FirstPromoter

What it does

FirstPromoter is affiliate, referral and influencer software for subscription businesses. You connect your billing provider, set commission rules, and it tracks every partner's referrals and works out commissions as customers pay, upgrade, downgrade or cancel. Partners get a branded portal to see their links, stats and earnings, and you pay them out from the same place.

Why you would need it

A partner programme sounds simple until you try to run it on a spreadsheet. A customer renews, another cancels early, someone used a coupon code instead of a link, and now you have to work out who is owed what. Get it wrong and your best partners stop trusting you.

FirstPromoter ties commissions to billing events, so a refund or a cancellation changes the commission without you doing anything. You get a clean record of what each partner brought in.

Where it fits

It sits next to your billing system, which feeds it payments. It also sits next to your website, where a tracking script records referral visits, and your CRM and email tools, which it does not replace. It feeds payouts and reporting. It replaces homemade tracking links, coupon spreadsheets and manual commission sums.

Native billing connections cover Stripe, Paddle, Recurly, Chargebee and Braintree.

What stands out

• Commission models that fit subscriptions. Percentage, flat, one-time, lifetime recurring and tiered rates, with clawback rules on cancellation.
• Coupon code tracking. Partners get unique codes that are synced into Stripe, which covers podcasts, social posts and offline mentions.
• Payout and tax handling. Pay all partners in one action through PayPal, Wise or bank transfer, with W-9, W-8BEN and EU-compliant invoices built in.
• Control over the portal. Use your own domain, custom CSS and JavaScript, or embed the dashboard in your app with automatic login.

My take

I'd pick FirstPromoter when your revenue is recurring and you have decided that partners are a channel worth building. The billing-based tracking is the right way to do this, because commissions follow real payments.

What I'd watch is the plan structure. Plans are set by how much revenue your affiliates generate, not by seats, so a successful programme moves you up a tier. That is fair, but plan for it. Also decide on your commission and clawback rules before you invite anyone, because changing them later upsets partners.

If you want to compare, look at Rewardful, Tolt, PartnerStack and Tapfiliate.

Verdict

Pick FirstPromoter when you sell subscriptions through a supported billing provider and want partners tracked and paid without manual work. Skip it when you sell one-off products, when you are still unsure that a programme is right for you, or when you need a large partner marketplace rather than your own programme.