So, you’re on the hunt for the best-of-year SaaS affiliate marketing programs.
You’ve come to the right place.
The global SaaS market is currently worth $3 trillion, with a projected increase to $10 trillion by 2030. As the SaaS market grows, affiliate marketers like you will grow in demand as well. If you have a sizable B2B audience in any industry, now is the time to join the world of SaaS.
However, be aware of the risks. Affiliate fraud, such as pay-to-join, get-rich-quick schemes, fake products, etc., haunts areas of the market. Use due diligence to avoid becoming a victim. And here’s the good news: We’re here to help.
We’ve compiled a list of the top 20 SaaS affiliate marketing programs available today. You'll also learn the most important factors to consider before joining, and why SaaS affiliate programs pay the best rates—really, they do.
Let’s dive in.
Why Do SaaS Affiliate Programs Pay Better?
Unlike physical products, you can’t advertise a SaaS (Software as a Service) product unless you understand how it fits into your audience's current tech stack.
That’s why a successful SaaS affiliate marketing program incorporates real, practical advice with product promotions that give you a decent commission.
Let’s say you’re a social media marketer who teaches business owners how to promote their companies on social media. The question is: Can anyone today execute successful social media marketing without using SaaS tools? Highly unlikely.
As a SaaS affiliate marketer, you’ll help your audience succeed (via your SaaS recommendations), and your bank account will thank you. It’s a win-win.
Becoming a SaaS affiliate marketer has other perks, including:
- Recurring commissions: Most SaaS brands operate on a monthly subscription basis and will pay you recurring commissions for up to 12 months with each customer you refer. Some will even pay throughout the entire customer lifecycle.
- Building mutually-beneficial relationships: Promoting a SaaS product is a good way to build mutually-beneficial relationships. For example, if you're particularly good at selling a product, you might land a job at your partner's company. In addition, some affiliate partners will gladly link to your website.
- Most SaaS companies offer a free trial: In most cases, you don't need to buy anything to promote a SaaS product. They allow you to test their product for a period of time so that you can provide a genuine opinion.
- Better commission rates: SaaS companies pay some of the best commission rates. And their pricing tiers mean that when a referral upgrades their subscription plan, you could also benefit.
- Lower risk than physical products: Big SaaS companies with good reputations are easy to recommend. Lots of happy customers = amazing social proof. Plus, SaaS never goes out of stock.
20 Top SaaS Affiliate Programs to Join Today
Whatever your niche, SaaS has something for everyone. We've compiled a list of the 20 best SaaS affiliate programs—across various industries. This includes CRMs, eCommerce tools, cybersecurity software, marketing tools, and more.
Just select the partners that best suit your target audience. Ready?
1. Close Partner Program
Close is customer relationship management (CRM) software designed for startups and SMBs. Its high adoption rate among sales reps, intuitive design, and comprehensive features make it the best CRM choice for agile sales teams.
Close offers free migration from another CRM, email automation, multi-channel outreach, built-in calling, integrations, call coaching, robust analytics—and so much more. Oh, and it’s super user-friendly. Get going in hours (not days, weeks, or months).
It's an easy sell for you as an affiliate marketer. Or rather, all you need to do is make the referral, and the product will sell itself. With a 20 percent recurring commission for 12 months on every referral that converts to a paying customer, it’s one of the most generous affiliate programs in B2B SaaS.
If any of the referred customers upgrade their plan, you get 20 percent from the new plan. And finally—you’ll also be compensated for any new user your referral adds to their account. Loving it? Thought so.
To join, apply through the affiliate program page, and our team will get back with you if we think you’re a good fit.
Commission rate: Close pays 20 percent commission for 12 months on every customer you refer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: There are several partner-specific marketing assets to use in your campaigns, including an affiliate dashboard and text banners. And if you need any help, the Close affiliate team is always available.
2. Shopify
Shopify is a cloud-based eCommerce platform where users build online storefronts for their merchandise, no coding skills necessary. It helps merchants build, grow, and manage their businesses easily.
Shopify brings together all of the tools needed to build an eCommerce business. It also has an impressive inventory system and supports multi-platform selling across sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon.
Are you an eCommerce aficionado? Then Shopify is one of the easiest eCommerce platforms to recommend, regardless of where you are in the world.
To join Shopify's affiliate program, you need a decent audience, an active website, and experience using Shopify or another eCommerce platform. Apply on their website.
Commission rate: Shopify pays a fixed, one-off $150 for every new customer referred.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: You’ll get lead magnets, performance insights, and a resource library with everything you need to succeed.
3. Canva Pro
Canva is an online graphic design tool for creating flyers, PDFs, infographics, invoices, videos, presentations, and more. Anyone can use Canva, whether or not they have stellar graphic design skills.
Canva offers thousands of design templates to craft any project under the sun. And thanks to its diverse use cases, nearly everyone with an online business needs Canva.
If you’re a strong voice in the design community and have a huge audience, you’re in luck. Canva pays a fixed $36 for every referred user that upgrades to a paid plan. If this is something you’re interested in, you can apply for their affiliate program.
Commission rate: One-off $36 commission for every Canva Pro subscriber you refer.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: Canva has a huge affiliate community, and they provide you with ad templates and how-to guides.
4. Semrush
Semrush is an online marketing performance tool to help with keyword research, competition analysis, and rank tracking. It also offers site and content auditing tools that display opportunities and areas of improvement for your website.
Along with its reporting tool and PPC data, Semrush is an all-in-one solution for search engine marketers and SEO.
But what’s great about being a Semrush affiliate? To start, it’s a household name in the digital marketing space. It’s also quite rich in affiliate resources. And finally, it pays one of the best affiliate rates in SaaS.
Apply to join on their website.
Commission rate: You’ll earn $200 from every subscription sale, or $10 for every free trial your referrals sign up.
Conversion window: 120 days.
Affiliate materials available: Promotional materials, including banners and an affiliate dashboard.
5. WordPress
Wordpress.com (not WordPress.org) is a content management system (CMS) and hosting provider for businesses of all sizes. Whether you’re a hobby blogger, an affiliate marketer, or a business owner, WordPress has the right package for you.
Their product line includes WordPress CMS, Jetpack for website security, and WooCommerce, an eCommerce plugin for WordPress that helps you build a customized eCommerce platform on your website. WordPress also has well-defined user roles and permissions to easily manage your entire team.
Almost anyone online can find a use for Wordpress.com—regardless of what they do—which makes its affiliate program a great choice. Joining is mostly on an invite-only basis, but if you think you’re a good fit, apply using one of their product-specific partner pages.
Commission rate: With WP, earn a one-time 100 percent commission on your referral’s initial purchase, and 20 percent on some of their products.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: Affiliate materials include links, banners, and a dashboard to track your affiliate activities.
6. Unbounce
Unbounce is a landing page builder that helps you create popups, landing pages, and sticky bars. It serves eCommerce storefront owners, agencies, SaaS companies, email marketers, and others.
Want to build interactive landing pages with a crisp and intuitive user interface? Use Unbounce. It also recently added an AI copywriting tool to its feature set—to generate copy for your landing page.
Its affiliate program pays pretty well and it’s easy to join. Whether you’re a marketer, a salesperson, or a blogger, apply to join the Unbounce affiliate program and start earning recurring commissions.
Commission rate: Unbounce offers a customer lifetime recurring commission of 20 percent on all purchases from the customers you refer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: An affiliate dashboard, access to partner templates, a partner coach, and training materials.
7. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is an email service provider (ESP) that offers a suite of tools for email collection, marketing campaigns, and design. It also offers sophisticated email automation, plus a dashboard for tracking your email marketing activities.
As a full-service email marketing provider, ConvertKit has an array of drag-and-drop landing page templates that can be used to build your customized landing page.
ConvertKit is beneficial to all sorts of creators who want to build a strong community and monetize it, whether a coach, an entrepreneur, a blogger, or an author.
The Convertkit affiliate program is great because it helps creators and entrepreneurs alike, so the target audience is huge. Apply for ConvertKit’s affiliate program today.
Commission rate: Convertkit pays 20 percent on every paying customer referred via your affiliate link, for the first 24 months of their lifecycle.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Get a training course with Pat Flynn, the founder of Smart Passive Income—and one of the biggest names in software affiliate marketing. There are also video resources for your content creation, and a dashboard to track your affiliate performance.
8. Moosend
Moosend is an email marketing software for list segmentation, subject line and content A/B testing, drag-and-drop newsletter editing, and more. It can also track a lead’s activity on your website and provide a comprehensive report of user actions.
Moosend is ideal for new email marketers, microbloggers, and entrepreneurs. You can apply to join their affiliate program on their website. What sticks out about their partnership program is the flexibility in earning schemes, which ensures earnings even if your referrals don’t convert.
Commission rate: Moosend offers between 30 and 40 percent commissions, depending on the number of customers you refer. The commission isn’t recurring. They also have an earn-per-click system, where you can earn $2 for every lead generated through your affiliate link.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Email swipes, images, banners, social media posts—and more.
9. Woorise
Woorise helps small businesses create viral contests, landing pages, and interactive content such as surveys, quizzes, gamification, and web forms—all of which boost brand awareness and lead generation.
It also comes with analytics, several integrations, and landing page templates.
Woorise is used by businesses that want to generate leads—and that’s practically every business. If you know a thing or two about lead generation, Woorise is the tool you can promote while earning solid cash.
Woorise offers a variety of pricing plans to suit businesses of all sizes—so purchasing a plan, even on a shoestring budget, isn’t a problem for most businesses. Apply here.
Commission rate: Woorise offers a recurring 30 percent commission on all payments made by customers you refer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Get an affiliate dashboard where you can track your revenue.
10. Freshdesk
Freshdesk is a customer support app designed for small businesses that are looking to reduce friction in customer communication and improve customer service. It helps automate the customer service experience with chatbots and self-service portals that let customers resolve many issues on their own.
Freshdesk includes a customizable dashboard that helps customer support agents keep track of their activities, such as unresolved issues, overdue tasks, daily tasks, and more.
Its amazing customer reviews make it an easy platform to celebrate—and give you an advantage when pitching to your target audience.
You can join the Freshdesk affiliate program if your audience includes sales reps, sales leaders, and customer support agents.
Commission rate: For the first year of the customer lifecycle, Freshdesk pays a 15 percent commission on every customer acquired through your link.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Gain access to a library of case studies, videos, and white papers to help you understand the product and promote it effectively. Plus, you get banners, an affiliate dashboard—and more.
11. AWeber
AWeber is an email marketing platform that helps customers build an email list and execute email marketing campaigns. Email marketers, SaaS businesses, eCommerce entrepreneurs, and agencies—AWeber can empower anyone to pull off an effective email marketing strategy.
Its email tracking system delivers extensive insights into lead activity metrics, such as clicks, email opens, unsubscribes, and sales.
The affiliate program with AWeber is one of the best in the email marketing industry. Although the standard commission on each referred customer is 30 percent, you can earn up to 50 percent if you refer 50 customers.
Fill out the affiliate form on their website to join.
Commission rate: AWeber pays recurring commissions ranging from 30 to 50 percent for up to 12 months of the customer lifecycle.
Conversion window: 365 days.
Affiliate materials available: AWeber provides you with tools for your audience that explain how AWeber works, as well as articles and advertisements that you can repost.
12. Hunter.io
Hunter.io is an email outreach tool that helps users find contact information—specifically, email addresses. It tracks down leads’ email addresses by browsing their domain site and other public information.
It’s also an email verification tool—check whether an email is accurate and active. You can save these email contacts, or send an email immediately.
This is an awesome affiliate network to join if your audience includes outreach professionals, freelance writers, link builders, and so on. It’s essential for anyone who conducts cold email outreach and wants to streamline the process.
You can join through the application form on Hunter’s website.
Commission rate: For the first year of the customer lifecycle, Hunter.io will pay a 30 percent commission.
Conversion window: Unspecified.
Affiliate materials available: You’ll get an affiliate dashboard to track your earnings.
13. Sucuri
Sucuri is a cloud-based platform that protects websites from hacking and malware. It offers round-the-clock monitoring and protection, plus site scanning to detect security flaws early.
It also directs your traffic through the firewall before sending it to your website. This ensures that any security threats are intercepted before they reach your domain.
Join the Sucuri referral program if your audience is cybersecurity. Because cybersecurity is required for any organization with a strong online presence, potential buyers may include bloggers, eCommerce site owners, agencies, and more.
Sign up for their affiliate program and instantly receive a unique referral link.
Commission rate: Sucuri offers a one-time 20 percent commission on various pricing plans, plus $100 when you refer an agency.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: Get an affiliate dashboard to track your earnings.
14. Systeme.io
Systeme.io is a one-stop online marketing platform for entrepreneurs. It helps to create sales funnels, websites, marketing emails, online courses, and more. Whatever you sell online, Systeme.io supports the smooth running of a successful business and winning marketing campaigns.
Users appreciate that Systeme.io is simple to use, despite its many features. Plus, it simplifies the process of starting and monetizing an online business by providing all the tools you need in one spot, without costing an arm and a leg.
Besides its hero product, Systeme.io has a plethora of resources, including online courses and eBooks, you can promote and make money from.
Join by filling out the affiliate form on their website.
Commission rate: Systeme.io offers a one-time 50 percent commission on every referral that converts to a paying customer.
Conversion window: Unspecified.
Affiliate materials available: Systeme.io offers a short guide where you can learn about the software, brand assets for promotion, and a swipe folder with banners and logos.
15. Kajabi
Kajabi is an online course platform for content creators, coaches, and entrepreneurs. Its marketing templates help customers build sales funnels, collect payments, and promote digital products, in addition to building and hosting online courses.
Does your audience sell digital products like courses, ebooks, and podcasts? This one tool can meet all their needs.
If you are already a creator, become a Kajabi affiliate and earn cash by recommending it to your audience. To join Kajabi, go to their affiliate program page and fill out an application.
Commission rate: Kajabi pays a 30 percent lifetime commission on every referred customer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Affiliate materials include swipe copies, webinars, and guide articles.
16. Supermetrics
Supermetrics is a data management and analytics solution for digital marketers. It aids in the collection, analysis, and generation of custom reports from over 100 sources, including social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Sheets, BigQuery, and others.
The goal is to minimize human data entry, simplify data collection, and provide actionable data insights. Its real-time data sync means you always have access to the most up-to-date data, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.
If you’re a digital marketer, consultant, or blogger, promote Supermetrics to earn a good commission while providing value for your audience.
Apply to join the program via the affiliate program link.
Commission rate: Earn a 20 percent lifetime recurring commission on any customer you refer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Promotional materials and an affiliate dashboard.
17. Mailmodo
Mailmodo is a no-code application that helps you to create interactive email campaigns using its drag-and-drop editor and AMP.
The platform has over 60 email templates and lets you include interactive widgets like forms, carts, and demo bookings in your emails. Emails become more engaging, and transactions that were previously possible only on your website can now be fulfilled via email.
As the world's first no-code interactive email software, Mailmodo is irresistible to email marketers. You can become an affiliate by applying on their website.
Commission rate: 20 percent recurring commission throughout the lifecycle of any referred customer.
Conversion window: 60 days.
Affiliate materials available: Get access to premade affiliate kits to educate your audience across different platforms, and an affiliate dashboard.
18. EngageBay
EngageBay is a comprehensive CRM for marketing, sales, and customer service teams. It also works in a variety of industries, including non-profit, real estate, and SaaS.
EngegeBay combines various aspects of marketing, customer support, and sales into a single tool. You'll get what you need across departments—whether it's social media scheduling, web analytics, lead management, or email sequences.
Commission rate: Earn 30 percent recurring commission throughout the lifecycle of every paying customer you refer.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: EngageBay will provide copy samples, videos, landing pages, and social media banners.
19. Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft Office 365, now known as Microsoft 365, is a full-service office suite that includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams.
This cloud-based productivity app helps teams stay productive and collaborate. Its OneDrive cloud storage service lets you save personal files and access them from any device, including MacOS, Windows, and mobile apps.
Apart from its superior quality, one major advantage Microsoft 365 has over most of its competitors is the ability to work offline—and sync all the data once connected to the Internet.
Microsoft is a household name, so it’s easy to sell if you’re an affiliate. Plus, its affiliate program has no minimum sales requirement before you can withdraw your earnings. Become a Microsoft 365 affiliate—and let the cash roll in.
Commission rate: Microsoft will pay a predetermined fee for each new sale you refer. The commission is determined by the product purchased by the referred customer.
Conversion window: 30 days.
Affiliate materials available: You’ll get a dashboard to track your affiliate income.
20. Privy
Privy is a sales and email marketing automation app for eCommerce. It helps grow your mailing list and automate marketing emails and SMS by offering pop-up builders, email automation, SMS automation, and integrations with popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, and others.
If you're looking to get your personalized messages across to your eCommerce site visitors, increase engagement, and reduce cart abandonment, this is the tool for you.
Its affiliate program is a great way to generate passive income if you're an eCommerce blogger or thought leader. To join, apply on Privy’s partner page.
Commission rate: Receive a 10 percent lifetime commission on every customer they get via your affiliate link.
Conversion window: Unspecified.
Affiliate materials available: Privy provides a partner dashboard, exclusive training materials, eCommerce best practices, and co-marketing opportunities.
21. Moosend
Moosend is one of the most affordable email marketing software platforms in the MarTech area, trusted by Fortune-500 companies and entrepreneurs alike. The platform sports an impressive variety of features, such as automated campaigns, AI capabilities, and a robust Drag-and-Drop email editor.
Moosend empowers businesses with personalized email marketing options, making it a valuable tool for entrepreneurs as well. It allows them to communicate with their audiences and boost engagement.
On top of its capabilities, Moosend offers an Affiliate Program that is a game-changer, seeing as it can offer one of the most competitive commission rates of the market - up to 40%, with a generous 90-day cookie window. This allows affiliate partners to substantially boost their earnings.
Apply to join on their website.
Commission rate: Moosend offers a tiered recurring commission from 30% - 40% on all purchases from the customers you refer.
Conversion window: 90 days.
Affiliate materials available: Moosend has created the Affiliate Resource Center with plenty of promotional resources like ready email templates, banners, social media posts etc.
Choosing a SaaS Affiliate Marketing Program? Consider These Factors
Despite the above in-depth list, we understand that you may still be on the fence about which affiliate programs to join. That’s why we want to share some key points that will help you make an informed decision.
Before choosing an affiliate marketing program, consider the following factors:
- Commission rates and commission structure: Affiliate commission in the SaaS industry is often based on a percentage commission system, with commissions ranging from 10 to 30 percent. If a program offers a pittance, such as $1 or $2 per sale, it’s probably not worth it.
- Cookie duration: A cookie length of 30 days or more is preferable. The customer journey isn't always straightforward, and it may take some time before your affiliate referral converts. The longer the life of an affiliate cookie, the better your chances of earning from it.
- Whether or not they offer marketing materials or other support: The best affiliate marketing programs will offer affiliate materials, such as banners, education materials, etc., to help you successfully pitch their product. Most importantly, they should have a responsive affiliate support team that is always ready to help.
- How easy/difficult it is to join the program and track your commissions + payouts: A good affiliate program has a straightforward joining process, and a transparent way to track all your affiliate activities and earnings.
- An easy-to-use affiliate dashboard: To ensure transparency, your partner should provide a dashboard that clearly displays the clicks, signups, and affiliate money you've earned, plus how much you've received and how much of your payment is pending.
- Payout schedules: Your affiliate marketing agreement should have your payment schedule spelled out so you know exactly what to expect.
Convert Your Audience Into SaaS Customers + Earn Rewards
If you're a SaaS B2B marketer, influencer, or blogger, you help organizations solve business problems. Right? Then you already understand why they need SaaS tools to effectively grow their businesses and work through pain points.
So, why not partner with brands and earn a commission from their purchases?
Obviously, make sure the solutions you’re recommending are up to snuff. As always, you want to create true value for your audience—affiliate marketing should support that endeavor, not become the primary focus.
For example, Close offers a great CRM solution that boosts the productivity of sales teams and streamlines their workflows. And it’s one of the best CRM affiliate programs in terms of process transparency, commission structure, and payout procedure.
If you have a large B2B audience, sign up for the Close Partner Program now—and start earning.