Affiliate software for e-commerceViralPayouts vs RefKit: Affiliate Marketing
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 RefKit: Affiliate Marketing, you pay your affiliates yourself and does not say it has two-tier recruiting. It costs $0 a month.
Every figure for RefKit: Affiliate Marketing comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.
Why brands pick ViralPayouts over RefKit: Affiliate Marketing
Best fit: A brand that wants hosted tracking with payouts and recruiter overrides done for it.
- $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
| RefKit: Affiliate Marketing | ViralPayouts | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 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 | 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 | Yes | Yes Partners browse and join with one account |
| Tracking | Affiliate links with backend identification (SDK); Stripe subscriptions/invoices sync; REST API POST /v1/transactions; Optional discount codes (Shopify) | 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 | API, MCP server | REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks |
| Integrations | Stripe (Stripe App), Shopify, REST API, Paddle/Polar coming soon | Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API |
RefKit: Affiliate Marketing plans in full
- Shopify app: $0 a month. Listed as Free on Shopify
- Self-Hosted: $0 a month. Open source (AGPL-3.0 app/API; MIT SDK/CLI/MCP) via Docker Compose
- RefKit Cloud: price not published. Waitlist; price not published
Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of RefKit: Affiliate Marketing
What RefKit: Affiliate Marketing offers
Developer-led SaaS teams (and Shopify stores via its app) wanting open-source, self-hostable affiliate tracking with Stripe, REST API and an MCP server.
Affiliate software for e-commerce
Why ViralPayouts is the better choice
- ViralPayouts pays the partners for the brand (via Whop) with no separate payout processing fee
- Two-level recruiting (recruiter override) built into every program
- Hosted and live today; RefKit Cloud is waitlist-only
About RefKit: Affiliate Marketing
- In their words:
- "Affiliate infrastructure for modern SaaS" / "Open-source affiliate infrastructure for modern SaaS"
- Company:
- Founded Shopify app launched August 11, 2026 · Tel Aviv, Israel (Shopify developer address) · RefKit Affiliates
- Website:
- refkit.net
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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RefKit: Affiliate Marketing is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with RefKit: Affiliate Marketing. Prices and features change: check refkit.net before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.