Best referral marketing software in 2026: 10 tools, their prices and limits
Referral marketing software compared: GrowSurf, Viral Loops, Cello, ReferralCandy, Rewardful and 5 more, with plan prices checked in October 2026.
Muzahid Maruf, Founder
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The best referral marketing software depends on what you reward and where your customers buy. GrowSurf and Viral Loops price by participant count and suit programs where customers refer customers.
Rewardful, FirstPromoter and Tolt start between $49 and $69 a month and pay commission on SaaS subscription revenue. ReferralCandy fits Shopify stores, Cello puts referrals inside a B2B product, and Friendbuy and PartnerStack sell through demos.
I run TrackRev, so it is entry 10 and gets judged by the same criteria, including where it loses. Every price comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read in October 2026.
Key takeaways
- Entry plans run from $9 to $125 a month, and each vendor meters something different: participants, affiliate revenue, referral ARR, a success fee or commission paid.
- FirstPromoter's $49 Starter stops at $5,000 a month of affiliate revenue, while Rewardful's $49 Starter reaches $7,500.
- GrowSurf counts referred friends as participants, so a program with many sign-ups costs more than a small one.
- Friendbuy and PartnerStack publish no prices, so you book a demo to get a quote.
- TrackRev's referral campaigns start at $39 a month, and a friend's discount is a promo code you create in your payment provider.
What referral marketing software costs
Entry prices run from $9 to $125 a month, and they measure different things. GrowSurf and Viral Loops bill by participants. Rewardful, FirstPromoter and Tolt cap the monthly revenue their affiliates generate.
Cello caps referral ARR, ReferralCandy takes a success fee on new customers, TrackRev caps the commission it tracks, and Friendbuy and PartnerStack quote only after a demo.
| Tool | Cheapest paid plan | What the plan limit counts | Trial or free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| GrowSurf | Startup, $125/mo billed yearly ($179 monthly) | Participants: from 2,500 on Startup, from 10,000 on Business | 14-day trial, no card; no free referral plan |
| Viral Loops | Start-up, $35/mo billed yearly ($49 monthly) | Participants: 1,000 on Start-up, 25,000 on Power | 14-day trial limited to 10 participants |
| Cello | Start, 65/mo billed yearly (95 monthly) | Referral ARR: up to 10K on Start, 100K on Scale | Start for free buttons, terms unstated; free partner-referral plan |
| ReferralCandy | Basic, $9/mo plus a 10.5% success fee | Success fee on each new customer's first 3 orders | 7-day trial, no success fee during it |
| Friendbuy | Not published | Quote after a demo | None listed |
| Rewardful | Starter, $49/mo ($490 a year) | Affiliate-attributed revenue: $7,500/mo on Starter | 14-day trial |
| FirstPromoter | Starter, $49/mo ($490 a year) | Revenue from affiliates: $5,000/mo on Starter | 14-day trial, no card |
| Tolt | Basic, $69/mo | Money earned from affiliates: $10,000/mo on Basic | 14-day trial, no card |
| PartnerStack | Not published | Program size, features and support, set in a demo | None listed |
| TrackRev | Starter, $39/mo ($351 a year) | Commission tracked: $10K/mo on Starter | Free plan: link tracking only, 1,000 tracked events/mo |
Prices from each vendor's pricing page, October 2026.
Metering changes which plan you land on. Take a SaaS whose referred customers pay $6,000 a month.
Rewardful's Starter covers it at $49 because its ceiling is $7,500, while FirstPromoter's Starter stops at $5,000, so the same program needs Business at $99.
TrackRev's Starter meters commission, so at a 30% commission the $6,000 produces $1,800 against a $10,000 ceiling, which that plan reaches at about $33,333 of referred revenue a month.
GrowSurf and Viral Loops ignore revenue and count the people who join.
Worked example: where ReferralCandy's tiers cross
Basic costs $9 plus 10.5% of new-customer revenue and Grow costs $79 plus 3.5%. At $1,000 a month both cost $114 ($9 + $105, and $79 + $35), so Grow is cheaper above that. Grow and Scale ($249 plus 1.5%) meet at $8,500 a month, where each costs $376.50, and Scale and Enterprise ($799 plus 0.25%) meet at $44,000, where each costs $909. The fee counts only each new customer's first 3 orders, so the revenue that matters is smaller than total referred sales.
Referral program software with a free plan
Few vendors give referrals a free tier.
GrowSurf's affiliate product costs $0 a month plus a 3% success fee on the revenue affiliates bring in, and Cello's partner-referral Free plan allows 1 campaign and 5 transacting partners with 5% transaction costs.
TrackRev's free plan covers link tracking only, with 50 links and 1,000 tracked events a month, and the referral program and revenue figures start on a paid plan.
Most other vendors run a 7 to 14 day trial, while Friendbuy and PartnerStack list none.
A percentage fee overtakes a flat plan at a predictable volume. GrowSurf's 3% costs more than Rewardful's $49 Starter plan once affiliates bring in about $1,633 a month (49 divided by 0.03), and Starter covers up to $7,500.
1. GrowSurf, for customer referrals priced by participant
GrowSurf counts a participant as any referrer or referred person with a unique email address.
Startup is $125 a month billed yearly (30% below the $179 monthly rate) at up to 2,500 participants, with 2 referral programs and 2 team members.
Business is $314 billed yearly ($449 monthly) from 10,000 participants up to 150,000, with 5 programs, a custom portal domain and live support. Referral programs have no free plan, only a 14-day trial with every feature and no card.
Developers get a REST API, a JavaScript SDK, iOS and Android SDKs and webhooks. It suits a SaaS with a modest participant count whose customers share from inside the product.
2. Viral Loops, for waitlists, giveaways and milestone rewards
Viral Loops sells campaign templates such as The Startup Prelaunch, The Leaderboard Giveaway and The Milestone Referral. The Start-up plan ($35 billed yearly) covers lead-generation campaigns only, for up to 1,000 participants.
Campaigns where customers refer friends begin at Plus ($99 billed yearly, $139 monthly, up to 5,000 participants), which also adds a custom domain and API access.
Growing ($159 billed yearly, 10,000 participants) adds Stripe and Tremendous rewarding, referral revenue tracking and branding removal, and Power is $279 for 25,000. The pricing page lists no commission or partner payouts, so a commission program fits elsewhere.
3. Cello, for B2B products that want referrals inside the app
Cello embeds referrals through the Cello Web SDK, the Cello Mobile SDK (iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native), a menu launcher or a floating button, and gives every user a personal link, with text customizable in 10 languages.
Start is 65 a month billed yearly (95 monthly) for 1 campaign and up to 10K referral ARR, Grow is 200 yearly (300 monthly) for unlimited campaigns and 50K, Scale is 750 for 100K, and Enterprise is custom.
Referral ARR annualizes the recurring revenue of referred customers who still pay, so churn lowers it, and referred free or trial users cost nothing. User referrals carry 0% transaction costs.
Cello's page markup says prices show in euros by default, so check the currency you see. Yearly plans carry a 12-month commitment, and monthly plans cancel any time. See also Cello alternatives.
4. ReferralCandy, for Shopify and other online stores
ReferralCandy puts every feature on every plan, including unlimited campaigns, custom coupon codes and full API access, and charges for volume: Basic is $9 a month plus 10.5%, Grow $79 plus 3.5%, Scale $249 plus 1.5% and Enterprise $799 plus 0.25%.
The percentage applies to the subtotal of a net-new customer's first 3 orders, never to the reward paid out, and each extra store costs $20 a month.
The page is written around Shopify first, then BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento and custom stores, and never mentions subscriptions or Stripe, so a SaaS should ask how recurring revenue is counted before trialing it.
5. Friendbuy, for large consumer brands with a lifecycle stack
Friendbuy publishes no prices, and friendbuy.com/pricing redirects to its home page, so every conversation starts with a demo. Onboarding is project-managed over 4 to 6 weeks, with Friendbuy building the widgets and emails.
It connects to Shopify, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Recharge, Ordergroove, Klaviyo, Attentive, Braze, Iterable and Segment, and your own systems can approve each reward through a Reward Validation Callback before it fires.
6. Rewardful, for Stripe-billed SaaS paying commissions
Rewardful calls itself a Premier Stripe Partner, its integrations page names Paddle too, and it takes 0% of affiliate-attributed revenue.
Starter is $49 a month, or $490 a year for 2 months free, with 1 campaign, 2 team members and up to $7,500 a month of affiliate-attributed revenue.
Growth is $99 ($990 a year) with unlimited campaigns, a branded portal, a custom domain and a $15,000 ceiling, and Enterprise starts at $149 with phone support.
Double-sided incentives, coupon-code tracking, first- or last-touch attribution, self-referral detection and a Two-Way Stripe Sync come on every plan. It fits when commission on Stripe revenue is the whole job, and Rewardful vs TrackRev covers the overlap.
7. FirstPromoter, for commission programs beyond Stripe
FirstPromoter connects to Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Braintree. Starter is $49 a month ($490 a year) for up to $5,000 a month of revenue from affiliates, 1,000 affiliates, 3 campaigns and cookie windows up to 9,999 days.
Business is $99 ($990 a year) for up to $15,000, unlimited affiliates and campaigns, a custom domain, white-labeling and an affiliate dashboard embedded in your app, and Enterprise is $149 above $15,000 with Managed Auto Payouts.
Double-sided rewards and non-monetary rewards such as free months, credits and points come on every plan, and multi-tier commissions reach 3 levels. Its Starter ceiling is the lowest of the three commission tools.
8. Tolt, for auto payouts at $99 a month
Tolt starts at $69 a month for up to $10,000 a month earned from affiliates, 2 programs, a custom domain and manual payouts.
Growth is $99 for $20,000, 5 programs, Tolt Auto Payouts at a 2% processing fee, W-9 and W-8 collection and 1099 filing, and Pro is $199 for $50,000, unlimited programs and a Slack channel.
The "powered by" link stays until Pro. Basic, Growth and Pro list double-sided rewards through coupons, and the page names Stripe, Paddle and Chargebee. The trial runs 14 days without a card, backed by a 30-day refund policy.
A program that wants to skip payout spreadsheets should budget $99, and Tolt vs TrackRev sets the two side by side.
9. PartnerStack, for B2B partner ecosystems
PartnerStack sells 3 plans, Launch, Growth and Enterprise, and publishes no prices; cost depends on program size, features and support, and a demo confirms it.
Launch covers affiliate link tracking or lead and deal registration, PartnerStack Marketplace access, Partner Payments built for B2B sales cycles and CRM integrations.
Growth adds a Learning Management Solution, partner challenges and MDF payments, and Enterprise adds a designated customer success manager.
The page sets no limit on partners or users and says most teams go live within weeks, which makes it heavy for a first customer-referral program. PartnerStack vs TrackRev goes through the trade-offs.
10. TrackRev, for referrals measured next to every other channel
TrackRev's referral campaigns sit inside its Affiliate Program and are two-sided.
The referrer earns a one-time or recurring commission, flat or percentage, and the referred customer gets 1 of 4 rewards: a percentage discount, a flat discount, free months or extra trial days.
The friend's discount needs a promo code you create in your payment provider and assign per partner or program-wide. Credit rewards need a connected database or webhook, since TrackRev has no manual fulfilment for them.
Revenue syncs from Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Lemon Squeezy, refunds reverse commissions, and a hold of 0 to 180 days (default 0) can outlast your refund window.
The referral program needs a paid plan: Starter is $39 a month ($351 a year, since annual billing charges 9 months for 12), Growth $99 and Scale $199, and each includes the whole product.
Starter tracks up to $10K of commission a month, and sale revenue is never capped (see pricing).
GrowSurf and Cello fit better for in-product widgets and mobile SDKs, Viral Loops for waitlists and giveaways, ReferralCandy for Shopify and Friendbuy for enterprise teams. TrackRev fits when referrals, affiliates and other channels share one dashboard.
How rewards and payouts work in each tool
| Tool | Reward types listed | Payout method |
|---|---|---|
| GrowSurf | Gift cards, credits, cash | PayPal, Wise, Tango Card, Tremendous |
| Viral Loops | Prizes, early access, milestones | Stripe and Tremendous rewarding from Growing |
| Cello | Set by campaign payout rules | Your card is billed up to 2 times a month for timely payouts |
| ReferralCandy | Coupons, cash, store credit | PayPal, Venmo, bank transfer, Tremendous cards |
| Friendbuy | Coupons, store credit, cash back, gift cards | Held until conditions you set are met, such as a closed return window |
| Rewardful | Commission plus friend discount | PayPal and Wise mass payouts |
| FirstPromoter | Commission, discounts, free months, credits, points | PayPal, Wise, Stripe, crypto, bank; 190 currencies |
| Tolt | Commission plus coupon-based friend rewards | Manual on Basic; automatic from Growth at 2% |
| PartnerStack | Commission, MDF payments on Growth | Partner Payments |
| TrackRev | Cash commission; credits through your backend | PayPal or Wise CSV, then mark paid |
Reward types and payout methods as each vendor's site lists them, October 2026.
On Stripe, a friend's discount is a coupon that applies once, for a set number of months or indefinitely, and a promotion code is the customer-facing code wrapped around it, per Stripe's coupons documentation.
A referrer's credit can sit in the customer's invoice balance, which Stripe applies to future invoices.
How referral tracking software credits a signup
Every tool here ties a signup to a referrer through a link and its cookie, a coupon code, or a user ID your app passes in through an API or SDK. Links break first.
WebKit's tracking prevention page says Safari caps script-created cookies at 24 hours when it detects cross-site link decoration and deletes script-created storage after 7 days without user interaction, so a friend who clicks on Monday and buys the Tuesday after can arrive uncredited (the Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention write-up covers the fix).
Rewardful and FirstPromoter list coupon tracking for that case, Cello recovers missed attributions, and TrackRev records the click on the server at the redirect and joins it to the Stripe, Paddle, Polar or Lemon Squeezy charge.
Whichever trial you start, push 1 referral through it before paying: click your own link in a private window, sign up with a second email, buy at the lowest price and refund the order.
The reward should appear under the right referrer within minutes and then reverse.
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Frequently asked questions
- Referral marketing software gives each customer or partner a unique link or code, records who they bring in, applies the reward when the new customer signs up or pays, and tracks payouts.
- Referral software usually rewards existing customers with credit, discounts or gift cards. Affiliate software pays commission, often recurring, to creators and consultants. Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt and TrackRev pay commission with an optional friend discount, while GrowSurf, Viral Loops and Cello lean toward customer rewards.
- A $49 plan costs $588 a year. A customer paying $39 a month with a 20% commission for 12 months yields $468 of revenue and $93.60 of commission, leaving $374.40. Two referred customers a year cover the plan, and the software also handles refund reversals and payout records.
- FirstPromoter lists Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Braintree. Tolt names Stripe, Paddle and Chargebee. TrackRev syncs Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Lemon Squeezy. Rewardful names Stripe and Paddle, and ReferralCandy's pricing page describes store checkouts.
- Choose a tool that checks for self-referrals and holds payouts. FirstPromoter lists self-referral detection, reCAPTCHA and automatic negative commissions on refunds. GrowSurf lists burner email and data-center IP detection. TrackRev has self-referral detection and a hold you set from 0 to 180 days.
- Credit costs you margin instead of cash and stays inside your product, but you need a way to deliver it. In Stripe Billing a credit can be an adjustment to the customer's invoice balance. Cash suits partners with an outside audience.
Written by
Founder, TrackRev.io & Contant.io
Muzahid Maruf is the founder of TrackRev.io and Contant.io. He writes about marketing attribution, link tracking, and revenue analytics for SaaS teams.
Writes about Marketing attribution · Link tracking · Revenue analytics · SaaS growth
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