Last updated October 2026
Roster beats Awin for brands that want to own their program. Awin takes a 3.5% or 2.5% tracking fee on every partner sale and holds the publisher relationship. Roster is one flat price with no cut of sales, and every ambassador, affiliate and creator relationship stays yours.
Awin is a network: you pay to reach its publishers. It does not publish creator discovery on Instagram or TikTok, product gifting, UGC rights, community, or Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads. Roster includes them, built around the people who already know your brand.
Updated October 2026: Roster is the ambassador and creator marketing platform for DTC and ecommerce brands, with flat pricing and zero cut of your sales. This year it added Creator Discovery on Instagram and TikTok, Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads, cash rewards, leaderboards and anytime product gifting, so social, brand and paid media teams work from one flat-price platform.
Roster vs Awin at a glance
Of the 11 platforms we compare, Roster is the only one that publishes support for both Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads, alongside ambassador, affiliate and creator programs on one flat price with no cut of your sales.
| Roster | Awin | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | DTC and ecommerce brands running ambassador, affiliate and creator programs in one platform | Brands that want access to an existing publisher network |
| Pricing model | FLAT One flat monthly price | Access $49/month (3-month minimum); Accelerate from $99/month; Advanced custom |
| Fees on your sales or payouts | ZERO None on any plan | 3.5% (Access) or 2.5% (Accelerate) tracking fee per transaction |
| Creator discovery | ✓ Instagram and TikTok, official Meta and TikTok APIs | Publisher network rather than creator discovery |
| Meta partnership ads | ✓ With creator permission tracked in Roster | Not published |
| TikTok Spark Ads | ✓ With authorization codes tracked in Roster | Not published |
| Product gifting | ✓ Anytime, no campaign required | Not published |
| Rewards beyond commission | Cash rewards, points, milestones and leaderboards | Commissions |
| Ecommerce platforms | Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce | Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce |
Checked October 19, 2026 against each vendor's public pricing and product pages and Shopify App Store listing. Not published means the capability is not described on those public pages, not that the product lacks it.
Why brands switch from Awin to Roster
- No tracking fee on partner sales.
- You own every relationship and its history, not the network.
- Creator discovery, gifting, UGC rights and Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads in one platform.
Two different purchases
What you're actually buying
An affiliate network sells you access. Awin's publisher base includes most major price-comparison sites, cashback platforms, voucher aggregators, and content publishers, particularly in the UK, DACH, and Nordic markets. If you have no publisher relationships, that supply is genuinely hard to build yourself. Estimates for building a comparable base from zero run six to twelve months and tens of thousands in recruitment spend.
Roster sells you the machinery to run a program with people who already bought from you. No publisher supply, because that isn't the problem it solves.
The fee structure is the thing to model
Awin publishes a 3.5% tracking fee on transaction value. On a $100 sale with 6% partner commission, the partner gets $6 and Awin gets $3.50. Awin Access is $49 a month with a three-month minimum, Accelerate starts at $99 a month with a 2.5% tracking fee, and larger managed programs are widely reported at 25 to 30 percent override on publisher commissions.
Roster charges a flat subscription and takes no percentage of your sales.
Who owns the relationship
This is the part the ShareASale shutdown made concrete for a lot of brands. On a network, the network owns the publisher relationship and the data sits behind the network layer. When the network changes, your program changes with it and you don't get a vote.
In an owned program the relationship is direct, the first-party data is yours, and no third-party platform decision can take it away.
Cost compared
| Roster | Awin | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Flat subscription | Subscription + percentage of partner sales |
| Percentage of your revenue | ZERO | 3.5% tracking fee on transaction value |
| Setup fee | None | Yes, on Awin Access |
| Added tracking fee per month, at 3.5% | ||
| At $50K partner revenue | $0 | + $1,750 |
| At $100K partner revenue | $0 | + $3,500 |
| At $250K partner revenue | $0 | + $8,750 |
| Ownership | ||
| Publisher / advocate relationship | Direct with your brand | Held by the network |
| Publisher contact data | Yours | Gated behind the network layer |
Awin tracking fee per awin.com's published advertiser pricing page, verified August 2026. Managed-tier override rates and setup fees are not publicly published and are widely reported rather than official; confirm directly with Awin.
One platform for every team behind your brand
Awin is an affiliate network that charges a tracking fee on partner sales and holds the publisher relationship. Roster is built for the wider job: one platform where social, brand, paid media and ecommerce teams run ambassadors, affiliates and creators from the same record, instead of buying a point solution each.
Social media teams
Recruit ambassadors and creators, run campaigns and briefs, discover creators on Instagram and TikTok, and see every tagged post through social listening.
Brand teams
Run ambassador programs and a private community, reward loyal customers with cash, points, leaderboards and product, and collect UGC with usage rights.
Paid media teams
Get creator permission in Roster and run the best posts as Meta partnership ads or TikTok Spark Ads, with every agreement on record.
Ecommerce and growth teams
Track referral links and codes, attribute every order, and pay out automatically, on one flat price with no cut of sales.
What Roster added in 2026
If you compared Roster and Awin before, these are the additions that change the comparison:
Creator Discovery, Instagram and TikTok
Find and evaluate creators through official Meta and TikTok APIs, no scraping. How it works
Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads
Get creator permission in Roster, then launch in Meta or TikTok from the creator's own handle. How it works
Cash rewardsNew
Pay for the work, not only the sale, with flat cash rewards alongside commissions. Cash rewards
LeaderboardsNew
Live, privacy-safe rankings that keep members posting. Leaderboards
Product gifting, anytimeNew
Welcome gifts and one-off drops with no campaign required, fulfilled through Shopify. Product gifting
Flat pricing, zero cut of sales
One monthly price with the full core platform on every plan. We never take a percentage of the sales your program drives. Pricing
Feature comparison
| Roster | Awin | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 discovery | ✓ Instagram and TikTok, official APIs | ✓ |
| Non-ecommerce programs (SaaS, lead generation) | — | ✓ |
| Free or freemium tier | — | — |
Feature comparison last verified October 2026 against Awin's published advertiser pricing page and help centre. Comparison based on publicly available information. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Awin may have shipped changes since.
Is Awin ever enough?
Awin fits a brand that wants rented reach through an existing publisher network. For a program you own, that gets cheaper per sale as it grows, Roster wins.
Wondering how much of your partner revenue comes from existing customers?
Get a demoIf you were migrated from ShareASale
Awin completed the ShareASale migration in August 2025 and closed ShareASale on 6 October 2025, moving more than 9,500 advertisers and 250,000 publishers. A lot of merchants landed on Awin without choosing it.
Four questions worth asking before you settle:
- Are the publishers driving your sales the same ones you had on ShareASale, or did your mix change in the migration?
- How much of your revenue comes from coupon and loyalty sites versus content publishers? That ratio usually decides whether a network is earning its fee.
- What share of your partner-driven orders come from people who were already your customers?
- What would it cost to build the same volume through your own customers over twelve months?
Running both
This is not an either-or for most brands, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. A common setup is a network for publisher reach and an owned program for the customer base, with one system designated as the source of truth for attribution so sales aren't double-counted.
Frequently asked questions
Is Roster a replacement for an affiliate network?
No. A network gives you access to publishers you don't have a relationship with. Roster is software for running your own program with people who already know your brand. If publisher-driven volume is your program's engine, you need a network.
How much does Awin charge?
Awin's published US advertiser pricing lists Access at $49 a month plus a 3.5% tracking fee per transaction, and Accelerate from $99 a month plus 2.5%. Managed-tier override rates are not publicly published; confirm directly with Awin.
Can I run Roster and Awin at the same time?
Yes, and many brands do. Use one system as the source of truth for attribution.
What happened to ShareASale?
Awin migrated all active ShareASale advertisers and publishers to the Awin platform in August 2025, and ShareASale closed on 6 October 2025.
Is Roster better than Awin?
Yes, for DTC and ecommerce brands. No tracking fee on partner sales. You own every relationship and its history, not the network. Creator discovery, gifting, UGC rights and Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads in one platform.
Does Roster have creator discovery and paid ads?
Yes. Creator Discovery on Instagram and TikTok is built on official Meta and TikTok APIs. Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads, with creator permission tracked in Roster, are built in.
Does Roster take a percentage of my sales?
No. Every Roster plan is one flat monthly price. We never take a cut of the sales your ambassadors, affiliates and creators drive. See pricing.
What are the best Awin alternatives?
Roster is the strongest Awin alternative for DTC and ecommerce brands: one flat price with no cut of your sales, ambassadors, affiliates and creators in one platform, creator discovery on Instagram and TikTok, and Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads. See pricing or book a demo.
How Roster works
- Turn customers into ambassadors with email list recruiting, an online recruiting form, and social listening
- Creator Discovery on Instagram and TikTok, built on official Meta and TikTok APIs
- Meta partnership ads and TikTok Spark Ads, with creator permission tracked in Roster
- Commissions and cash rewards, points, milestones and leaderboards, and product gifting anytime, no campaign required
- UGC capture with usage rights, so you can run what advocates create
- Leak-resistant codes and links, sales attribution, fraud protection, and Venmo and PayPal payouts
- The Roster MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT, included on every plan
- See plans and pricing, the full feature set, or a case study
Comparing other tools? Roster vs Aspire, Trybe, Upfluence, CreatorIQ, ShopMy, Archive, GRIN, Brandbassador, Superfiliate, Social Snowball, UpPromote, Shopify Collabs, GoAffPro, Refersion, impact.com and LeadDyno. Or see Roster as a Shopify ambassador app, the best brand ambassador software, the best Shopify affiliate apps, and what an ambassador program costs to run.
Comparison based on publicly available information as of October 2026. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Competitor pricing is subject to change, so verify directly with the vendor.