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Our methodology
Rankings here are built to be read closely, because the differences between pages matter when you weigh a program against the alternatives behind it. Each entry comes in more than one form, and the form matters. Full reviews and profiles both appear in a directory, and they score on different scales. A full review weighs cost, offer and trust in full. A profile page applies those same measures more lightly. Every score shows the weights behind it, printed as 40%, 40% and 20%.
Cost and offer carry the most ground, which suits publishers chasing a workable payout and something worth sending traffic to. Trust sits at the lower end, yet it still counts toward the total rather than being held outside it. That balance is deliberate. One program can pay well and offer little; a rival can pay badly and offer plenty. Because both halves of that trade-off feed the number, a high placement has to be earned on figures and on deal, not on a claim.
Ordering holds across each ranking we publish. Partners are listed first, then the remaining entries follow by score. Nothing climbs because of who wrote the copy, and where programs sit close together the ranking leaves them close.
Figures behind each page come from cited sources: official brand pages, regulator registers and other cited sources. Commission rates, cookie windows and terms are taken from what the provider publishes, and those details change, so read the brand's own page before you commit a campaign to it. Rankings describe published terms at the time of the review rather than a guess at what comes next.
This page explains how AffCue scores and ranks affiliate programs.
What we cover
This site compares affiliate networks, affiliate programs.
What we score
Every affiliate program is scored on a scale of 1 to 10 on the criteria below. The overall score is the weighted average of these criteria.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Cost | 40% |
| Offer | 40% |
| Trust | 20% |
How rankings are ordered
Rankings apply the following priorities in order; a later priority only breaks a tie in the earlier ones:
- Affiliate programs with a paid offer serving the current view come before those without one.
- Within each of those groups, affiliate programs available in your country come first, followed by those marked unavailable.
- Within each availability group, affiliate programs marked as lacking a required licence come after the others.
- Where these priorities tie, affiliate network links come before our own referral or direct partner links.
- Among network offers, an offer explicitly listing your country comes before a broad default offer. Within each of those groups, known expected commission per click comes before unknown values, and higher expected commission comes first. Ties are broken by commission terms (lifetime, revenue share, then per sale or lead) and then higher payout. For referral or direct partner offers, only explicitly listing your country breaks the commercial tie; their payout is not used as expected commission per click.
- Only after all the earlier priorities tie do rated affiliate programs come before those marked "not rated yet", followed by higher overall score.
When no country is selected, eligible active offers serving at least one country qualify for the paid group, including offers limited to particular countries. We use the highest recorded expected commission per click across an offer's base value and country values. When a country is selected, its value is used where recorded, otherwise the offer's base value applies.
A affiliate program with a lower score can therefore appear above one with a higher score because of the earlier priorities. Featured cards and sponsor strips sit outside the ranking. A booked placement is labelled "Sponsored"; when none is booked, the featured card shows a partner picked by the commission it pays us, labelled "Featured".
Countries
Global rankings list every relevant affiliate program. When a affiliate program does not accept customers from your country, we mark it and point you to an alternative. Country pages list only affiliate programs available in that country.
Sources
Facts come from each affiliate program's own website and documents, public registers, affiliate network listings and other published sources, including independent reviews. Each fact on a page shows its source link and the date we checked it. When a affiliate program publishes no country list, its countries come from its affiliate programme listings, and the page says so. The editorial policy explains how facts are checked.
Keeping it current
Scores change when the facts behind them change. A ranking is published once at least five affiliate programs in it are scored, and a affiliate program gets a review page once enough of its key facts are confirmed. Spot a mistake? Write to [email protected].
This page is written by the AffCue Editorial Team.