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Comparison

AffiliateRail vs PartnerStack

PartnerStack's Spark plan costs $0 a month. Then it takes 10% of every commission you pay out. That is the highest published payout fee in this category. AffiliateRail is $29 a month and takes 0%. Say your affiliates bring in $40,000 a month and you pay out 25%. Spark costs $1,000. AffiliateRail costs $99. But PartnerStack has a network of partners you can recruit from, on its paid plans. AffiliateRail has no network. If that decides it, PartnerStack is the right buy.

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 PartnerStack?

Both track sales through Stripe. Both pay partners for you. One thing differs: who moves the money, and what that costs. PartnerStack sends you one invoice, then pays your partners itself. On Spark it takes 10% for doing that. AffiliateRail logs into your own PayPal or Wise and pays from there. Nothing passes through AffiliateRail, so there is no cut. PartnerStack is the bigger platform, built for B2B partner programs with sales teams. AffiliateRail is the smaller bill, and the gap grows every month your program works.

Where they differPartnerStackAffiliateRail
Entry price$0 a month on Spark. Launch, Growth and Enterprise are priced on a demo call$29 a month founding, kept for as long as you stay. 14 days free, no card
Fee on payouts10% of every commission you pay out, on Spark. Printed on their own page0%. The money never reaches AffiliateRail, so there is nothing to take a cut of
Who holds the moneyYou pay PartnerStack one invoice. PartnerStack pays your partnersYour own PayPal or Wise pays your partner. AffiliateRail never holds it
The bill at $40,000 a month$1,000. That is $0, plus 10% of the $10,000 you paid out$99, however much you pay out
Finding partnersA network of 117,000+ B2B partners and a marketplace, on paid plans. Not on SparkNo network. You bring your partners. The manual shows you where to look
Sales-led programsLead and deal registration, CRM integrations, an LMS and MDF on paid plansLink tracking and coupon codes. No deal registration
Team seatsOne user on Spark. No limit on paid plansThree team members from the $29 plan
What partners seePartnerStack's own partner dashboard, shared across every program they joinA branded portal on your own domain, from the $29 plan

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
PartnerStack Sparkno published ceiling; one user$0 a monthYes

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 difference everything else comes from.

PartnerStack's Spark page says you "only pay one invoice" and PartnerStack makes sure "your partners get paid on time". On the partner side, their help centre says funds are available "once your commissions have been approved and paid for by companies". So the cash goes from you, to PartnerStack, to your partner. Moving other people's money is a real job with real legal weight. The 10% is what pays for it.

AffiliateRail 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.

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 PartnerStack's own terms say

Once your commissions have been approved and paid for by companies, your funds will be available for cash out on the Commissions page.

PartnerStack help centre, How do I get paid, checked 6 September 2026

Credit where due

Where PartnerStack is the better choice

No product wins on every axis. A comparison page that pretends otherwise is not worth reading. PartnerStack is the biggest B2B partner platform on this list. There are good reasons to pick it over us.

  • The Network. PartnerStack says it has more than 117,000 B2B partners. On a paid plan, partners who already sell software can find you. AffiliateRail has nothing like it.

  • Sales-led programs. Lead and deal registration, CRM integrations and partner training. If your partners close deals rather than share links, this is built for you.

  • Spark costs nothing until it earns. A program with no revenue yet pays $0. On AffiliateRail the trial ends after 14 days.

  • One place for every partner. A partner who joins several programs sees them all in one PartnerStack login, with one payout.

  • An AI layer with an MCP connector, incentives and challenges, and market development funds on the higher plans. It is a serious platform.

Switching

How do you move a program from PartnerStack?

There is no PartnerStack importer yet. So the move runs on CSV. Export your partners from the All partners tab, then the customers and commissions you need. The importer does a practice run first. The hard part is the links. PartnerStack links redirect through their domain and land with a coded partner key, so they need re-issuing. The money changes too. You stop paying 10%. You start paying from your own PayPal or Wise.

Read the PartnerStack switch guide

Questions

Common questions

Is AffiliateRail cheaper than PartnerStack?

On Spark, PartnerStack is free until you pay a commission. Then it takes 10%. AffiliateRail is $29 founding and takes none. The lines cross at $290 of monthly payouts. At $40,000 a month of affiliate revenue on a 25% rate, that is about $1,000 against $99. Run your own numbers on the calculator.

Does PartnerStack hold my money?

Yes. You pay PartnerStack one invoice, and PartnerStack pays your partners. Its help centre tells partners their funds are available once the company has approved and paid for the commissions. AffiliateRail logs into your own account instead and never holds it.

What does PartnerStack do that AffiliateRail does not?

A network of B2B partners you can recruit from, on paid plans. Deal registration and CRM links for sales-led programs. Partner training and market development funds. If any of those decide it for you, PartnerStack is the better buy.

Will my affiliates' links break if I move?

The links themselves will. A PartnerStack link redirects through their domain and lands with a coded partner key our script cannot read. Every partner gets a new link from the portal. Their history, customers and balance come across. The switch guide covers the month of overlap.

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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