Refersion Alternatives: How Roster Compares.
Last updated August 2026
Refersion is affiliate tracking software. It installs fast, tracks reliably, and charges a subscription plus a percentage of every affiliate-driven sale.
Roster runs the whole program at a flat rate with zero affiliate fees: recruiting your customers, licensing their content, community, and rewards. Choose Refersion if you need tracking and payouts only. Choose Roster if the people promoting you are your customers, and you don’t want your software bill to scale with your success.
How Roster and Refersion differ
What each was built to do
Refersion is transaction infrastructure. It does one job well: attribute a sale to an affiliate and pay them. Roster starts a step earlier and continues a step later. It recruits ambassadors out of your existing customer base, gives them a portal and a community, runs product seeding and milestone-based rewards, captures and licenses the UGC they produce, and then tracks the sales.
The pricing model is the real difference
Refersion publishes pricing as a monthly subscription plus a percentage of affiliate-driven sales: Launch at $39/month plus 3%, Growth at $199/month plus 2%, with Scale custom-quoted. Roster is flat, and takes no percentage of your sales on any plan.
That gap compounds. On Refersion’s Growth plan, $50,000 in monthly affiliate-driven revenue adds $1,000/month in commission on top of the subscription. At $100,000 it adds $2,000/month. At $250,000 it adds $5,000/month. You pay more for the same software precisely because the program is working.
Owned versus rented
Refersion’s Marketplace connects you with affiliates who don’t know your brand. That is rented reach. Roster is built to activate the audience you already own, the customers who already bought. The relationship, the content, and the first-party data stay yours.
Pricing compared
| Roster | Refersion | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat subscription | Subscription + % of affiliate sales |
| Percentage of your revenue | ZERO | 3% Launch · 2% Growth · custom Scale |
| Added percentage cost per month | ||
| At $50K affiliate revenue | $0 | + $1,000 |
| At $100K affiliate revenue | $0 | + $2,000 |
| At $250K affiliate revenue | $0 | + $5,000 |
| Scope | ||
| Programs included | Ambassador, affiliate, creator, referral | Affiliate |
Refersion pricing per refersion.com, verified August 2026. Percentage figures use the Growth plan rate and exclude the monthly subscription.
Feature comparison
| Roster | Refersion | |
|---|---|---|
| Ambassador management | ||
| Unlimited ambassadors and affiliates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple program types in one account | ✓ | — |
| Custom recruitment forms | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ambassador portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk and one-off messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automated email messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tracking | ||
| Referral link tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Discount code tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recurring order tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom UTM parameters | ✓ | ✓ |
| Commissions and rewards | ||
| Flat rate commissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Percentage of sale commissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tiered commissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manual commissions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Point-based rewards | ✓ | — |
| Automated commission approvals | ✓ | ✓ |
| PayPal payouts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Venmo payouts | ✓ | — |
| Store credit and custom payouts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dashboards and reports | ||
| Brand performance dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Program-level dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sales attribution reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Social listening and UGC dashboard | ✓ | — |
| Social campaign reporting | ✓ | — |
| Social listening and UGC | ||
| Instagram campaigns | ✓ | — |
| TikTok campaigns | ✓ | — |
| Facebook campaigns | ✓ | — |
| X (Twitter) campaigns | ✓ | — |
| UGC campaigns | ✓ | — |
| Public hashtag campaigns | ✓ | — |
| UGC rights and content management | ✓ | — |
| Ambassador engagement | ||
| Automated milestone journeys | ✓ | — |
| Automated product seeding | ✓ | — |
| Personal discount codes | ✓ | — |
| 55+ action templates | ✓ | — |
| Private community | ||
| Unlimited community channels | ✓ | — |
| Auto-syncing program channels | ✓ | — |
| Invite-only channels | ✓ | — |
| Text and image-based posts | ✓ | — |
| Community member profiles | ✓ | — |
| Platforms and integrations | ||
| Shopify integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| BigCommerce integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| WooCommerce integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Klaviyo integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zapier integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Model and access | ||
| Creator or publisher discovery marketplace | — | ✓ |
| Non-ecommerce programs (SaaS, lead generation) | — | — |
| Free or freemium tier | — | — |
Feature comparison last verified August 2026 against Refersion’s published help centre and pricing pages. Comparison based on publicly available information. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Refersion may have shipped changes since. Spot an error? Email [address].
Feature comparison last verified August 2026 against Refersion’s published help centre and pricing pages. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Where Refersion is the better choice
Refersion is the stronger pick if you’re running a traditional affiliate program with professional publishers and media partners rather than customers. Their Marketplace gives you access to affiliates you have no relationship with yet, and a free listing costs nothing to test. Setup is genuinely fast, often 10 to 15 minutes on Shopify.
If your program is purely transactional and you have no interest in community, UGC rights, or engagement mechanics, Roster’s additional surface area is capability you’d pay for and not use.
Wondering what your program would cost without the percentage?
Get a demoSwitching from Refersion to Roster
Most brands move for one of two reasons: the percentage fee started outrunning the value, or they realised their best affiliates were customers who needed more than a tracking link.
Your affiliate list, commission structures, and historical performance data export from Refersion and import into Roster. Referral links and discount codes are reissued through Roster, and both platforms can run in parallel during the transition so no sale goes untracked. Typical migration runs one to two weeks depending on program size, with Roster’s team doing the setup.
Export your Refersion data before you cancel. Reporting access ends with the subscription.
Frequently asked questions
Is Roster cheaper than Refersion?
It depends on your affiliate revenue. Refersion charges a monthly subscription plus 2 to 3 percent of affiliate-driven sales. Roster charges a flat subscription and takes no percentage. The more revenue your program drives, the wider the gap.
Does Roster do everything Refersion does?
Roster covers affiliate tracking, discount code attribution, commission structures, and automated payouts. It adds ambassador recruitment, product seeding, UGC licensing, private community, and milestone rewards, which Refersion does not offer.
Can I use both at the same time?
Brands sometimes run both during migration. Long term, most consolidate, since running two attribution systems creates reporting conflicts.
What happens to my affiliates when I switch?
They get new links and codes and a new portal. Roster’s onboarding includes a communication sequence so no one is left with a dead link.
Which integrates better with Shopify?
Both integrate natively with Shopify. Refersion also supports WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Adobe Commerce. Roster supports Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and others.
How Roster works
- Turn customers into ambassadors with recruitment forms and automated onboarding
- Automated product seeding so gifting isn’t a manual fulfillment task
- UGC capture and licensing so you own the rights to what your advocates create
- Milestones and points to keep advocates engaged past month three
- Referral tracking and payouts across links, codes, and PayPal
- See the full feature set or read a case study
Stop paying more as your program works
Refersion’s fee grows with your affiliate revenue. Roster’s doesn’t. See what a flat-rate ambassador and affiliate program looks like on your store.
Get a demo See how Roster works with your Shopify store, your customers, and your existing program.Comparison based on publicly available information as of August 2026. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Competitor pricing and features are subject to change, so verify directly with the vendor.