23 Best SaaS Affiliate Programs to Promote and Earn

Posted by Coty Perry, in Affiliate Programs

If you didn’t know, S-A-A-S stands for “software as a service” so it’s a broad niche with a few different areas of discipline. 

You’ll find affiliate programs in digital marketing, email marketing, online education, cybersecurity, website development, AI, and more within this niche. 

Finding the best SaaS affiliate programs wasn’t easy because of how vast this niche is but I made sure to do the legwork for you. After reviewing hundreds of programs, I settled on these 23 best options for SaaS affiliates. 

1. ConvertKit

• Commission Rate: 30% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

ConvertKit is an appealing affiliate program, offering 30% recurring commissions for all referrals who sign up for ConvertKit’s email marketing platform aimed at creators. 

With ConvertKit’s suite of landing pages, email templates, automation and more, creators have all the tools needed to build their email list and nurture their following. 

On top of that, ConvertKit provides a generous 90 day cookie duration, a lengthy window to capture conversions after initial clicks. ConvertKit prices start at a reasonable $9 a month, making them budget friendly for students, side hustlers, bloggers and other creators at the early stages. 

More advanced tiers cater to larger media brands and dedicated video and podcast creators. But no matter which tier referrals select, as a ConvertKit affiliate you earn excellent 30% with every monthly payment from your referrals. The combination of recurring lifetime commissions and long 90 day cookie makes ConvertKit a premier player.

2. NordVPN

• Commission Rate: 40%
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

Boasting the sterling reputation as one of the longstanding VPN providers, NordVPN delivers acclaimed security, fast connection speeds, and accessibility to restricted websites and streaming content from around the globe. 

Referral commissions are an excellent 40% rate thanks to NordVPN’s impressive profit margins from their subscription plans starting at just $3.29 per month. 

While recurring commissions would be ideal, a 40% flat rate nonetheless beats out most affiliate programs. With privacy and security only growing more vital in society, NordVPN fills an increasingly crucial utility that’s proven wildly profitable for affiliates. 

The 30 day cookie window isn’t the greatest but the affordability of NordVPN doesn’t exactly make this purchase a long process so it should do the trick. 

Still, as one of the best known and most reliable VPN names in the industry, you have a distinct advantage in immediately connecting with their wide existing brand awareness, and that 40% commission is pretty solid. 

3. LastPass

• Commission Rate: 25% of first payment, minimum $2
• Cookie Duration: Not listed

With new massive data breaches constantly in the news alerting people to the pressing need for better personal cyber security, LastPass has swiftly become one of the most essential and relied upon solutions for password management. 

25% commissions on the initial purchase from subscriptions is very generous and with a lot of people choosing to sign up for long-term packages or enterprise level deals, you can earn a killing off a big deal. 

Given the tremendous value inherent in secure, convenient password accessibility, conveying LastPass’s capabilities earns affiliates a piece of a profoundly large affiliate niche.

4. Webflow

• Commission Rate: 50% for 12 months
• Cookie Duration: 89 days

A website builder empowering designers to craft professional grade sites with exceptional creative freedom, Webflow needs no added coding or development. 

Intuitive visual editing tools enable rapid building, complete with animated interactions, unlike traditional page builders restricting complex dynamism. For creatives seeking advanced design capabilities without coding, Webflow fills a vastly underserved gap compared to site builders like Wix or Squarespace. 

Their Core plan starts at just $12 a month, while Business enables client management and white labeling. Webflow’s unique 89 day cookie provides outstanding duration to capitalize on sign ups, while the 12 month 50% commission rate on referred subscriptions drives potential for recurrings. 

If you’re an influencer, digital marketer, designer, or developer – you could definitely make money promoting Webflow. 

5. Pipedrive

• Commission Rate: 33% recurring for 12 months
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

As one of the most well recognized CRM solutions for small and medium sized businesses, Pipedrive provides outstanding capabilities to organize workflows around leads, accounts and deals. 

Unlike overstacked CRMs, Pipedrive adheres to simplicity in managing sales pipelines for service companies, online stores and sales teams. 

Recurring 33% commissions for an entire year following subscription sign ups promote fantastic affiliate value, while a 90 day cookie enables suitable time to convert visitors. 

Pipedrive pricing begins at $12.50 per user monthly, competitive for its balance of core CRM functionalities including note/file attachments, task assignment and multi channel communications. 

As with any CRM, I recommend test driving it first before promoting it. That will allow you to really understand what you’re selling and get valuable screenshots and content around the usability. 

6. Shopify

• Commission Rate: 200% of monthly plan
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

It wouldn’t be a best SaaS affiliate program roundup without talking about Shopify. Shopify empowers entrepreneurs and existing brands to sell online with exceptional simplicity compared to undertaking standalone ecommerce site development.

Drag and drop customizability enables beautiful storefront building and management. Coupled with apps/integrations securing payments, shipping and marketing, Shopify enables anyone to sell online effectively. 

Their baseline Shopify plan starts at $29 monthly, while higher level tiers add gift cards, shipping discounts and more staff accounts.

As a frequently partnered affiliate program thanks to tremendous flexibility supporting different business types, Shopify offers outstanding potential 200% commissions relative to a referred store’s first two monthly fee payments. 

Just keep in mind that everyone and their brother promotes Shopify so you’ll need to do something to stand out and have a unique reason why people should choose your link. 

7. LiveAgent

• Commission Rate: 20% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

LiveAgent provides technology for customer service consultation using live chat communication channels. This service provides intelligent canned response suggestions when chatting with site visitors, LiveAgent optimizes service team efficiency in solving issues during after-hour periods or in the place of a real person.

LiveAgent also provides deep analytics into common site pain points by tracking visitor behaviors leading up to initiating chats. 

Starting at just $15 monthly per agent, LiveAgent fits small businesses through enterprises via scalability and slate of capabilities raising CSAT including chat transfers, support tickets, feedback surveys after chats, customizable branding and more. 

As an affiliate, LiveAgent offers reliable recurring payouts amounting to 20% of monthly subscription costs for any referrals driven to become LiveAgent customers. A generous 90 day cookie window allows outstanding duration to earn from traffic sent to LiveAgent. 

I definitely think this is a solid option to promote alongside some of the other SaaS affiliate programs in this guide. 

8. Microsoft Office 365

• Commission Rate: Up to $10 per sale
• Cookie Duration: 14 days

Despite Office 365’s wide brand recognition and adoption worldwide across Windows and Mac devices, Microsoft provides affiliates surprisingly limited opportunity relative to competitors, with a short 14 day cookie and largely flat rate rewards. 

However, Microsoft’s productivity suite is something that people everywhere use, need, and enjoy so there’s a lot of brand recognition. 

While Office 365 commissions max out at $10 per converted sign up, that singular payment must compensate for full loss of any future earnings, making Microsoft fairly underwhelming for residual rewards compared to alternatives like Freshbooks or AWeber granting lengthier recurring commission structures. 

As I’ve said with some of the other programs – you’re not going to get rich promoting Microsoft 365 but why not have the option to do so if the shoe fits?

9. KWFinder (Mangools)

• Commission Rate: 30% lifetime
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

Providing SEO agencies, marketing consultants and content producers access to enterprise grade capabilities at budget level pricing, KWFinder, now called Mangools empowers keyword research, difficulty, and backlink research.

Unlike the big SEO players of Moz or Ahrefs costing hundreds monthly, Mangools delivers basic features including rank tracking, site audits, organic traffic insights and content research starting at just $69 monthly. If you’re just starting out and need to cut costs, Mangools can get you through with lifetime 30% commissions. 

Within the crowded SEO software market, Mangools surely doesn’t lead brand familiarity so you’ll want to position it as a budget-friendly option.

10. AWeber

• Commission Rate: 30-50%
• Cookie Duration: 365 days

The one year cookie duration provided by AWeber for their email marketing and automation SaaS affiliate program is the first thing that stood out to me. 

With a full 365 days to potentially capture conversions after initial clicks, AWeber provides tremendous insurance protecting against losing commissions from untracked sales. You could even build an entire email follow-up campaign around this. 

AWeber commissions are a flat 30% but they’re backed by a truly high-performing automation software and prices sitting around $20 per month. This is a solid SaaS affiliate program worth promoting for anyone in the digital marketing, email, and automation realm. 

11. SEMrush

• Commission Rate: $200 first sale, $10 first trial
• Cookie Duration: 120 days

With 17 billion daily URL crawls fueling immense database breadth and insight into 500 million domains spanning 220 countries worldwide, SEMrush empowers agencies and internal digital teams to dominate online visibility. 

Leveraging patented keyword analysis and rank tracking algorithms surpassing capabilities from Moz, SEMrush provides PPC advertising, SEO optimization, content ideation and cross platform competitive benchmarking against thousands of metrics. 

SEMrush access starts at $99 monthly for core features, scaling to the thousands in enterprise tiers. Affiliates enjoy premium $200 new account commissions, while $10 rewards trial sign ups subsequently transitioning to paid plans. 

With a beautiful 120 day cookie, SEMrush incentivizes affiliates via outstanding potential payouts thanks to limited competition being one of the only true Ahrefs alternative.

12. HubSpot

• Commission Rate: Up to $1000
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

As a leading SaaS platform spanning marketing, sales and customer service capabilities for over 113,000 clients across 120 countries, HubSpot transformed inbound marketing from buzzword to essential methodology driving measurable return and pipeline growth. 

Referral commissions range $250 for Marketing Base tier up to a tremendous $1000 for Enterprise sales, empowering businesses to align teams across HubSpot’s stacked software functionalities. 

While 90 day cookie lags other notable options here, HubSpot’s brand awareness significantly accelerates buyer education and ultimate conversion of site visitors to satisfied customers. Not to mention the sheer number of solutions HubSpot provides. You can promote one of the best SaaS affiliate programs to a wide range of people. 

13. Moosend

• Commission Rate: 30-40% recurring lifetime
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

A highly discounted email marketing platform compared against competition yet maintaining tremendous capability, Moosend empowers entrepreneurs, small businesses and growing mid market teams with elegant campaign creation tools, automation rules and intuitive list building interfaces ideal for owners lacking dedicated marketing staff. 

Pricing begins as little as $9 monthly supporting 2500 subscribers, and affiliate payouts comprise outstanding 40% cuts from every monthly bill your referrals pay, rewarding consistency driving ongoing value.

Moosend also has a unique program that will pay you outside the 90-day cookie if you get approved for their lifetime partnership. This is a gem of a SaaS affiliate program if you create email marketing content. 

14. Systeme

• Commission Rate: 40% lifetime
• Cookie Duration: Lifetime

Systeme stands fully distinguished as the sole SaaS affiliate program within this list implementing infinite cookie windows for tracking referred user conversions supplemented by 40% unmatched revenue sharing on whatever subscriptions fees your referrals pay monthly or annually using Systeme. 

No expiration on cookies means no lost commissions even if users convert years later. And 40% beats every competitor here for margin dedication. 

Systeme also grants free users expansive functionality rather than strictly rate limiting to urge sign ups. 

For affiliates guiding entrepreneurs who need integrated tech stacks that seamlessly interact to boost productivity, Systeme delivers.

15. Unbounce

• Commission Rate: 20% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

Earning strong market share competing against ClickFunnels and LeadPages, Unbounce specializes in building high performance landing pages with templates and drag-and-drop functionality.

Businesses heavily rely on Unbounce pages to capture emails with opt-in forms tied to lead magnets in exchange for downloads. 

Integration with email services and CRMs subsequently helps sales teams segment and message converting visitors. 

Exclusive page builder flexibility empowers inserting dynamic components like countdown timers and personalization helping refine messaging and urgency. 

Unbounce subscription plans range $79 monthly up to $399 enterprise proposals including tailored onboarding and ongoing service. 

Unbounce also presents a supporting 20% lifetime residual payouts given ongoing perceived value. While commission rates trail some listed earlier, Unbounce earns it’s spot in this list as an alternative to the more expensive ClickFunnels and the somewhat outdated LeadPages. 

16. FreshBooks

• Commission Rate: 10% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 120 days

Catering to freelancers, consultants and small teams, FreshBooks offers a great alternative to Quickbooks. 

Additionally providing expense/mileage tracking, time sheet management and accounting insights from payments collected, FreshBooks saves tremendous hours over tackling manually via spreadsheets. 

Subscription tiers start at $15 monthly for 5 clients/50 invoices, FreshBooks slides affordably into any budget and the recurring can allow you to build up a large base of passive income.  

120 day cookies provide outstanding potential locking down conversions that can keep money flowing perpetually from referrals staying clients for life.

17. Teachable

• Commission Rate: Up to 50%
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

Empowering educators, coaches and thought leaders to profit from their expertise via digital courses, memberships and coaching calls, Teachable provides a platform where they can offer online education in whatever niche they choose.  

With record online education growth, we know this form of education isn’t going away anytime soon. 

Subscription plans scale $29 to $299 monthly based on bandwidth, storage needs and branded custom domains matching sophisticated brands. 

However all tiers enable ad-free experiences helping maximize customer immersion in purchased content. Teachable offers affiliate incentive levels climbing to 50% revenue sharing for driving increasing sales volumes month over month.

Whether you plan to use Teachable to sell educational programs or you simply want to promote the platform, there’s money to be made. 

18. Canva

• Commission Rate: $36 per Pro sale
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

Canva revolutionized modern design by empowering proficient creativity from non designers through the world’s simplest, most intuitive graphic design and publishing software. Canva offers a ton of templates, visual assets, and images to help you easily design graphics, charts, and tables for your website. 

Beginning at just $12.99 per month, Canva pricing keeps affordable for individuals through companies. 

Their affiliate program pays per unit sale rather than percentage margin, but $36 commissions reward sufficiently given natural product stickiness and persistent need for creative development across globally distributed workforces gravitating modern self service options saving costs from previously outsourced tasks. 

Combined with tremendous reach thanks to 25 million current Canva users, you should have no problem finding a way to implement this into your content strategy. 

19. Hunter.io

• Commission Rate: 30% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 45 days

Growing email list audiences remains the cornerstone of digital marketing and Hunter.io is something I’ve used for years to find email contacts. 

Pricing at just $49 monthly including 50 free credits enables small business owners and digital marketers to find all the contacts they need on a tight budget.

And by referring Hunter.io’s transformative efficiency, lifetime recurring 30% commissions reward master connectors amplifying client results, with additional cookies lasting 45 days providing sufficient conversion tracking.

Some of the best SaaS affiliate programs are tools that make peoples lives easier and Hunter.io is definitely one of those tools. 

20. Sucuri

• Commission Rate: Up to $209 per sale
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

With website hacks growing ever rampant, denial of vulnerability risks continues to be a hot button issue for site owners.

Sucuri fills this tremendous void using powerful cloud-based security configuration without relying on backups alone, also expertly removing existing malware complimented by post-cleanup monitoring should new attacks penetrate. 

Pricing tiers grade by site traffic supporting personal blogs to major news publishers, an immense span earning Sucuri widespread SMB appeal. 

For partners escalating urgency around proactive protection, Sucuri’s immense hybrid value bridging software and active remediation makes them influential security advisors – with commission potential reaching $209 per sale. 

While tracking cookies disappear in 30 days, residual risk of repeating infiltration helps foster recurring revenue. And for agencies managing a large portfolio of websites, cybersecurity adds tremendous upsell potential for some of the other programs in this guide.

21. LifeLock

• Commission Rate: Up to $110 per sale
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

23.9 million people were impacted by identify theft in 2021. LifeLock leads consumer identity protection leveraging AI cross referencing databases for fraud combined with agent guidance managing resolution processes. 

Unlike loose security apps, LifeLock handles recovery paperwork and provides million dollar insurance for losses occurring under subscription, granting genuine peace of mind. 

With industry leading brand recognition, LifeLock affiliate conversions focus conveying financial and temporal burdens suffered by victims lacking protection. 

Sharing customer testimonials highlighting disasters averted or mitigated thanks to proactive plans costing pennies daily grants immense influence to protect families. 

Plans spanning $9 to $25 monthly, typical affiliate commissions land between $60 to $110 per customer converted, with estate planning/will extras adding additional compensation for valuable cross-sells closing leads on encompassing protection.

22. Podia

• Commission Rate: 30% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 15 days

Empowering online course creators, coaches and niche hobby instructors to profit sharing knowledge via memberships, digital downloads and interactive lessons, Podia provides website building, video hosting and dynamic community engagement tools helping independents grow sustainable coaching businesses. 

Compared against Teachable or Thinkific, Podia pricing stays ultra affordable at $39 per month including up to 100K monthly page views, which is great for shoestring side hustlers lacking existing student rosters for testing concepts. 

Where they trail feature depth, Podia wins on coach productivity centralizing everything needed kickstarting income momentum. 

Notably while competition promotes affiliate partnership self interests, Podia directly instructs affiliates to help creators identify ideal tools for current capabilities, building trust and referral longevity even suggesting alternate platforms at Podia’s own expense. 

Their customer dedication is part of what earned them a spot towards the bottom of this list and that 30% recurring commission isn’t too bad either. 

23. Reply.io

• Commission Rate: up to 25% recurring
• Cookie Duration: 30 days

Winning substantial market presence against Salesforce, HubSpot and other feature congested CRMs, Reply.io focuses on human conversations across multiple channels enabled by artificial intelligence suggesting responses based on previous messaging. 

By analyzing how reps communicate with leads across calls, emails and text, Reply.io listens in providing in line recommendations. It’s essentially an AI-powered tool to help with customer service.

Pricing begins at $65 per user monthly and 25% recurring payouts reward you for signing up the right candidates that plan to stick around. 

Choosing the Best SaaS Affiliate Programs

In this following sections, let’s talk about the factors that went into choosing the best SaaS affiliate programs. There are hundreds of programs out there but we narrowed it down to 23 of the best options. Here’s how: 

Commission Rate

SaaS affiliate structures range widely, but the most lucrative incorporate recurring payouts from ongoing customer subscriptions versus one-time bounties upon initial sign-ups. 

Factoring monthly user payments into perpetual percentage rev shares or flat renewal fees produces compounding residual income at far greater lifetime value than capped plans. 

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, basically I’m saying that these programs permit the opportunity for you continue to increase your residual income as you sign more and more people up and retain existing customers. 

In addition to recurring, don’t forget to pay attention to the actual percentage because in some cases, a flat-rate commission may be the better option compared to a residual if the price is right. 

Try to avoid commission rates below 20% and shoot for ones of 50% or higher. 

Cookie Duration

Persistent cookies provide essential insurance protecting your commission eligibility if someone leaves the landing page and doesn’t sign up immediately. 

When you see “cookie duration” that indicates how many days that person can come back and sign up while you still earn the commission. Obviously, the longer the better. 

180 days works best balancing lead nurturing and labor intensity upkeeping interest. Cookie expirations under 60 days require excessively quick closes more suitable for impulse purchase products. 

Lifetime/infinite cookies represent the holy grail and are pretty common in this niche compared to things like outdoor affiliate or home decor affiliate where impulse buys are more likely.

Average Order Value

While baseline SaaS plans under $10 monthly exist, stacking 20% commissions on such micro-subscriptions struggle justifying extensive promotional efforts for mere $2 potential earnings. 

Far better to gauge typical customer order values from posted pricing tier sheets and determine what commission dollars per account convince you of incentive viability factoring work required. 

For example, a 40% rate on $40 programs doubles earnings from $20 plans given equal conversion success. Naturally, most affiliates chase higher priced tiers for this reason. But don’t undervalue volume potential from cheaper starter packages either.

Final Thoughts

That’s all I got this time. The Best SaaS affiliate programs are the ones that offer the highest earning potential and appeal to your audience the most. 

Don’t simply choose a program because it offers the most incentives but rather, choose a program because it’s something your audience will actually relate to and want to sign up for. You’ll increase your chances of generating commissions that way. 

I recommend signing up for as many of these programs as you can so you can diversify your opportuniries and always have something to promote in a piece of content whether it’s a blog, video, infographic, or email.