Program types
Affiliate network
An affiliate network is a marketplace that connects merchants with affiliates, handling tracking, reporting and consolidated payouts across many programs in exchange for a fee or revenue share.
Networks give merchants access to a pool of existing affiliates and give affiliates a single place to find offers and get paid. The trade-off is cost (often a percentage of tracked revenue) and less direct control over the relationship and data.
An alternative is in-house affiliate software, where a business runs its own program directly, owns the affiliate relationships and data, and pays a flat software fee rather than a network revenue share.
Related terms
Run every partner program from one platform.
Affiliate, referral and influencer — free to start, server-side attribution, and payouts you own.