Comparison

AffiliateRail vs Endorsely

Endorsely is free until your affiliates earn you $1,000 a month. Then it is $39 to $5,000 and $99 to $20,000. Above that, there is no printed price. AffiliateRail is $29 from the first month and $99 to $50,000. So Endorsely is cheaper for a program that is not earning yet. AffiliateRail is cheaper once it earns. Neither prints a payout fee. The thing Endorsely has that we do not is an AI that finds affiliates promoting your competitors, and it is on the free plan. If that decides it, start there.

Written by Jimi Barkway, who built AffiliateRail. Jimi has run affiliate programs from both sides of the link. Corrections go to support@affiliaterail.com. Published 6 September 2026. Updated 6 September 2026.

Run AffiliateRail beside Endorsely for 14 days and compare the bills

No card. Your published affiliate links keep working.

The difference

What is the difference between AffiliateRail and Endorsely?

Both track through Stripe and read a via tag on the link. Both band their plans on monthly affiliate revenue. Both print no fee on payouts. Two things differ. Endorsely is free to $1,000 a month and stops printing prices at $20,000. AffiliateRail costs $29 from day one and prints a price to $50,000. And Endorsely finds affiliates for you. Its finder names people promoting your competitors, on every plan. AffiliateRail gives you a manual chapter and you do the looking. Pick by where your program is today.

Where they differ	Endorsely	AffiliateRail
Entry price	Free to $1,000 a month of affiliate revenue. Then $39 to $5,000, $99 to $20,000	$29 a month founding to $10,000, kept for as long as you stay. 14 days free, no card
Fee on payouts	None printed. Their page says no commission fees, and bulk payouts via PayPal	0%. The money never reaches AffiliateRail, so there is nothing to take a cut of
The bill at $40,000 a month	A conversation. Enterprise has no printed price above $20,000	$99, however much you pay out
Who holds the money	Not stated. Their pricing page names PayPal and no fee, and says nothing about whose account sends it	Your own PayPal or Wise pays your partner. AffiliateRail never holds it
Finding partners	An AI finder that names affiliates promoting your competitors, with contacts and draft emails. Fifteen a month free, 250 on Scale	No finder. You bring your partners. The manual shows you where to look
Partner sign-up page	On Endorsely's domain for free. Your own domain from $39	A branded portal on your own domain, from the $29 plan
Billing systems	Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, or a custom integration	Stripe and Paddle
Team seats	Unlimited from $39	Three from $29

Cost

What does each one cost?

Published plan prices on both sides. They come from the same verified figures that drive the calculator. Our founding price is held for the life of the subscription. The list price is what a plan costs once the founding places are gone.

Plan	Ceiling	Price	Automated payouts
AffiliateRail Launch	to $10,000 a month	$29 founding, $59 after	No
AffiliateRail Grow	to $20,000 a month	$59 founding, $89 after	Yes
AffiliateRail Scale	to $50,000 a month	$99 founding, $179 after	Yes
Endorsely Starter	to $1,000 a month of affiliate revenue	free to $1,000 a month of affiliate revenue, then $39 a month	Yes
Endorsely Pro	to $5,000 a month	$39 a month	Yes
Endorsely Scale	to $20,000 a month	$99 a month	Yes

Plan price is not the whole bill. A payout fee is a slice the platform takes out of the money you send your partners. It is charged on top of your plan, and a good month changes it. The true-cost calculator does the arithmetic on your own numbers.

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14 days free, no card. 0% of every payout.

01 Custody

Who holds the money when affiliates get paid?

Here is where this page is careful.

Endorsely's pricing page says "Bulk Payouts via Paypal" and "No commission fees". It does not say whether the money passes through Endorsely on the way to your affiliates, or leaves straight from your own PayPal account. Their docs describe automated payouts and invoice generation, and stop there. So this page does not claim either. If it matters to you, ask them before you sign.

AffiliateRail's answer is on the page. It works out who is owed what. Then it logs into your own PayPal or Wise and pays them. The money leaves your account and lands in theirs. It never comes near AffiliateRail. That is why 0% is a fact about the plumbing, not an offer.

02 On AffiliateRail

Where does the money go on AffiliateRail?

AffiliateRail never holds it. You connect your own PayPal or Wise account. We work out who is owed what and tell your account to pay. The money goes from you to your affiliate and never passes through us.

So we take 0% of every payout, on every plan. There is no cut to take when the money never arrives. The custody page has every platform's own position, with sources.

03 The product

What does the product look like?

One dashboard for the program: affiliates, referrals, commissions and payouts. Your affiliates get a portal on your own domain, from the $29 plan. It comes in thirteen languages.

Tracking rides the Stripe or Paddle reference field. Not a cookie an ad blocker can drop. Payouts run from your own PayPal or Wise account on a schedule. The founder answers support.

The AffiliateRail app: the dashboard, then partners, commissions, payouts, commission rules and reports, one screen after another — Every screen, from its own menu. Recorded on a demo program.

In their words

What Endorsely's own terms say

Affiliates use referral links with simple “?via=” referral tags without any redirects, that help your SEO so you rank higher

Endorsely home page, checked 6 September 2026

This is why a move in either direction keeps old links paying. Both tools read a via tag on your own domain, with no redirect to break.

Credit where due

Where Endorsely is the better choice

No product wins on every axis. A comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. Endorsely does two things we do not, and one of them is the reason a program with no revenue should start there.

Free until it works. No card, no clock, to $1,000 a month of affiliate revenue. Our trial ends after 14 days.
The affiliate finder. It names people already promoting your competitors, finds their contacts and drafts the email. On the free plan. AffiliateRail has nothing like it.
A listing in their affiliate network, so affiliates can find and join your program.
Paddle and Lemon Squeezy as well as Stripe, plus a custom route. We read Stripe and Paddle.
Unlimited team members from $39. Our plans start at three.

Switching

How do you move a program from Endorsely?

There is no Endorsely importer yet. So the move runs on CSV. Endorsely's docs cover importing affiliates and say nothing about exporting them, so ask their support for your data first. The importer does a practice run first. Published links keep working, because our script reads the via tag Endorsely uses. Partners enter their payout details again, because you will be the one paying.

Read the Endorsely switch guide

Questions

Common questions

Is AffiliateRail cheaper than Endorsely?

Not at first. Endorsely is free to $1,000 a month of affiliate revenue and $39 to $5,000. AffiliateRail is $29 founding to $10,000. From $5,000 a month AffiliateRail is the cheaper tool, and above $20,000 Endorsely has no printed price. Run your own numbers on the calculator.

Does Endorsely hold my money?

Its pages do not say. The pricing page names bulk payouts via PayPal and no commission fees. Whether the money passes through Endorsely first is not published. AffiliateRail logs into your own account and never holds it.

What does Endorsely do that AffiliateRail does not?

It finds affiliates. The finder names people promoting your competitors and drafts the outreach, on the free plan. It also reads Lemon Squeezy, and lists your program in its network. If any of those decide it for you, Endorsely is the better buy.

Will my affiliates' links break if I move?

No. Endorsely links carry a via tag with no redirect. Our script reads via, plus eighteen other tags. Every link your partners published keeps paying them from the day the script goes on. Nothing to re-publish.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Every claim about another product here was read off their own pages. The date shown is the day it was read. Prices change, and then this page is wrong until we fix it. Email support@affiliaterail.com and we will correct it and move the date.

Start

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