WordPress affiliate pluginViralPayouts vs Asteris Affiliates
ViralPayouts has no monthly fee, pays your affiliates for you and pays recruiters on every program. You pay 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3%, and nothing in a month when nobody sells. With Asteris Affiliates, you pay your affiliates yourself and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $0 to $45.75 a month.
Every figure for Asteris Affiliates comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.
Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Asteris Affiliates
Best fit: A brand that wants payouts run for it, partner discovery through a directory, and two-level recruiting without hosting a WordPress plugin.
- $0 a month
No plan and no setup fee. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
- Payouts done for you
One invoice per program. ViralPayouts sends every partner and recruiter their money and collects tax forms.
- Recruiters built in
Customer links and recruit links on every program, with the override set your way and reversed on refunds.
Side by side
| Asteris Affiliates | ViralPayouts | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 to $45.75 a monthTerm: Annual licence; plugin keeps working after expiry without updates; 14-day money-back guarantee | $0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month. |
| Setup fee | Not stated | None |
| Fee for paying affiliates | Not charged by Asteris; site says Stripe Connect Express direct payouts cost 0.25% (Stripe's fee) vs PayPal mass-pay 2% | Included in the fee above: no charge to the brand for sending payoutsPartners pay Whop's own fee when they withdraw to their bank |
| Pays your affiliates for you | Novia Brand's own Stripe / PayPal accounts | Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner |
| Two-tier recruiting | Higher plans2 levelsAny paid licence (Starter $149/yr and up); not in the free WordPress.org edition | Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups |
| Public program directory | No | Yes Partners browse and join with one account |
| Tracking | ?ref= link + configurable cookie; coupon code attribution; vanity /go/{handle} landing pages; subscription renewal commissions (WooCommerce Subscriptions) | First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook |
| Coupon tracking | Yes | Yes A code per partner, per program |
| Mobile app tracking | Not stated | App installs, sign-ups and purchases reported from your server through the signed event API, with bounties on them. No SDK to ship in your app. |
| API, webhooks, MCP | Not stated | REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks |
| Integrations | WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, SureCart, Stripe Connect, PayPal Payouts | Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API |
Asteris Affiliates plans in full
- Free (WordPress.org): $0 a month. WordPress.org says unlimited affiliates, manual payouts, coupons; pricing page FAQ says free tier is 'under 25 affiliates and no MLM / AI swipe / cloud fraud / PayPal-API features' (conflict)
- Starter: $12.42 a month billed yearly. $149/yr, 1 site, all features incl. MLM/two-tier, forum-first support
- Pro: $24.92 a month billed yearly. $299/yr, 3 sites, priority email support, migration done for you
- Agency: $45.75 a month billed yearly. $549/yr, 10 sites, white-label portal CSS, Slack support
Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Asteris Affiliates
What Asteris Affiliates offers
WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and SureCart store owners who want a self-hosted affiliate program, especially those switching from AffiliateWP, SliceWP or Tapfiliate to cut cost.
WordPress affiliate plugin
Why ViralPayouts is the better choice
- ViralPayouts pays affiliates for the brand via Whop; Asteris only automates sends from the brand's own Stripe/PayPal
- Public directory where partners find and join programs with one account; Asteris has none
- Override can be set as share of commission, share of sale or fixed per program; Asteris' tier-2 configuration options not detailed on pages fetched
- Not tied to WordPress: signed S2S event API and Stripe Checkout webhook
About Asteris Affiliates
- In their words:
- "AffiliateWP-grade features. SliceWP pricing. Forever." (homepage H1); WordPress.org title: "Asteris Affiliates – Affiliate Program & Referral Tracking for WooCommerce"
- Company:
- Founded Product launched 8 Jun 2026 (v1.1.0); sister business Orion Web Service building client stores since 2021 · Sydney, Australia (ABN 30 652 358 159) · Asteris Commerce (same team as Orion Web Service)
- Website:
- asterisaffiliates.com
Try ViralPayouts on test money
Set your commission and recruiter override, see what each sale costs you, and run it on the test network before a real partner joins. No monthly fee.
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ViralPayouts vs Coupon Referral Program (WP Swings)Sources for Asteris Affiliates (4), checked 12 October 2026
Asteris Affiliates is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with Asteris Affiliates. Prices and features change: check asterisaffiliates.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.