Top SaaS Affiliate Programs of 2025
Joshua D'Costa
Growth & Marketing
Dec 2, 2025
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5
min
Affiliate marketing programs are powerful growth engines for startups, turning customers, influencers, and partners into sales affiliates. This pay-for-performance model has become mainstream, 63.8% of brands plan influencer partnerships in 2025, many of which are affiliate-based.
In this blog, we’ll explain affiliate marketing, how affiliate links work, spotlight the 10 best programs for SaaS and product-based. Which one is an attractive choice in India? By the end, you’ll have a clear view of affiliate programs and how to leverage them.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a simple concept: you earn commissions by recommending products or services. When you join an affiliate program, the company gives you a unique tracking link. You share that link on your blog, website, or social media. If someone clicks it and makes a purchase or completes a desired action, the affiliate program attributes the sale to you and pays you a commission.
For example, Amazon’s Associates program, often cited as “one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world” lets anyone link to Amazon products and earn up to 10% on qualifying purchases.
Affiliate marketing spans B2C and B2B: a SaaS company might reward a software reviewer for referring a new customer, just as much as an online influencer is paid for promoting a yoga mat.
How Affiliate Links Work
An affiliate link is just a URL that includes your unique affiliate ID or token. When a user clicks this link, the affiliate platform drops a cookie on their browser to remember who referred them.
As the user browses and eventually purchases, the platform checks that cookie to credit the sale to the correct affiliate. This cookie contains the affiliate’s ID, letting your system know which affiliate should get credit for the sale.
For example, if you have a 30-day cookie period and a customer clicks your link, even if they come back two weeks later to buy, you still get the commission. This makes planning campaigns easier but relies on the user not clearing cookies or switching devices.
Managing affiliate links often involves an affiliate dashboard. Most programs provide an interface where affiliates can grab their unique links and track performance.
For example, Partners can sign up in the Affiliate Partner Program, get a referral link, and start sharing it across content and communities. Whenever a referral starts monetising through Dodo Payments, the partner earns ongoing monthly commissions.
Good affiliate programs give affiliates tools so partners can optimize their campaigns. Ultimately, accuracy in tracking is crucial: major platforms strive to ensure every click and conversion is recorded, so affiliates get paid correctly.
Choosing the Right Affiliate Program in 2025
Relevance to your niche
Pick partners that actually match your audience, a fintech blog should promote financial tools or SaaS, not random products. Better fit = better conversions.
Commission structure
Check whether it’s percentage or flat. Recurring commissions on subscriptions are gold for SaaS. Avoid tiny payouts or programs that make you pay to join.
Cookie duration
Longer cookie windows (30–90 days) give you a better shot at earning from delayed purchases. Short windows (24 hours) can cost you sales.
Tracking & support
Make sure tracking is reliable and the program has a clear dashboard. Bonus if they provide banners, docs, and a responsive affiliate manager. Integrations and automation are a plus.
Payout terms
Know how often they pay, how they pay, and the minimum threshold. Watch out for long payment delays or very high minimums.
Brand & product quality
Your reputation is tied to what you promote. Stick with trusted brands and products you’d actually use and recommend.
10 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs in 2025
SaaS Affiliate Programs
1. Dodo Payments Affiliate Program:
Best for Indian SaaS/startup founders. Dodo Payments is a SaaS billing and payments platform that includes an integrated affiliate partner program.
The Dodo Payments Partner Program lets creators and consultants earn recurring commissions by referring SaaS, digital product, and AI businesses. It’s free to join and quick to set up, apply in under a minute, grab your referral link, and share it in content or client conversations.
When a referral starts monetising on Dodo Payments, you earn ongoing payouts. Partners get a transparent dashboard to track referrals, conversions, and payouts, plus ready-made marketing assets, co-marketing opportunities, and dedicated support with bonus incentives for top performers.
2. Semrush Affiliate Program
Semrush offers one of the highest-paying affiliate programs in SaaS. The cookie duration is very generous, which is longer than most programs. It’s free to join and provides affiliates with tracking links and a dashboard. Semrush is a great example of a SaaS affiliate program rewarding high value deals ideal for content creators in the marketing niche.
3. HubSpot Affiliate Program
HubSpot’s affiliate program is designed for business software. It offers 30% recurring commission on referrals. That means if an enterprise customer signs up and keeps paying HubSpot for a year, an affiliate earns 30% of each monthly or annual payment. The cookie window is 180 days, and HubSpot provides learning resources and reporting tools for affiliates. This long-term, recurring commission structure can be very lucrative for affiliates who target B2B audiences.
4. Hostinger Affiliate Program
Hostinger is a web hosting provider with a popular affiliate program. It offers a very high starting commission of 40% of the sale on each hosting signup. Commissions grow with volume (the more signups you refer, the higher your rate).
The program is free to join and provides lots of banners/links. While hostinger.com is not purely SaaS (it’s hosting), it’s tech-focused and appeals to web developers. A SaaS or tech startup blogger might use Hostinger’s program to monetize their audience.
5. Groww Affiliate Program
Groww is an Indian investment app. It doesn’t have a traditional affiliate network for blog creators, but it runs a referral/CPA campaign via partner platforms. For example, through Cuelinks affiliates can earn up to ₹405 per referral. Groww’s model means affiliates get fixed cash rewards for new customers.
It’s a niche example: not a classic affiliate model, but valuable for personal finance bloggers in India. Keep in mind this is more of a referral contest than a wide-open affiliate program.
6. Shopify Affiliate Program
Shopify, an e-commerce platform offers a global affiliate program. Affiliates earn a fixed bounty for each new store they refer. In many countries this is $150 USD per referral; in India it’s about $25 USD per referral (as of current terms). Shopify’s program is geared toward creators who write about ecommerce or business, rewarding them when their referrals sign up for paid Shopify plans.
There’s no cap on earnings, and affiliates get a dashboard powered by Impact. Because Shopify is a household name, its affiliate program, though not SaaS in a traditional sense, is highly reputable.
7. Canva Affiliate Program
Canva is a graphic design tool, historically offered as an affiliate program via Impact. Affiliates earned $36 per annual Canva Pro subscription. Monthly subs paid a smaller fee for the first two months.
Note: Canva has since closed its affiliate program as of Jan 2024, but this commission structure shows the kind of earnings affiliates got. Canva’s program needed affiliates to have large audiences (1 million+ site visits was an approval criterion), but it demonstrates how SaaS tools pay for referrals even with just one product.
Product-Based Affiliate Programs
8. Amazon Affiliate Program (India)
The Amazon Associates Program in India lets affiliates link to Amazon.in products. It’s one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the world. Affiliates can earn up to about 10% commission on qualifying purchases (rates vary by category, and some products have lower rates).
As Amazon sells everything, affiliates can find relevant products for nearly any audience. The program provides in-depth reports and pays monthly via Amazon Pay. Its massive product catalog and brand trust make it a classic affiliate marketing example, though note that Amazon recently reduced some commission rates. Still, many beginners use it to monetize blogs and social channels in India.
9. Meesho Affiliate Program (India)
Meesho is an Indian social commerce platform. Its affiliate via EarnKaro or Meesho’s own panel offers commissions up to 15% on sales. Meesho boasts millions of resellers, and its affiliate program is tailored to Indian users. Affiliates share Meesho product links, and on each sale they get a percentage.
10. Flipkart Affiliate Program (India)
Flipkart’s affiliate program is another big-name option in India. Commissions vary by category and user type, but typical rates are 8–12%. New customer sales tend to have higher rates (around 10–12%) and returning customers a bit lower.
Affiliates get tracking links to Flipkart’s products, and earn a commission when purchases finalize. Flipkart provides dashboards for affiliates to track clicks and earnings. Like Amazon, Flipkart has a huge range of products, making it a strong choice for Indian content creators to monetize product recommendations.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing programs are a powerful way for businesses to grow through partnerships. These programs let you monetize recommendations. Each program is an example of how affiliate marketing can be tailored to different audiences and industries.
Leverage affiliate programs to access promoter networks, scale referrals, and spend more time building great products.
