Dub vs PartnerStack: Which Affiliate Platform is Best for SaaS (2026)

Founded in 2015, PartnerStack was one of the early pioneers in SaaS partner management. So if you’re searching Google or asking your AI agent for the best affiliate management platform for your SaaS business, chances are you are already familiar with PartnerStack.

So why consider Dub?

Because the SaaS industry has changed, and so have the expectations for partner programs. Modern marketing teams now need more than a traditional partner management portal. And that’s exactly where Dub comes in with its attribution, flexible workflows, and a modern, intuitive UI that makes it easy to launch, manage, and scale partnerships.

That said, both Dub and PartnerStack have their strengths and tradeoffs. Let’s break down the key differences so you can decide which platform is the better fit for you.

Technical integration

The fun (or not-so-fun) part: technical integration.

PartnerStack

Before you can get your affiliate program up and running, you first need to set up conversion tracking by configuring the following:

• PartnerStackJS – stores referral data in a first-party cookie (your engineers need to be comfortable with JavaScript to set it up).
• Server-to-server tracking – a backend-driven setup for companies that want more control over how referral and conversion data is passed to PartnerStack.
• REST API – available for companies that need custom workflows or deeper integrations, but requires more engineering resources to set up and maintain.

Once tracking is configured, you will need to set up webhooks so payment data can be sent back to PartnerStack. PartnerStack supports webhook integrations with Stripe, Recurly, Chargebee, and Chargify.

Many SaaS companies rely on Stripe as their source of truth for payments. Stripe events need to be matched back to customer records in PartnerStack, so accuracy depends on proper setup, including customer keys, metadata, and payment event mapping.

Generally, you should expect to go live with your program in 74 days (according to PartnerStack’s FAQ 👇), so it will take some time before your program is fully up and running.

Dub

With Dub, setup starts by installing the Dub Analytics script. The lightweight (~1kb) script detects the dub_id query parameter and stores it as a first-party cookie, which is then used to attribute future conversion events back to the original click.

After the script is installed, you can track conversion events using Dub’s REST API for server-side tracking. Dub also offers native SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, and Ruby.

Last step would be to track sale events (one-time and/or recurring sales). Depending on your payment setup, Dub also offers native integrations for Stripe and Shopify.

Dub’s best-in-class Stripe integration also supports advanced billing use cases, such as:

• Tracking free trials as lead rewards
• Voiding commissions when refunds occur
• Handling currency conversion when using Stripe Adaptive Pricing
• Calculating commissions accurately for invoices with multiple line items
• Excluding taxes from commissionable sale amounts

Help me set up conversion tracking with Dub.co by referencing the following articles (and the linked articles within them):

- dub.co/docs/concepts/attribution
- dub.co/docs/quickstart/server
- dub.co/docs/integrations/stripe

Make sure to tailor the implementation to my existing tech stack, and leverage server-side tracking if possible for the most accurate results.

Unlike PartnerStack, Dub is significantly simpler to set up and most teams finish their setup within 1-2 hours.

Reward structures

You’d think technical integration would be the hardest part, but figuring out reward rules can get surprisingly nuanced too.

PartnerStack

In PartnerStack, commission structures are built around “triggers” – when a specific event happens and the event meets your rules, an event is created. There are 4 different types of triggers:

• Offer – allows to reward partners for generating traffic and revenue
• Drip offer – allows to spread out larger payments over time
• Group move – allows to move partners to a different group based on their performance
• Apply tag – allows to tag partners when they meet certain criteria

For your offer triggers, you can choose either a flat or percentage commission type. If needed, you can also set a commission limit (e.g., each partner can only earn up to $10,000 in commissions).

Depending on your needs, you can also utilize PartnerStack’s advanced rule logic (”AND” / “OR” statements) to create custom reward rules. For example, you can create a rule that only rewards your partner for a certain product group and when the customer stayed active for at least 3 months.

Dub

With Dub, you can set up 4 key reward types:

For lead and sale rewards, you can apply certain conditions that match your program best – the possibilities are endless:

• Geo-specific rewards (e.g. higher rewards for sales and leads from a specific country)
• Product-specific rewards (e.g. higher rewards for sales of specific products)
• Partner performance tiers (e.g. higher rewards for partners with more than 100 conversions)
• Staggered reward durations (e.g. higher rewards for the first 12 months, then a lower reward for the rest of the customer’s lifetime)
• Sale amount modifiers (e.g. higher rewards for sales over a specific amount)

You can also mix-and-match and combine conditions with “AND” and “OR” logic parameters.

Dub also has an AI reward builder that you can use to describe your desired reward structure in natural language, and our AI agent will automatically set up your rewards for you:

If you have different partner types (e.g., publishers, affiliates), you can create separate partner groups with their distinct reward structures.

It’s also possible to set a group move rule, where partners are automatically upgraded to a new reward structure once they achieve certain commission goals.

You can also offer non-monetary rewards, which are useful if you are running a referral program. For example, you can offer free usage credits for new referred users.

Analytics

You can’t scale what you can’t measure, so having detailed analytics that are actually easy to navigate is extremely important.

PartnerStack

PartnerStack has a lot of data that you can access through so-called performance reports.

• Partner performance reports show your partners and how they compare based on metrics like signups, paid customers, commissions, and more.

• Product performance reports give insights into your products – you can evaluate new revenue, paid customers, and commissions.

• If you are a B2B company that relies heavily on sales calls to close deals, you’ll benefit from a deals report, which shows deal stages, revenue, and commissions.

PartnerStack gives you plenty of data, but it can take time to turn that data into actionable insights. You may need to spend a lot of time navigating tables and reports to find the metrics that actually matter for your program.

Dub

Since Dub started as a link management platform, real-time analytics have been core to the product from day one.

With Dub's program analytics, always have a clear view of what’s driving performance, from conversion rates and top partners to leading traffic sources, countries, and other key insights.

Depending on your use case, you can also filter data by variables such as partner groups, UTM parameter, region, and more.

You can also use the “Ask AI” feature, which lets you enter your query in natural language, and it returns the exact analytics dashboard for your reporting needs:

Dub also gives you customer-level insights that go beyond basic conversion tracking. Each customer page shows how they discovered your brand, their recent activity, LTV, time to sale, UTM campaigns, geolocation, and other important details.

Dub also goes beyond aggregated dashboards with a real-time events stream for every click, lead, and sale. You can filter events by key attributes and export the data for deeper analysis whenever you need it.

You can also analyze your program application funnel to see where applicants drop off most often. These insights make it easier to identify friction, improve the application process, and convert more qualified applicants into partners.

Partner network

Both Dub and PartnerStack have a well-curated partner network, but access to more partners doesn’t automatically mean more revenue.

PartnerStack

If you care about quantity, PartnerStack has one of the best partner networks for B2B SaaS, without a doubt. It has over 140,000 partners, including affiliates, influencers, and co-sell partners. But there is a misconception that more partners = less work for you.

In practice, the best partners still need to be identified, recruited, onboarded, and activated – whether they come from a partner marketplace or from your own outbound efforts.

The most successful affiliate programs often don’t have hundreds or thousands of active partners. They have a few dozen strong relationships with their top partners that drive most of their affiliate revenue.

Dub

With Dub's Enterprise plan, you get access to over 7,000 active partners. Each partner has to apply before they are added to the partner network, and all applications are reviewed by the Dub team.

Dub also highlights top performers with a ‘Trusted Partner’ badge, making it easier to identify partners who are more likely to drive meaningful revenue for your program.

But no partner network can guarantee sustainable affiliate revenue growth.

That’s why we recommend going beyond the traditional marketplace and focusing on the below features that truly set Dub apart:

-> Partner referrals

Imagine you already have a few high-quality partners you love working with. What if you could incentivize them to bring in other high-performing partners from their own network?

Many programs overlook this, but your best partners are often connected to your next best partners.

For example, you can offer a $50 reward when a referred partner earns at least $100 in commissions. This way, you’re not just paying for signups – you’re rewarding partners for bringing in partners who actually perform.

-> Embedded referral dashboard

Your existing users are often your strongest advocates. Dub’s embedded referral dashboard lets them join your partner program directly inside your app and they start referring customers in just a few clicks, without the need to sign up on any third party platforms.

Partner payouts

Both Dub and PartnerStack help simplify partner payouts and tax compliance, but the payout workflows are different.

PartnerStack

You will receive an invoice on the 1st of each month. From there, you have 7 days to review commissions and make sure you’re only paying for legitimate conversions. If commissions aren’t reviewed within that window, PartnerStack still automatically charges you on the 7th of the month.

This means that if you miss the review period and an invoice has already been paid, it may mean that you’ve paid partners that shouldn’t have been paid. In those cases, you may need to create clawbacks, which are negative commissions that offset future partner earnings.

But clawbacks only work if the partner earns future commissions, and creating them can also be time-consuming since it requires contacting PartnerStack’s support team.

Dub

With Dub, you can pay partners with a single click whenever it makes sense for your program – whether that’s monthly, biweekly, or on your own schedule – instead of being locked into a fixed monthly invoice cycle.

Dub also automatically checks for suspicious activity, refunds, chargebacks, and potential fraud, then flags those commissions and puts them on hold for review.

Every time you make a payout, Dub provides both you and your partners detailed invoices for accounting purposes, and handles tax compliance for your US partners.

Fraud detection

Automated payouts are great, but only if you’re paying the right partners. We’ve seen firsthand just how sophisticated affiliate fraud has become.

PartnerStack

PartnerStack uses Sift, a third-party fraud detection provider, to flag potentially fraudulent partners. You can review the partner and either remove them from your program or mark them as trustworthy.

And because PartnerStack controls the fraud rules and detection logic, you cannot customize fraud protection based on your own risk tolerance or specific needs.

Dub

Dub’s risk monitoring system is built around six key risk signals:

When suspicious activity is detected, Dub automatically places the partner’s commissions on hold until you review the event. You can then choose to resolve it or ban the partner from your program.

You can also customize risk alerts in settings, so you can tailor risk detection to your program requirements.

For example, if your program allows paid ads but restricts Google Ads, you can set up a custom fraud alert to flag only those commissions, without treating all paid traffic as suspicious.

Partner experience

Partner experience is often overlooked, but it matters more than you think. The easier and more enjoyable your program is to join, navigate, and promote, the more likely partners are to stay engaged and promote your brand.

PartnerStack

PartnerStack’s partner dashboard covers all the basics – clicks, signups, revenue, conversions, and earned commissions.

But partners need to manually withdraw their commission balance. If commissions are not withdrawn within two years, PartnerStack charges a late fee of 8.33% per month until the funds are claimed.

Partners can withdraw payouts to their bank account (via Stripe Express) or PayPal, and fees vary. Typically, they are small (e.g., $2.25 + 0.25% or 2% per withdrawal), but can add up quite fast. Manual withdrawals create another thing that your partners have to worry about.

Dub

Dub is designed with the partner experience in mind, offering a clean, modern, intuitive dashboard that matches what SaaS partners expect from today’s best tools.

Dub offers detailed analytics like UTM data and country-level traffic, giving partners clear visibility into how their promotional strategies are performing.

With this level of reporting, partners can better understand what’s working, double down on high-performing channels, and drive more commissions for themselves while sending higher-quality leads to your program.

Getting paid is also simple. Once partners connect a payout method, payouts are deposited directly to their selected account whenever the program initiates a payment. Partners can choose from bank transfers (via Stripe Express), PayPal, and USDC payouts, with free payouts for U.S. partners and only a 0.5% fee for non-U.S. partners.

Pricing

So how much do all of these features cost?

PartnerStack

PartnerStack is expensive, and its pricing model reflects its focus on larger, more mature partner programs. It also does not offer a self-serve plan, so you’ll need to contact their sales team before getting started.

There are 3 tiers:

• Launch: $12,000 per year, paid upfront.
• Growth: $18,240 per year, paid upfront.
• Enterprise: $$$

It’s also important to account for renewals. According to PartnerStack’s SaaS agreement, annual subscription fees for renewal terms are subject to a 7% increase over the prior period.

Beyond the subscription fee, PartnerStack also charges a “PartnerStack fee” on partner payouts, typically ranging from 3% to 15%.

Dub

Dub offers more flexible pricing, so you can launch your affiliate program without a large upfront commitment and upgrade only when your program grows.

You can choose from three plans; payout fees are 5% on the Business and Advanced plans, and 3% on Enterprise.

• Business: $90 / month
• Advanced: $300 / month
• Enterprise: $$$

You can also start with a 14-day free trial to explore the platform, test your setup, and make sure it’s the right fit before committing.

Dub also has a Startup Program with a generous discount, so definitely check it out to see if your company qualifies.

Dub vs PartnerStack

Final thoughts

PartnerStack helped define the SaaS partner management category, and it can be a strong fit for larger companies with mature partner programs, bigger budgets, and the resources to support a longer implementation process.

But for startups and growing SaaS teams, Dub offers a more modern and flexible way to launch, manage, and scale partner-led growth. You get powerful attribution, detailed analytics, flexible payouts, built-in fraud detection, a better partner experience, and native growth loops like partner referrals and embedded referral dashboards.

Try Dub today and join amazing companies like Lindy.ai, Privy.com, and Kick.co that have migrated from PartnerStack and are powering their affiliate programs with Dub.

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