Are you making a living or earning a portion of your income through affiliate marketing? If you are, there’s a good chance you’ve joined multiple affiliate platforms. This is great as you have the chance to promote a lot of companies, but can also be challenging when it comes to tracking and attributing conversions.

In fact, the more programs you promote, the more time consuming it is to track your affiliate earnings and try to make sense of how effective your marketing is. Yet that’s only half the story, because you’re also missing out on revenue opportunities. With access to data like who clicked on a link but didn’t make a purchase, you could run effective retargeting campaigns. Or, if you knew who was purchasing specific products, you could create lookalike audiences and run PPC campaigns that offer ROI bidding strategies.

That’s when using an affiliate tracking software comes in handy. Depending on what your business goals are, it can allow you to do all the above, or even open up your own affiliate program, recruiting other affiliates to promote your product, service, or course.

Tracking is what can make all of this possible. Depending on which way you’re going, you’ll have to gear up with the affiliate tracking software that can best accommodate your marketing model.

But what is the best affiliate tracking software on the market? In this article, I’ve listed eight of the best affiliate tracking software solutions. But first, let’s discuss what you should look for in an affiliate tracking platform:

How to Pick the Best Affiliate Tracking Software

The best affiliate tracking software should track and report results from any affiliate networks, and have the ability to ingest any type of conversion data. Ideally, you want to monitor results in your favored reporting dashboard such as Google Data Studio. You also want to be able to send your conversion data to your PPC channels in order to automate your campaign optimization. Also, you might want to build custom audiences out of your conversion data in Facebook and Google Analytics.

The best affiliate tracking software should be user-friendly, as well. User-friendly software is all the more important if you’re just getting started with affiliate marketing. If the learning curve is steep, you might end up wasting time just learning how to navigate the software. And for entrepreneurs like you, wasting time is equivalent to losing money.

Integrations are also important. If your affiliate tracking system can seamlessly integrate with other applications like email marketing or on-site bot, it allows your whole marketing to run more efficiently.

Postback capability is often overlooked, but is hugely beneficial. This allows you to track conversions without having to place a tracking pixel on the merchant “thank you” page. In fact, cookieless tracking is increasingly important due to browser tracking protections, and it’s also been widely adopted by top affiliate networks.

Finally, your affiliate tracking software should be affordable.

That’s a lot to ask from any tool. Yet, it’s what you’re undoubtedly looking for.

Busting a Persistent Link Tracking Myth

Since the appearance of Bitly, a link-shortening tool, there have been many articles claiming that Bitly and similar tools should be used to track affiliate links.

These shortened links can be a useful way to share a link on social media (where there is usually limited space) and track how many people have clicked it. However, they provide little to no useful insight that can be used for any kind of robust data-driven marketing.

If you want to be truly data-driven (which you should!) and do more than just tracking clicks, there are solutions available that will empower your marketing and take you to the next level. Read on to learn about some of the best!

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

anytrack.io

Anytrack is our affiliate tracking software. We’re a bit biased, which is why we moved Anytrack to the top of this list, but we believe it is the best affiliate tracking tool on the market.

Let me explain why so you can judge for yourself.

AnyTrack isn’t just tracking your affiliate conversions. It processes your conversion data and synchronizes it, in real-time with your entire marketing ecosystem. So you have a consistent and 360 view of your marketing activity, where you need it, how you want it, and most importantly: How you can leverage it to improve your organic or paid traffic performances.

For example, Anytrack will report on conversions and the actions visitors take, and then relay the data back to Google Analytics. If you’re a content marketer or run campaigns on Google Ads, having your conversion data in Google Analytics is a must in order to measure your traffic performance. And if you also run Facebook Ads, your Facebook pixel is automatically connected through the Facebook Conversion API. This allows you to feed your Facebook Pixel with the data you need to optimize your campaigns, and create high-intent lookalike audiences.

💡 Facebook Business Partner
Since July 2021, AnyTrack is an approved Facebook Business Partner.

We see Anytrack as a tool for connecting data streams together:

  • It helps you make better use of the tools you already use
  • Provides you with enhanced oversight on what’s happening with your traffic
  • Allows you to earn more revenue from the affiliate programs you promote by running effective retargeting campaigns
  • Help you build up lookalike audiences for PPC campaigns

Because Anytrack does all of this in the background, you’re not constantly wasting time setting up tracking links, parameters, or trying to make sense of your data. Once you’ve added the AnyTrack Tag on your site, just click “next” to connect your account with your affiliate networks, analytics, and ad networks pixels.

No other affiliate tracking software solutions  have these functionalities. They can’t stream the full conversion data to your ad networks, let alone analytics pixels. As a result, your campaign optimization is superficial, and you spend time implementing incomplete tracking data or configuring your pixels and analytics. All of this often leads to mistakes and untapped opportunities.

For all of these robust features, Anytrack is very easy to use. You can quickly and easily add the Anytrack tag to your funnel or website, just as you would add the Facebook Pixel. Once it’s set up, sit back and watch the conversion data come in.

For all its simplicity, Anytrack also utilizes an exclusive tracking method called Redirectless Tracking. In essence, the Anytrack tag does the heavy lifting of onsite tracking and link tagging. This method has many benefits. For example, because Anytrack is not part of the link redirect flow, Facebook and Google can’t see it as a link “cloaker”. It also enables you to simultaneously track any and all traffic sources and affiliate networks, without ever changing a single link on your site. It’s truly “Plug & Play”.

Anytrack’s paid plans start at an affordable $50 a month. This gives you three integrations and 12 months of data retention, as well as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and Bing integrations.

The Personal plan, which costs $150 a month, includes 500,000 sessions, ad networks support, and unlimited integrations. The Advanced plan costs $300 monthly and includes exclusive features such as allowing premium affiliate networks, webhooks, and Facebook Conversion API.

Another advantage? Anytrack can be integrated with any of the other platforms mentioned in this post, setting it apart from the pack!

Each plan comes with a 14-day free trial. Sign up now to get started. We offer extensive customer support and are on hand to help you with any problems.

Offerslook affiliate tracking software

Offerslook

Offerslook is, for many affiliate networks, the best affiliate tracking software solution and has earned its place on this list. You can track conversions and monitor your affiliates’ results smoothly through the platform based on revenue.

Offerslook’s reporting is great, too, with its in-depth reports. You can customize the reports based on the specific data points you want. If you want a more in-depth analysis, you can export all the data to CSV files. However, some users have reported difficulty contacting Offerslook’s customer service and complain about the level of support.

Despite this, Offerslook’s system means it deserves to be on this list of the best affiliate tracking software.

Offerslook’s paid plans start at $259 a month. That includes 10,000 conversions, unlimited clicks, 10 GB free media usage, among others. Its most popular plan, the enterprise plan, is at $459 a month and includes 40,000 conversions, unlimited clicks, and 20 GB of free media usage. You can contact Offerslook for a customized quote if you want more features and more than 40,000 conversions covered.

Tune affiliate tracking software

Tune

Tune is known for its flexibility. Tune works with some of the best affiliate programs. Like the other affiliate tracking software solutions, Tune offers real-time reporting and data streaming. You can optimize reports according to your specifications, which makes it easy to track conversions. The API helps you customize your experience with Tune. Tune is well set up for affiliate management and has specific tools to detect and prevent affiliate fraud.

Tune has useful features for mobile marketing, which is essential in today’s mobile-centric digital world. Its mobile marketing capabilities and mobile attribution SDK allow you to set up and monitor mobile-specific campaigns. If your business is heavily focused on mobile marketing, it might be the one for you.

For the features it offers, Tune, however, is very expensive. Its paid plans start at a whopping $499 a month, with the Bootstrap plan that includes 1000 conversions. The Startup plan costs $879 per month, while the Scale plan costs $1500 a month. Custom plans are available.

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

Tapfiliate

With Tapfiliate, merchants get their own dashboard so they’ll know how they’re performing. With the dashboard, you can see the list of conversions you’ve driven, the sources and the payouts.

The platform, however, is far from being the best affiliate tracking software because it is difficult to set up. Tapfiliate’s plans start at $69 a month with the Essential plan. The Pro plan, which includes the Essential plan’s features and more, costs $149 a month. You can contact Tapfiliate for a custom quote for more complex requirements.

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

Post Affiliate Pro

Post Affiliate Pro boasts of its advanced tracking features for ecommerce merchants to optimize traffic. The included affiliate management features (there are more than 100 of them!) are extensive and excellent.

Unfortunately, some merchants have complained that sales are not reliably tracked. If Post Affiliate Pro fixes this, it can easily be one of the best affiliate tracking software there is because it is affordable for the features it offers. There are also reports of affiliates not being able to reach customer support directly.

These issues notwithstanding, Post Affiliate Pro is ideal for ecommerce brands, as it can integrate seamlessly with dozens of shopping cart systems including Shopify, 3dcart, AbleCommerce, and many more.

Post Affiliate Pro’s pro plan costs $97 a month, and it includes advanced features. The ultimate plan costs $197 a month, and the network plan $477 a month. Post Affiliate Pro offers a 14-day free trial.

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

Partnerize

Partnerize is known for its tracking capabilities. Its tracking on social media and in-app tracking make it one of the best affiliate tracking software for large ecommerce brands.

Unfortunately, the user interface of the affiliates’ dashboard is not as intuitive as that of the other platforms. Some affiliates have also reported a bug in the program, with data in the reporting tab defaulting back to the original settings when filters are applied.

The prices of Partnerize’s plans are not available on the website but are available upon request. There is no free trial.

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

Refersion

Refersion is excellent for small ecommerce platforms running an affiliate program. It’s straightforward to use and set up, with some reporting a maximum of six minutes to get the software up and running.

While Refersion offers all of the functionality that you would expect from an affiliate tracking tool, there are reports the sales of some affiliates are not being tracked. This can be a deal-breaker, especially for affiliates who believe the best affiliate tracking software should track all their sales. No one wants their hard work to go to waste.

Refersion’s paid plans start at $89 a month, which is also quite expensive. The Enterprise plan is custom-priced for each client. Refersion offers a free 14-day trial.

The 9 best affiliate tracking software solutions

Kintura

Kintura is an AI-based affiliate marketing platform used by affiliate marketers engaging mainly with high volume popup traffic. Its use of artificial intelligence makes it unique in the industry, and its innovative machine learning algorithms maximize conversions. Kintura is all about minimizing wasted time, and offers real-time updates to make sure your data is always right up to date.

Kintura allows for up to 30 users at a time, so is a good option if you have a large team.

Kintura is expensive, with prices starting at $199 per month and rising to $999 for the Enterprise plan. However, you can enjoy a 14 day trial period to make sure it’s for you before you commit. Other platforms with similar functionality include Voluum, Redtrack, and Binom.

Note that due to the type of traffic running through this affiliate tracking software, and it’s heavy use of redirect URLs, users are often banned from platforms like Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

Osi affiliate tracking software

OSI Affiliate

OSI Affiliate Software is an affiliate software solution that allows you to recruit affiliates to promote your brand in exchange for a commission. The great thing about OSI Affiliate is it has built-in features that allow you to quickly set up your affiliate campaign in just a few clicks. It also has a dedicated dashboard that tracks the performance of your campaign. The dedicated dashboard available to all your affiliates will allow them to promote your brand on social media, see reports of their earnings, and get access to any promotional creatives you made available to them.

The OSI Affiliate Solution is extremely scalable and powers the affiliate programs for multi-million dollar companies such as Incorporate Inc. as well as businesses just getting started.

The idea of this roundup of the best affiliate tracking software on the market was to provide you with a clear overview of the options available and the relative strengths of each tool. When we developed anytrack.io, we spent a lot of time analyzing the market to see where there was a gap.

You should be aware that “best” is highly contextual and depends on your business needs. Each tool has different strengths and weaknesses, and what matters most to you will depend on what you’re trying to achieve.

As the founder of an affiliate tracking software solution, I wanted to highlight many great tools out there. If you are looking for a tool that allows you to track your affiliate income across multiple programs in one place and have that data delivered to your favored tools, I think Anytrack is the best solution on the market.

Then there’s the ease of use and the automation it enables. With Anytrack, you have instant access to your data where you need it, whether that’s Google Analytics or Facebook Ads. And if you want a beautiful and consolidated report, you can stream your data to Google Data Studio and display it on your living room TV. All this adds up to a much more streamlined process and a lot of time saved!

Give it a spin. Try our 14-day free trial.

Of course, your business may have its own needs. With this list, I hope you can weigh the pros and cons so you can pick the best affiliate tracking software that will make every click count with effective tracking.