The Highest Paying WordPress Affiliate Programs

Done right, affiliate marketing is an amazing tool for both publishers and brands, and one of the best ways for site owners and influencers to monetize their audience.

There are many lucrative affiliate programs for WordPress plugins, WordPress themes, and other tools and services relevant to WordPress websites.

If you're an affiliate marketer, or you just have an audience of WordPress users, developers, or small business owners and want to explore monetizing that audience, read on and we’ll share our curated list of the best and highest-paying WordPress affiliate programs.

How Do Affiliate Marketing Programs Work?

Affiliate marketing programs allow someone to earn commission by promoting other peoples products or services.

An example: John writes a blog post. In that post, they mention a product from company XYZ. When they link to the product, they do so using a unique link (an "affiliate link"). This link allows company XYZ to tell whenever someone makes a purchase after following the link in John's blog post.

The company then pays a commission to John (the affiliate) for each sale that came from his blog.

Since the dawn of commerce, businesses have been paying people referral fees or finder's fees for people who help send customers their way. Only today, with the digitization of the affiliate system, has affiliate marketing become open and accessible to the masses.

Most WordPress affiliate programs today are self-service, meaning affiliates only need to sign up and be approved for an account, and then they start creating their own referral links and track the performance of their traffic from within an intuitive affiliate dashboard.

How Much Can You Earn With WordPress Affiliate Programs?

The earning potential from WordPress affiliate programs is nearly limitless.

The worth of the affiliate marketing industry is estimated to be close to $12 billion. How does that shake out to individuals?

Moderately successful affiliates earn from $1,000 to $10,000 per month. According to Scaleo, 48% of affiliate marketers earn $20,000 or more per year. And in a 2016 study, 9% of participants said they earned more than $50,000 as a result of affiliate marketing that year.

And while it's rare, it's absolutely possible to earn over $100,000 per year through affiliate programs.

Though these numbers refer to the total market size, including a wide range of non-WordPress related products and services, WordPress as a niche is about as big as it gets.

Millions of sites run on WordPress, which means millions of sites using WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, and other WordPress products you can promote and earn affiliate commissions on.

WordPress Affiliate Marketing Programs: What to Look For

We’re going to share our pick of the best WordPress affiliate programs. However, you don’t need to take our word for it - we encourage you to do your own research as well.

When deciding which WordPress affiliate programs you want to put your time, resources and energy into promoting, here are some things to look for.

Commission

Probably the most important part - how much are you going to get paid for each sale you refer?

Obviously, you'd rather promote products with a bigger payout.

The average size of an affiliate commission tends to vary by industry. With WordPress affiliate programs, this is usually around 20% of the sale. Use that as a benchmark when comparing different affiliate programs.

Commission structure: one-time or recurring commissions?

You also want to know how often you’re going to get paid.

A lot of products in the WordPress space are recurring subscriptions. As such, some WordPress affiliate programs pay you a recurring commission every time the customer pays them - which can be as often as once a month.

Other affiliate programs simply pay a flat fee, or a commission on the first payment, but not any subsequent renewals.

Product cost

Another important factor in judging the potential of a WordPress affiliate program is the cost of the product.

20% commission on a $49 purchase is a lot different to a 20% commission on a $199 purchase.

Commissions tend to be a little lower, as a percentage, for higher-priced products. But you’re still likely to earn more from each referral for higher-ticket items.

Our own MobiLoud Affiliate Program is a bit of an exception. Our product is priced at $500-$1850 upfront + a recurring $200-$500 a month subscription and our commissions are 30% for both, recurring.

Cookie duration

Affiliate links use cookies to track a purchase back to the affiliate who referred the sale in the first place.

Generally, cookies remain active for around 30 days, which means if someone makes a purchase within 30 days of clicking your link, you’ll get paid the commission.

Some affiliate programs have a longer cookie duration, however, giving you a longer window in which you can be credited for the sale.

For our Affiliate Program, we chose a 90 days duration, knowing sometimes customers need a bit longer to make a decision or get approval from their company.

Audience size

How big is the target market of the product you’re promoting?

The bigger the better. You want to have a large pool of people who could potentially lead to a sale.

Things like hosting, themes and site-building tools make for great affiliate marketing products because they can conceivably be used by anyone with a WordPress website. A huge market like this means endless earning potential.

Quality of the product

Finally, one thing that affiliate marketers often overlook is how good the product actually is.

Many affiliates are willing to promote anything, as long as the payout is good. This leads to the negative perception a lot of people have around affiliate marketing, and degrades trust in anything written by an affiliate partner.

High-quality products and services deliver better results in the short and long term. It's easier to convince people to buy the product, and builds trust with your audience, that will help you get more readers and drive more referrals over time.

Best WordPress Affiliate Marketing Programs

Just about every company in the WordPress world has an affiliate program. Some are better than others, based on the criteria we talked about in the previous section.

We’ve helped you sift through all the options out there, with our recommendations for the best WordPress affiliate programs.

MobiLoud

First of all, let's look at our own affiliate program. With the commission structure and nature of the product, it's not hard to argue that MobiLoud's affiliate program is the highest paying affiliate program in the WordPress space.

MobiLoud lets any website owner turn their site into mobile apps for iOS and Android. The cost and time to market is a fraction of what it would be to hire a developer to build it from scratch, and it lets them preserve their site's functionality, content, themes and plugins, and avoid having to maintain two separate platforms.

It doesn't only work for WordPress, either. MobiLoud can be used for any website, built on any platform.

With a host of successful case studies for you to reference, you should have no trouble promoting MobiLoud to your audience. If you only convert one or two readers into MobiLoud customers each month, you'll earn thousands in recurring revenue.

You get a 30% commission (above average for the industry) on all payments from every customer you refer. This includes recurring and setup fees.

Let's break down how much that can amount to.

• Submission fee (for our work to publish apps to Google Play and Apple App Stores) - $500 ($150 commission)
• Your referral chooses our full service package, where we do all the configuration, customization and design for their mobile app - $1,350 ($405 commission)
• The customer signs on to our Corporate plan, the highest subscription level - $5,100 paid annually ($1,530 commission)

By earning 30% commission from your referral, you could get a payout of $2,085, up front - plus a $1,530 commission every year when the customer renews their subscription. This is from a single sale!

There's simply no other WordPress affiliate program that can match the earning potential from a single referral that MobiLoud offers.

And while a mobile app maker does not quite have the target market size as a hosting service or a cheap WordPress theme, that's not to say MobiLoud is a particularly niche product that's hard to sell. We've built thousands of apps since 2013 and the total addressable market just keeps growing!

How many small businesses, startups, e-commerce, content or community websites out there could need a mobile app? The number is in the millions.

Commission: 30% on all payments

Key points:

• Above average commission rate
• High average sale
• Polished product
• Made for long-term subscriptions
• No cap on referrals

Signup link: https://www.mobiloud.com/affiliates

Elementor

If you know WordPress, you probably know Elementor. More than 10 million websites actively use Elementor, which amounts to more than 7% of the web.

Elementor’s main product is their drag and drop side building plugin, which makes website customization easy without the use of code.

They also offer Elementor Cloud, which is a yearly subscription that includes hosting and CMS tools along with the Elementor Pro drag and drop editor.

Elementor’s popularity sells itself, and the commissions on offer are huge - 50% for Elementor Pro sales, and $70 for Elementor Cloud subscriptions. They also give bonuses when you reach certain milestones for referrals, which can be as much as $12,500.

Commission: 50% of new Elementor Pro sales, $70 for each new Elementor Cloud Website signed up

Key points:

• Huge target market
• One of the most popular WordPress tools
• Massive commission share
• Large bonus for reaching certain referral tiers

Signup link: https://elementor.com/affiliates/

Kinsta

Every site needs hosting. And unless you’ve got a server farm in your garage, you’ll need to pay a service to host your website for you.

That’s what makes affiliate programs for WordPress hosting services so lucrative. Your target market is literally anyone with a website. That means huge earning potential.

Kinsta's affiliate program is one of the best out there. They offer a flat commission up front, depending on the level of plan someone signs up for:

• Starter plan - $50 commission
• Pro plan - $100 commission
• Business plans - $150 commission
• Enterprise plans - $500 commission

That’s great on its own. But they also offer 10% recurring commissions on the customer’s subscription, over the entire time they stay subscribed.

Considering hosting is a necessary ongoing expense (and Kinsta boasts they have less than a 4% cancellation rate), this gives you the potential to make a lot of money over time.

Commission: $50-$500 per signup, plus 10% recurring monthly commission

Key points:

• 60 day cookie
• Large, lucrative market
• Less than 4% churn rate on subscriptions

Signup link: https://kinsta.com/affiliates/

WP Engine

WP Engine is another reliable hosting service, with plans suited for individual users to power users with 30+ websites.

Their affiliate program doesn’t give recurring commissions like Kinsta, but the upfront payment is extremely good. For each signup you’ll earn $200, or the cost of the first month’s subscription (whichever is highest). That’s huge, considering how affordable WP Engine’s individual plans are.

They also offer a bonus depending on the number of sales you refer, which can be as high as $1500 (on top of regular commissions).

Commission: $200 or 100% of first month’s subscription

Key points:

• 180 day referral window
• High upfront payout
• Also earn 35% commission on StudioPress theme sales

Signup link: https://wpengine.com/partners/affiliate/ 

HostGator

HostGator is another hosting service that offers a flat payout, with no recurring commission. It doesn’t stack up to WP Engine or Kinsta, but it’s still quite lucrative in its own right.

The commission is determined based on the number of referrals you make in a month:

• 1-5 signups - $65 per signup
• 6-10: $75 per signup
• 11-20: $100 per signup
• 21+: $125 per signup

Along with standard tracking via affiliate links, you can also create unique discount codes in your affiliate dashboard. Anyone using these codes will be credited as a referral from you.

One of the best things about HostGator’s program is the range of plans they offer, meaning you can earn referrals even on affordable shared hosting sales.

Commission: $65-$125 per signup, depending on the number of referrals

Key points:

• 60 day referral window
• Offers a wide range of hosting packages, from shared to managed hosting
• Can offer unique discount codes to your audience

Signup link: https://www.hostgator.com/affiliates 

Hostinger

Hostinger offers a whopping 60% commission on any sales you refer with their affiliate program. This applies to their shared hosting, cloud hosting and VPS hosting, which covers all levels of customers, from individuals to businesses and agencies.

Payouts are capped at $300, and aren’t paid on renewals or upgrades. This is still more than enough, however, offering higher one-off sale potential than most other hosting affiliate programs.

Commission: 60%

Key points:

• 30 day cookie
• Wide range of plans
• High commission rate

Signup link: https://www.hostinger.com/affiliates

BlueHost

BlueHost's affiliate program is pretty straightforward. You can earn a cool $65 for each user you refer who signs up to a hosting package of 12 months or more.

The purchase could be as small as a shared hosting package that costs the customer $33. That makes it super easy to sell to your audience.

BlueHost also offers custom promotional banners and links within your affiliate portal, to make it even easier for affiliate partners to generate referrals.

Commission: $65 per qualified purchase

Key points:

• Huge market size
• High one-time payout for low cost products
• Custom banners and links to put on your site

Signup link: https://www.bluehost.com/affiliates

Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes offers a huge 50% commission on sales of the Divi WordPress theme and page builder.

This is great because, first of all, it’s a huge revenue share. But second, it’s a really easy product to promote. The Divi theme, their drag and drop page builder, and plugins including Bloom (for email optins) and Monarch (social media sharing) are all highly regarded with WordPress website owners.

The commission carries over to renewals as well - you can sell your readers on the lifetime plan, or continue to earn yearly payouts if they only opt for the annual subscription.

Commission: 50%, including renewals

Key points:

• 2 month referral window
• High-quality themes and site building tools
• Doesn’t include Divi hosting or marketplace sales

Signup link: https://www.elegantthemes.com/affiliates/

ThemeIsle

ThemeIsle is a stalwart in the WordPress community, known for building high-quality themes and plugins.

Their affiliate program is nothing to laugh at, with a huge 55% commission rate on WordPress plugin and theme sales.

This includes the Hestia and Neve pro themes, and plugins such as Feedzy RSS Feeds, Visualizer and WP Landing Kit.

With a range of great products, 55% commissions and products priced as high as $399, there’s huge earning potential with this affiliate program.

Commission: 55% (one-time)

Key points:

• 90 day cookie
• Multiple themes and plugins to promote
• Subscriptions can be as high as $399, allowing you to earn over $200 in a single referral

Signup link: https://themeisle.com/affiliates/ 

Astra

Astra is the all-time most popular WordPress theme, running on over 1.5 million websites. The premium version (Astra Pro) offers a wide range of site building modules, priced at $49 per year, or $239 for a lifetime deal.

They also sell bundles that include premium site templates, add-ons for the Elementor and Beaver Builder site builders, and several other plugins.

The target market for Astra’s products is huge (literally any WordPress site), and the 30% commission rate is extremely inviting. You can earn as much as $210 from one sale, if you refer a lifetime sale of their highest level bundle.

Commission: 30% (one-time)

Key points:

• Popular product, with a proven track record
• Huge potential target market
• Bundles & lifetime deals offer a high potential payout
• Can also promote their plugins individually, such as WP Portfolio and Schema Pro

Signup link: https://wpastra.com/affiliate/

RankMath

Just about every WordPress site needs to think about SEO, and how to optimize their site to show up high in Google searches. And most sites use an SEO plugin to help with this.

RankMath is one of the best WordPress plugins for optimizing SEO, up there with Yoast and All in One SEO. And it happens to have the best affiliate program.

RankMath affiliates can earn $17-$149 on purchases of one of the three premium RankMath plans. That’s around 30% commission.

However, one of the best things about this program is that you even get paid for free account signups. It’s not much - just $0.20 per signup - but considering how easy it is to sign up a free user for an SEO tool, this can quickly add up.

Commission: $17-$149 per premium signup, or $0.20 per free account signup

Key points:

• 60 day cookie
• High quality product, with over 1 million plugin installations
• Earn commissions even on free account signups

Signup link: https://rankmath.com/affiliates/ 

GoWP

GoWP offers something a lot of novice site builders need: help.

Their services allow you to hire outside help for your website, such as developers, copywriters, designers or virtual assistants.

While some services (such as WordPress maintenance tasks and content editing) are fairly cheap, other, more specialized services, are priced at $1000+ per month.

With their affiliate program paying out 50% of the first month’s payment, you can potentially earn A LOT from just a single referral.

Commission: 50% of first month’s payment

Key points:

• Wide range of useful WordPress services to promote
• Potential to earn $500+ on a single referral

Signup link: https://gowp.com/champions/ 

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is an affordable and user-friendly email marketing tool, and a favorite of many small businesses and WordPress sites.

Along with being a great product, Constant Contact’s affiliate program is extremely generous. You earn $105 for a referral that leads to a paid subscription (the subscription itself starts at $9.99 per month). Even better, you earn $5 just for referring a free trial signup.

The caveat is that users on a free trial need to at least set up a test campaign before they’ll be credited to you as a referral. But the barrier for this is still very low, with users not even needing to provide a credit card to sign up.

Commission: $5 for each new trial, $105 for each paid account

Key points:

• Popular, easy to promote
• High payout
• Get paid for free trial signups

Signup link: https://www.constantcontact.com/partners/affiliate 

AWeber

AWeber’s simple email marketing tool is one of the best in the industry in terms of usability and feature set. It’s powerful enough to set up automatic campaigns, workflows and more, while not feeling bloated or overcomplicated.

It’s also a great choice for affiliate marketers. Not only easy to promote, it’s also worthwhile to promote, with commissions starting at 30%, and rising to as high as 50% when you hit certain milestones in referrals.

Best of all, commissions are paid over the lifetime of the customer, meaning each referral offers huge potential for passive income.

Commission: 30%-50%, recurring

Key points:

• Popular & affordable email marketing tool
• Commission structure means you can earn up to 50% if you refer 50 accounts in a 12 month period
• Commissions are paid over the lifetime of the customer

Signup link: https://www.aweber.com/advocates.htm

GetResponse

GetResponse is another powerful email marketing tool, in the vein of the previous two we mentioned. Like those tools, it also offers a full featured affiliate program.

The interesting thing about this affiliate program is that you have your choice of commission structure. You can either go with recurring payments, which pay 33% over the lifetime of the customer, or $100 flat upfront for each sale.

It’s also worth noting the massive cookie duration, of 120 days. This means someone could convert up to 6 months after clicking your link, and you’ll still be credited if your cookie is still active in their browser.

Commission: 33% per month recurring, or $100 per sale upfront

Key points:

• 120 day cookie
• Your choice of commission structure: get paid higher upfront, or continuous monthly commissions

Signup link: https://www.getresponse.com/affiliate-programs

LeadPages

LeadPages is one of the top general-purpose landing page tools on the market, and has been for some time. It’s a seriously powerful tool to use for landing pages, sales funnels, optin pages and much more.

The tool, and the name recognition LeadPages has, pretty much sells itself. Which is what makes the 50% recurring commissions (including upgrades and renewals) so attractive.

The starting commission rate is only 10% - but as soon as you hit $50 or more in sales generated in a month, that rate jumps up to 40%, and then eventually to 50% as you refer more customers.

Commission: 10%-50% (recurring), based on monthly sales referred

Key points:

• 90 day cookie
• Highly regarded product
• Tiered payout system, which becomes attractive after hitting $50 in referred sales

Signup link: https://lp.leadpages.com/affiliates/ 

SemRush

When you decide it’s time to get serious about SEO for your WordPress site, you’ll need a tool like Semrush.

Semrush is one of the leading tools for keyword research, SEO competitor analysis, content research, and more, helping you create content that drives traffic to your site.

It’s also a great product to promote as an affiliate. Each paid subscription that comes from your affiliate link will earn you a huge $200 payout. Even better, you’ll get paid when someone signs up for a free trial, or even for a free account.

Commission: $200 for new subscriptions, $10 for free trials and $0.01 for each free account signup

Key points:

• 120 day cookie
• Get paid for free accounts and free trial signups
• Big upfront payment for paid conversions

Signup link: https://app.impact.com/advertiser-advertiser-info/Semrush.brand

Thrive Themes

Thrive Themes is a suite of tools that includes pretty much everything you need to build a good-looking and powerful website.

It includes the Thrive Theme Builder, which makes building and customizing your WordPress theme super easy, right from your WordPress dashboard.

There's also Thrive Architect (drag and drop page editor), Thrive Leads (email optin plugin), Thrive Quiz Builder (quiz plugin), and much more.

The Thrive Suite is really powerful for site owners who don’t want to spend big on developers to code their site. It’s also lucrative to promote as an affiliate. You’ll earn 35% on new sales, as well as 25% recurring commissions.

Commission: 35% on new sales plus 25% recurring commission

Key points:

• Enormous 2 year cookie duration
• Low minimum payout ($20)
• Earn recurring commissions over the lifetime of the customer

Signup link: https://thrivethemes.com/affiliate-program/ 

Start With Our Affiliate Program Today!

There are a ton of reasons why you should join MobiLoud’s affiliate program, right now.

The potential for what you can earn with our affiliate program is tough any other WordPress affiliate programs to beat. Where some affiliate programs offer a big payout up front, and some offer recurring commissions, MobiLoud’s program gives you both.

You’ll earn 30% recurring commission on any plans, which range from $200 per month to $500 per month. That’s $60 to $150 for each referral, month on month, as long as they stay subscribed.

There’s a clear pathway to earning thousands of dollars from just a single referral. Put a few of these together and you’ve got a passive income machine.

To join the affiliate program, go to mobiloud.com/affiliates. From there, check out mobiloud.com/canvas to learn how MobiLoud is the best solution out there to convert an existing website or web app into native mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Help us get the word out and get paid. It’s that simple.