Best SaaS Affiliate Programs For Online Publishers

The Modern software business model presents an opportunity to earn recurring revenue month after month. But what if you don't have the resources to build a soft-as-a-service (SaaS) business from scratch? That's where SaaS affiliate programs come into play as a viable alternative.

During a conference I recently attended, one of the speakers stated that one of the best ways to build a strong business is to enter a very large or growing market.

Given the continued growth of the global SaaS market, there are enough opportunities to build a strong affiliate business.

Whether you have been in the affiliate marketing world for a long time or are just getting in for the first time, this post contains a small list of software affiliate programs you can use to get started today. With the content of this page, you don't have to spend much time researching to find the best SaaS affiliate marketing programs to promote in 2024 and beyond.

What is SaaS affiliate marketing?

SaaS affiliate marketing refers to a partnership model where individuals or entities promote software as a service (SaaS) products in exchange for a recurring affiliate commission on sales or referrals.

Affiliates typically leverage various online channels such as blogs, social media, or email marketing to drive traffic and conversions for the SaaS company. This arrangement allows SaaS companies to expand their reach and acquire customers cost-effectively while affiliates benefit from earning passive income through successful referrals. Unlike physical products that pays one time commission for each sale, high-paying SaaS affiliate programs could continue paying you for months or years after acquiring the customer. However, it is relatively difficult to build a successful SaaS affiliate business.

Benefits of Software affiliate marketing for online publishers

• Passive income potential
• Minimal upfront investment
• Access to high-quality products/services to promote
• Flexibility to work from anywhere
• Opportunity to monetize existing audience
• Scalable earning potential
• Earn monthly recurring income

Best SaaS Affiliate Programs In 2024

#1: Unbounce Affiliate Program

The Unbounce affiliate program allows individuals or businesses to sign up as affiliates and promote Unbounce's landing page and conversion optimization platform through various marketing channels such as websites, blogs, social media, or email campaigns. Affiliates receive a unique tracking link to share with their audience. The affiliate earns a commission when someone clicks on the link and signs up for Unbounce's services. Unbounce provides resources, support, and regular payouts to its affiliates, fostering a mutually beneficial partnership.

• URL: Unbounce affiliate program
• Commission rate: 20% recurring (lifetime)
• Cookie duration: 90 days

#2: SEMRush Affiliate program

SEMrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that offers a suite of tools for SEO, PPC, content marketing, and competitive research. It enables users to analyze their website's performance, track keyword rankings, conduct backlink audits, research competitors' strategies, and manage online advertising campaigns.

SEMrush delivers value to customers by providing actionable insights and data-driven recommendations to optimize their online presence, improve search engine rankings, increase website traffic, and drive business growth.

Having been around for a long time, SEMRush provides one of the best software affiliate programs in the space. Unlike competitors, the program is run through Impact Radius, an affiliate network that helps other businesses manage their programs.

One exciting thing about this SaaS affiliate program is that the high-pricing plan also allows you to earn high commissions.

• URL: SEMRush affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $200 per paying customer
• Cookie duration: 120 days

#3: ConvertKit affiliate program

Email marketing remains a cornerstone of digital communication strategies due to its unparalleled ability to reach and engage audiences directly. ConvertKit stands out as a premier email marketing software option, offering intuitive features tailored for creators, bloggers, and online businesses.

With ConvertKit, users can effortlessly craft personalized email campaigns, segment their audience for targeted messaging, and automate workflows to nurture leads and drive conversions effectively. For affiliate marketers, promoting ConvertKit presents a lucrative opportunity to earn recurring commissions, as the platform offers a generous commission structure with monthly payouts for referrals who become paying customers. By highlighting ConvertKit's user-friendly interface, robust features, and proven track record in helping creators succeed, affiliate marketers can effectively promote the platform and enjoy a steady stream of passive income from their referrals' ongoing subscription payments.

ConvertKit pricing starts at $15 per month. However, what you earn depends on how many customers you refer to their company. Instead of making a lifetime commission, you only get paid a recurring commission for 24 months of someone remaining a customer.

• URL: ConvertKit affiliate program
• Commission rate: 30%
• Cookie duration:

#4: Shopify affiliate program

Shopify is a leading e-commerce platform offering many benefits for entrepreneurs looking to establish and grow their online businesses. With Shopify, users quickly access a user-friendly interface, customizable templates, and powerful tools to design, launch, and manage their e-commerce stores.

The platform also provides robust features for inventory management, order processing, and payment gateways, empowering merchants to streamline operations and enhance the shopping experience for customers. For affiliate marketers, promoting Shopify represents a lucrative opportunity to earn recurring commissions by referring merchants to the platform.

Through Shopify's affiliate program, affiliates can earn a commission for each merchant they refer who signs up for a Shopify subscription, with the potential for ongoing revenue as referred merchants continue to utilize Shopify's e-commerce solutions and services.

With Shopify's widespread popularity and reputation for reliability, affiliate marketers can confidently promote the platform, knowing they offer a trusted solution to aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs while generating passive income through recurring commissions.

The beautiful thing about Shopify is that it has a wide range of pricing plans starting at $29 and going up to $2000 for the Plus plan. Promoting Shopify e-commerce software could become a dependable source of recurring revenue for your audience's reliable sourcing channel. Please note that it is essential to understand Shopify's branding guidelines before investing significant resources into the program.

• URL: Shopify affiliate program
• Commission rate: Up to $58 per sale
• Cookie duration: 30 days

#5: Hunter.io affiliate program

Cold email outreach is a strategy used by B2B sales teams to initiate conversations with potential leads who have not previously engaged with their company. This approach involves crafting personalized email messages and sending them to targeted prospects to generate interest and start a dialogue that could lead to a sales opportunity.

Hunter.io offers essential tools for B2B lead generation teams engaged in cold email outreach, including email verification services, to ensure the accuracy and deliverability of email addresses. By verifying email addresses, sales teams can improve their email deliverability rates and maintain a clean contact list, enhancing the effectiveness of their outreach efforts.

For affiliate partners, promoting Hunter.io with unique affiliate links presents an attractive opportunity to earn commissions by recommending a valuable tool that addresses a critical need for sales professionals engaged in lead generation. With Hunter.io's reputation for providing reliable and effective email verification solutions, affiliate marketers can confidently endorse the platform, knowing they are offering a valuable resource to their audience while earning commissions for successful referrals.

• URL: Hunter.io affiliate program
• Commission structure: 30% (within the first year only)
• Cookie duration: 45 days

#6: Systeme.io affiliate program

Systeme.io offers a comprehensive suite of marketing tools that streamline various aspects of online business operations, including landing page building, sales funnel creation, email marketing, and affiliate management, all within a single platform. By consolidating these essential functions into one cohesive solution, Systeme.io simplifies workflow management and eliminates the need for business owners to invest in and manage multiple tools.

In addition to saving money, it reduces costs significantly. For affiliate marketers and online influencers, promoting Systeme.io presents an appealing opportunity to help business owners optimize their operations while saving money by investing in an all-in-one platform. By highlighting the platform's efficiency, affordability, and ease of use, affiliate marketers can effectively position Systeme.io as a valuable solution offering comprehensive marketing capabilities, benefiting both business owners and themselves through increased conversions and commissions.

• URL: Systeme.io affiliate program
• Commission rate: 40% (lifetime)
• Cookie duration: lifetime

#7: Teachable affiliate program

By 2025, the online learning market is expected to reach a market value of $350 billion. About such reports, many people are taking advantage of the trend while building million-dollar businesses. Such businesses include Teachable, a platform that helps people create and monetize online learning courses.

Affiliate marketers and influencers with sizable online audiences can benefit immensely by promoting Teachable as a leading platform for creating and monetizing online courses. By endorsing Teachable's affiliate program offers to their followers, affiliate marketers and influencers can offer a valuable solution for individuals looking to share their expertise and monetize their knowledge through online courses.

Teachable's user-friendly interface, customizable features, and robust marketing tools make it an attractive option for course creators and students. Through Teachable's affiliate program, marketers and influencers can earn commissions for every referral who signs up for a Teachable subscription, providing a steady stream of passive income while empowering their audience to pursue their educational and entrepreneurial goals. Moreover, by promoting Teachable, marketers and influencers can enhance their credibility and authority within their niche, positioning themselves as trusted resources for valuable SaaS tools and resources that enable personal and professional growth.

Based on the growing trend in the online learning space and how the SaaS industry is growing, it is one of the best affiliate programs you can join in 2024.

• URL: Teachable affiliate program
• Commission rate: 30% (within the first year)
• Cooking duration: 30 days

#8: SocialPilot affiliate program

SocialPilot stands out as one of the premier social media marketing platforms, offering a comprehensive suite of tools for content creation, publishing, automated scheduling, and analytics.

With its intuitive interface and robust features, SocialPilot enables businesses and marketers to manage their social media presence across multiple platforms efficiently, saving time and maximizing engagement.

Through SocialPilot's affiliate program, affiliate marketers can earn recurring commissions by promoting its SaaS products to their audience. This presents a lucrative opportunity for affiliate marketers to generate passive income while endorsing a trusted and effective solution for social media management, further solidifying their reputation as valuable resources within the digital marketing landscape.

• URL: SocialPilot affiliate program
• Commission rate: 30% (within the first year)
• Cookie duration: 90 days

#9: Salesmate affiliate program

Salesmate.io is a comprehensive sales CRM platform, offering powerful tools to streamline B2B lead generation, enhance customer support, facilitate live chat interactions, schedule meetings efficiently, and seamlessly conduct outbound sales calls. With its intuitive interface and customizable features, Salesmate.io empowers businesses to optimize their sales processes, improve customer relationships, and drive revenue growth.

Through Salesmate.io's affiliate program, affiliate marketers can earn recurring commissions by promoting these valuable tools to business owners and marketers seeking to enhance their sales and customer management efforts.

By endorsing Salesmate.io, affiliate marketers can provide tangible value to their audience and secure a reliable source of passive income through successful referrals, further establishing themselves as trusted authorities within the realm of sales and marketing technology.

• URL: Salesmate.io affiliate program
• Commission rate: 15% (lifetime)
• Cookie duration: N/A

#10: Privy affiliate program

Privy is a powerful platform for e-commerce email marketing, offering a range of tools designed to help businesses effectively engage with their customers and drive sales. With customizable pop-ups, email campaigns, cart abandonment emails, and audience segmentation, Privy enables e-commerce business owners to create targeted and personalized marketing campaigns that resonate with their audience.

Through Privy's affiliate program, affiliate marketers can earn recurring commissions by promoting these tools to e-commerce business owners, highlighting how Privy's solutions can help them increase conversions, grow their customer base, and ultimately boost revenue. By endorsing Privy, affiliate marketers provide valuable resources to e-commerce entrepreneurs and secure a steady source of passive income through successful referrals, reinforcing their position as trusted advisors in the realm of e-commerce marketing.

• URL: Privy.com affiliate program
• Affiliate commission structure: 10% (lifetime)
• Cookie duration: N/A

Conclusion

Look no further if you have been looking for the best SaaS affiliate programs to join in 2024. With the resources available, you can start from the options listed in this post. Interestingly, most of the SaaS lucrative SaaS affiliate niches in the space are represented here.

However, one important thing worth noting is that building an affiliate website with products scattered across different niches is not the best affiliate marketing strategy. The best approach is choosing a specific SaaS niche, conducting keyword research, and creating SEO-optimized content for your affiliate marketing business. Based on my experience, following this approach will help you build topical authority, essential for achieving higher SEO ranking and growing traffic faster.