AdvocateLoop vs Affiliates for WooCommerce – Affiliate Program, Referral Tracking & Commission Payouts

Turn one customer into the next. Your customers already recommend you — AdvocateLoop turns that word-of-mouth into a growth channel you can measure. This plugin connects your WordPress site to your AdvocateLoop account and handles the WordPress side of that: capturing referrals from incoming links, and rendering share and claim widgets wherever you place them. The plugin is intentionally lightweight. It attributes incoming referrals, renders widget containers via shortcodes, and reports the events your AdvocateLoop account needs. The referral rules, reward calculation, eligibility, and notification emails all live in your AdvocateLoop account — so there’s nothing to configure on your server beyond connecting the two. What the base plugin does Referral attribution you can trust — credits each visit to the right advocate server-side, not with cookie guesses that leak. Share & claim widgets — drop widgets anywhere with shortcodes: [advocate_loop_widget], [advocate_loop_share], [advocate_loop_claim], and [advocate_loop_share_buttons]. Works on any WordPress site — no store or ecommerce platform required. Your branding — widgets follow the brand colors, logo, and domain set in your AdvocateLoop account. Built to extend — checkout add-ons like AdvocateLoop for WooCommerce slot in automatically, with no setup. Optional add-on: track store orders The base plugin covers WordPress-level tracking (widgets, shortcodes, and visit attribution). If you run a store and want to track orders, install the matching free add-on alongside this plugin: AdvocateLoop for WooCommerce — a separate free add-on that adds order tracking for WooCommerce stores. Its features are documented with that add-on. Add-ons require this base plugin to be installed and active. When an add-on is active it adds its own tab under the AdvocateLoop menu; deactivate it and the tab is removed automatically. The base plugin works fully on its own without any add-on. Requirements WordPress 5.8 or higher PHP 7.4 or higher An AdvocateLoop account (a free tier is available). The plugin shows a setup notice until you enter your API Key and Brand ID. Full setup and usage documentation: https://docs.advocateloop.com/plugins/wordpress/setup/ External Services This plugin connects to AdvocateLoop, a third-party referral service, and cannot function without it — all referral logic, attribution, and reward calculation happen in the AdvocateLoop service rather than on your site. To render widgets and attribute referrals, the plugin loads AdvocateLoop’s widget script in the visitor’s browser. Data is sent to AdvocateLoop in two situations: From your WordPress admin: your API Key and Brand ID, to verify the connection and load your account data. From a visitor’s browser: when a page loads, a visitor identifier is requested; if the visit includes a referral, the referral code and landing page are sent so the visit can be attributed. When a visitor uses a share widget, the contact details they enter (such as name and email) are sent to create their advocate record and return a share link. By using this plugin you agree to AdvocateLoop’s Terms of Service (https://advocateloop.com/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://advocateloop.com/privacy).

Affiliates for WooCommerce is a WooCommerce affiliate plugin that turns your store into a self hosted affiliate program. People sign up as affiliates, share a referral link, and earn a commission when someone buys through it. You approve the affiliates, set the rate, and pay them when you are ready. Everything runs inside WordPress. There is no external affiliate network taking a cut of each sale, and no monthly platform fee on top of what you already pay your affiliates. Affiliates get their own dashboard inside the WooCommerce My Account page, so they can check earnings, build referral links, and enter payout details without emailing you. Quick links Free demo Pro demo Documentation Free vs Pro comparison How the referral tracking works An affiliate registers through your signup form and you approve them. They generate a referral link for any page or product on your store. A visitor clicks the link and a referral cookie is stored in their browser. If that visitor orders before the cookie expires, the commission is recorded against the affiliate. You review the commission list and record the payout. Why run the affiliate program on your own store Hosted affiliate platforms charge a subscription and usually a percentage of every tracked sale, so you pay twice for the same order. This plugin keeps the affiliate data, the commission rules, and the payout records in your own database. Commission amounts are calculated from real WooCommerce order totals, so what an affiliate earns matches what the customer actually paid. You decide whether tax and discounts count toward the commission base. What the free version includes Affiliate registration and signup form Affiliates apply through a form you can place on any page. An affiliate dashboard page with the login and registration forms is created for you on activation [ddwcaf_affiliate_registration_form_shortcode] renders the affiliate registration form anywhere on your site [ddwcaf_affiliate_dashboard_shortcode] renders the affiliate dashboard on a page of your choice Rename either shortcode from Configuration > Shortcodes if you prefer your own tag Show the login form next to the signup form, or show the signup form on its own Add the affiliate signup fields to the standard WooCommerce registration page Choose which WordPress user roles are allowed to become affiliates Approve, reject, or ban applications from the affiliates list in your admin Add a new affiliate yourself from the admin using the Add New button on the affiliates screen Referral link tracking Every click on a referral link is matched to an affiliate through a browser cookie. Set the referral cookie lifetime in days Rename the referral URL parameter and the cookie name to suit your store Turn click logging on or off Every logged click stores the destination URL and the time it happened Affiliates build their own referral links from the link generator in their dashboard Commission calculation Commissions are recorded automatically from WooCommerce orders once an order reaches the status you configure. One global commission percentage applies to every affiliate Exclude tax from the commission base with the net of tax setting Exclude the discounted amount so coupons do not inflate what you pay Review every commission in the admin with the order reference, amount, affiliate, and status Filter the commission list by status, date, or affiliate Payout management Bank transfer and PayPal are both available as payout methods, and you can switch either one off Affiliates save their own bank or PayPal details from their dashboard, so you do not have to collect them by email Create payout records from the admin and mark them paid once the money is sent Filter payouts by status so you can work through them in batches Each payout record keeps the affiliate, amount, method, and date Affiliate dashboard Affiliates see their own numbers without any access to your WordPress admin. Appears as an Affiliates tab in the WooCommerce My Account page, or on a standalone page through the shortcode Total earnings, paid earnings, unpaid earnings, and conversions at the top of the dashboard Commission list split by status so affiliates know what is pending and what has been paid Payout history with the current status of each request Visit log with the destination URL and timestamp of each recorded click Top products list showing which of your products earned them the most Referral link generator for any page or product Payout details form where they choose bank transfer or PayPal Optional WordPress sidebar widgets on the dashboard page Admin reporting Affiliates list with a status control and an earnings summary for each affiliate Single affiliate screen with the full profile and that affiliate’s commission history Commission log across all affiliates with filters Visit log across all affiliates showing referral source URLs Top products report showing which products drive the most affiliate revenue Dashboard styling Set the brand primary colour used across the affiliate dashboard Control background, border, text, and value colours for the summary cards Set table header background and text colours Show or hide the summary card icons and change the icon size Built for WooCommerce stores Declared compatible with WooCommerce High Performance Order Storage (HPOS) Translation ready with a .pot file, so it works with WPML, Polylang, and Loco Translate Works with standard WooCommerce compatible themes Object oriented codebase with hooks and filters for custom development Admin screens adapt to smaller displays with a drawer based navigation Try the free demo What the Pro version adds The free version covers a single global commission rate and manual payouts. Pro is for stores that need per product rates, automated payouts, and marketing material for affiliates. Commission rules Commission rates per product, per category, or per user role Tiered rates that increase automatically as an affiliate reaches higher lifetime earnings A personal commission rate for an individual affiliate that overrides the global rate Exclude specific products or categories from earning commission A holding period so commissions only become payable after your refund window closes Coupon based referrals Assign WooCommerce coupons to specific affiliates Affiliates earn commission when a customer checks out with their coupon, with no referral link needed Coupon assignment emails sent to the affiliate A coupons tab in the affiliate dashboard Automated payouts Let affiliates request payouts themselves, or run payouts automatically on a chosen day each month Set a minimum balance before a payout can be requested or processed A step by step payout wizard for processing large batches Pay through bank transfer, PayPal, or WooCommerce Wallet Marketing tools for affiliates Upload banners and text links as creatives that affiliates copy from their dashboard One click sharing to 10+ networks including Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, X, and email Pinterest ready image uploads Default share titles and messages so your branding stays consistent Custom registration fields Add your own fields to the affiliate signup form using text, select, radio, checkbox, and textarea inputs Choose which profile fields affiliates are allowed to edit Require affiliates to accept your program terms during signup Fraud controls Block affiliates from earning commission on their own orders Set a debounce time so repeated clicks from the same visitor are not counted as separate visits Decide whether a newer referral link overwrites an existing affiliate cookie Clear the referral cookie after a purchase CAPTCHA on the signup form through the WooCommerce Advanced CAPTCHA plugin by DevDiggers, sold separately Email notifications Automated emails for registration, approval, and commission updates Advanced reports Charts for earnings, visits, and conversions with month on month comparison Conversion rate and earnings breakdown at a glance Top products report filtered by affiliate Dashboard endpoints Custom URL endpoints and titles for each affiliate dashboard section Custom endpoint slug and title for the My Account affiliate tab Try the Pro demo or see the full comparison External services This plugin connects to two services run by DevDiggers. Both are used in the WordPress admin only and neither is involved in referral tracking, commissions, or payouts. DevDiggers plugin catalogue The DevDiggers admin screen loads the list of DevDiggers plugins so it can show which of them you already have installed. The request is sent to https://devdiggers.com/wp-json/ddwcs/v1/plugins when that screen is opened. It sends no personal data and no store data, only a standard user agent identifying the plugin framework version. DevDiggers newsletter signup If you type an email address into the newsletter box on the DevDiggers admin screen and submit it, that email address, a “newsletter” tag, and your site URL are sent to https://devdiggers.com/. This only happens when you submit the form yourself. Terms of service: https://devdiggers.com/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy policy: https://devdiggers.com/privacy-policy/ Source code and build tools The JavaScript and CSS shipped in assets/ are compiled with webpack and Babel from the sources in src/, which is excluded from the distributed zip to keep it small. The full source, including src/, webpack.config.js, babel.config.js, and package.json, is available from the plugin page at devdiggers.com. To build from source: npm install npm run build