When choosing a plugin, brand reputation matters. YITH is one of the most well-known and trusted names in the WooCommerce space, known for building reliable products.
Their affiliate plugin continues this tradition of stability. But does it include all the advanced features that modern WooCommerce stores require?
In this detailed review, we'll explore its interface and how it works to help you decide if it has all the features you need.
Table of Contents
- Setting Up YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
- Core Features and WooCommerce Integration
- Managing your WooCommerce Affiliates
- YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Pricing
- Customer Reviews and Feedback
- Final Thoughts on YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
Setting Up YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
One of the first things you'll notice about YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is the lack of a setup wizard or a formal onboarding process. Instead, you'll configure everything manually through a series of settings tabs found under the YITH > Affiliates menu in your WordPress dashboard.
For most WordPress users, this will feel familiar. While it’s not as fast as a guided setup, the configuration pages are logically organized, even if the interface itself feels a bit dated. You'll work through tabs for General Options, Commissions, and other settings to build your program piece by piece.
However, you may find the total number of options a bit overwhelming. Many settings are straightforward, but you will run into some that are quite technical, like "Query var name" or "Allow users to enter a token at checkout." These will likely require you to dig through documentation.
Here’s another example: the Cookie Options panel gives you a high degree of control over every aspect of cookie behavior. Whether this is a good or bad thing really depends on your perspective and experience level.
This creates a clear distinction. If you are launching your first affiliate program, the wizard-based approach of a plugin like Solid Affiliate is likely a better fit, as it gets you up and running in minutes by handling the most advanced settings for you. The plugin assumes responsibility for most advanced settings, though you can certainly modify them if needed.
On the other hand, if you are an experienced affiliate manager who wants direct, granular control over every single setting from the very beginning, you will likely appreciate the power that YITH exposes through its configuration pages.
Core Features and WooCommerce Integration
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates provides a good foundation for running an affiliate program directly from your dashboard. While it lacks some of the more advanced features of its top competitors, it handles the essentials well.
Flexible Commission Structures
This is one of the plugin's strongest areas. You can start by setting a simple, global commission rate that applies to all of your affiliates.
The real deal is in the premium version, which allows you to create highly specific commission rules. You can override the default rate for individual users, specific user roles, certain products, or entire product categories.
However, this is also where you'll find some of the plugin's biggest limitations. There is no built-in support for Landing Pages commission, or Revenue Sharing, which are common in more sophisticated affiliate plugins like Solid Affiliate.
Coupon and Social Sharing Tools
It allows you to assign unique WooCommerce coupon codes directly to your affiliates. When a customer uses that code at checkout, the affiliate is credited with the sale, even if a referral link was never clicked.
The plugin also allows affiliates to share their referral links directly to social media platforms from their dashboard, which makes it easier for them to promote your products.
Automated Refund Handling
A key feature of the WooCommerce integration is its ability to handle refunds automatically. If a customer returns a product and you process a refund through WooCommerce, the plugin can automatically reverse the associated commission for the affiliate.
Managing your WooCommerce Affiliates with the YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Plugin
Once your program is configured, YITH provides various tools to manage every stage of your affiliates' journey, from their initial application to their ongoing performance and support.
Registering and Approving Affiliates
YITH offers a flexible approach to affiliate registration. It allows you to create a custom sign-up form where you can define the specific fields you want to collect from your applicants.
You have multiple ways to present this form to potential partners. You can add the fields directly to the default WooCommerce registration form, which is useful if you want all new users to become affiliates. Alternatively, you can create a dedicated registration page using either a custom Gutenberg block or a shortcode. You can also manually add new affiliates by selecting an existing WordPress user or by creating a new user account directly from the plugin's interface.
When a new affiliate applies, you can configure the plugin to approve them automatically, though this is generally not recommended due to fraud concerns. The safer approach is to set their status to "Pending" and approve each one manually from the Affiliates List.
This list provides all the basic information on your partners. Pending applications are clearly marked, and you can approve or reject them by simply hovering over the affiliate's row and selecting an option from the menu.
Supporting Affiliates
Once your partners are on board, your next goal is to give them the support they need to be successful. This is one area where YITH WooCommerce Affiliates lags by big margins.
Though it provides you with options to override the default commission rate, it does not support Recurring commissions without purchasing the separate YITH WooCommerce Subscription plugin.
YITH also doesn't provide a built-in section for creatives like banners or promotional text. While you can always create a custom page to share these assets, they aren't conveniently integrated into the affiliate portal itself.
Speaking of the affiliate portal, YITH does a nice job of providing partners with the data they need. Their dashboard shows them their clicks, commissions, and conversion rates.
This dashboard can be displayed as an endpoint in the user's "My Account" page or on any custom page you choose. Affiliates also have access to a link generator to create custom tracking URLs for specific products and can manage their own payment details, such as their PayPal email or bank information, directly from their profile.
Managing and Monitoring Affiliates
As a store owner, you need a clear view of your program's performance, and YITH meets this need at a basic but functional level.
The main admin dashboard gives you a high-level overview of your most important metrics, including total commissions, visits, and conversions. You can filter this data by date range or by a specific affiliate to get a clearer picture. For a more detailed look, the plugin also provides a visits log that records every click from a referral link, and a commissions table that lists every individual commission and its status.
This is all you really need to manage a small, straightforward affiliate program. However, when you compare this to the advanced reporting and data visualization in top-tier plugins like Solid Affiliate and AffiliateWP, you'll again notice the difference in sophistication. For a large store running complex campaigns, the ability to slice and dice data with more advanced filters is crucial for optimization. But for basic monitoring, YITH provides the necessary tools.
Payout Management
YITH offers a very flexible system for paying your affiliates, supporting both manual and automated methods.
For manual payments, you can pay your affiliates via a direct bank transfer and then simply mark the commissions as Paid within the plugin's interface.
You can set up triggers to pay your affiliates automatically when they reach a certain earnings threshold or on a specific day of the month. Your affiliates can also request a withdrawal directly from their dashboard once they meet the minimum payout amount. They can even upload their own invoice or have one automatically generated for them.
While payments via PayPal and Stripe are supported, achieving full automation for these methods requires purchasing and integrating separate YITH plugins like YITH PayPal Payouts or YITH Stripe Connect. You can also pay affiliates in store credit by integrating with YITH WooCommerce Account Funds. This ecosystem approach is powerful but adds to the overall cost of a fully automated system.
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates Pricing
YITH offers a very simple pricing structure for its WooCommerce Affiliates plugin. There is a free version with basic features, and a single premium plan that unlocks the full capabilities of the plugin.
Here is a breakdown of the premium plan:
| Plan Name | Annual Price | License | Support & Updates |
| YITH WooCommerce Affiliates | €179.99 (approx. 190− 200 USD) | 1 Site | 1 Year |
Customer Reviews and Feedback
When evaluating a plugin, a company's reputation is a major factor. YITH is a well-known and respected player in the WooCommerce space.
On Trustpilot, the YITH brand holds a 93% 5-star rating across more than 2,100 reviews. While most of these are not specific to the Affiliates plugin, they speak to the high quality of their products and their responsive customer support.
Looking specifically at the YITH WooCommerce Affiliates plugin on WordPress.org, the feedback is good. While its overall 5-star rating percentage isn't as high as some top-tier WooCommerce affiliate plugins, there haven’t been many negative reviews in nearly two years.
Final Thoughts on YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is a perfectly capable plugin, but it's not a market leader. On its own, the plugin is a solid mid-tier option with some clear limitations. But when you combine it with other YITH plugins for subscriptions or automated payouts, it becomes part of a deeply integrated, powerful system. The trade-off is that achieving this full functionality requires purchasing multiple plugins, which increases the total cost.
The decision to choose YITH often comes down to whether "good enough" is the right fit for your business. For more advanced needs, other plugins like Solid Affiliate are a stronger choice.
Frequently Asked Questions - YITH WooCommerce Affiliates
1. Does WooCommerce have an affiliate program?
WooCommerce does not come with a built-in affiliate program. To run one, you need to install a dedicated affiliate plugin. These plugins integrate with your store to track referrals from your partners, manage commissions, and handle payouts, giving you a complete system within your WordPress dashboard.
2. How to add affiliate products in WooCommerce?
To add an affiliate product, go to Products > Add New in your WordPress dashboard. In the Product data section, choose External/Affiliate product from the dropdown menu. This will allow you to enter the product's external URL (your affiliate link) and customize the button text.
3. What is the best affiliate plugin for WooCommerce?
Solid Affiliate is our top recommendation for WooCommerce stores. It is built exclusively for WooCommerce and offers deep integration, a modern user-friendly interface, and all the powerful features you need to run a successful program without any add-ons.
4. How to get affiliates for your product?
A great place to start is with your own happy customers; they often make the best advocates. You can also directly reach out to bloggers and influencers in your niche who align with your brand. Make it easy for them by having a clear affiliate sign-up page on your website.
5. Is WooCommerce better than Shopify?
While both are powerful platforms, WooCommerce's main advantage is its flexibility and ownership. Because it's an open-source platform on WordPress, you have complete control over your store's design, data, and functionality. Shopify offers simplicity, but this comes in exchange for less control and potential restrictions. You can read our in-depth comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce to learn more.
