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 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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01 Stage 1

Your existing affiliate links need re-issuing

Not this time, and the reason is ours. A PartnerStack link redirects through grsm.io, then lands carrying gspk and ps_partner_key (their developer docs, checked 6 September 2026). Their own script decodes that into a partner key.

We could read it and we do not. Nothing on our side turns that key into one of your partners, because no PartnerStack importer exists to write it down. A capture we cannot resolve pays nobody while looking like it worked. So every partner gets a new link from the portal.

Said plainly

A PartnerStack link looks like yourname.grsm.io/PartnerABC. It redirects through their domain and stops the day the account closes.
On landing it carries gspk and ps_partner_key. Their own script decodes those into a partner key, so the partner is in the URL.
We do not read it, on purpose. There is no PartnerStack importer, so nothing on our side could match that key to a person. Capturing it would look like it worked and pay nobody.
Each partner gets a new link from the AffiliateRail portal. Stage 3 is the month that makes the swap painless.

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.

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.

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.
Export from PartnerStack
Partners from the All partners tab, then customers and commissions from your reports. Keep the partner keys for your own records.
Practice-run the import
Map the columns. Read the counts. Check them against your PartnerStack dashboard. Only run it for real when they match.
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.
Overlap, then close
Run both for a month. Watch one payout run finish on the new side before you close PartnerStack.

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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
A PartnerStack link redirects through grsm.io or partnerlinks.io, and those stop the day the account closes. 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 affiliates	PartnerStack Spark	AffiliateRail founding	AffiliateRail 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 coded partner key. Their script decodes it; ours does not, because we have no importer that could match that key to one of your partners. A capture that resolves to nobody is worse than a plain no. Every partner gets a new link from the portal, and the grsm.io and partnerlinks.io redirects stop when the account closes.

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 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.

PartnerStack's Spark page. $0 a month plus a 10% processing fee on commissions paid out, and the one-invoice payout model.checked 6 September 2026
PartnerStack's developer docs. The ps_partner_key, ps_xid, gspk and gsxid parameters appended on landing.checked 6 September 2026
PartnerStack's help centre on exporting partner data. The Export records button on the All partners tab.checked 6 September 2026
PartnerStack's partner help article on getting paid. When funds become available and how partners withdraw.checked 6 September 2026

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