The ranking
The best affiliate networks for vendors in 2026
5 networks ranked for the person selling the product: what each one costs per sale, who it lets in, how it pays, and which seller it suits.
Most writing about affiliate networks is for affiliates: which offers pay, which marketplace has the best gravity. If you own the product, the questions are different. What will the network take from each sale? Will it approve your funnel and copy? How long before the money from a sale reaches you, and what happens when a buyer asks for a refund or calls their bank? This ranking answers those, for nutra, info-product and ecom vendors who want affiliates running paid traffic to their offer.
On this page
Quick answer
ClickBank is our top pick for most people. The default network for a direct response offer that needs the biggest open pool of affiliates, with merchant of record, compliance review and payouts handled for you, at a higher per-sale fee than Digistore24 advertises.
- ClickBank. Best for Vendors of digital and physical direct response offers who want a large open affiliate marketplace with full merchant-of-record checkout.
- Digistore24. Best for Vendors selling into the US and EU who want tax and VAT handled with no setup or monthly fee.
- BuyGoods. Best for Experienced health and wellness vendors with a proven offer or a referral.
- JVZoo. Best for Digital product and software launches built around JV partners, leaderboards, and fast listing.
- CopeCart. Best for Digital, course and coaching sellers who want EU tax handled, buy-now-pay-later, collections and phone-close tooling in one checkout.
Fees side by side
| Network | What it charges vendors | Pick it for |
|---|---|---|
| 1. ClickBank | $49.95 one-time activation fee when your first product is approved (not charged if it is not approved). 7.5% + $1.00 per sale (9.8% + $1.30 for eligible Klarna transactions). $5.00 pay period processing fee per payment issued. 10% of each pay period held as a return allowance for about 12 weeks. No monthly subscription. | the biggest open affiliate pool |
| 2. Digistore24 | No setup or monthly fee. Transaction fee starting at 2.9% + $1 per sale; the vendor says the final rate may vary by product type, traffic source and sales volume. Payout fees $2.50 ACH, $40 international wire. | US and EU tax handling |
| 3. BuyGoods | No vendor fee schedule is published on BuyGoods-owned pages. Vendors apply through a form; entry is by recommendation, referral or proven track record. | proven health offers |
| 4. JVZoo | No setup or monthly fee. 5% platform fee per sale when using your own Stripe or PayPal; 8.5% per sale when using JVZoo payment processing. | JV product launches |
| 5. CopeCart | EU: 4.9% of gross + €1 per sale, no monthly fee; card orders 6.9% + €1 from 31 Oct 2026. Americas help example: 10% of net + $1. | high-ticket digital and coaching sales |
The ranking
1. ClickBank: best for the biggest open affiliate pool
ClickBank is the pick if you are among these sellers: Vendors of digital and physical direct response offers who want a large open affiliate marketplace with full merchant-of-record checkout. The default network for a direct response offer that needs the biggest open pool of affiliates, with merchant of record, compliance review and payouts handled for you, at a higher per-sale fee than Digistore24 advertises.
What works
- Acts as merchant of record: processes the order, remits tax and splits commissions with affiliates
- Open marketplace of nearly 100,000 affiliates, plus JV contracts through account managers
- Sells digital and physical products, with RevShare or CPA commissions
- Seller rules are published in detail: a 3-5 business day approval, Friday payouts and fixed chargeback tiers
- Own order form and upsell flow, plus integrations with Voluum, ClickFunnels, Everflow and Shopify
What to watch
- 7.5% + $1 per sale plus a $49.95 one-time approval fee, above Digistore24's advertised starting rate
- Every product passes an FTC/FDA and ClickBank compliance review of the funnel and copy before it lists, which slows aggressive nutra launches
- 10% of each pay period is held as a return allowance for about 12 weeks
- Chargeback fees climb from $22 to $49 plus margin as your rate rises, and a 2% rate needs action within 48 hours
- Approval does not bring affiliates: sellers report slow starts and thin support for new offers
The fee is the price of the brand: 7.5% + $1 on every sale is real money at nutra volumes, and the pre-listing compliance review will send aggressive copy back for rewrites.
2. Digistore24: best for US and EU tax handling
Digistore24 is the pick if you are among these sellers: Vendors selling into the US and EU who want tax and VAT handled with no setup or monthly fee. The low-fee merchant of record for vendors who sell into both the US and the EU and want VAT and sales tax filed for them, paying only when a sale goes through.
What works
- No setup, activation or monthly fee; transaction fee starts at 2.9% + $1
- Full merchant of record in the EU and US, with sales tax and VAT handled in 180 countries
- Checkout pages, order bumps, one-click upsells and split testing built in
- Weekly payouts, up to four a month, and a 180-day affiliate cookie
What to watch
- The 2.9% + $1 is a starting rate: the final rate depends on product type, traffic source and volume, so you only know your fee once you apply
- Payout fees of $2.50 per ACH payment and $40 per international wire
The headline rate is a floor, not a quote. A nutra offer on paid traffic should expect to negotiate its real rate, and that number is not public.
3. BuyGoods: best for proven health offers
BuyGoods is the pick if you are among these sellers: Experienced health and wellness vendors with a proven offer or a referral. A curated health and wellness network for vendors who already have a converting offer or a referral, with its own checkout and split testing, and no public fee schedule.
What works
- Built around health and wellness offers and the affiliates who run paid traffic to them
- Conversion-focused checkout with A/B split testing and real-time analytics
- Account managers and compliance staff assigned to vendors
- Affiliate applications are manually reviewed, which keeps the affiliate pool smaller and more experienced
What to watch
- Entry is by recommendation, referral or proven track record, so a first-time vendor may not get in
- No vendor fee schedule is published; terms are set in the application
You cannot price it before you apply. For a vendor comparing networks on fees, that is a wall, and a new offer without a track record may never get past the form.
4. JVZoo: best for JV product launches
JVZoo is the pick if you are among these sellers: Digital product and software launches built around JV partners, leaderboards, and fast listing. The launch platform for digital products and software sold through affiliate partners and launch contests, taking 5% of each sale with your own Stripe or PayPal behind the checkout.
What works
- Free to join; 5% platform fee on sales
- Most products approved within 24 to 48 hours
- Launch leaderboards and contests built in for JV partners
- Phone-room tools that split closer and affiliate commissions on high-ticket sales
What to watch
- The 5% covers the platform; processing is extra, either your own Stripe or PayPal or JVZoo Processing Services after underwriting
- The marketplace leans toward digital marketing, software and make-money products rather than physical nutra
It is a launch platform first. A physical supplement offer looking for evergreen paid-traffic affiliates will find a thinner crowd here than on the networks above it.
5. CopeCart: best for high-ticket digital and coaching sales
CopeCart is the pick if you are among these sellers: Digital, course and coaching sellers who want EU tax handled, buy-now-pay-later, collections and phone-close tooling in one checkout. The EU-born merchant-of-record checkout for digital, course and coaching sellers who want buy-now-pay-later, collections and phone-close tools on the order form, at a published fee of 4.9% + €1 per sale in the EU.
What works
- Published EU rate of 4.9% of the gross sale + €1, with no monthly or annual platform fee
- Reseller (merchant of record) model with monthly credit notes; US sales tax collected automatically, EU VAT and UAE tax on request
- Nine payment methods, buy-now-pay-later, professional collections and a Deal Closer for sales made by phone
- An in-account marketplace where affiliates search offers by keyword, commission and income level
What to watch
- EU card orders move to 6.9% + €1 from 31 October 2026, well above Digistore24's starting rate
- Payouts arrive in two parts: 80% fourteen days after the sale and the last 20% after forty days
- The Americas entity's own billing example uses 10% of the net amount + $1; the 2.9% + $1 on the English homepage is an early-adopter rate for sellers who qualify
- No published affiliate count, and the marketplace is weighted toward German-speaking sellers
Which CopeCart you sign with decides your fee. The EU list rate, the Americas billing example and the homepage's early-adopter rate are three different numbers, so get yours in writing before you price the funnel.
Every network above also has its own full review, a fee page and an alternatives page for vendors who need to move an offer.
Winners by type of vendor
- Supplement or other nutra offer, US paid traffic: start with the largest open marketplace that runs a compliance check on your funnel, then add a curated health network once you have conversion data to show.
- Buyers in Europe as well as the US: pick the network that acts as merchant of record in the EU and files VAT for you; the runner-up is a US marketplace with worldwide checkout.
- Software, course or digital product launch with JV partners: a launch platform with leaderboards and fast approval; the runner-up is an open marketplace for the evergreen phase after launch.
- High-ticket course or coaching offer, sold partly by phone: a merchant-of-record checkout with buy-now-pay-later and collections built in; the runner-up is the EU and US network with the larger affiliate pool.
- Vendor with a proven offer and a referral: a curated network with a manually vetted affiliate pool and account management; the runner-up is the open marketplace you already sell on.
What to avoid
- Pricing a funnel on a "starting at" rate. A starting fee is the floor. Model your offer on the rate you are actually quoted after you apply.
- Launching copy that will not pass review. Networks that review your sales page and claims before listing will send aggressive health claims back. Fix them before you submit, not after a week in the queue.
- Ignoring refund windows in your margin. The buyer's refund window runs weeks past the sale, and the network claws back the vendor share. Plan cash flow around it.
- Forgetting whose name is on the card statement. As merchant of record, the network's name appears on the buyer's statement. Say so on your order form and thank-you page, or expect "unrecognised charge" chargebacks.
How we ranked them
We rank on four things a vendor feels in the first ninety days: the cost per sale, the gate before listing, how and when money reaches you, and whether the network's affiliates are the ones who buy traffic for your kind of offer. Fees and terms come from each network's own seller pages and help center, read on the date at the top of this page. What it is like to sell there comes from long-term vendors in public threads and reviews. We do not run campaigns on these networks ourselves. The full method is on how we research.
How to choose
- Work out where your buyers are. EU traffic changes the answer because of VAT.
- Price one sale on each shortlisted network at the rate you will actually pay, then subtract affiliate commission, refunds and chargebacks.
- Check the gate: compliance review, referral-only entry or quick approval. It decides your launch date.
- Decide whether you will use the network's order form or your own funnel pages in front of it, and check that the network tracks affiliates through the setup you choose.
- Read the network's payout schedule and holds against your cash needs.
What an affiliate network does for a vendor
An affiliate network sits between you, the buyer and the affiliates who send traffic. You list an offer and set a commission. Affiliates find it in the marketplace, send buyers through their tracking link, and the network runs the checkout as merchant of record: it charges the card, handles tax, processes refunds and chargebacks, and splits each sale between you and the affiliate. You pay for that in a fee per sale, and in the network's rules about what you may sell and how.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best affiliate network for a new vendor?
Do affiliate networks charge vendors a monthly fee?
What does merchant of record mean for a vendor?
Can I sell the same offer on two networks?
Should I use the network's checkout or my own?
Changelog
- 12 October 2026: first published, with fees read on each network's own seller and pricing pages.
What we read
From ClickBank
- https://www.clickbank.com/
- https://support.clickbank.com/en/articles/10535137-what-are-clickbank-s-fees
- https://support.clickbank.com/en/articles/10535160-how-do-i-get-started-as-a-clickbank-seller
Other sources
8 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context.
- [cb-vs-jvzoo-page] ClickBank vs JVZoo
- [cb-vs-jvzoo-quality] ClickBank vs JVZoo
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- [g1] ClickBank Reviews | GetApp Australia
- [g2] ClickBank Reviews | GetApp
- [g3] Compare ClickBank and Squaredance | G2
- [r1] If I delete my click bank account will they still charge me
- [r2] My first two weeks in Affiliate Marketing