Affonso vs FirstPromoter: Finding Partners or Billing Reach

The short answer: consider Affonso if you sell software through Stripe, Paddle, Polar, Creem or Dodo Payments and have nobody yet to invite: it is the one of the two that searches for partners, from $15 a month on Launch, billed yearly as $180, for up to $1,000 a month of partner revenue, or $39 a month billed monthly on Growth up to $10,000 (Affonso pricing). Consider FirstPromoter if billing runs on Chargebee, Recurly or Braintree, or if several colleagues and partner types share the program: Starter costs $49 a month or $490 a year for up to $5,000 of affiliate revenue, with unlimited team members, three commission levels and W-9 and W-8BEN collection on every plan (FirstPromoter pricing). Both checked on 26 October 2026. Affonso helps you find partners. FirstPromoter helps you run the partners you have, on more billing systems.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

Who should look at which:

1. Price it at your partner revenue. For example, at $4,000 a month of affiliate revenue, Affonso Growth costs $39 billed monthly and FirstPromoter Starter $49. At $8,000, Affonso Growth still costs $39 while FirstPromoter bills Business at $99: $60 a month apart, $720 a year (Affonso, FirstPromoter).
2. Start from the billing system you have. The two share Stripe and Paddle and nothing else: Affonso adds Polar, Creem and Dodo Payments, FirstPromoter adds Chargebee, Recurly and Braintree plus a historical Stripe import (Affonso, FirstPromoter). Never move billing to suit an affiliate tool.
3. Count the partners you already have. Under 20 known names and no list to grow it from, the Affiliate Finder is the reason to look at Affonso. A list of hundreds, plus influencers and customer referrers, points to FirstPromoter's campaigns.
4. Pick the figure for day 60. The share of newly approved partners who have sent a first referral. Write it down before the trial starts, so neither dashboard chooses it for you.

The two, row by row

Rows without their own link come from the two pricing pages, Affonso's and FirstPromoter's.

What decides it

Whether you need help finding anyone

Affonso works on the step before a partner signs up. Its Affiliate Finder searches by keyword or competitor, a Discovery Agent keeps searching from a brief, and a marketplace lets partners find your program; the pricing table lists competitor-affiliate identification on every plan (pricing). FirstPromoter starts once partners arrive: separate campaigns for affiliates, influencers and customer referrals, each with its own rewards, signup page, dashboard and emails (campaign guide). One fills an empty room. The other seats a full one.

What a big month costs

Affonso treats its cap as a tracking limit: past it, checkout keeps working, and you either upgrade or pay $19 for each extra $1,000 of affiliate revenue at the end of the cycle; leave it unpaid and new signups, commissions and tracking can pause (cap article). FirstPromoter moves the account to the next tier so tracking carries on (pricing FAQ). For example, a $7,000 month on Affonso Launch is $6,000 over the cap, so 6 x $19 = $114 of overage, when Growth at $39 a month would have covered it; on FirstPromoter Starter the same month means Business at $99.

Prices, checked on 26 October 2026

Affonso, per month in USD: Launch $15, yearly only, to $1,000 of partner revenue; Growth $39 monthly or $29 billed yearly, to $10,000; Elite $99 or $79, to $30,000; Enterprise from $149 (Affonso pricing). FirstPromoter: Starter $49 a month or $490 a year, to $5,000 of affiliate revenue; Business $99 or $990, to $15,000; Enterprise $149 or $1,490, above that (FirstPromoter pricing). Affonso's FAQ adds that it takes no cut of partner revenue: the subscription is all you pay.

One agent step: a tier for your top promoters

FirstPromoter's experimental MCP server takes plain requests from Claude or ChatGPT; two of its documented examples are "Who are my top promoters by revenue?" and "Help me create a new campaign with a 20% sale reward" (MCP docs). Chain them: ask for the ten promoters with the most revenue this quarter, then for a private campaign with a higher rate to move them into; on Starter, that is one of three campaigns (campaign guide). Every change the agent prepares arrives as a confirmation card with a field-level diff, and payouts, invoices and commission creation stay out of its reach. The human check: the program owner compares the card's rate and duration with the terms finance approved, and approves nothing that differs. On Affonso Growth, the same conversation runs through its MCP server, whose tools include affiliates, commissions and payouts (MCP docs). A team role's permissions also govern what the API allows, so sign the agent in on the Affiliate Manager role, which manages campaigns and cannot approve payouts (roles).

Affonso's trial is generous with tracking and sparing with search: a trial account gets 5 discovery credits in total, which its help article calls intentional, against 15 a month on paid Launch (trial credits). The feature that separates Affonso from FirstPromoter is the one you mostly judge after paying. Spend the five on your two closest competitors, and treat the results as a sample, not a verdict.

Before either trial

Write your own first shortlist for free: search for "[competitor] review" and "[competitor] alternatives", and note who writes the pages that rank. If twenty names come easily, partner search is not your bottleneck, and FirstPromoter's 14 days, with no card, are the cheaper place to test tracking against your billing (pricing). If the list stalls at five, Affonso's Finder is doing work you could not.

Choose Affonso if your job is

• Finding your first partners, by competitor or keyword, before anyone has applied.
• Running a program for a product billed through Polar, Creem or Dodo Payments.
• Starting small: Launch costs $180 for a year and covers $1,000 a month of partner revenue (pricing).

Choose FirstPromoter if your job is

• Running affiliates, influencers and customer referrals on Chargebee, Recurly or Braintree.
• Sharing the program with marketing, finance and support, every one of them a free seat.
• Paying three commission levels and collecting tax forms on the $49 plan (pricing).

Entries: Affonso and FirstPromoter. The search side is walked through in how to use Affonso, activation in how to use FirstPromoter, FirstPromoter against a Stripe-first rival in FirstPromoter vs Rewardful, and a first launch, consent decision included, in launching a SaaS affiliate program.

FAQ

Can I bring a FirstPromoter program over to Affonso?

Yes. Affonso's homepage lists a built-in migration from Rewardful, Tolt and FirstPromoter that imports partners, referrals and commission history, and suggests testing the new setup before switching tracking (homepage).

Does either have a test mode?

No. Affonso suggests a second program, whose test revenue counts toward the plan cap (sandbox guide). FirstPromoter suggests resetting a campaign, which deletes its leads, customers, rewards and payouts but keeps promoters and emails (sandbox answer).

Which one pays my affiliates for me?

Affonso, from Growth, through Managed Payouts, with fees that apply. FirstPromoter keeps Managed Auto Payouts for Enterprise and SaaS companies it approves, while every plan includes mass payouts by PayPal, Wise, Stripe, crypto or bank transfer (Affonso, FirstPromoter).