Most people start a blog to make money online through various advertising options such as Google AdSense, Media.net, sponsored posts, banner ads, and more. This is a good approach, but it has one big con: it usually takes a lot of time before you start making decent revenue. However, properly planning and using the right tools can make money from your blog within months.

How?

With affiliate plugins for WordPress.

If you use self-hosted WordPress, you can easily monetize your site. You can find both free and premium plugins in the repository and from third-party plugin shops. The problem is that there are thousands of add-ons to choose from, so today, we’ll make your life easier so you can start earning money with your blog.

Even though there are plenty of options to maximize your sales and revenue, we recommend using affiliate plugins for WordPress. In this post, we’ll look at the best WordPress affiliate plugins.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Before diving into the plugins, let’s better understand affiliate marketing. In simple words, affiliate marketing is like refer-and-earn. You promote other companies’ products or services and get a commission for every sale you generate.

Many WordPress web hosting companies offer affiliate programs that usually work similarly. When you join their program, they give you a unique link and track all the traffic you generate.

When someone purchases something from them through your tracking link, you will get either a flat amount or a percentage of the total sale. And the best part is that you can promote your links through your blogs, YouTube channels, blog commenting, email newsletters, and any other way you can think of.

Another advantage is that most affiliate programs are free to join, so you don’t need to spend any money to participate.

On the other hand, most affiliate programs have a minimum payment threshold that varies from company to company. You must reach that minimum amount to get paid, and then they will pay you via PayPal or ACH deposit.

As these programs are win-win situations, most online shops offer them nowadays. For example, Amazon has an affiliate program you can join, get a custom product link, share, and earn a commission. Similarly, many web hosting companies, such as WP Engine, Kinsta, Bluehost, GreenGeeks, SiteGround, HostGator, and many others, also have this program.

Why is using Affiliate Plugins in WordPress a good idea?

So, why do you need affiliate plugins for WordPress if there are so many affiliate programs? Because they’ll allow you to manage and track conversions accurately and easily.

Most affiliate programs’ links are long and ugly. For example, they usually look like “https://www.company.com/product-name/ref=yourusername”.

They’re very hard to remember, and they don’t look good. So, using an affiliate plugin, you can cloak the affiliate URLs, customize them, and make them easier to remember. For example, the above affiliate URL can be cloaked to “https://www.domain.com/go/company,” which looks much better.

Additionally, most WordPress affiliate plugins also come with tracking features so you can check how many clicks you got on an affiliate link, the visitor’s location, and a lot of other exciting information. With a premium plugin like MonsterInsights, you can also track affiliate conversions.

Best WordPress Affiliate Plugins for 2024

So now that we know what affiliate marketing is and why you should use a plugin, are you ready to choose the right one?

Here, we have collected the best affiliate plugins for WordPress in 2024. They all have unique functionalities, so you’ll find one that suits your needs.

The plugins are:

• ThirstyAffiliates
• AffiliateWP
• Pretty Links
• WordPress Affiliate Manager
• Ultimate Affiliate Pro
• Affiliates

ThirstyAffiliates

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. If you plan to promote affiliate products through your blog, ThirstyAffiliates is one of your best bets.

Plans

ThirstyAffiliates is a free WordPress plugin and one of our favorite tools. The free version, ThirstyAffiliates Lite, has over 30,000 active installations and includes basic features like link cloaking, custom prefixes, and redirection.

However, if you want more advanced features like automatic keyword linking, import/export, Amazon API integration, or Geographic referrals, you must purchase one of the premium licenses.

One of our favorite features is automatic keyword linking because it’s an excellent way to maximize revenue. Once you have added a link and cloaked it with ThirstyAffiliates, every time you create a new post or page, the keyword will automatically be linked to the affiliate link. You don’t need to manually enter the affiliate link every time you create a post, so you’ll save a lot of time.

ThirstyAffiliates Lite is available for download from the plugins repository.

On the other hand, there are three premium plans:

• Single Site License – 49 USD/ Year.
• 5 Site License – 99 USD/ Year.
• 10 Site License – 149 USD/ Year.

You can get the premium versions from this link. All three plans offer the same features, so choose the one that best suits your needs. ThirstyAffiliates provides a 14-day money-back guarantee, meaning you’ll get a full refund if you don’t like the tool.

AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is one of the best WordPress affiliate plugins. It’s one of the most popular tools shops use to manage their affiliate program, and for good reason. It has many advanced features and is compatible with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads (EDD).

If you sell only digital products, EDD is the best option. But if you sell both physical and digital products, WooCommerce is the best choice.

You can also integrate the AffiliateWP plugin with payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, as well as WordPress form builders such as WPForms, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and others.

Plans

This tool comes in four premium plans:

• Personal – 99 USD / Year – Single Site.
• Plus – 149 USD / Year – Three Sites.
• Professional – 249 USD / Year – Unlimited Sites.
• Ultimate – 499 USD / Lifetime – Unlimited Sites.

So, which plan should you choose? The personal plan is right for you if you have just started an online shop and need to test the plugin’s features. However, if you run an online business that generates thousands of dollars monthly, you might want to consider purchasing the Professional or Ultimate plan.

In addition, AffiliateWP offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all premium plans. So, if you think you made a mistake and this tool is not a good fit for you, you can get a full refund.

TIP: To optimize your WooCommerce shop to get more sales and conversions, check out our list of top WooCommerce plugins.

Pretty Links

Pretty Links is another plugin that helps you cloak, track, organize, and shorten your affiliate links for more revenue. This tool is an amazing option for link cloaking and can turn your website into a link shortener.

This plugin comes with a fantastic advanced feature: a redirection manager. Typically, link-cloaking plugins like ThirstyAffiliates will only allow three redirection types.

• 301
• 304
• 307

The 307 is activated by default. However, you can change the redirection type from the settings and choose a different one for all the new affiliate links.

Apart from this, Pretty Links offers many other excellent functionalities, such as:

• Robot filtering
• Link tags
• Custom slugs
• Expiring links
• QR code generation
• Keyword Auto Linking
• Import/export
• Social Sharing

Plans

Pretty Links offers three premium pricing options:

• Beginner – 49 USD / Year – 1 website.
• Marketer – 99 USD/ Year – 2 Websites.
• Super Affiliate – 149 USD/ Year – 5 Websites.

All plans are protected by a 14-day money-back guarantee, with one year of support and updates.

WordPress Affiliate Manager

WP Affiliate Manager is one of the fastest-growing WordPress affiliate plugins. It’s very easy to use and comes with great features. This add-on is an excellent choice if you run an online shop and want the affiliate section to run in autopilot mode. You’re ready once you set it up in your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store.

WP Affiliate Manager doesn’t limit the number of affiliates you can have in your shop. It has tons of features, but some of the main ones are:

• Affiliates portal
• Automated system
• Unlimited Affiliates
• Real-time tracking
• Mailchimp integration
• Customizable forms
• PayPal Mass Pay integration
• Shortcodes ready
• Translation ready
• Customizable Emails

One exciting functionality is real-time tracking. When an affiliate makes a sale through their affiliate link, it will be updated in the admin section and the affiliate’s area so you can see how each link performs at any time.

Additionally, the WP Affiliate Manager sends emails to the affiliate regarding the sales it generates, which are 100% customizable. Two payout methods are available: PayPal and Manual (your own payment method). You can integrate this plugin with PayPal Mass Pay to release payments to all the affiliates with one click.

On top of that, you can integrate WP Affiliate Manager with MailChimp and add them to your subscribers’ list. This way, you can welcome your new affiliates, send newsletters, promote your products, etc.

Plans

This is a freemium plugin. You can get the free version with basic functionalities or the premium plans with advanced features.

The plans are:

• Free – 0 USD
• Single Site – 39 USD
• Developer Site – 97 USD

You can try the free version if you have only one shop that needs the affiliate section. If that’s not enough, you could go for the single-site license. So, if you have two or more online shops that need an affiliate area, you should get a developer license.

Ultimate Affiliate Pro

Ultimate Affiliate Pro is one of the most potent WordPress affiliate plugins. It offers many integrations with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and Ultimate Membership Pro. Additionally, it’s compatible with payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe. But that’s not all. Email marketing integrations with popular tools such as GetResponse, AWeber, Constant Contact, or Campaign Monitor are also available.

Additionally, this plugin comes with a set of exciting marketing modules to track Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Action (CPA), Cost per Lead (CPL), and other vital metrics.

With over 8650 sales and a 4.6-star rating out of 5, this plugin is one of the best options. Some of the features that make this tool so attractive to users are:

• Ranking system
• Custom amount
• Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
• Lifetime commission
• Bonus payments
• Recurring referrals
• Optin integrations

Plans

Ultimate Affiliate Pro is a premium tool that costs 59 USD (one-time payment). It offers lifetime updates for the core and six months of support from the date of purchase. The support period can be extended for 12 months by paying an additional 20 USD.

Affiliates

Affiliates is a freemium WordPress plugin that aims to help you grow your business through marketing and maximize your revenue.

Its main features are a very intuitive affiliate dashboard to check the main metrics, automated affiliate registration, and the possibility of adding unlimited affiliates. Additionally, you can integrate Affiliates with many other platforms, such as WooCommerce, PayPal, Ninja Forms, and many others.

All in all, the prominent features this plugin offers are:

• Real-time reporting
• Traffic statistics
• Unlimited affiliates
• API integration

Plans

Affiliates plugin has a free version with essential features and three pro ones:

• Single Site – 49 USD
• Up to 5 Sites – 79 USD
• Up to 25 Sites – 159 USD

Like every freemium product, the free version of Affiliates doesn’t offer as many functionalities as the premium one, but it’s suitable for beginners in the affiliate marketing world.

Bonus: MonsterInsights

This bonus is perfect if you use an affiliate link-cloaking plugin like ThirstyAffiliates or Pretty Links.MonsterInsights is a viral freemium tool that can be integrated with Google Analytics. You can track affiliate links and see analytics reports in your WordPress dashboard.

So, along with the ThirstyAffiliates reports, with MonsterInsights, you’ll be able to see which affiliate links are performing well and get all types of reports regarding your audience, content, and much more.

Plans

MonsterInsights has a free version and three premium plans:

• Plus (1 site) – 99.50 USD per year
• Professional (up to 5 sites) – 199.50 USD per year
• Agency (up to 25 sites) – 399.50 USD per year

It’s worth noting that they all have a 14-day money-back guarantee, so if you’re not happy with your purchase, you can get a full refund.

Affiliate Plugins for WordPress: Conclusion

Affiliate plugins can help you manage and track your affiliate links. All the add-ons in the list are excellent options, so you should choose based on your needs, the features you want, your budget, and so on.

To create an affiliate program inside your WordPress blog, we recommend using AffiliateWP. If you are an affiliate marketer who promotes offers, ThirstyAffiliates might be your best option. If you don’t want to spend money, try the WP Affiliate Manager or ThirstyAffiliates free plans.

Finally, all these plugins are optimized for Gutenberg so that you won’t have any issues with the latest version of WordPress.

If you’re still unsure which one to choose, please comment below. We’ll be happy to help you pick the right one!

If you are looking for innovative ways to improve your site, check out our list with best WhatsApp WordPress plugins.