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Switching

Moving from FirstPromoter to AffiliateRail

A built-in importer reads your FirstPromoter account through their admin API and brings over your promoters, referrals and commission history. Your affiliates' links to your own site keep converting, because our tracker reads every format FirstPromoter programs commonly use. Links shortened through fprom.co are the one exception. Those run through FirstPromoter, so they stop the day the account closes. Re-issue those first. Plan an afternoon. Or hand it to us and we run the whole migration with you.

Published 1 September 2026. Every price and technical claim checked against its live source on 8 September 2026. Written by Jimi Barkway, who built AffiliateRail. Jimi has run affiliate programs from both sides of the link. Corrections go to support@affiliaterail.com.

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Moving from FirstPromoter in four stagesThe four stages of moving a program from FirstPromoter: links keep working, export and import, run both for a month, then switch payouts.1Links keep working2Export and import3Run both for a month4Switch payoutsAAn afternoon of your time, or an hour of ours.Nothing your affiliates published has to change.

01 Stage 1

Your existing affiliate links keep working

FirstPromoter supports an unusual number of link formats. A migration that handles only the default drops every referral on the others.

Our tracker reads all of them: fpr, fp_ref, via, ref, aff, _from, _by, _go, _get and deal. The one left out is the single letter a, because it collides with ordinary page parameters.

One exception. FirstPromoter also hands promoters a short link on fprom.co. That redirects through FirstPromoter, so it dies with the account. Re-issue those first.

An old affiliate link keeps workingA link published years ago carries FirstPromoter's referral parameter. The merchant's site reads that parameter and credits the same affiliate, with nothing for the affiliate to change.a link published in 2024yoursite.com/?fpr=janeYour site, with rail.js on itreads ?fpr as well as ?railCredited to Janethe same affiliate, no editsTwenty-seven referral parameters are read,FirstPromoter’s among them.
The parameter list ships in the tracker itself. Read it in the script your own site serves.

02 Stage 2

What comes over, and how

The importer connects to FirstPromoter's admin API with your API key and account id, and pulls:

  • Promoters. Every affiliate exists in AffiliateRail with the same identity from day one.
  • Referrals, with their promoter attribution. Renewals keep crediting the affiliate who earned them.
  • Commissions. Balances and history do not restart at zero.

It was built against FirstPromoter's published API documentation. If your account uses a setup their API represents unusually, we see it during the import and handle it with you.

Paced inside their published rate limits. Run it again and records are matched, not duplicated.

03 Stage 3

Run both for a month

Add our script beside FirstPromoter's. Both trackers run, and ours reads their links in every format above, so nothing is lost while both are on. Watch a few referrals land and compare the two dashboards.

There is no required overlap. A day or two costs nothing. A month costs nothing either. It lets you see a full payout cycle on our side before you close the old account.

Run both for a monthA four-week timeline. The old tracker stays on for three weeks while rail.js reads both sets of links; once the two dashboards agree, the old one is switched off.wk 1wk 2wk 3wk 4their tracker, still onoffrail.js, reading both sets of linksCompare the two dashboards. When they agree,switch the old one off.

04 Stage 4

How do payouts change after the switch?

FirstPromoter's pricing page places its managed auto payouts on the Enterprise tier, from $149 a month. It publishes no payout fee (their pricing page, checked 1 September 2026). Below that tier you pay promoters yourself.

AffiliateRail includes auto payouts from the $59 Grow plan at 0%. They run through your own PayPal or Wise account and never pass through us. Connect the account and set the schedule. The next run pays from you.

The payouts screen. The custody page has the full difference between the two models.

Step by step

The switch, step by step

Three words first, because the steps use them. A dry run is a practice import that writes nothing. It tells you what it would have created. A referral token is the bit inside an affiliate link that names the partner. Keeping each partner's old one is why published links carry on working. Attribution is the job of deciding which partner gets credited for a sale. Most merchants do this in an afternoon. If you would rather hand it over, we run migrations white-glove. A screen-share and an hour, and we do the rest. We finish inside two working days of getting your details. Email support@affiliaterail.com.

  1. Create your program

    Connect Stripe. The connection is read-only: we read subscription events to credit sales, and we cannot write to your Stripe account.

  2. Run the FirstPromoter import

    With your API key and account id. Check the counts against your FirstPromoter dashboard.

  3. Add the tracking script

    Old links credit from this moment, in any of the formats above.

  4. Invite your promoters

    Their email, their links and their balance are already there when they arrive.

  5. Close the old account

    Remove the FirstPromoter script once you have watched a few referrals land on our side.

Start your affiliate programAsk us to run it, inside two working days

14 days free, no card. Old links keep crediting from the day the script goes on.

Said plainly

What does not carry over

A migration page that lists only the good news is an advert. These do not come across.

  • Short links on fprom.co

    A fprom.co link is a redirect through FirstPromoter, so it dies with the account. Links pointing at your own site are fine. Re-issue the short ones from the new portal before you close.

  • Portal passwords

    Your affiliates set a new password from their invite to the new portal. Their identity, links and balance are waiting for them. Their old login is not.

  • Raw click logs

    We import people and money, not click-by-click traffic records. Click counting starts fresh on our side.

  • Cookies already set on visitors' devices

    A visitor referred last week carries FirstPromoter's attribution, not ours. The moment they click any affiliate link again, we credit them. No vendor can transfer another vendor's cookies.

  • Email templates and automations

    FirstPromoter's email automation setups do not map one-to-one onto ours. Our transactional notifications cover the same moments. Anything bespoke needs rebuilding, and we will tell you which parts do.

Cost

What the same program costs on each

The two products band pricing differently. So the honest comparison is by the revenue your affiliates actually generate. Checked against FirstPromoter's pricing page on 1 September 2026. Their Starter is $49 up to $5,000 a month of affiliate revenue, with a 1,000-affiliate limit. Business is $99 up to $15,000. Enterprise starts at $149 above that.

Monthly revenue from affiliatesFirstPromoterAffiliateRail foundingAffiliateRail list
$5,000$49 (Starter)$29 (Launch)$59
$10,000$99 (Business)$29 (Launch)$59
$20,000$149+ (Enterprise)$59 (Grow)$89
$50,000$149+ (Enterprise)$99 (Scale)$179

Affiliate limits are not in the table because AffiliateRail has none on any plan: unlimited affiliates and referrals, metered only by what your program earns. Payouts are covered in stage 4. Run the totals at your own volume.

Questions

Common questions

Will my affiliates' FirstPromoter links keep working?

Yes. Our tracker reads nine of the ten formats FirstPromoter's own script accepts, plus the generic tags. A link published years ago credits the same affiliate from the day our script goes on your site. Short links on fprom.co are the exception. They redirect through FirstPromoter and stop when the account closes, so re-issue those first.

Do I have to run both platforms at the same time?

No. There is no required overlap. Running both trackers for a while costs nothing, lets you compare the two dashboards, and lets you see a full payout cycle on our side before you close the old account.

What does not come across from FirstPromoter?

Short links on fprom.co, portal passwords, raw click logs, cookies already set on visitors' devices, and bespoke email automations. Promoters, referrals and commissions do come across, balances included.

How long does the switch take?

Most merchants do it in an afternoon. If you would rather hand it over, give us a screen-share and an hour and we do the rest.

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. Comparisons are based on publicly available information as of 8 September 2026. If a linked source has changed since, tell us at support@affiliaterail.com. We will correct this page.

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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