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Comparison

AffiliateRail vs Partli

Both charge a flat monthly fee and neither prints a percentage of payouts. Partli starts at $29 a month, or $23 billed yearly, with unlimited partners on every plan. Its payouts run through Stripe Connect from a balance you top up on Partli first. AffiliateRail starts at $29 a month founding and pays from your own PayPal or Wise account, so the money stays with you until it reaches the affiliate.

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 4 September 2026. Updated 4 September 2026.

The difference

What is the difference between AffiliateRail and Partli?

Partli and AffiliateRail share a shape: a flat fee, no percentage of payouts, and a portal for your affiliates. They part on where the money waits. On Partli you pre-fund a payout balance, and Partli transfers from it to each partner's Stripe Connect account, on demand or on the first of the month. On AffiliateRail the money stays in your own PayPal or Wise account until the run. Partli reads five billing providers. AffiliateRail reads Stripe and Paddle.

Where they differPartliAffiliateRail
Entry price$29 a month, or $23 a month billed yearly, with a 7-day trial that takes a card$29 a month founding, held for the life of the subscription. 14 days free, no card
What bands the plansWorkspaces and team seats. Partners, programs and tracked sales are unlimited on every plan, per their pricing pageMonthly affiliate revenue: $10,000 on Launch, $20,000 on Grow, $50,000 on Scale. Affiliates unlimited on every plan
Paying affiliatesStripe Connect transfers from a balance you top up on Partli, when you press the button or on the first of the month, on every planSent for you from your own PayPal or Wise account on a schedule, from the $59 plan
Payout fee$0 platform fee on their pricing page. Their docs describe $4 a month per paid partner over a plan limit the pricing page does not print0%. AffiliateRail never takes a cut of a payout
Where the money waitsIn a payout balance you pre-fund on Partli, per their docs. Their terms say it moves from your Stripe balance to the partner'sIn your own PayPal or Wise account, until the transfer to the affiliate
Billing providersStripe, Polar, Paddle, Creem and Dodo Payments, per their docs, and Lemon Squeezy through their APIStripe and Paddle
Existing affiliate links on a migrationDeep links carry the via parameter, which our tracker reads. Default links redirect through partli.appThe via links keep crediting from the day the script goes on. Redirect links are re-issued

Cost

What does each one cost?

Published plan prices on both sides, 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
Partli Starterno ceiling on partners, programs or sales; 1 workspace, 3 seats$29 a month, $23 a month billed yearlyYes
Partli Growthno ceiling on partners, programs or sales; 5 workspaces, 10 seats$79 a month, $63 a month billed yearlyYes
Partli Scaleno ceiling on partners, programs or sales; unlimited workspaces and seats$149 a month, $119 a month billed yearlyYes

Plan price is not the whole bill. Payout fees and a good month change 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?

On Partli, you top up a payout balance first. Their docs say the amount lands in your platform balance, and that Partli never fronts money. When a run starts, Partli transfers from that balance to each partner's Stripe Connect Express account.

Their terms put it differently: Partli does not hold partner funds in custody, and you are the merchant of record. Both are quoted below, with the day they were read, so you can weigh them as they stand.

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, in thirteen languages, from the $29 plan.

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 dashboard: referrals, commissions and payouts for one program

In their words

What Partli's own terms say

Partli does not hold partner funds in custody; money moves directly from your Stripe balance to the partner's Stripe account. You are the merchant of record for all payouts originating from your workspace.

Partli Terms of Service, section 5, Your Partners and Their Payouts, checked 4 September 2026

Their payouts documentation, read the same day, describes the route: payouts move money from your pre-funded payout balance on Partli to each partner's Stripe Connect Express account.

Credit where due

Where Partli is the better choice

No product wins on every axis, and a comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. Partli is a serious option for a SaaS on a budget, and there are honest reasons to pick it.

  • The price. $29 a month, or $23 billed yearly, with unlimited partners, programs and tracked sales on that plan. AffiliateRail's $29 founding plan is banded at $10,000 a month of affiliate revenue.

  • Five billing providers read natively: Stripe, Polar, Paddle, Creem and Dodo Payments. AffiliateRail reads Stripe and Paddle.

  • A migration importer of its own, from Rewardful, Dub, FirstPromoter, PartnerStack and Tolt, that keeps via slugs.

  • An MCP server and a CLI on the same operation list, so an agent can run the program end to end.

  • Bounties for one-off tasks, an affiliate-recruitment finder, and custom referral domains on the Growth plan.

Switching

How do you move a program from Partli?

There is no Partli importer yet. Pull your partners, commissions and payouts through Partli's API or CLI, or their data export on the Scale plan, and load the CSV into AffiliateRail's importer, which dry-runs first. Deep links carry via, which our tracker reads, so those keep converting while both run. Partli's default links redirect through partli.app and are re-issued. The switch guide has the order.

Read the Partli switch guide

Questions

Common questions

Is AffiliateRail cheaper than Partli?

At the entry it is level: $29 a month on both, and Partli is $23 billed yearly. Above $10,000 a month of affiliate revenue Partli stays at $29 and AffiliateRail moves to $59, then $99 above $20,000. Neither prints a percentage of payouts. Partli's docs describe $4 a month per paid partner over a plan limit its pricing page does not print. The true-cost calculator puts the two side by side at your own revenue.

Does Partli hold my money?

You top up a payout balance on Partli before a run, and Partli transfers from it to each partner's Stripe Connect account. Their docs call it your platform balance. Their terms say Partli does not hold partner funds in custody and that you are the merchant of record. AffiliateRail never holds it: you connect your own PayPal or Wise account and we tell it to pay.

Will my affiliates' Partli links keep working if I move?

The deep links will. A link like yoursite.com?via=slug is read by our tracking script from the day it goes on. Partli's default link is a redirect through partli.app that lands on your site with no parameter their docs describe, so those affiliates get a new link from the portal. The switch guide covers running both in parallel.

Which one should a SaaS choose?

Selling through Polar, Creem or Dodo, wanting unlimited partners at $29, and happy to top up a balance on Partli before each payout? Partli is built for that. Wanting the payout to leave your own PayPal or Wise account on a schedule, with nothing pre-funded and 0% taken? AffiliateRail is built for that, from $29 a month founding.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Every claim about another product here was read off their own pages on the date shown. 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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