Build or buy affiliate software: costs, risks and when each makes sense

Many companies start by thinking "it's just some links and a commission table, we'll build it". The link is the easy part. The work is in what comes after.

What an in-house system has to solve

• Reliable tracking: clicks at high volume, click IDs, postbacks, attribution windows and duplicates.
• Fraud: bots, repeated clicks, conversions from the same device. Without this, you pay for fake traffic.
• Commissions: percentages, amounts by country, tiers, reversals when there are refunds.
• Payouts: balances, minimums, a schedule, a record of what was paid and why.
• Affiliate portal: links, reports, creatives, in several languages.
• Security and GDPR: 2FA, audit logs, data retention, erasure requests.

Each item looks small. Together they are a product, and someone has to maintain it for good.

When building makes sense

• The affiliate programme is the core of your business and you have rules no platform covers.
• You have an engineering team that can stay on it, not only at launch.
• Volume is so high that a platform costs more than a team.

When buying makes sense

• You want to launch in days, not months.
• Your technical team has the main product to look after.
• You prefer a known monthly cost to an open-ended project.

A middle path

Buy the platform and connect it to your system by API and postbacks. Tracking, fraud and payouts are solved, and you control the integration on your side.

In RastroAff

Paid plans include a REST API, signed webhooks and data import, so you can start on the platform and integrate at your own pace. Starter costs €24.99 a month, with no minimum term. See how to choose and migrating from another platform.