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ViralPayouts vs ClickBank

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. ClickBank also pays affiliates for you and offers multi-tier commissions. It costs $0 a month + 7.5% to 7.5% of transactions.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over ClickBank

Best fit: Brands with their own Stripe checkout that want a cheap, built-in two-level partner and recruiter program without handing over the transaction or paying a fee on every sale.

  • $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.

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Side by side

ClickBankViralPayouts
Price$0 a month + 7.5% to 7.5% of transactions$0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Setup fee$49.95 one-time activation fee, charged when the seller's first product is approvedNone
Fee for paying affiliates$5.00 per payment issued (pay period processing fee); wire transfers $45 eachIncluded 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 youYesvia ClickBank itself (merchant of record; Click Sales, Inc. buys and resells the product and routes funds)Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruitingYes2 levelsNone (Joint Venture Program, available to all clients; not for fixed-dollar CPA commissions)Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directoryYesOver 4,000 digital and physical products in 24+ categories (per Sonary; ClickBank's own homepage gives no product count) programsYes Partners browse and join with one account
TrackingClickBank HopLinks / automated customer tracking system (ClickBank-hosted order form); Instant Notification Service (encrypted POST on sale, rebill, refund, chargeback, cancel)First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon trackingNot statedYes A code per partner, per program
Mobile app trackingNoApp 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, MCPAPI, webhooksREST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
IntegrationsShopify (free native order sync), ClickFunnels, Voluum, RedTrack, EverflowStripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API
ClickBank plans in full
  • Seller (standard): $0 a month, plus 7.5% of transactions. ClickBank buys each sale at "92.5% of sale price + $1" (keeps 7.5% + $1). Subscription rebills under $40 bought at 90.1% of retail. Free trials: wholesale $0.50. Refund fee $0.50 or $1. Chargeback penalties and dormant account fees also apply. Affiliate commissions are paid on top out of the seller's share.
Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of ClickBank

What ClickBank offers

Sellers of digital and physical direct-response products (info products, supplements, courses) who want ClickBank to act as retailer/merchant of record and hand them a ready pool of affiliates; plus affiliates looking for offers to promote.

Affiliate network · G2 4.3 (22 reviews) · Capterra 4.3 (19 reviews) · Trustpilot 4.5 (6,438 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

  • No activation fee and no per-sale fee on the whole sale: ViralPayouts takes 10% falling to 3% of what the brand pays partners, not 7.5% + $1 of every order
  • Brand keeps its own checkout (Stripe Checkout webhook) and its customer relationship instead of selling through a third-party order form
  • Recruiter override is built into every program with a separate recruit link, and can be a share of commission, share of sale or fixed amount; ClickBank's referral contracts are percentage of seller share and excluded for CPA deals
  • No separate payout processing fee ($5 per payment and $45 wires on ClickBank)
  • Not associated with low-quality supplement and info-product offers

What ClickBank users say

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

Praise

  • Long-time affiliates say commissions have been paid on time and consistently for years. g2.com
  • Handles refunds, sales tax/EU VAT and commission tracking so sellers do not have to. capterra.com
  • Easy for beginners: quick account approval and simple setup. capterra.com
  • Support reps described as patient, knowledgeable and quick to resolve refund questions. trustpilot.com

Complaints

  • Marketplace carries low-quality or questionable products; reviewers warn of scam risk. g2.com
  • Popular offers are saturated with affiliates; gravity score is unclear. g2.com
  • Payout thresholds, limited payout methods and processing fees eat into earnings; some countries (several in Africa) unsupported. capterra.com
  • Buyers report slow or missing refunds after returning products; an affiliate reported an account disabled the day before a payment. trustpilot.com

About ClickBank

In their words:
"ClickBank E-commerce Platform & Affiliate Marketplace" (H1); page title "ClickBank | Top Affiliate Marketing Programs"
Company:
Founded 1998 · Boise, Idaho, USA (1444 S Entertainment Ave, Suite 410, per CB Insights) · Private (ClickBank, LLC); Click Sales, Inc. is the retailer-of-record entity in the client contract. Ultimate owner not stated on pages fetched. Founded by Tim and Eileen Barber (Wikipedia).
Website:
clickbank.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.