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Comparison

AffiliateRail vs LeadDyno

LeadDyno charges by affiliates, not revenue. $49 a month covers fifty active affiliates at any volume. AffiliateRail is $29 to $10,000 a month and $99 to $50,000, with no limit on affiliates. So a small program with a big month is cheaper on LeadDyno. A growing program that passes fifty affiliates pays $129, then $349. Neither tool takes a cut of payouts. Both pay from your own PayPal. The real difference is unlimited affiliates and a payout that runs itself.

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.

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The difference

What is the difference between AffiliateRail and LeadDyno?

Both track through your billing system. Both pay affiliates from your own PayPal account, so neither takes a cut. Two things differ. LeadDyno's plans count active affiliates: fifty on Lite, 150 on Essential, 500 on Advanced. AffiliateRail's plans count the revenue affiliates earn you, with no limit on how many. And on LeadDyno you select commissions and send a PayPal batch. On AffiliateRail the payout runs on a schedule, from the $59 plan. Pick by which number grows faster in your program: partners, or revenue.

Where they differLeadDynoAffiliateRail
Entry price$49 a month for fifty active affiliates. 30 days free$29 a month founding, kept for as long as you stay. 14 days free, no card
Plan bandsBy active affiliates. Fifty, then 150 at $129, 500 at $349, unlimited at $749By monthly affiliate revenue. Launch to $10,000, Grow to $20,000, Scale to $50,000. Unlimited affiliates on every plan
Fee on payoutsNone printed. Payouts run through your own PayPal business account0%. The money never reaches AffiliateRail, so there is nothing to take a cut of
Who holds the moneyYou. LeadDyno sends the batch from your PayPal, or you export a CSV and send it yourselfYou. Your own PayPal or Wise pays your partner. AffiliateRail never holds it
The bill at $40,000 a month$49, if you have fifty or fewer active affiliates. $129 to $749 if you have more$99, however many affiliates you have
Automated payoutsA batch you select and send through PayPal Payouts, or a Mass Pay fileRuns on a schedule from your own account, from the $59 plan
Team seatsOne on Lite. One more on EssentialThree from the $29 plan
Commission shapesTwo-tier commissions from $129. Per-product commissions and a white-label dashboard from $349Custom rates, brackets, coupons and double-sided rewards 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.

PlanCeilingPriceAutomated payouts
AffiliateRail Launchto $10,000 a month$29 founding, $59 afterNo
AffiliateRail Growto $20,000 a month$59 founding, $89 afterYes
AffiliateRail Scaleto $50,000 a month$99 founding, $179 afterYes
LeadDyno Liteno revenue ceiling; 50 active affiliates, 1 commission plan$49 a monthYes
LeadDyno Essentialno revenue ceiling; 150 active affiliates, 3 commission plans$129 a month, $110 a month billed yearlyYes
LeadDyno Advancedno revenue ceiling; 500 active affiliates, per-product commissions$349 a month, $297 a month billed yearlyYes
LeadDyno Unlimitedno revenue ceiling; unlimited affiliates$749 a month, $637 a month billed yearlyYes

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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01 Custody

Who holds the money when affiliates get paid?

Here is the part that is the same, and it matters.

LeadDyno's help centre lists three ways to pay: mark a commission paid after you have paid it yourself, pay one affiliate through PayPal after logging into your own account, or connect a PayPal business account and send a batch through PayPal Payouts. Their words: "The PayPal Payouts integration requires that you have a PayPal business account." The money goes from your PayPal to your affiliate. LeadDyno never holds it, so there is no cut.

AffiliateRail works the same way, one step further. It works out who is owed what, then logs into your own PayPal or Wise on a schedule and pays them. The money leaves your account and lands in theirs. Nobody selects a batch.

Who holds the money in betweenMoney leaves your account and arrives with your affiliate. Between the two there is a gap with a question mark: who is holding it, and for how long.Your PayPal or WiseYour account, your credentialsYour affiliateReceives what you send?Who is holding it in between, and for how long?Almost no vendor says, anywhere on their site.

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.

How a payout moves on AffiliateRailMoney goes from your PayPal or Wise account straight to your affiliate. AffiliateRail works out the amounts and tells your account to pay; it never receives the money.Your PayPal or WiseYour account, your credentialsYour affiliateReceives what you sendAffiliateRailworks out who is owed whatthe money, all of ittells your account to payAMoney never enters AffiliateRail

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.

Every screen, from its own menu. Recorded on a demo program.

In their words

What LeadDyno's own terms say

The PayPal Payouts integration requires that you have a PayPal business account.

LeadDyno help centre, PayPal Payouts, checked 6 September 2026

This is the same custody model as ours. The batch leaves your PayPal account and never passes through LeadDyno, which is why no fee is printed.

Credit where due

Where LeadDyno is the better choice

No product wins on every axis. A comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. LeadDyno is the cheapest flat price on this list for a small program, and it has been paying affiliates from merchants' own PayPal accounts for years. There are good reasons to pick it over us.

  • The price for a small program. Fifty active affiliates for $49 at any revenue. That is under our list price at every volume.

  • Thirty days of trial. Ours is fourteen.

  • Two-tier commissions on Essential, so affiliates earn on the affiliates they recruit. AffiliateRail has no second tier.

  • Per-product commissions, unlimited reward structures and a white-labelled affiliate dashboard on Advanced.

  • Chargebee, Recurly, Shopify and WooCommerce as well as Stripe. More than 25 integrations, their page says. We read Stripe and Paddle.

Switching

How do you move a program from LeadDyno?

There is no LeadDyno importer yet. So the move runs on CSV. LeadDyno exports eighteen months of history on every plan, and all of it on Unlimited. The importer does a practice run first. Published links keep working, because our script reads the afmc tag LeadDyno uses. The money barely changes. You paid from your own PayPal before. Now it runs on a schedule, from PayPal or Wise, and partners enter their details again.

Read the LeadDyno switch guide

Questions

Common questions

Is AffiliateRail cheaper than LeadDyno?

Not for a small program. LeadDyno's Lite is $49 for fifty active affiliates at any volume. AffiliateRail is $29 founding to $10,000 a month, then $59 and $99. Past fifty affiliates LeadDyno moves to $129, and AffiliateRail stays where it is. Run your own numbers on the calculator.

Does LeadDyno hold my money?

No. Its help centre describes paying from your own PayPal account, one affiliate at a time or as a batch through PayPal Payouts, which needs your PayPal business account. Or you export a CSV and pay yourself. AffiliateRail works the same way and adds the schedule.

What does LeadDyno do that AffiliateRail does not?

Two-tier commissions. Per-product commissions and a white-label dashboard on its higher plans. A thirty-day trial. If any of those decide it for you, LeadDyno is the better buy.

Will my affiliates' links break if I move?

No. LeadDyno links carry an afmc tag. Our script reads afmc, plus eighteen other platforms' tags. Every link your partners published keeps paying them from the day the script goes on. Links shortened through LeadDyno's redirect service are the exception, so re-issue those.

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.

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