Most affiliate plugins follow a similar formula: they track sales using referral links. Coupon Affiliates takes a completely different path.
It lets you track every single referral through a standard WooCommerce coupon code. This unique approach has some major advantages, but it also comes with significant trade-offs.
In this detailed review, we'll explore whether this coupon-centric model is a powerful innovation or an unnecessary restriction for your WooCommerce store.
Table of Contents
- Setting Up Coupon Affiliates
- Core Features and WooCommerce Integration
- Managing Your WooCommerce Affiliates with Coupon Affiliates
- Coupon Affiliates Pricing
- Customer Reviews and Feedback
- Final Thoughts on Coupon Affiliates
Setting Up Coupon Affiliates
Like many of the top affiliate plugins, Coupon Affiliates gets you started with a helpful setup wizard. The process is quick and easy to follow from start to finish.
One of the first steps is to create the main hub for your partners. Here, the wizard presents you with two options: the traditional "Affiliate Dashboard" or the new "Affiliate Portal."
The Affiliate Dashboard is a standard shortcode-based page that integrates directly into your existing WordPress theme. The Affiliate Portal, on the other hand, is a new, full-screen interface with its own modern design.
You go through a similar process to set up an affiliate registration page and a coupon template, which requires you to specify the discount type (percentage, fixed cart, or fixed product) and the percentage or amount for the coupon template. This template is used to auto-generate a coupon for each affiliate upon registration (or, actually, upon approval of the registration).
In the next screen, you'll be asked to set up commission rates with settings similar to the coupon template that you just defined, which might be a bit confusing if you're new to affiliate marketing. But the difference is simple: coupons generally define the discounts offered to customers, whereas commissions define what must be paid to the affiliate for each referral that results in a sale.
The catch with Coupon Affiliates is that you can also modify the commission rates for each coupon.
The wizard also gives you control over key settings right away, such as which order statuses are visible to your affiliates.
After that, the wizard takes you through a few more screens that let you change email and style settings.
While the wizard is excellent, our only complaint with any of this is that it fails to clarify the exact role that coupons play in this plugin.
Core Features and WooCommerce Integration
Coupon Affiliates is a purpose-built plugin that extends WooCommerce's native coupon system to create a unique affiliate program. Rather than treating coupons as an add-on, it places them at the very center of its design.
Coupon-Based Tracking Model
The core of this plugin is its unique approach to tracking. Instead of relying solely on referral links, it uses standard WooCommerce coupons as the primary way of attributing sales. Each affiliate is assigned a unique coupon code, and when a customer uses that code, the affiliate is automatically credited with the commission.
This model is particularly effective for social media marketing, where referral links can be difficult to use. It also provides a more reliable tracking method that works even if a customer has cookies disabled.
Flexible Commission Structures
While the tracking is coupon-based, the commission system is very flexible. You can set a global commission rate or create custom rules for specific affiliate coupons, per product, per category, or per group basis. Commissions can be set as a percentage, a fixed amount per order, or a fixed amount per product.
For subscription businesses, the plugin offers a free integration with WooCommerce Subscriptions to allow for recurring commissions. It also supports lifetime commissions and multi-level marketing (MLM), where affiliates can recruit others and earn a commission from their sales.
Performance Bonuses
To keep your top partners motivated, it includes a Performance Bonuses feature. This allows you to create and award bonuses such as extra commission or store credit to high-performing affiliates when they reach specific goals.
Managing Your WooCommerce Affiliates with Coupon Affiliates
Once your program is configured, Coupon Affiliates provides a clean system for managing your partners' journey. This includes their registration on the website to support them in excelling in the program.
Registering and Approving Affiliates
The plugin offers a straightforward and customizable registration process. You can place an affiliate sign-up form on any page of your site using a simple shortcode. The Pro version gives you the ability to add custom fields to this form to collect any extra information you need.
When a new affiliate applies, you'll be notified and can review their application from the "Registrations" page. You have the option to approve new affiliates automatically, but the recommended approach is to review each one manually.
Upon approval, the plugin automatically generates a unique coupon code for the new affiliate based on the template you created during setup. It also sends them a welcome email with their login details and a link to their new dashboard.
There is nothing particularly unique about this registration or review process. Pretty much every affiliate plugin offers similar registration/review processes.
Supporting Affiliates
A key part of a successful program is providing your partners with the tools they need to succeed, and Coupon Affiliates does an excellent job in this area.
The affiliate dashboard (or the modern Affiliate Portal) is their central hub. From here, they can view detailed statistics on their performance, including a monthly summary and a log of recent orders.
It also provides a full range of Creatives, including images, dynamic images that can display the affiliate's name or coupon code, banners, and videos.
The plugin also offers great support for referral URLs. Affiliates can generate links that automatically apply their coupon at checkout, and the Pro version includes tools for social sharing, a short URL generator, and even a QR code generator, which gives them a variety of modern tools to promote their store.
Managing and Monitoring Affiliates
For store owners, Coupon Affiliates provides various features for monitoring your program's health.
The main admin dashboard offers a quick summary of your latest analytics, recent referrals, and new registrations. However, for a deeper analysis, you'll use the dedicated reporting system.
This allows you to generate detailed reports on usage and performance, which can be filtered by date range and other criteria.
The Pro version unlocks unlimited date range reporting, CSV export, and date comparison tools.
Payout Management
The plugin offers a flexible system for managing payouts. It allows your affiliates to submit and track their payout requests directly from their dashboard. As an admin, you can manage all of these requests from a central screen. It offers one-click payouts through integrations with Stripe Payouts and PayPal Payouts. IT also supports paying affiliates in store credit, which is a great way to reward partners while encouraging them to make purchases from your shop.
You can also set up scheduled and automatic payouts, which can be triggered on a specific schedule or when an affiliate reaches a certain earnings threshold. The plugin also automatically handles commission deductions if an order is refunded, protecting your revenue.
Fraud Detection
Coupon Affiliates has a number of excellent fraud protection features, including:
- Stopping affiliates from using their own coupons;
- Controlling whether multiple coupons can be used for the same order;
- Controlling whether only new customers can apply affiliate coupons to their cart;
- Blocking visitors based on visitor IDs or IP addresses;
- Blocking visitors from specific domains;
- Direct link tracking, where you can prevent coupons and referral links from working unless they are coming from the domain assigned to the coupons/inks;
Coupon Affiliates Pricing
Coupon Affiliates offers a straightforward pricing model with a free version for basic needs and a single premium plan for a full suite of features.
Here is a breakdown of the premium plan for a single-site license:
| Plan Name | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Lifetime Price | License |
| Coupon Affiliates Pro | $19.99 per month | $155.88 per year | $599.99 one-time | 1 Site |
Click here for current pricing.
Customer Reviews and Feedback
A plugin's reputation is everything.
On the official WordPress.org plugin repository, the free version of the plugin holds a nearly perfect 5-star rating, with over 70 five-star reviews and thousands of active installations.
If you dig a bit deeper, you will find that there is genuine enthusiasm for this plugin with no real complaints. Superb customer service is often cited as one of the plugin's greatest strengths.
Unfortunately, the audience for the Pro version of this plugin is still too small to generate reviews on the main review sites like Trustpilot, Capterra, or G2.
Final Thoughts on Coupon Affiliates
The decision to use Coupon Affiliates has almost nothing to do with its features, price, or quality—all of which are excellent. The choice comes down to a single, fundamental question: Do you want to build your affiliate program around coupons?
This plugin is not a traditional link-based system with coupons as an optional extra; it is a coupon-based system from the ground up.
This makes it the perfect choice for the store owner whose marketing strategy is already driven by discounts and coupon codes, particularly on social media. For others, a transitional WooCommerce affiliate plugin like Solid Affiliates, with its more flexible, link-based approach, will provide a more familiar and feature-rich foundation for their program.
Frequently Asked Questions - Coupon Affiliates
1. What is a coupon affiliate program in WooCommerce?
A coupon affiliate program is where a partner promotes your products using a unique discount code instead of a traditional referral link. When a customer uses this specific coupon at checkout, the affiliate is automatically credited with the sale and earns a commission.
2. How do I add affiliates to my website?
The easiest way to add affiliates is with a plugin, which creates a registration page on your site. Once you approve an applicant, they get an affiliate account and access to their dashboard. For WooCommerce stores, Solid Affiliate is the best choice, while AffiliateWP is a great all-around option.
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.
