Comparison of Affiliate Management Software
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Creating a successful Affiliate program is one of the pillars of a successful Internet Marketing campaign. Ebay and Amazon are just two examples of businesses which have used affiliates successfully, we have discussed in the past the basics of Affiliate Management and at the time highlighted IDevAffiliate. But now it’s time to compare the various management software scripts out there for those of us who prefer manage our own affiliates. If you want to suggest program we missed or think their is a mistake don’t forget to tell us via the regular blog post.
Affiliate Management Software
| IDevAffiliate | PostAffiliatePro | AffiliateWiz | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Requirements |
|
|
|
| Free Install | No | No | Yes |
| PayPal Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cheque Payout | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Other Online Payment Providers? | No | Yes (MoneyBookers, Wire Transfer) | No |
| Multiple Payout Tiers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Affiliate Tiers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple Merchants | Yes | Yes | No |
| Payout Types | Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead | Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead | Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead |
| SEO Friendly URLs | Yes (optional) | No | No |
| Easy Integration? | Yes | Yes | Sort Of (see below) |
| Price | $99.99 (SEO URLs additional $99.99) | $99 | $699 |
IDevAffiliate
IDevAffiliate has a sweet spot in my heart as it was one of the first Affiliate Management Systems I used. That said it has in recent years start to visually look dated, but is relatively easy to customise and looks are not everything. Inside this software is probably the most feature packed system on offer even if some of it’s best features are optional. Presuming you buy both the main package and the SEO friendly URLs addon this product is the middle of the range in terms of price. Ultimately this is a solid software with some of the best reporting features and an easy to use API system for external development. If your looking for just a few affiliates on your Zen or OS commerce site then PostAffiliate Pro is probably more what you are looking for however if you are a developer looking for a package to provide close integration or looking to maximise your affiliates this is the software for you.
Score
Value - 3/5
Features - 4/5
Performance -4/5
Overall - 3.5/5
URL - IDevAffiliate
Solid Software but is only really worth it when you include the additional modules
PostAffiliatePro
The new boy at least for me, however with its slightly more modern interface this product is much less intimidating the either of the other on review here. It is also got the best pay out options with Cheques, PayPal, Moneybookers and wire transfers. Integration is great and is compatible with a wide range of products it doesn’t have the same sort of API level as IDevAffiliate but few will notice this and where it does take the edge is in its ability to add additional payment options. The biggest issue is with the tracking URLs which are not very search engine friendly but a friendly developer can easily fix this for you for a few dollars. PostAffiliatePro will suit 90% of people its easy to use, doesn’t look to bad has intuitive reporting again very customisable export options and a direct to Excel option though not to Quickbooks.
Score
Value - 5/5
Features - 4/5
Performance -3/5
Overall - 4/5
URL - Post Affiliate Pro
The best for the majority
AffiliateWiz
You may have taken one look at the price and spat out your coffee but there is simple reason for the cost and that Affiliate Wiz is designed for .net based applications as such it is appealing to a quality control market of Microsoft loving executives and not to developers, small businesses or the real world. So what if you do happen to have an asp or .net based shopping cart. Then AffiliateWiz does the biz it’s interface is old and the code generated signup pages is horrible. With limited features it just doesn’t stack up against its PHP rivals but that said when you look at the ASP and .net market their aren’t that many alternatives. So while we could never recommend it this maybe your only choice in such scenarios. Ultimately AffiliateWiz does the job, does what is says it will do and delivers reasonable performance if limited on features.
Score
Value - 1/5
Features - 2/5
Performance -4/5
Overall - 2.5/5
URL - Affiliate Wiz
Not the best, but if your looking for an ASP solution you shouldn’t expect the best and this will do the job.
