and pins the endpoint to one API version so a payload change on Polar's side cannot silently alter what is recorded.
The commission is reversed. Polar's order carries the total refunded so far, so a partial refund reduces the commission in proportion and a full refund removes it and cancels any payout still queued for it. Because the figure is cumulative, a redelivered event changes nothing twice. Your affiliate sees the change in their portal.
Yes, on the Professional plan and above. Polar copies the affiliate reference onto the subscription and onto every renewal order it creates, so each renewal pays the affiliate who referred the customer at the recurring rate you set, with a cap by number of months or number of payments if you want one. A free trial is recorded when it starts and becomes a commission when the first real payment arrives.
Yes. Add a code for an affiliate in LinkJolt and it is created as a discount in your Polar organization with the percentage or fixed amount and duration you chose, and a campaign can give every approved affiliate their own code automatically, named after them. Codes you created in Polar yourself can be registered instead. A sale that uses the code is credited to that affiliate, by the discount's id or its code.
LinkJolt checks every connected Polar organization once a day. If Polar switched the webhook off after failed deliveries, LinkJolt switches it back on. If the webhook was deleted, switched off again, or the access was revoked, the Polar tab shows what is wrong and you get one email and one notification that name the fix: Reconnect. No silent stop.
Polar does not pay affiliates, so payouts run separately. Automated payouts use Stripe Connect: your saved card funds the payout and Stripe transfers each affiliate their share, reaching the US, UK, EEA, Canada and Switzerland. For affiliates elsewhere, export a mass-payout CSV for PayPal or Wise. Every conversion waits as pending until you approve it, so nothing is paid on a sale you have not reviewed.
Plans start at $19.99 a month with 0% transaction fees on affiliate revenue, and there is a 7-day free trial with a card required. Polar tracking is included on every plan; LinkJolt charges nothing on top of Polar's own fees.
