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Switching

Moving from PartnerStack to AffiliateRail

This guide starts with the hard part. PartnerStack links redirect through their domain and land with a coded partner key, so our script cannot read them. Every partner gets a new link from the portal. The people and the history move by CSV. Export from the All partners tab, and the importer does a practice run first. The money changes too. You stop paying 10% of every payout. You start paying from your own PayPal or Wise. Plan a month of both running. Or hand it to us.

Published 6 September 2026. Every price and technical claim checked against its live source on 6 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 PartnerStack in four stagesThe four stages of moving a program from PartnerStack: links keep working, export and import, run both for a month, then switch payouts.1Links keepworking2Export andimport3Run bothfor a month4Switch payoutsAAn afternoon of your time, or an hour of oursNothing your affiliates published has to change.

01 Stage 1

Your existing affiliate links need re-issuing

Not this time, and this page says so. A PartnerStack link looks like yourname.grsm.io/PartnerABC. It redirects through their domain, then lands on your site carrying ps_partner_key and gspk, a partner key coded in Base64 (their developer docs, checked 6 September 2026). Our script does not decode that key. And the redirect stops the day the account closes.

So every partner gets a new link from the AffiliateRail portal. Stage 3 is the month that makes the swap painless.

Said plainly

  • A PartnerStack link looks like yourname.grsm.io/PartnerABC. It redirects through their domain and stops when the account closes.

  • On landing it carries ps_partner_key and gspk, a partner key in Base64. Our script does not decode those.

  • Each partner gets a new link from the AffiliateRail portal. Stage 3 is the month that makes the swap painless.

  • The day our tracker can read a PartnerStack key, this guide will say so.

02 Stage 2

What comes over, and how

There is no PartnerStack importer yet, so the move runs on CSV. The All partners tab has an Export records button. It gives you CSV files of your partners and their performance (their help centre, checked 6 September 2026). Pull them into a spreadsheet. The importer takes three files:

  • Partners: email required. Their PartnerStack key can go in the referral token column, for your records. It will not keep old links working.
  • Customers: one per referred customer, with their partner.
  • Transactions: one per payment, with the amount and date.
A practice run first, every time. Run it again and records are matched, not duplicated. One click rolls it back.

03 Stage 3

Run both for a month

Run both for a month. Compare sales, not clicks. The two scripts will never agree on clicks, and that gap is not a fault.

This month matters more here than on most switches, because the links change. Send each partner their new link at the start. Anything still coming through the old link is still a PartnerStack sale, and still carries the 10%. Close the old account once one full payout run has finished on the new side.

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.week 1week 2week 3week 4their tracker, still onoffrail.js, reading both sets of linksACompare the two dashboards. When they agree, switch the old one off.

04 Stage 4

How do payouts change after the switch?

This part changes most.

On PartnerStack, you pay one invoice and PartnerStack pays your partners. Partners withdraw through Stripe, PayPal or direct deposit once you have paid. On Spark you pay 10% of every commission for that.

On AffiliateRail you connect your own PayPal or Wise. AffiliateRail logs in on your schedule and pays from there. The money goes from you to your partner and never through us, so the fee is 0%. Your partners enter their payout details again, because those belong to whoever pays them.

Paid through PartnerStack before? Now the money leaves your own account, and the fee is 0%. The custody page has both models side by side.

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

This is why the 10% exists. PartnerStack sits in the payment chain, and moving other people's money is a job that carries real regulatory weight.

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 or Paddle. The link is read-only. We read billing events to credit sales. We cannot write to your account.

  2. Export from PartnerStack

    Partners from the All partners tab, then customers and commissions from your reports. Keep the partner keys for your own records.

  3. Practice-run the import

    Map the columns. Read the counts. Check them against your PartnerStack dashboard. Only run it for real when they match.

  4. Install the script and re-issue links

    Every partner gets a new link from the portal. Send it with the invite. Old links keep paying through PartnerStack until you close it.

  5. Overlap, then close

    Run both for a month. Watch one payout run finish on the new side before you close PartnerStack.

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

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Said plainly

What does not carry over

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

  • The links themselves

    PartnerStack links redirect through their domain with a coded key. Every partner gets a new link from the new portal, and stage 3 is the month that makes the swap painless.

  • Portal passwords

    Your partners set a new one from their invite. Their identity, links and balance are waiting. Their old login is not.

  • The Network listing

    PartnerStack's network is theirs. Partners you found there stay yours. The listing does not come with you, and AffiliateRail has no equal.

  • Deal registration

    If your partners registered leads and deals rather than sharing links, AffiliateRail has no equivalent. It tracks links and codes.

  • Raw click logs

    People and money move. Click-by-click traffic does not. Click counting starts fresh.

  • Payout details and tax forms

    Bank details belong to whoever pays, and that is about to be you. Collect fresh W-9 and W-8BEN forms too. The payer has changed.

Cost

What the same program costs on each

PartnerStack's Spark plan has no plan price. Its whole bill is 10% of what you pay out, so its column climbs as you grow. Ours does not. This table assumes you pay a 25% commission. Earn $20,000 from affiliates and you pay out $5,000. Checked against PartnerStack's Spark page on 6 September 2026.

Monthly revenue from affiliatesPartnerStack SparkAffiliateRail foundingAffiliateRail list
$5,000$125 (10% of $1,250)$29 (Launch)$59
$10,000$250 (10% of $2,500)$29 (Launch)$59
$20,000$500 (10% of $5,000)$59 (Grow)$89
$40,000$1,000 (10% of $10,000)$99 (Scale)$179

Spark's plan price is zero in every row. The bill still climbs eightfold. The 10% grows with the very thing you are trying to grow. That is the whole difference, and it is arithmetic. What the table cannot show is PartnerStack's network and its deal registration. AffiliateRail has neither. If those are why you are on PartnerStack, the bigger bill may be the right one.

Questions

Common questions

Will my affiliates' PartnerStack links keep working?

No. A PartnerStack link redirects through their domain and lands with a partner key coded in Base64. Our script cannot read it, and the redirect stops when the account closes. Every partner gets a new link from the portal. Send it with the invite.

When do I stop paying the 10%?

On the first payout run made from AffiliateRail. The money leaves your own PayPal or Wise and never passes through us. Anything still paid through PartnerStack still carries their fee, so close the account once you have overlapped.

What about the Network?

It stays with PartnerStack, and AffiliateRail has nothing like it. Partners you found there stay your partners and come across in the import. You will not get new ones that way. It is the clearest reason to stay.

Do partners have to do anything?

Three things. Set a password from their invite. Swap their old link for the new one. Enter their payout details, because those belong to whoever pays them, and that becomes you. Their customers and balance are already there. One email covers it.

All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. Comparisons are based on publicly available information as of 6 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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