Awin vs PromoteKit

Awin is one of the largest affiliate marketing networks in the world. It traces back to Affiliate Window, founded in the UK in 2000, which merged with Germany's zanox in 2017 to form Awin, headquartered in Berlin and part of the Axel Springer group. Awin also bought the US network ShareASale in 2017 and completed moving ShareASale advertisers onto the Awin platform in August 2025. Its core job is connecting brands with publishers, from cashback sites to creators, and tracking and paying their commissions.

Advertisers get a partner directory and marketplace, campaign and commission management, tracking, reporting and partner payments. Self-serve pricing comes in two tiers, Access for newcomers and Accelerate for growing programs, both with a monthly fee plus a percentage tracking fee on each sale, while Advanced is a custom package with managed services and full feature access. Publishers join for free.

Awin fits retailers and DTC brands that want reach: the company reports about 30,000 advertisers, a million publishers and 1,400 employees. If you want to run your own branded program with only your own partners, software such as Refersion or PartnerStack is simpler, and impact.com is the stronger choice for enterprise partnership automation beyond classic affiliates.

Before you sign, model the total cost: on a $100 sale with a 6 percent commission, the partner earns $6 and Awin takes $3.50 on Access or $2.50 on Accelerate, on top of the monthly fee. Former ShareASale accounts closed on October 6, 2025, so ShareASale-era guides are out of date.

PromoteKit is affiliate management software for SaaS companies that bill through Stripe. It is built for indie hackers and small teams: you add one script tag to your site, connect your Stripe account, and PromoteKit tracks referral clicks, attributes signups and calculates commissions automatically from real Stripe payments, including recurring subscription revenue.

Affiliates get a branded portal where they sign up, grab links and coupon codes, and see clicks, conversions and earnings. Founders can set commission rates and durations, approve affiliates, track coupon-based referrals, and manage payouts from one dashboard, with webhooks for connecting other tools. Pricing takes no percentage of affiliate revenue: a free plan covers the first three referrals, a flat-priced Pro plan is among the cheapest in the category, and Enterprise is for larger programs.

PromoteKit fits early-stage and micro-SaaS products that want to start an affiliate program in an afternoon without a large budget. Because it is Stripe-focused and relatively new, teams on Paddle or other billing systems, or those running large programs with complex rules, will find it limited, and reporting is basic. Rewardful is the more established Stripe affiliate tool with deeper features, Tolt is a similar budget alternative, FirstPromoter suits growing SaaS programs, and PartnerStack or Impact serve larger partner ecosystems.