FluentAffiliate Review: Affiliate Program Plugin Without The Messy Bloat

As of this writing, it is now time for FluentAffiliate to be officially launched to the world. It is the latest in the lineup of “Fluent” programs from the WPManageNinja team and I’m very happy to see it.

For me to explain WHY I am happy to see it, I have to first discuss one of it’s competitors. In fact, this competitor seems to be the “go to” option for affiliate management in WordPress. That competitor is AffiliateWP.

FluentAffiliate Versus AffiliateWP

Yep, we’re going there right out of the gate. 😎

Now, to be clear, if this was just a pure point-for-point comparison of which plugin can do the most, AffiliateWP wins. As it should considering how long the plugin has existed. FluentAffiliate is brand new and we’re talking about version 1.0 here, so there’s going to be differences.

But, I have two big beefs with AffiliateWP. And they are:

• AffiliateWP is now operated by Awesome Motive. For reasons I’ve discussed many times, I tend to want to avoid plugins by these guys. Between the plugin auto-installs, the content lockout, and embedded upsells and other things, I’d just rather not.
• AffiliateWP is bloated and you end up running multiple plugins.

AffliateWP is a product of Sandhills Development, but Sandhills is part of the “Awesome Motive family”. That comes with a lot of baggage that I as well as many others have discussed many times.

One aspect of that “baggage” is that their software, in many cases, is designed to lock you out if you don’t renew your license. AffiliateWP will renew at $374/year for a single site and you don’t even get all of the “growth tools” for that. But, if you don’t renew your license, AffiliateWP will lock itself up and you will be unable to manage your own affiliate program any longer. At least they’re nice enough to give you a “grace period”. 😜

This means that AffiliateWP is a one-way street. If you build your affiliate program on this software, you’re forever tied to that subscription fee unless you take extra measures to get yourself out of it.

NOTE: FluentAffiliate has a migration system built-in to migrate out of AffiliateWP. 😎

On top of that, AffiliateWP is a BEAST of a plugin. The core ZIP file clocks in at 8.3MB and installed 29MB. Then, you’ve got the small army of add-on plugins to make it do things which the core plugin doesn’t already do. This approach does provide flexibility so people don’t have to run the entire code base for stuff they might not even need, however most sites I’ve managed that run AffiliateWP end up running multiple plugins just for their affiliate program.

Now, let’s compare this to FluentAffiliate…

They are releasing this in the model they usually do: the free core plugin and the paid PRO addon. This means… two plugins MAX. The ZIP file for the PRO add-on for version 1 is only 269KB and installed 1.1MB. The core plugin installed is 9.6MB.

So, FluentAffiliate is a much more streamlined plugin. It offers a FREE core plugin, something AffiliateWP doesn’t offer. At most, you will run two plugins whereas, with AffiliateWP, you could end up running 5-10 plugins just for your affiliate program.

I should also add that I’ve never seen the “Fluent” guys lock anything in their software. When you pay for licenses, you’re paying for updates and support. If a license code is no longer valid, the software continues to work but you won’t get updates anymore. That’s how it should be.

What Can FluentAffiliate Do?

As of this writing, FluentAffiliate is just launching with their version 1.0 release. But, that doesn’t mean it is a slouch when it comes to features.

At the core, FluentAffiliate does most of what you would expect of a plugin like this. It will track referral commissions for your affiliates, allow them to log in and see their stats, and allow easy management of your affiliates. Let’s look at what you can do:

• Easy, intuitive dashboard so you can easily view activity across your affiliate program.
• Multi-domain support (run affiliate programs for multiple sites in one, centralized platform)
• Beautiful affiliate dashboard (no add-on plugin required)
• Organize affiliates into groups for easier tracking and custom commission rates
• Personalized affiliate landing pages for your affiliates
• Branded coupon codes, automatically attaching certain coupon codes to certain affiliates
• Built-in integrations with WooCommerce and other Fluent tools (like Fluent Forms, FluentBooking, FluentCart, Paymattic). Also supports SureCart and Easy Digital Downloads. Other integrations forthcoming (like Learndash, TutorLMS, MemberPress, GiveWP, etc).
• Easily manage payouts for affiliates

Being that this is a “Fluent” program, it also integrates with other “Fluent” tools. This is one of the core benefits of this ecosystem. They don’t lock you into anything, but their stuff works together well.

• Easy, natural integration with FluentCRM so you can email your affiliates.
• Easily trigger automations based on affiliate activity and/or build affiliate operations into automations.
• Track referrals through Fluent Forms
• When FluentCart is released (soon!), integration will be seamless.
• Can even track referrals through booking forms with FluentBooking

I did a full pre-release walkthrough video of FluentAffiliate before the official launch. Not a lot has changed since then, so this video will show you the insides of the plugin:

What Can FluentAffiliate Not Do (Yet)?

FluentAffiliate is pretty great for being version 1.0, but like any early stage product it won’t be too difficult to find features that it doesn’t have yet. A few of them would be:

• Ability to do non-monetary referral tracking and “pay” affiliates using unlocked features, store credits, etc.
• Support for recurring subscription commissions (this one will be coming really soon, from what I hear)
• Not much built-in support for instantly paying affiliates. Right now, Paypal is the only option.
• Only commission types right now are percentage and fixed. No current support for things like signup bonuses, lifetime commissions, multi-tier, etc.
• No support for affiliate leaderboards
• No support for affiliate creatives (although I find these just get in the way as most affiliates are just fine with links only)

The interesting thing is that many of the features that AffiliateWP requires an add-on plugin to do, FluentAffiliate already does. But, it is also clear that AffiliateWP does support more features as would be expected at this point.

Why I Strongly Recommend FluentAffiliate

I have been a fan of the WPManageNinja team for quite some time now. I love how accessible they are, both on Facebook, via support, and their own community (powered by FluentCommunity, of course). I love how quick they are with updates. This is a team which does things right.

The Fluent ecosystem is a joy to use. The combination of tools easily rivals the kinds of things that used to require third-party SaaS applications (with expensive recurring bills). Being able to do it all “in house” on a platform I own and control and never have to think about the geekery of integrations is awesome.

FluentAffiliate joins the “Fluent” ecosystem…. finally giving the market a streamlined affiliate management tool that won’t blow up your active plugin list with a bunch of add-ons.

I should add, too, that FluentAffiliate joins this ecosystem without getting up in your face about it. You won’t find these guys auto-installing their other plugins. You won’t find them cluttering up their admin menus with links to their other plugins. This team respects your website and the screen real estate within your admin panel.

AffiliateWP and EasyAffiliate are both now part of the “Awesome Motive family”. SolidAffiliate isn’t, but is tied to WooCommerce exclusively so won’t work with anything else. Plus, SolidAffiliate is pricing their tool almost exactly like AffiliateWP, so clearly they view AffiliateWP as their only real competitor. Ultimate Affiliate could be promising, but I have not personally tested that one.

It seems as if the affiliate management space really needed a new contender because AffiliateWP, one way or the other, seems to dominate. And, it shouldn’t.

FluentAffiliate feels like a breath of fresh air, by a team that operates in the right way, and part of an ecosystem that gives you REAL ownership of your own platform. For that reason alone, I would recommend it. The fact that this team also happens to create great software just makes it easy for me. 😎

And if they ever sell out to Awesome Motive, I will blow my freakin’ lid. 🤪