Rewardful vs FirstPromoter: same prices at every step but one, so the billing system and the payout route decide

By Jimi Barkway · Published 7 September 2026 · Part of the comparison pages

Rewardful or FirstPromoter: what is the short answer?

In shortBoth start at $49 a month and step to $99, then to Enterprise from $149. Both connect to Stripe and Paddle. Both give 14-day trials and default to a 60-day cookie. FirstPromoter reads three more billing systems and has more on its plan table. Rewardful has an affiliate search engine, and a managed payout route for 3% with no plan named.

The research method was simple. I read both pricing pages, both feature pages and both help centres on 6 and 7 September 2026. I put the same questions to each. Price and ceiling. Who pays the affiliates and what it costs. Which billing systems it reads. How tracking works. Tax forms. The API. The links are in the sources. AffiliateRail appears once, at the end, as a third option with its own trade-offs.

Three words first. A revenue band is the range of monthly affiliate revenue a plan covers before the next plan applies. A payout fee is a cut the tool takes from the money on its way to the affiliate, on top of the monthly price. A cookie window is how long after a click a sale still counts for the affiliate. And a webhook is a message your billing system sends to the tool when something happens, such as a paid invoice. Those four decide most of this comparison.

What does each one cost as you grow?

In shortThe same at the two lower steps. The ceilings decide when you step. Rewardful's Starter covers up to $7,500 a month from affiliates. FirstPromoter's covers $5,000. Both second plans are $99 to $15,000. Above $15,000 both send you to Enterprise from $149.

Let's say your affiliates bring in $6,000 a month. On Rewardful you are still on Starter at $49. On FirstPromoter you passed $5,000 and are on Business at $99. At $12,000 both are $99. At $18,000 both are Enterprise, from $149. FirstPromoter's page says there are more tiers above that. So the only price gap on the published pages is the $5,000 to $7,500 band. There, Rewardful is $50 cheaper.

Rewardful offers two months free on annual billing. FirstPromoter has a yearly toggle, with no discount printed in the text read. Both give a 14-day trial. FirstPromoter's page adds "No credit card required". Rewardful's does not say either way. Rewardful has a refund line. Contact them within 30 days of a monthly plan and they refund it. Setup time, in each vendor's own words: Rewardful "about 15-20 minutes, on average"; FirstPromoter "under 15 minutes".

Who pays the affiliates, and what does it cost?

In shortOn both, you can pay from your own PayPal or Wise. Rewardful's Starter lists PayPal mass payouts and Wise bulk payouts. FirstPromoter's table lists quick mass PayPal and Wise bulk payouts, plus one-click Stripe Payouts. The difference is the managed route. That is where the tool pays for you.

Rewardful's is called Managed Payouts. "Merchants fund a payout in Rewardful with a single payment. Rewardful distributes commissions to affiliates. Affiliates withdraw their earnings directly from their Rewardful dashboard." It costs "a flat 3% processing fee on each payout". You need an ACH-capable funding method. Rewardful invoices you and you pay by hand. Access is by contacting support, and the article names no plan gate. On $2,500 of monthly payouts the fee is $75.

FirstPromoter's is called managed auto payouts. "This feature is activated after we review your account." The conditions include "Your account plan is Enterprise 2 or higher" and "You are a SaaS company". You pay one invoice by bank and FirstPromoter pays through Dots.dev. "There is no additional fees for you right now". Affiliates pay the withdrawal fee, "ex. fixed $0.75 bank withdrawal for US". So it is free to the merchant, and gated to a high plan. Rewardful's costs 3% and names no plan.

The payout schedule is written out on FirstPromoter's side. "For our default payout terms, NET-30, payout for the current month will be paid next month on 30th." You can set NET-15, NET-45, NET-60 or custom. You can set a minimum too. A payout term is how long after the month ends the batch goes out. Rewardful's help centre does not print a default term on the pages read.

Which billing systems does each read?

In shortRewardful reads Stripe and Paddle Classic. FirstPromoter reads Stripe, both Paddle versions, Chargebee, Braintree and Recurly. If you bill through Chargebee, Braintree, Recurly or Paddle Billing, this row ends the comparison.

Rewardful's own FAQ: "I don't use Stripe or Paddle. Can I still use Rewardful? Not at this time. We currently support only Stripe or Paddle." And its Paddle article: "At present, Rewardful supports integration only with Paddle Classic, not Paddle Billing." So a merchant on the current Paddle product cannot connect it. FirstPromoter's Paddle page says it "supports both Paddle Classic (v1 webhooks) and Paddle Billing (v2 webhooks)".

On Stripe the two are close. Both connect by authorisation and read webhooks. Rewardful's help centre lists what it writes to your Stripe account. Metadata and promo codes. It lists what it cannot do too. FirstPromoter's Stripe page lists the seven events it reads and says "Developer Required: No". Rewardful's pricing page adds "Two-way Stripe sync: View Rewardful data directly from your Stripe dashboard."

How does tracking work on each?

In shortBoth set a first-party cookie for 60 days by default. Rewardful's link is a clean parameter, ?via=justin, with no redirect. FirstPromoter sets two cookies, _fprom_tid and _fprom_ref. Both track coupon codes as well as links. Both detect self-referrals.

Rewardful's page: "Link to any page on your domain with a simple, clean URL parameter (?via=justin). No ugly redirects or 3rd party subdomains. Or use our direct page tracking which doesn't require affiliate links." Its cookie article: "By default Rewardful has a standard 60-day cookie retention policy (cookie window), but this value can be configured for each campaign." It uses first-party cookies, set on your own domain.

FirstPromoter's docs: "When a lead visits with a referral link, two cookies, _fprom_tid and _fprom_ref are set in their browser. These cookies have a default lifespan of 60 days (adjustable in the Admin panel)". Its features page adds: "Every conversion attributed back to a billing event". Not to an account created. Its table adds ad-traffic detection and reCAPTCHA on the affiliate portal, beside self-referral detection.

Rewardful has one thing FirstPromoter's pages do not mention. An Affiliate Finder. "A built-in Affiliate Finder search engine that tries to surface proven affiliates around the web based on queries you run." It uses credits to reveal a contact. Its FAQ says this is not a marketplace, because "it crawls the web to find relevant affiliates based on your query".

What about the API?

In shortBoth publish one. Rewardful's uses HTTP Basic with your API secret and allows 45 requests per 30 seconds. FirstPromoter's v2 uses a Bearer key and allows 400 requests a minute. FirstPromoter also has a tracking API for sales, refunds, upgrades and cancellations on a billing provider it does not support.

Rewardful's REST API covers campaigns, affiliates, affiliate links, affiliate coupons, referrals, commissions and payouts, with signed webhooks. REST API access is on its Starter plan. FirstPromoter's table lists "Webhooks and API" beside Zapier, Make and Albato, and its docs add an experimental MCP server. The API comparison sets both beside nine others.

What else is on the plan tables?

In shortFirstPromoter's table is longer. Email marketing automation, "18 Data Points" of reports, multi-tiered commissions and Stripe historical import are on it. So are invoicing for EU companies, non-monetary rewards, custom roles, activity logs and SSO. Rewardful's table leads with 0% transaction fee, unlimited affiliates and REST API access on Starter. A branded portal and a custom domain come on Growth.

The rows that gate by plan on Rewardful are clear. Starter has one campaign and two team members. Growth has unlimited campaigns and unlimited team members. It adds the branded portal, a custom domain, private invite-only campaigns, custom rewards and custom scripts. Enterprise adds phone support and one-click PayPal payouts. A campaign on Rewardful is a program with its own commission rule. So one campaign means one rule for everyone.

FirstPromoter prints three plan-gated numbers in words. Campaigns: 3 on Starter, unlimited above. Websites: 2, then 3. Affiliates: 1,000 on Starter, unlimited above. The rest of its table uses tick marks the page does not print as text. So this page does not say which tier each of those rows lands on. Read the table on its site before you count on a row.

Imagine a founder with one product and one commission rule. Rewardful's Starter fits, with a 60-day cookie and PayPal payouts from day one. Now imagine one with three products at three rates, and a customer-success team who send referrals. FirstPromoter's campaigns and multi-tier rows are built for that. Its email automation keeps the affiliates informed without a second tool.

Which one should you pick?

In shortFirstPromoter if you bill through Chargebee, Braintree, Recurly or Paddle Billing. Rewardful cannot read them. FirstPromoter if you want tax forms and email automation on the plan table. Rewardful if you want the Affiliate Finder. Rewardful if you want a managed payout route for 3% that names no plan gate.

The prices will not decide it. They are the same at every step but one. The billing system will. So will the payout route. If you would rather never hold the affiliates' money yourself, Rewardful's Managed Payouts is available by request for 3%. FirstPromoter's managed route waits until Enterprise 2. If you would rather pay from your own PayPal or Wise, both give you the file. FirstPromoter adds one-click sends through PayPal or Stripe Payouts.

A third option, with its own trade-offs. AffiliateRail is $29 a month founding to $10,000 a month from affiliates, then $59 to $20,000. It pays affiliates from your own PayPal or Wise on a schedule, at 0% of the payout, from the $59 plan. It reads Stripe and Paddle Billing and nothing else. So a Chargebee or Recurly merchant should stop at FirstPromoter. It has no affiliate finder. Its script reads the via and fpr parameters. So links published on either tool keep converting after a move. The Rewardful and FirstPromoter pages set it beside each, and the Rewardful and FirstPromoter switch guides cover the export.

Every fact on this page was read off Rewardful's or FirstPromoter's own pages on the date beside it in the sources. Plans and fees change. Read both pricing pages before you choose.

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