Awin vs Tolt

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 Former ShareASale accounts closed on October 6, 2025, so ShareASale-era guides are out of date.

Tolt is affiliate management software built specifically for SaaS companies. It tracks referrals from partners and pays recurring commissions on subscription revenue, which general e-commerce affiliate tools often handle poorly, and it connects directly to the billing system so commissions follow real payments, refunds and cancellations.

Native integrations cover Stripe, Paddle and Chargebee, so trials, upgrades and churn are reflected automatically. Affiliates get a branded portal with their links, coupons, statistics and payouts, while the company can run multiple programs with different commission rules and cookie windows, track sales through links or coupon codes, and pay partners in bulk through PayPal or Wise. Pricing is a monthly subscription tiered by the affiliate revenue you track: Basic, Growth and Pro have revenue caps, and Enterprise covers higher volumes.

Tolt fits early and growth-stage SaaS companies launching affiliate, influencer or customer referral programs, especially those billing through Paddle, which some competitors support less well. It is a younger product, marketing features such as a partner marketplace or recruitment network are missing, and revenue-based tiers push costs up as a program succeeds. Rewardful is the established Stripe-focused alternative, FirstPromoter offers deeper configuration, PartnerStack serves larger B2B partner ecosystems with its own marketplace, and Lemon Squeezy includes basic affiliate tools for its own merchants.