Model what an affiliate program pays out and earns. Set your price, commission rate, and volume to see the numbers, recurring or one-time.
What each referred customer pays you per month.
A common SaaS starting point is 20 to 30 percent.
How long each referral keeps earning the affiliate a commission.
Estimates only, before Stripe fees, taxes, and refunds. Recurring figures assume the referred customers stay active.
Referralful tracks these commissions for you and pays affiliates through Stripe. Free until your first affiliate joins.
Start freeThe base formula is simple: commission = sale price times commission rate. A $49/month plan at a 25% rate pays the affiliate $12.25 for that customer. What changes the total is whether you pay that once or every month the customer stays.
For a recurring commission, the affiliate keeps earning that $12.25 each month, up to your commission window (say 12 months). So one referred customer is worth $147 to the affiliate over a year, not $12.25. Multiply by the number of active referred customers to get your monthly payout. That is the model most SaaS programs use, and it is what this calculator defaults to.
For a one-time commission, the affiliate is paid once, usually a percentage of the first payment. It is easier to forecast and caps your cost per customer, but it is a weaker pitch to affiliates who want long-term income.
Most SaaS programs land between 20 and 30 percent recurring. Set yours against your own gross margin and payback period rather than copying the most aggressive competitor, and start on the conservative side because lowering a published rate later is hard. There is more on this in our guide to setting up a SaaS affiliate program, and if you are comparing tools, our breakdown of Rewardful pricing walks through the software side of the cost.
Commission equals the sale price times the commission rate. For a recurring SaaS commission, that amount repeats every month the referred customer keeps paying, up to your commission window. Multiply by the number of active referred customers to get your monthly payout.
Most SaaS programs pay 20 to 30 percent. Recurring commissions usually sit at 20 to 30 percent, while one-time commissions run higher, often 30 to 50 percent of the first payment. Set your rate against your gross margin, not a competitor's number.
Recurring commissions attract affiliates who send customers that stick, but they cost more over a customer's lifetime. One-time commissions are simpler to forecast and cap your cost per acquisition. If your retention is strong, recurring is usually the better recruiting tool.
Two things: the commissions you pay affiliates (what this calculator estimates) plus the software to track them. Referralful is free until your first affiliate joins, then starts at $19.99 per month with 0% payout fees.
Referralful tracks every referral, calculates these commissions from real Stripe payments, and pays affiliates through Stripe. Free until your first affiliate joins.