Customer referral software

ViralPayouts vs ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC

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 ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC, you pay your affiliates yourself and has no two-tier recruiting. It costs $0 to $499 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC

Best fit: A brand that wants affiliates and creators paid cash commissions, with partners recruiting 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

	ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC	ViralPayouts
Price	$0 to $499 a month	$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 stated	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	No	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	No	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	Customer referral program inside loyalty	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	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	Klaviyo, Recharge, Judge.me, Bazaarvoice, Square	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC plans in full

Start for free: $0 a month. Configure and explore; no live program features listed
Everything Plan: $499 a month. All features incl. referrals, UGC, wallet passes, tiers, integrations

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC

What ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC offers

Shopify stores near or above $100k monthly sales wanting a branded loyalty program (points, tiers, referrals, UGC, contests, wallet passes).

Customer referral software

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

Cash commissions paid to partners, not store-credit referral rewards
No monthly fee vs $499/month
Two-level recruiting and public directory

What ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC users say

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

Praise

Hands-on, communicative team that goes above and beyond (Auntie Butter, Sep 2026). apps.shopify.com
Built new functionality fast compared with other apps that were a "nightmare" (Grill Your Ass Off, Sep 2026). apps.shopify.com
Flexible, not one-size-fits-all; responsive support from implementation on (Petrusco Caviar, Sep 2026). apps.shopify.com

Complaints

Only paid plan is $499/month; free tier only lets you configure the program (listing pricing). apps.shopify.com

About ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC

In their words:: "Increase AOV and repeat purchases with a loyalty program that builds community."
Company:: Vancouver, BC, Canada · ethos
Named customers:: Auntie Butter, Grill Your Ass Off, Petrusco Caviar
Website:: heyethos.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.

Start a program See pricing

More comparisons

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Sources for ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC (2), checked 12 October 2026

ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with ethos: Loyalty, Referrals, UGC. Prices and features change: check heyethos.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.