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Switching

Moving from Trackdesk to AffiliateRail

The importer connects to your Trackdesk account and brings over your affiliates and every conversion, with the commission on each one. A refunded conversion arrives refunded and pays nobody. Trackdesk gives you two kinds of link. A direct link lands on your own site carrying sourceId, which names the affiliate, and those keep paying. A link through trackdesk.com carries only a click id, so those affiliates need a new one. Plan an afternoon. Or hand it to us.

Published 3 September 2026. Every price and technical claim checked against its live source on 9 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 Trackdesk in four stagesThe four stages of moving a program from Trackdesk: one change, links work, export and import, run both for a month, then switch payouts.1One change, links work2Export and import3Run both for a month4Switch payoutsAAn afternoon of your time, or an hour of ours.One change on your side, then nothing elsechanges.

01 Stage 1

Your existing links keep working, after one change

Two answers, depending on the link.

A direct Trackdesk link lands on your own site. It carries three tags: sourceId, linkId and tenantId. The first one is the affiliate, written the way you named them. We asked Trackdesk's own API to build a real link on 9 September 2026. It answered yoursite.com?linkId=lp_884203&sourceId=alex-stone&tenantId=yourprogram. Those three names are fixed, and nothing in Trackdesk renames them.

So those links keep paying. Run the import, then copy your tracking tag again. The new tag reads sourceId, and every link your affiliates already shared still credits the right person.

The other kind redirects through trackdesk.com first, and lands with a click id. Nothing on your site can turn a click id into a person, so those affiliates get a new link (their help centre, checked 3 September 2026).

Said plainly

  • Look at a link one of your affiliates shares. Does it start with trackdesk.com, or with your own domain?

  • Your own domain, with ?sourceId=marta on the end: that keeps paying. The import sets your tracking tag up to read it.

  • trackdesk.com: that link carries a click id. A click id names one visit inside Trackdesk, not a person, so it credits nobody. Those affiliates get a new link from the AffiliateRail portal.

  • Most programs have both. Stage 3 is the month that makes the swap painless either way.

02 Stage 2

What comes over, and how

Trackdesk has an API and the importer uses it. Paste a personal token and your Trackdesk subdomain, and it pulls:

  • Affiliates, under the same name their links already carry. Every one of them exists on day one, so nobody has to re-publish a link.
  • Conversions and their commissions. Trackdesk keeps the affiliate's share in a field called cost, and that is the number that becomes their commission here.
  • Customers, from the sales that name them. Trackdesk has no way to list customers on their own, so each one arrives with the first sale we see for them.

Two kinds of row are held back on purpose, and the import names every one it holds. A refunded conversion keeps its full commission in Trackdesk, so a careless import would pay an affiliate for a sale you gave back. Ours reads the status and voids it. A test conversion, posted while you were wiring Trackdesk up, is skipped instead of counted as money.

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

Add our script beside Trackdesk's. Both trackers run. New links credit on our side. Old links keep crediting on theirs. Nothing is lost while both are on.

Trackdesk's default cookie lasts 30 days (their help centre, checked 3 September 2026). A visitor referred last month still carries it. A month of overlap lets those referrals convert on the old side. Meanwhile the affiliates on redirect links swap to their new ones.

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?

On Trackdesk you pay affiliates yourself. Settle balances, export a CSV, and upload it to your own PayPal Business account for Mass Pay. Or connect and fund your own Tipalti account on the Business plan and above (PayPal, Tipalti, checked 3 September 2026). Trackdesk holds none of the money and publishes no platform fee.

AffiliateRail keeps that principle and removes the file. From the $59 Grow plan, payouts run on a schedule, at 0%, through your own PayPal or Wise account. They never pass through us.

Exported a settlement file before? Now it sends itself. The custody page has the full difference.

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. Run the Trackdesk import

    Paste a personal token from Settings, then Integrations, then Personal tokens. Add your Trackdesk subdomain. It pulls affiliates and conversions.

  3. Read the practice run, then run it

    Check the counts against your Trackdesk dashboard. Nothing is written until you say so.

  4. Install the script, after the import

    Copy your tracking tag once the import has run, not before. It will read sourceId, so every direct Trackdesk link keeps paying.

  5. Invite affiliates, then overlap

    Send the email. Anyone on a trackdesk.com link gets a new one. Run both for a month, then close Trackdesk.

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

14 days free, no card. A month of both running is stage 3.

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 trackdesk.com redirect links

    A link through trackdesk.com carries a click id, which names one visit rather than a person. Nothing on your site can credit from it, so those affiliates get a new link. Direct links to your own site are the exception, and stage 1 covers them.

  • Test conversions

    Trackdesk still works out a commission on a conversion marked as a test. We skip those rows and name each one on the import report, so a test order never inflates anybody's balance.

  • Portal passwords

    Your affiliates set a new password from their invite to the new portal. Their identity, history 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 Trackdesk's attribution, not ours. The moment they click a new affiliate link, we credit them. No vendor can transfer another vendor's cookies.

  • Multi-level trees and offers

    Trackdesk supports multi-level structures and many offers per program. AffiliateRail has no sub-affiliate tiers, on purpose. Every affiliate imports at one level, and one program holds one set of links.

Cost

What the same program costs on each

Trackdesk is not banded by revenue. Clicks, conversions and affiliates are unlimited on every plan. The plans differ by seats, offers and coupons. Checked against Trackdesk's pricing page on 3 September 2026. Business is $399 a month, or $299 a month billed yearly. The yearly price is shown with a 40% off annual badge that runs to 30 September 2026. Enterprise is $599, or $359 yearly on the same promotion. Enterprise PLUS starts at $1,199.

TrackdeskAffiliateRail foundingAffiliateRail list
Entry price$399 (Business), or $299 billed yearly to 30 September 2026$29 (Launch)$59
Revenue ceilingNone$10,000 a month on Launch, $50,000 on ScaleSame bands
Seats5 on Business, unlimited on Enterprise3 on Launch, unlimited on ScaleSame
Affiliates, clicks and conversionsUnlimitedUnlimitedUnlimited
Automated payoutsYour own Tipalti account, on Business and aboveFrom Grow ($59), through your own PayPal or WiseFrom Grow ($89)
Payout feeNone published0%0%
Trial14 days14 days, no cardSame

Trackdesk's price buys breadth a SaaS program rarely uses: networks, iGaming, multi-level tiers. If you use it, Trackdesk is the right tool. This page is not a like-for-like. Run the totals at your own volume.

Questions

Common questions

Will my affiliates' Trackdesk links keep working?

Only after one change on your side. A direct Trackdesk link lands on your site carrying sourceId, which names the affiliate. Run the import, then copy your tracking tag again. The new tag reads that name, and those links keep paying. A link through trackdesk.com is different. It carries only a click id, which names a visit rather than a person, so those affiliates get a new link.

Is there a Trackdesk importer?

Yes. It connects to your Trackdesk account with a personal token and your subdomain. It brings over affiliates, their conversions, and the commission on each one. Refunded conversions arrive refunded and pay nobody. Test conversions are skipped. Trackdesk has no customer list, so each customer arrives with the first sale that names them.

What does not come across from Trackdesk?

The trackdesk.com redirect links, test conversions, portal passwords, raw click logs, cookies already on visitors' devices, and multi-level trees. Affiliates, their conversions and the commission on each one all come across through the API.

How long does the switch take?

The import takes an afternoon. The link swap takes the month you run both. If you would rather hand it over, give us a screen-share and an hour. 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 9 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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