FirstPromoter vs Rewardful: Billing Stack and Revenue Cap

The short answer: if your subscriptions bill through Stripe and affiliates bring in between $5,000 and $7,500 a month, Rewardful's Starter plan covers that band at $49 a month, while FirstPromoter's Starter stops at $5,000 and its next tier costs $99 (monthly billing, checked on 26 October 2026 on the Rewardful and FirstPromoter pricing pages). If billing runs on Chargebee, Recurly or Braintree, the choice is made before price comes into it: FirstPromoter reads those natively, and Rewardful works with Stripe and Paddle. Pick Rewardful for a lean Stripe programme with one owner. Pick FirstPromoter when several colleagues run partners, or finance wants tax forms and EU invoices inside the tool.

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

Three numbers to pull before either trial:

1. Last month's affiliate revenue, set against two ceilings. For example, a programme that brought in $6,000 sits inside Rewardful Starter (up to $7,500) but past FirstPromoter Starter (up to $5,000), so FirstPromoter bills Business: $99 - $49 = $50 more a month, $600 a year, for the same sales (Rewardful pricing, FirstPromoter pricing). Under $5,000 both charge $49; from $7,500 to $15,000 both charge $99.
2. The billing system and the people you already have. FirstPromoter lists Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Braintree, plus a historical Stripe import for migrations, and unlimited team members on every plan (pricing). Rewardful's features page sets programmes up on Stripe and Paddle, and Starter allows two team members. Moving billing to suit an affiliate tool is the wrong way round.
3. The one figure you will judge it by. Choose now between paying customers referred per month and revenue from affiliates, and read it on day 30 in whichever tool you pick.

The two on one sheet

Where they part

Billing decides before price does

FirstPromoter tracks the subscription lifecycle across five billing providers, updating commissions on renewals, upgrades, downgrades, cancellations and reactivations, per its homepage. Rewardful reads payments from Stripe or Paddle and turns each paid invoice from a referred customer into a commission. A SaaS on Chargebee has one candidate here; a SaaS on Stripe has two.

The band between $5,000 and $7,500

Both price by revenue that affiliates bring, not company revenue, and both move an account up a tier when it passes the line; Rewardful's pricing schedule does it in the next billing cycle. In that band Rewardful stays at $49 and FirstPromoter moves to $99. Above $15,000 both reach enterprise pricing, from $149.

Seats and structure as the programme grows

Rewardful's Starter is shaped for one person and one offer: one campaign, two seats, per its plan table, so a separate rate for agencies means Growth at $99. FirstPromoter's Starter already carries three campaigns, unlimited seats, three commission levels and tax forms, which fits an affiliate manager, a finance reviewer and two partner types on $49 while revenue stays under $5,000 (pricing).

Prices, checked on 26 October 2026

FirstPromoter, on its pricing page: Starter $49 a month or $490 a year up to $5,000 of monthly affiliate revenue; Business $99 or $990 up to $15,000; Enterprise $149 or $1,490 above that.

Rewardful, on its pricing page and pricing schedule: Starter $49 or $490 up to $7,500; Growth $99 or $990 up to $15,000; Enterprise from $149 or $1,490 for $30,000, in tiers that reach $5,000 a month for $2,500,000. Yearly billing on both is twelve months for the price of ten.

FirstPromoter's pricing page opens with its yearly plans selected, so the first Starter figure a visitor reads is $490 for twelve months paid at once, while Rewardful's opens on the monthly $49 (FirstPromoter pricing). That opening view books a year of revenue for FirstPromoter on the day of sign-up, before a single month has shown whether your affiliates send anyone. Pay monthly until two months of the revenue column exist; the two free months on yearly billing will still be on offer in month three.

One agent step, with a person on the button

FirstPromoter documents an experimental MCP server: add https://mcp.firstpromoter.com as a custom connector in Claude (its docs say this needs a paid Claude plan), sign in, and ask in plain language (MCP overview). One of its example prompts is a real job: draft a three-email onboarding sequence for newly accepted promoters. Any change the agent proposes appears as a confirmation card with a field-level diff that a person accepts or refuses, and payouts, invoices and commission creation are out of its reach. The human check is reading the three emails against the live campaign terms, rate, duration and cookie window, before approving the card.

Rewardful's AI offer is a free Claude skill that drafts recruitment emails but cannot see your account (skill page), so every figure in its drafts is checked by hand.

A row worth checking twice

FirstPromoter publishes a FirstPromoter vs Rewardful page whose table marks Rewardful's team members and roles as not supported, while the FAQ further down the same page says Rewardful's Starter allows two team members (comparison page). Rewardful's plan table sides with the FAQ: two on Starter, unlimited on Growth. Take every row that matters to you back to the page of the vendor it describes.

Choose FirstPromoter if your job is

• Running affiliates, influencers and customer referrals from one account on Chargebee, Recurly, Braintree, Paddle or Stripe.
• Managing a programme with several colleagues, separate partner campaigns and tax paperwork, while affiliate revenue stays under $5,000 a month (pricing).
• Paying EU affiliates with VAT-compliant self-billed invoices, on Business.

Choose Rewardful if your job is

• Launching a first affiliate programme on Stripe or Paddle with one owner and one offer.
• Keeping the subscription at $49 while affiliate sales grow past $5,000 towards $7,500 a month (pricing).
• Crediting creators through coupon codes as well as links, with double-sided discounts on every plan.

Background on each: the FirstPromoter entry and the Rewardful entry. For the full launch sequence, consent decision included, see launching a SaaS affiliate programme.

The free check, then the trial

Before either trial, export three months of paid invoices and tag each one a partner touched. Summed per month, that column picks the plan on both price lists, at no cost. Then start the trial it points to; FirstPromoter's 14 days need no card.

The same column has a blind spot. Both tools report revenue credited to affiliates; neither reports how much of it would have arrived without them. A plain test is to compare total new paying customers in the three months before launch with the three after: if credited revenue climbs while the total stays flat, the programme is moving credit rather than adding customers. Later, if you want that check run continuously, a causal attribution tool like Causality Engine does it (disclosure: I founded it).

FAQ

Can I move from Rewardful to FirstPromoter without new affiliate links?

FirstPromoter says yes: share a CSV of affiliates and referrals and its team migrates them, usually within 24 to 48 hours, with links unchanged and Stripe billing history importable (comparison page).

Which one pays the affiliates for me?

Rewardful offers Managed Payouts on every plan for a 3% processing fee, funded from an ACH-capable bank account (what is Managed Payouts). FirstPromoter keeps its managed Auto Payouts for Enterprise, and every plan includes mass payouts by PayPal, Wise, Stripe, crypto or bank transfer (pricing).

Does either take a cut of affiliate revenue?

No. Rewardful states a 0% transaction fee on every plan (pricing), and FirstPromoter's comparison FAQ says neither takes a cut (comparison page).