Affiliate software for e-commerce

ViralPayouts vs Shoutout

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 Shoutout, you pay your affiliates yourself and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $0 to $79 a month.

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

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over Shoutout

Best fit: A brand that never wants to touch partner payouts, wants two-tier recruiting by default, or sells outside Shopify.

$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

	Shoutout	ViralPayouts
Price	$0 to $79 a monthTerm: Monthly plans can be cancelled	$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	None from Shoutout; "payment-provider fees are separate costs"	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 Merchant's PayPal business account (funded from merchant's PayPal balance)	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Higher plans"set the commission for each supported level" (number of levels not stated) levelsGrowth ($59/mo) and Pro ($79/mo)	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	Not stated	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	Referral links (editable/personalisable); Partner discount codes; QR codes; Lifetime association (Growth+)	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	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Shopify, Google Sheets, PayPal Payouts, Legacy WooCommerce and Squarespace	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

Shoutout plans in full

Start-Up: $0 a month. First 30 referred orders total; unlimited affiliates, links, codes, QR codes
Essentials: $39 a month. Unlimited referred sales, automated invites/reports, mass pay, SKU and performance commissions, pay-to-join option
Growth: $59 a month. Adds Multi-Level/Network Marketing, API, lifetime association, subscription renewal tracking, custom fields
Pro: $79 a month. Adds own domain (white label)

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of Shoutout

What Shoutout offers

Shopify merchants running affiliate, creator, ambassador, customer referral and optional multi-tier programs; also agencies serving Shopify clients. Legacy WooCommerce and Squarespace customers are still supported.

Affiliate software for e-commerce

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

ViralPayouts pays partners via Whop; Shoutout makes the merchant fund PayPal Payouts, the exact pain a 7-figure user left over
Two-tier included on every program instead of from $59/mo
Public directory and one partner account across programs
Not tied to Shopify: S2S API and Stripe webhook
Zero cost in quiet months

What Shoutout users say

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

Praise

Merchants call it intuitive and clean, with strong support (Eagle Rock WERKSHOP, Goodys CBD). shoutout.global
West Virginia Wholesale said it was confident paying thousands of affiliates at a time. shoutout.global

Complaints

HALOLIFE (US) scaled to 7 figures of affiliate revenue but left because PayPal mass-pay payouts were very hard to process and affiliates could create arbitrary store redirects. apps.shopify.com
The Light Blonde found navigation messy and switched back to its previous app after 6 months. apps.shopify.com
Rockabilia wanted affiliates to see per-link results; all clicks and sales were lumped together (2019). apps.shopify.com

About Shoutout

In their words:: "Turn customers, creators and partners into a sales channel." (homepage H1)
Company:: Founded Shopify app launched March 17, 2018 · Shoutout
Named customers:: Yeehaw Cowboy (customer story), Moxi Skates (customer story), FoxyBae (customer story), HALOLIFE (said it scaled to 7 figures of affiliate revenue, then left)
Website:: shoutout.global

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 Shoutout (7), checked 12 October 2026

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