Affiliate network

ViralPayouts vs Circlewise

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. Circlewise also pays affiliates for you and does not say it has two-tier recruiting. It costs 15% of payouts.

Every figure for Circlewise comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Circlewise

Best fit: A brand that wants cheaper per-payout pricing with no minimum and partners who recruit other partners.

$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.

Start a program free

Side by side

	Circlewise	ViralPayouts
Price	15% of payoutsTerm: Terminate any time with one month's notice to month end	$0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Setup fee	0	None
Fee for paying affiliates	Included in the 15% margin on approved ad spend	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	Yesvia Circlewise	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Not stated	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	Yes200+ active partner programs; 11K+ connected publishers programs	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	Affiliate links; Conversion path attribution; Lead (CPL) and sale (CPS) events	First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon tracking	Not stated	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	API	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Not stated	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Circlewise plans in full

Performance-based: price not published, plus 15% of payouts. EUR 375 minimum monthly fee covering the first EUR 2,500 of approved ad spend (publisher payouts), then 15% margin; unlimited publishers, users, clicks, conversions

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Circlewise

What Circlewise offers

Fintech (P2P investing, brokers) and e-commerce brands wanting a managed European affiliate network across 10+ markets, with publisher recruitment, tracking and publisher payouts handled.

Affiliate network · Capterra 4.8 (49 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

Lower fee: 10% falling to 3% of payouts vs 15% with a EUR 375 minimum
No monthly minimum
Two-level recruiting on every program
MCP server and Stripe/Shopify integrations

What Circlewise users say

Paraphrased from public reviews. Follow each link to read the original.

Praise

Built a referral program from scratch that became the company's highest-ROI channel (Peter L., Apr 2020). capterra.com
Network-like benefits (open publisher marketplace, recruitment, payouts) without the usual network drawbacks (Lauri S., Apr 2020). capterra.com
Automated payments, detailed reporting, responsive support (Boris S., Apr 2020). capterra.com

Complaints

Mostly B2C publishers; wants more B2B (Peter L., Apr 2020). capterra.com
Promised marketplace partner-profile improvements not delivered (Arber B., Apr 2020). capterra.com
Slow report downloads; campaign creation slow; hard to communicate with team (Omer G., Vitalii M., Nacho B., Apr 2020). capterra.com

About Circlewise

In their words:: "Leading Affiliate Marketing Network for Scalable Business Growth"
Company:: Founded 2015 · Independent; CEO Niklas Holmstrom; co-owner Stian Longva
Team:: 7 named team members on About page
Named customers:: Mintos, Financial Europeans (creator partner)
Website:: circlewise.io

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.

Start a program See pricing

More comparisons

All comparisons

Sources for Circlewise (7), checked 12 October 2026

Circlewise is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with Circlewise. Prices and features change: check circlewise.io before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.