# Category Compare: Affiliate vs Influencer Marketing Software | Capterra > Confused between affiliate and influencer marketing software? We define and compare the two solutions to help you determine the right one for your business. Source: https://www.capterra.com/resources/affiliate-vs-influencer-marketing-software --- Marketing 101Marketing # Category Compare: Affiliate vs Influencer Marketing Software By Shephalii Kapoor Shephalii Kapoor Writer Experience I’ve been writing for Capterra since September 2021, providing expert insights to help small businesses find the right software solutions. ... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/skapoor/) Published November 29, 2022 8 min read ## In this report, we define and compare affiliate and influencer marketing software to help you decide which one aligns with your business goals. Both affiliate and influencer marketing strategies have helped social media marketers and advertisers maximize conversions for over a decade now. As compared to traditional advertising methods, such as radio and television, these two strategies help strengthen trust and credibility for eCommerce brands.  However, finding the right partners and dealing with the increasing instances of affiliate and influencer fraud are some common challenges associated with these strategies. While investing in affiliate and influencer marketing software solutions can help address these issues efficiently, how do you know which one to choose? Despite having some common features, [affiliate software](https://www.capterra.com/affiliate-software/) and [influencer marketing softwar](https://www.capterra.com/influencer-marketing-software/)e are two different categories. While affiliate marketing software enables advertisers to grow, track, and manage their affiliate marketing programs, influencer marketing software helps you discover the right social media influencer for your business, manage influencer relationships, and analyze influencer campaigns. Understanding the differences between the two software solutions will help you finalize the right product for your marketing needs.  In this article, we'll talk about the similarities and differences between affiliate software and influencer marketing software categories. We have also alphabetically listed the top five products for each category, based on verified software reviews. [Read more.](#methodology) ## What is affiliate software? [Affiliate software](https://www.capterra.com/affiliate-software/) is a comprehensive tool that helps businesses manage all aspects of an affiliate marketing program, which includes affiliate onboarding, referral management, and tracking and commission management. With features, such as affiliate tracking, lead generation, and affiliate campaign management, the software enables marketing teams to grow their referral programs, pay affiliate commissions, and track the activities of affiliate partners. Affiliate platforms can be used by businesses to track referrals, recommendations, or endorsements made by an individual or a business to purchase their products or services. The tool also has built-in fraud detection to ensure the safety of online business processes. ## Key features of affiliate software The primary features of affiliate software include: - **Affiliate management:** Allows an affiliate marketer to attract and manage their affiliate partners—from affiliate accounts and registrations to products they offer on partnering websites. - **Affiliate tracking:** Tracks the activities of affiliate partners, including the promotion of your products/services and associated sales. The system also identifies top-performing affiliates based on engagement, traffic, and the effectiveness of their efforts. - **Campaign management:** Enables users to track, manage, and develop an affiliate strategy. The system also enables them to analyze the results of affiliate campaigns. - **Fraud detection:** Identifies suspicious traffic and prevents affiliate frauds, such as click, sales, and lead frauds. - **Lead generation:** Manages the entire process of attracting and converting a business prospect into a potential customer. - **Social media monitoring**: Tracks affiliate activities of various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  ## Top 5 affiliate software These five products are listed in alphabetical order. (The [full methodology](#methodology) for how these products were chosen can be found at the end of this article.) #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 ## What is influencer marketing software? [Influencer marketing software](https://www.capterra.com/influencer-marketing-software/) is an online tool that assists businesses with their influencer marketing campaigns. The platform helps streamline the entire workflow, from attracting influencers to tracking posts and generating important reports. It also allows businesses to discover, develop, and manage relationships with prominent influencers who primarily use social media to connect with the audience and promote brands.  Influencer marketing tools enable marketers to monitor and visualize their marketing campaigns via an intuitive dashboard that displays key success metrics, such as the conversion rate, audience engagement, brand mentions, and impressions. Influencer marketing tools are predominantly used by business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses. ## Key features of influencer marketing software The primary features of influencer marketing platform include: - **Campaign management:** Enables social marketers to execute marketing campaigns and offers built-in analytics capabilities to help them gauge the success of influencer campaigns. - **Influencer discovery:** Provides tools to search and vet influencers within the influencers’ network, database, and across social networks. - **Return on investment tracking:** Monitors potential metrics, such as conversions, new customer reach, referrals, and sales to analyze the effectiveness of campaigns in terms of return on investment. - **Influencer marketing campaign analytics:** Tracks and interprets important campaign performance metrics, such as social engagement, audience growth rate, cost per post, and click-through rate. - **Lead generation:** Attracts and converts prospects into potential business leads. - **Faceted search/filter:** Offers multiple specific and relevant filters, such as topic, location, geolocation, and audience demographics that help users narrow down their search options. - **Influencer relationship management:** Manages influencers’ contact details and interactions. The tool also offers communication tools, such as in-app messaging and real-time chat to facilitate communication between the brand and the influencers. - **Influencer tracking:** Tracks the online activities of social media influencers and measures their performance based on the success of their posts and the overall reach or engagement they have been able to generate. - **Social media monitoring:** Allows social media managers and influencers to track brand/product mentions, impressions, and sentiments across multiple social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter.  ## Top 5 influencer marketing software These five products are listed in alphabetical order. (The [full methodology](#methodology) for how these products were chosen can be found at the end of this article.) #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 #### Trial/Free Version - Free Trial - Free Version #### Device Compatibilty \* Analysis Accurate as of November 2022 ## What do they have in common? Both affiliate and influencer marketing are types of digital marketing platforms. Since both these platforms have a lot in common, the two software solutions are often used interchangeably. Talking about the similarities between the two systems, both these tools: - Facilitate partnerships with digital content creators/influencers that help promote campaigns and brand products among larger audiences with the shared goals of garnering more site visitors, leads, and ultimately sales. - Involve marketing campaign creation and management. Common features of affiliate and influencer marketing software include performance tracking, traffic acquisition, and lead generation management.  ## Which marketing software is right for your business? Affiliate software offers functionality to manage relationships with affiliate marketers who are contracted partners or companies, hired by businesses to promote and sell their products/services for a defined amount of time in exchange for an agreed monetary commission. The software lays greater emphasis on managing new-customer acquisition and measuring affiliate sales, garnered from shared affiliate links/posts. It allows users to track affiliate links, posts, and return on investment. As compared to affiliate marketing, influencer marketing is less sales-driven. This form of marketing has a greater focus on increasing brand awareness and driving traffic and engagement. Influencer marketing software platforms offer functionality centered around tracking social media engagement, email sign-ups, site visits, and traffic performance. - In case you need software that helps you onboard affiliates, create tracking links, track affiliate sales, and compensate affiliates, consider investing in an affiliate solution. - If you wish to find the right influencer for your brand, streamline manual campaign processes, manage influencer contacts, and increase brand awareness and engagement, investing in an influencer marketing platform would be a better idea.  Once you’ve decided which software to use, head to our [affiliate software](https://www.capterra.com/affiliate-software/) and [influencer marketing software](https://www.capterra.com/influencer-marketing-software/) category pages where you can find a sortable list of products and software reviews from verified users. ## How to choose the best marketing software for your business The digital marketing software you select should align with the requirements of your marketing team. Here are some common considerations that you can keep in mind while evaluating potential solutions: - **Prioritize security and fraud detection:** Considering the increase in cyber crimes, the marketing software you select should ensure some sort of security features to protect you, your customers, and your affiliates. Before investing in an affiliate or influencer marketing tool, make sure that the software offers necessary security features, such as data encryption and real-time alerts to safeguard confidential information and notify you of any suspicious activities. Additionally, the software should come with a fraud detection system to flag all suspicious activities and prevent affiliate/influencer fraud. - **Check the available integration options:** The best marketing tools should be able to integrate with your existing systems and other necessary third-party applications. While selecting the best affiliate or influencer marketing tool for your business, make sure that the software integrates with popular eCommerce sites, payment gateways, content marketing/ management systems, communication, collaboration, and email marketing tools, such as Shopify, Wix, Stripe, WordPress, and ActiveCampaign. - **Compare the software price:** Most influencer marketing and affiliate platforms charge an annual or monthly subscription fee. However, the pricing of these products can vary depending on the features you require. For example, the cost of affiliate platforms with advanced reporting capabilities and unlimited affiliate support will be higher as compared to the cost of the platform with fewer or restricted capabilities. Before investing in a solution, you need to understand your marketing requirements and the important features you would want in the software. This will ensure that you do not end up paying extra for non-necessary features. Several vendors also offer free trials and free versions of their products. Make sure to check them as well before making the final purchase. ## Common questions to ask while selecting the best marketing software Here are some common questions to ask vendors before selecting the best marketing software: What marketing metrics are displayed by the software? Digital marketing tools, such as affiliate and influencer marketing software help users analyze marketing campaigns via key metrics. Before shortlisting the software for your marketing requirements, make sure that it displays key metrics, such as conversion rate, clicks, sales per affiliate, return on investment, cost per acquisition, sales, revenue, engagement, and reach. What are the available customer support options? Digital marketing solution providers offer multiple support options, including phone calls, emails, live chat, knowledge base, and social media platform support to address customer queries. Look out for such options before investing in a particular solution for your marketing requirements. Does the software offer mobile compatibility? Considering that the majority of affiliates or influencers use mobile devices for their work, make sure that the digital marketing platform you select provides for convenient management of affiliates, influencers, affiliate networks, and programs via a mobile application. ## Capterra's 2026 Software Buying Trends Report ### Download our 2026 Software Buying Trends Report to see how successful software adopters avoid disappointment and how your business can, too. * * * ## Methodology We highlight the top five example products from each category—those with the highest average user ratings. In addition, to be included in this list, the products must: - Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Capterra, with an average rating of 3.0 or higher (as of November 16, 2022). - Meet our software market definition for affiliate and influencer marketing software: - Affiliate software: “Affiliate software helps you grow your referral program, track your partner activities, and pay affiliate commissions.” - Influencer marketing software: “Influencer marketing software helps organizations discover, develop, and track relationships with prominent social media players who can promote corporate brand and content to their followers.” Note: Reviews and ratings data in the product cards is as of November 16, 2022. New reviews may have been added since the publication of this article, so the reviews data in this piece may not reflect current conditions. _Disclaimer: The products in the category comparison images are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations by Capterra. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication._ * * * Looking for Affiliate software?Check out Capterra's list of the [best Affiliate software](https://www.capterra.com/affiliate-software/) solutions. ### Was this article helpful? * * * ## About the Author [### Shephalii Kapoor](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/skapoor/) Shephalii Kapoor is a writer at Capterra. 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