UpPromote

Name: UpPromote
Brand: UpPromote
Price: 029.992 USD

The most-reviewed Shopify affiliate app, with a performance fee that falls as you pay more

UpPromote is Shopify-exclusive affiliate and customer referral software that tracks referred orders through links, coupon codes, and connected-customer matching, runs a white-label affiliate portal on your own domain, supports multi-level and recurring commissions, pays partners automatically through PayPal or store credit, and charges a monthly subscription plus a performance fee of 1% to 2% of approved referral sales, with a free plan for stores under $3,000 of monthly referral revenue.

Visit website

Overview

UpPromote does both jobs this category covers. It is an affiliate program tool, meaning you recruit partners who promote for commission, and it also runs customer referral programs where existing customers refer friends for a reward. Most products here do one or the other, and having both in a single Shopify app is a large part of why it has accumulated more than 3,300 reviews at a 4.9 average, making it the most-reviewed product of its kind in the Shopify ecosystem.

It is built by UpPromote Technology Joint Stock Company in Hanoi, Vietnam, and it is Shopify-exclusive. That is a real constraint and also the reason the integration is as deep as it is: connected-customer tracking, connected-product tracking, anti-leak discount protection, and auto-coupon generation are all things you can only build well when you have full access to one platform's order and customer model rather than trying to abstract across twelve.

The commercial model is a subscription plus a performance fee, and both numbers matter. Free covers up to $3,000 of monthly referral review with no fee. Growth is $29.99 a month plus 2% of approved referral sales, Professional is $89.99 plus 1.5%, and Enterprise is $199.99 plus 1%. Higher tiers are, in effect, a way of buying the percentage down, and the crossover points arrive earlier than most buyers assume. Every paid plan comes with a 14-day trial and annual billing saves 17%.

The thing to weigh against that percentage is what UpPromote actually gives you for it: an affiliate marketplace for partner discovery, automatic PayPal and store credit payouts, tax and invoice management, fraud detection with Google Ads monitoring, white-label domains, and multi-level structures. It is a genuinely complete product, and it is competing against tools like GoAffPro that do the core job for nothing. Whether the fee is worth it comes down to whether you use the recruitment and automation layers or just the tracking.

Best for

Shopify stores that want one app covering both an affiliate program and a customer referral program, particularly brands that need coupon-driven creator partnerships, lifetime customer attribution, and automatic payouts without assembling batches by hand.

Not the right fit for

Anyone not on Shopify; the app is Shopify-exclusive and there is no WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or standalone path at all.
SaaS companies billing subscriptions through Stripe or Paddle; the recurring commission model here follows Shopify subscription orders, not billing webhooks from a separate system.
High-volume programs where the percentage fee dominates; at $100,000 a month of referral revenue you are paying over $1,000 in fees for a job GoAffPro does for $49.
Stores whose margins cannot carry a platform fee stacked on top of the affiliate commission; a 20% program on the Growth plan is really costing 22%.
Buyers who need published security certifications, SSO, and formal enterprise vendor documentation; the public material does not cover any of that.

How it works

1
You install the app from the Shopify App Store and it reads your orders, products, and customers. Because it is Shopify-exclusive there is no integration work beyond granting permissions, and a basic program can be live in under an hour.
2
Affiliates sign up through a registration page you customize, or apply to your program through the UpPromote marketplace where stores are listed for affiliates to discover. Approved partners land in a white-label portal, hosted on your own domain on paid tiers, where they collect tracked links, auto-generated coupon codes, and promotional assets from a media gallery.
3
Attribution runs on four paths at once: link clicks, coupon code redemption, connected customers where a specific buyer is permanently linked to a referring affiliate, and connected products. That connected-customer path is what makes recurring and lifetime commissions work, because every future order from that customer credits the same partner regardless of how they arrived.
4
Commissions can be set at program or product level, tiered automatically as partners perform, or structured across multi-level downlines. Orders can be auto-approved or held for review, fraud detection screens for self-referrals and Google Ads bidding on your brand terms, and payouts run automatically through PayPal or as store credit, with tax and invoice records kept in the platform.

Feature breakdown

24 features in 4 modules

Tracking and attribution

Four attribution paths, which is more than almost anything else in this category.

Link tracking: Standard tracked referral links with an attribution window, tied directly to Shopify orders rather than to a separate ledger.
Coupon code tracking: Unique codes per affiliate attribute on redemption with no click required, which is the only attribution that reliably survives promotion on video and social platforms.
Connected customer tracking: A specific customer can be permanently linked to a referring affiliate, so every future order credits that partner regardless of how the customer arrived. This is what makes lifetime commissions actually work.
Connected product tracking: Commission can be tied to specific products so affiliates promoting a particular line earn on it wherever the traffic came from.
Auto-coupon generation: Codes are created automatically for new affiliates rather than requiring you to mint them one by one in Shopify, which removes the main bottleneck in onboarding a large creator cohort.
UTM and analytics integration: Affiliate traffic carries UTM parameters so it appears correctly in your own analytics rather than being invisible or misattributed to direct traffic.

Commissions and program structure

Covers the standard shapes plus the two most people eventually want.

Program and product-level commissions: Different rates per product or collection inside one program, so affiliate economics can follow actual margin instead of a single blended rate.
Recurring and lifetime commissions: Partners keep earning on repeat orders from customers they introduced, built on the connected-customer attribution rather than on a cookie that expires.
Auto-tier commissions: Rates improve automatically as a partner crosses volume thresholds, so top performers are rewarded without manual renegotiation.
Multi-level marketing: Downline structures where partners earn on the sales of partners they recruited, available for programs built on partner-driven recruitment.
Affiliate bonuses and gifts: One-off rewards and gifts outside the commission structure, used for launch pushes and milestone incentives.
Customer referral programs: A distinct program type where existing customers refer friends for a reward, running alongside the affiliate program in the same app rather than requiring a second tool.

Affiliate portal and recruitment

Where UpPromote earns its fee, if you use it.

White-label portal with custom domain: The affiliate dashboard, registration pages, and links run on your own domain with your branding, which improves both credibility with partners and first-party tracking survival.
Customizable registration pages: Application forms with your own fields and copy, plus auto-approval rules so onboarding does not require manual attention on every applicant.
Marketplace listing: Your program appears in the UpPromote marketplace where affiliates browse and apply, which is a real recruitment channel and one of only two products in this category that offers one.
Media gallery: Banners, product images, and copy distributed to affiliates from inside the portal so partners are not emailing you for assets.
Affiliate performance dashboard: Partners see clicks, orders, commissions, and payout history in real time, which cuts the recurring support load of people asking whether a referral landed.

Payouts, fraud, and compliance

Automation that removes the monthly payout chore entirely.

PayPal auto-payout: Payouts run automatically on your schedule rather than requiring someone to assemble and execute a batch, which several more expensive competitors still do not offer.
Store credit payouts: Pay affiliates or referring customers in store credit instead of cash, which is both cheaper for you and the natural reward for a customer referral program.
Tax and invoice management: Affiliate tax documentation and invoice records are kept in the platform rather than in a spreadsheet, though this is not the full US W-9 and 1099 package that LeadDyno or Tolt provide.
Fraud detection: Screening for self-referrals and abusive ordering patterns, with orders held for review before commission becomes payable.
Google Ads monitoring: Detects affiliates bidding on your brand terms in paid search, which is the most expensive form of affiliate abuse because you end up paying commission on traffic you would have got for free.
Anti-leak discount protection: Stops affiliate coupon codes leaking onto public deal sites and being redeemed by customers who were never referred, which quietly drains margin in most coupon-driven programs.
Auto-approve rules: Signups and orders can be approved automatically under conditions you set, so a large program does not require daily manual administration.

Use cases

4 documented

Shopify brand running both affiliates and customer referrals

The store pays creators a commission and separately wants customers to refer friends for store credit, which currently means two apps, two portals, and two sets of reporting.

UpPromote runs both program types in one app, with store credit payouts for the referral side and PayPal auto-payouts for the affiliate side, on a single subscription.

Beauty brand with 200 micro-creators on coupon codes

Minting Shopify discount codes one at a time is unmanageable, and codes keep leaking onto deal sites where non-referred customers redeem them.

Auto-coupon generation issues a unique code per creator at signup, and anti-leak discount protection stops the codes being harvested by coupon aggregators.

Store where repeat purchase drives most of the value

Affiliates introduce customers who then buy for years, but a cookie-based tool credits only the first order and partners lose interest.

Connected-customer tracking permanently links the buyer to the referring affiliate, so lifetime commissions pay on every future order and the program keeps partners engaged.

Brand losing margin to affiliates bidding on its own brand terms

Two affiliates are running Google Ads on the store's name, capturing traffic that would have converted anyway, and charging commission on it.

Google Ads monitoring flags the behaviour so those partners can be warned or removed before the program is quietly paying to cannibalise its own direct traffic.

Pricing

from $0 (Free), then $29.99/mo plus 2% of referral sales (Growth)

Monthly subscription plus a performance fee on approved referral sales, where higher tiers buy the percentage down from 2% to 1%. A free plan covers stores under $3,000 of monthly referral revenue with no fee.

Plan	Price	Includes
Free	$0 per month	1 affiliate program Up to $3,000 monthly referral review Link and coupon tracking Performance analytics and fraud detection No performance fee Generous for a first program, and notable for including fraud detection, which GoAffPro reserves for its $99 tier.
Growth	$29.99 per month plus 2% of referral sales ($24.99/mo billed annually)	Unlimited referral revenue Multiple programs White-label portal Auto payouts 2% performance fee The cheapest paid tier and the right one below roughly $12,000 of monthly referral revenue, after which the fee makes Professional cheaper.
Professional	$89.99 per month plus 1.5% of referral sales ($74.99/mo billed annually)	Everything in Growth Custom domain Multi-level marketing Advanced automation 1.5% performance fee Cheaper than Growth above about $12,000 of monthly referral revenue, and cheaper than Enterprise below about $22,000.
Enterprise	$199.99 per month plus 1% of referral sales ($166.66/mo billed annually)	Everything in Professional Lowest performance fee at 1% Priority support Advanced customization Becomes the cheapest option above roughly $22,000 of monthly referral revenue, which is earlier than most buyers expect.

Billing notes

Yes, the vendor takes a percentage of tracked revenue on top of the subscription: 2% on Growth, 1.5% on Professional, and 1% on Enterprise of approved referral sales. The free plan takes nothing but caps referral review at $3,000 a month.
The percentage stacks on top of the commission you already pay the affiliate, so a 20% program on the Growth plan costs 22% of every referred sale.
Because the fee falls as the subscription rises, the tier crossovers matter more than the headline prices. Growth to Professional flips at roughly $12,000 of monthly referral revenue, and Professional to Enterprise at roughly $22,000.
Annual billing saves 17% on the subscription component only; the performance fee is unaffected.
Every paid plan includes a 14-day trial, and signup is self-serve through the Shopify App Store with no sales call at any tier.
Prices verified on the vendor pricing page as of August 2026.

Value assessment: Run the crossovers before choosing a tier, because the fee is the real price. At $10,000 of monthly referral revenue, Growth costs $29.99 plus $200, so $229.99, while Professional costs $89.99 plus $150, so $239.99. Growth wins there, just. At $100,000 a month, Growth is $2,029.99, Professional is $1,589.99, and Enterprise is $1,199.99, so Enterprise wins comfortably. That $1,199.99 is real money for a job GoAffPro does for $49 and Post Affiliate Pro does for $139. UpPromote is cheaper than Refersion at every volume and much better featured than the free alternatives, so it sits in a defensible middle: you are paying roughly 1% of referral revenue for a marketplace, four attribution methods, automatic payouts, anti-leak protection, and Google Ads monitoring. That is a fair trade for a growing brand and a poor one for a mature program that has already solved recruitment.

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

Covers both affiliate programs and customer referral programs in one app, which almost nothing else in this category does properly.
Four attribution paths including connected-customer tracking, which makes lifetime commissions work without depending on a cookie surviving.
Automatic PayPal and store credit payouts, so the monthly payout chore genuinely disappears rather than becoming a batch file you still have to run.
Anti-leak discount protection and Google Ads monitoring address two forms of affiliate margin erosion that most competitors ignore entirely.
A marketplace listing gives real partner discovery, which is the problem most small affiliate programs actually fail at.
The free plan includes fraud detection and coupon tracking, which several competitors gate behind paid tiers.
The most-reviewed affiliate app in the Shopify ecosystem at a 4.9 average across more than 3,300 reviews, and fully self-serve at every tier.

Limitations

Shopify-exclusive, with no path for WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or standalone sites, which rules it out for a large share of the market.
The performance fee is the dominant cost once a program works: over $1,000 a month at $100,000 of referral revenue even on the cheapest-fee tier.
Tier crossovers arrive early and are not signposted, so it is easy to sit on Growth paying more than you would on Professional without noticing.
Tax and invoice management is not the full US compliance package; there is no W-9 collection with 1099 filing of the kind LeadDyno and Tolt offer.
Recurring commissions follow Shopify orders, so a SaaS business billing through Stripe or Paddle gets nothing useful from that capability.
Public security, compliance, and data residency documentation is thin, which will stall a formal enterprise vendor review.
Custom domain is a Professional-tier feature at $89.99 plus 1.5%, where GoAffPro includes it at $49 flat.

Head-to-head comparisons

5 alternatives

UpPromote vs GoAffPro

from $0 (Hobby), then $49/mo (Premium)

The direct competitor and the direct cost contrast. GoAffPro takes no percentage of sales at any tier and caps nothing on its free plan; UpPromote takes 1% to 2% and caps its free plan at $3,000 of monthly referral revenue. At $100,000 a month that difference is roughly $1,150. UpPromote earns some of it back with connected-customer tracking, a marketplace, anti-leak protection, Google Ads monitoring, and a far better support reputation. Take UpPromote for the product, GoAffPro for the price.

Full UpPromote vs GoAffPro comparison

UpPromote vs Refersion

from Free (Marketplace Listing), then $39/mo plus 3% of affiliate sales (Launch)

Both are Shopify-first, both charge subscription plus percentage, and UpPromote is cheaper on both axes at essentially every volume: $199.99 plus 1% against Refersion's $199 plus 2%. Refersion counters with a longer operating history, first-party tracking, and a larger marketplace. If the marketplace is the reason you are buying, compare the two directly; on everything else UpPromote is the better value.

Full UpPromote vs Refersion comparison

UpPromote vs ReferralCandy

from $39/mo plus 10.5% success fee (Basic)

ReferralCandy is purpose-built customer referral software and does that one job with more polish, including a success fee that only applies to a new customer's first three orders. UpPromote covers customer referral as one program type alongside a full affiliate platform. A store that only wants customer referrals should compare ReferralCandy's fee structure carefully; a store that wants both jobs handled should take UpPromote and avoid running two subscriptions.

Full UpPromote vs ReferralCandy comparison

UpPromote vs Tolt

from $69/mo (Basic)

Different markets entirely. Tolt is Stripe-native SaaS affiliate software that runs payouts for a 2% processing fee and handles W-9 collection and 1099 filing; UpPromote is Shopify ecommerce software with a performance fee on tracked sales. Tolt's fee applies only to the payouts it executes, which is a fundamentally cheaper structure than a fee on all tracked revenue. Subscription businesses go to Tolt, Shopify stores go to UpPromote, and neither substitutes for the other.

Full UpPromote vs Tolt comparison

UpPromote vs Affonso

from About $15/mo (Launch)

Affonso is the Stripe-native budget option at roughly $15 to $19 a month with no revenue clip, aimed at SaaS founders. UpPromote is the Shopify-native option with a performance fee and a much deeper ecommerce feature set. The decision is made by your platform, not your budget: Affonso has no useful Shopify story and UpPromote has no useful Stripe subscription story.

Full UpPromote vs Affonso comparison

Implementation & onboarding

Setup time: Under an hour. Install from the Shopify App Store, grant permissions, set a commission rate, customize the registration page, and the program is live. Custom domain setup on Professional adds a DNS step.
Learning curve: Low for the basics, moderate once you get into multi-level structures, auto-tier rules, and the interaction between the four attribution paths. Connected-customer tracking in particular is worth understanding properly before you promise anyone lifetime commissions.
Onboarding: Fully self-serve through the Shopify App Store, with a free plan requiring no payment details and a 14-day trial on every paid tier. No sales call at any level, including Enterprise.
Migration notes: Affiliates can be imported and coupon codes carry over cleanly because they live in Shopify, but tracking links change, so an established program means reissuing links or configuring redirects. The free plan makes it practical to run UpPromote in parallel with an incumbent for a month at zero cost as long as referral revenue stays under $3,000, which is enough to compare attribution honestly.

Platform, API & security

Platforms: Shopify (exclusive)White-label affiliate portalCustom domain on Professional and above
API: Integration is through the Shopify app rather than a general-purpose API; the product is not designed to be embedded in non-Shopify systems.
Compliance: Affiliate tax and invoice management within the platform
Data residency: Not published; the operator is based in Hanoi, Vietnam.
SSO: Not published.
Security notes: Fraud detection covers self-referrals and abusive ordering, with Google Ads monitoring for affiliates bidding on brand terms and anti-leak protection against coupon codes escaping to deal sites. Public security certification documentation is not published, which is a consideration for formal vendor reviews.

Support & resources

Channels: 24/7 live chatEmail supportPriority support on Enterprise
Documentation: Help center covering installation, program setup, the four tracking methods, commission structures, payouts, and the marketplace.
Community: No large official user forum; the Shopify App Store review thread, at more than 3,300 reviews, is the most substantial public feedback surface.

Company

Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Hanoi, Vietnam
Ownership: Privately held, operated by UpPromote Technology Joint Stock Company
Employees: Not disclosed
Funding: No disclosed outside funding. The product is distributed exclusively through the Shopify App Store, where it holds a 4.9 rating across more than 3,300 reviews.

Timeline

2017Launches in the Shopify App Store as an affiliate marketing app, taking the deliberate decision to serve one platform properly rather than abstract across many.
2020Adds customer referral programs alongside affiliate programs, becoming one of the few products in the category to cover both jobs in a single app.
2022Introduces connected-customer and connected-product tracking, enabling lifetime commissions that do not depend on a cookie surviving.
2024Ships anti-leak discount protection and Google Ads monitoring, targeting the two most common ways coupon-driven affiliate programs lose margin.
2026Operates as a standalone joint stock company in Hanoi with four self-serve tiers from free to $199.99, performance fees from 2% down to 1%, and more than 3,300 Shopify reviews at a 4.9 average.

Integrations

Shopify (exclusive platform)
Shopify Discounts and coupon codes
PayPal (automatic payouts)
Shopify store credit
Google Ads monitoring
UTM and analytics tools
UpPromote affiliate marketplace

Frequently asked questions

11 questions

What is UpPromote?

UpPromote is Shopify affiliate and customer referral software. It does both jobs: recruiting affiliates who promote for commission, and running customer referral programs where existing customers refer friends for a reward. It tracks referred orders through links, coupon codes, connected customers, and connected products, and pays partners automatically through PayPal or store credit.

How much does UpPromote cost?

Free covers up to $3,000 of monthly referral review with no performance fee. Growth is $29.99 a month plus 2% of referral sales, Professional is $89.99 plus 1.5%, and Enterprise is $199.99 plus 1%. Annual billing saves 17% on the subscription, and every paid plan has a 14-day trial.

Does UpPromote take a percentage of my affiliate revenue?

Yes. Paid plans charge a performance fee on approved referral sales: 2% on Growth, 1.5% on Professional, and 1% on Enterprise, on top of the subscription and on top of the commission you pay the affiliate. The free plan takes no fee but caps referral review at $3,000 a month. GoAffPro, Tapfiliate, and Post Affiliate Pro take no percentage at all, which is the main cost argument against UpPromote.

What would UpPromote cost me at $10,000 and $100,000 of monthly affiliate revenue?

At $10,000 a month, Growth is $29.99 plus $200, so $229.99, and Professional is $89.99 plus $150, so $239.99. Growth is marginally cheaper. At $100,000 a month, Growth is $2,029.99, Professional is $1,589.99, and Enterprise is $1,199.99, so Enterprise is the right tier. Note how early the crossovers arrive: Growth stops being cheapest at about $12,000 and Professional at about $22,000.

Does UpPromote work with WooCommerce, Stripe, or Paddle?

No. UpPromote is Shopify-exclusive and there is no path to any other platform. If you are on WooCommerce or BigCommerce, look at GoAffPro or Post Affiliate Pro. If you bill SaaS subscriptions through Stripe or Paddle, look at Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt, or PromoteKit. A merchant-of-record setup is simply outside what UpPromote does.

How does UpPromote handle attribution and cross-device tracking?

Four ways. Link tracking with an attribution window, coupon code redemption which needs no click and works across any device, connected-customer matching which permanently links a buyer to the referring affiliate, and connected-product tracking. The connected-customer path is the strongest answer to cross-device attribution in this category, because once the link is established it survives regardless of which device the next order comes from.

Can UpPromote run a customer referral program as well as an affiliate program?

Yes, and it is one of the few products here that genuinely does both. Customer referral is a distinct program type with its own rewards, and store credit payouts make it practical to reward referrers without moving cash. Running both in one app avoids the common outcome of paying for two subscriptions and reconciling two sets of reporting.

Does UpPromote pay affiliates for me?

Yes, automatically through PayPal on a schedule you configure, or as Shopify store credit. That genuine automation is a real advantage over tools that only produce a batch file for you to execute. What it does not include is the full US tax package: there is tax and invoice management, but not the W-9 collection and 1099 filing that LeadDyno and Tolt offer.

Can I brand the affiliate portal and put it on my own domain?

The white-label portal arrives on Growth at $29.99 plus 2%, and custom domain hosting on Professional at $89.99 plus 1.5%. GoAffPro includes both at $49 flat with no percentage, so if branding on your own domain is the main thing you want, price the two against each other carefully.

How does UpPromote detect fraud and self-referral?

Fraud detection is included even on the free plan and screens for self-referrals and abusive ordering patterns, with orders holdable for review before commission becomes payable. Two less common protections matter more in practice: Google Ads monitoring catches affiliates bidding on your brand terms, and anti-leak discount protection stops affiliate coupon codes being harvested onto public deal sites.

Who makes UpPromote?

UpPromote Technology Joint Stock Company, based in Hanoi, Vietnam. There is no disclosed outside funding, and distribution is entirely through the Shopify App Store, where it is the most-reviewed product of its kind with more than 3,300 reviews at a 4.9 average.

Editorial verdict

UpPromote is the best all-round Shopify affiliate app, and the price of that is a performance fee that never stops. Four attribution methods, connected-customer lifetime tracking, automatic payouts, a marketplace, anti-leak coupon protection, and Google Ads monitoring add up to a product that is meaningfully better than the free alternatives, and it undercuts Refersion at every volume while doing more. It also handles customer referral programs, which means one app instead of two. The reservations are Shopify exclusivity, which decides the question for anyone else, and the arithmetic at scale: $1,199.99 a month at $100,000 of referral revenue is a lot to pay for tracking that GoAffPro does for $49. Buy it while the marketplace and the automation are earning their keep, watch the tier crossovers because they arrive earlier than you expect, and revisit the decision once your program is mature.

Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.