With the affiliate marketing industry predicted to grow to $15.7 billion in the next two years, opportunities for affiliates and product owners are everywhere! This is a blessing, but challenging as well – it’s easy to get overwhelmed by so many options for affiliate programs and offers, especially if you’re new to the space.
We believe ClickBank is the best affiliate marketplace for affiliates from all backgrounds, thanks to no missed payments, unparalleled support, and most importantly, LOTS of high-converting offers from top sellers and brands!
Join more than 117,000 affiliate marketers!
Get expert affiliate marketing insights delivered right to your inbox. Plus, subscribe now for a step-by-step guide to getting started on ClickBank!
ClickBank has been the go-to affiliate marketplace for hundreds of thousands of affiliate marketers over the last 25 years! However, there are many different factors that can affect which affiliate network is right for you, as either a product owner or affiliate.
So, in this blog, we’re sharing the 8 most popular ClickBank alternatives you may want to check out to help grow your affiliate business!
Table of Contents
ClickBank Alternatives
Why Look For ClickBank Alternatives?
ClickBank has a LOT to offer to anyone in the performance affiliate marketing space, but our marketplace does have a specialized set of direct response offerings and commission structures, which could be a reason why some affiliate marketers would look for ClickBank alternatives.
For example, if your affiliate marketing strategy depends on a lot of variety in products, that could be a reason to look for a ClickBank alternative. Apart from that, some affiliate marketers may simply want to know about how ClickBank compares to the many other affiliate marketing programs out there.
Honestly, we get it! There is no single destination that has everything you could want. That being said, we hope you still include ClickBank in your list of places to find offers, connect with other experts, and be a part of the affiliate community!
What Is ClickBank?
Before diving into some of the alternatives of ClickBank, here are a few quick ClickBank facts about how ClickBank works. These will help you compare the pros and cons of the following alternatives with ClickBank, and hopefully choose the right affiliate network for you!
Product Type
ClickBank was traditionally the most popular affiliate network for quality digital affiliate products. These include offers like ebooks, membership sites, online video courses, and more!
But since 2014, ClickBank’s marketplace has also supported physical products that affiliates can promote in popular niches like health and fitness, sports, home & garden, self-help, and e-business.
Currently, ClickBank clients are seeing a lot of affiliate success with health and fitness and supplement products. You can see the latest top products on ClickBank here – and click below for a look at many of the top niches and categories on our marketplace right now:
Commission Programs/Models
ClickBank offers affiliates a few different commission payout structures, including both CPA (cost per action/acquisition) and RevShare (Revenue Share) models. (Learn more about CPA vs RevShare.)
In the CPA model, a fixed commission is paid to affiliates based on the completion of a desired action, typically a successful sale. With the RevShare model, affiliates earn a % of the total selling price of a product.
This means that CPA payouts are more predictable, while the RevShare commission can vary widely depending on the chosen product type or format and any additional upsells the customer chooses.
Even though the average commission varies, ClickBank sellers can pay out up to 75% standard commissions to affiliates on their many products! And to whitelisted affiliates, this percentage can go even higher!
Minimum Payout
ClickBank offers a minimum payout of just $10 to our affiliate partners. This way, as soon as you have $10 in your commission balance, you can withdraw/transfer it to your bank account.
Payment Methods
ClickBank supports many different methods to transfer your payout to your bank account. The list includes checks, wire transfers, direct deposits, and Payoneer.
To date, ClickBank has paid out more than $6 billion in commissions to our clients.
Now that you know some facts about ClickBank, let’s explore other alternatives that you may find worthwhile as an affiliate!
1) Amazon Associates
Right off the bat, Amazon Associates is a great alternative platform for affiliates, particularly for content publishers who are looking to monetize affiliate products on their website.
Amazon has more than 353 million products on its website, with many of them being physical products – while ClickBank is more well-known for our selection of digital products. That being said, both affiliate programs have a good mix of the two product formats.
For more information on how Amazon stacks up to ClickBank, check out my in-depth guide comparing on Amazon Affiliates vs. ClickBank!
Product Types
Amazon is the world’s biggest e-commerce platform, which explains the range of products on Amazon is incomparable to ClickBank. It offers products from numerous categories, including healthcare, fitness, online retail, education, digital products, beauty and wellness, and almost anything else you can think of.
Commission Model
Amazon operates on a CPS (cost per sale) commission program. This would mean that an Amazon affiliate will get paid a percentage of the sale amount after a successful sale.
However, in 2020, Amazon slashed affiliate commissions, because the inflow of customers was rising naturally thanks to the pandemic.
Even though Amazon launched a limited-time hike in commission rates on a small set of products, their rates have never returned to match their pre-COVID rates.
Minimum Payout
Amazon has a minimum payment threshold of $100 via check. However, it allows its affiliates to define their own minimum payouts (above $100), as many partners have requested higher thresholds.
Payment Method
Amazon supports three payment methods to pay commissions to its affiliate marketers. These include checks, Amazon gift cards, or direct transfers.
Amazon also can directly deposit in international bank accounts if they have all the required banking information from the affiliate.
When to Choose Amazon Affiliates as an Alternative?
Amazon Affiliates is a good option for you if you’re looking for a wider variety of products. Apart from that, it is also beginner-friendly, as it’s fairly easy for any affiliate to join. However, the downside of Amazon is that the commission rates are drastically low (mostly 1% to 3%) for their best-selling products, whereas ClickBank offers 75% commissions (or higher).
2) BuyGoods
BuyGoods was established in 2005 and offers a wide range of products for affiliate marketers and publishers to promote. Let’s look at what makes BuyGoods one of the top ClickBank alternatives.
Product Type
Like ClickBank, BuyGoods offers both digital products and physical products. With this affiliate marketing network, you can sell products from categories like:
- Weight loss
- Health and fitness
- Clean energy
- Anti aging
- Dating
- Trial offers
- Survival products
- General products
Commission Program/Model
BuyGoods offers two commission models, just like ClickBank: CPA and RevShare. This way, affiliates can choose which way they want to get paid for their efforts.
Minimum Payout
BuyGoods has a slab system for payouts depending on the monthly revenue earned.
BuyGoods pays:
- Weekly – every Wednesday (default, if revenue falls below $15,000 a month)
- Twice a week – every Monday and Wednesday (revenue is between $15,000 and $29,999 a month)
- Three times a week – every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (revenue of $30,000+ a month)
Payment Methods
This affiliate marketing network supports three types of payment methods. You can ask them to wire you the money, get a check, or receive ACH payment.
However, to get money wired, you have to pay a $40 fee, and you must have a minimum of $100 earned to get ACH or wire transfer.
Additionally, getting a check or ACH is only available in the US. So, if you stay anywhere else in the world, you have to get the money wired to your account.
Is BuyGoods For You?
The type of payout system offered by BuyGoods is preferable for experienced marketers who are making more than $30k every month; If you earn less than $15,000 per month, you can only wire that money once a week, that too every Wednesday, which may create some blockages in your cashflow.
If you’re a beginner affiliate, other programs might be a better fit. Read our guide on ClickBank vs BuyGoods to find out more!
3) MaxWeb
MaxWeb is primarily known as a CPA network with many of the industry’s top converting VSL (video sales letter) offers. It’s a great platform for affiliates with a knack for paid social and media buying. It also offers resources to help you market products, and it has some excellent tracking tools for ensuring profitable campaigns.
Let’s see how MaxWeb fares on our list of ClickBank alternatives!
Product Type
Offers from this affiliate network are varied, which gives affiliate marketers a nice array of choices. You can promote products from the domains of health-based supplements, retail, e-commerce, beauty and skincare, and of course, digital products.
With that said, the focus of MaxWeb seems to be in health, fitness, and beauty categories.
Commission Model
The commission model offered by MaxWeb is called CPA (cost per acquisition). MaxWeb has clearly mentioned on their website that affiliates only get paid for each unique customer brought in by them.
So, if the same customer buys the same product more than once, the affiliate won’t get paid for any additional orders.
Minimum Payout
MaxWeb has the exact same payout model as BuyGoods. They pay you anywhere from once a week to thrice a week, depending on how much you earn per month. Here are the details:
- Weekly – every Wednesday (default, if revenue falls below $15,000 a month)
- Twice a week – every Monday and Wednesday (revenue is between $15,000 and $29,999 a month)
- Three times a week – every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (revenue of $30,000+ a month)
Payment Methods
MaxWeb offers multiple modes of payment to its advertisers and affiliates.
- Check (US only, FREE)
- ACH (US only, FREE)
- Wire transfer ($40 fee)
- Payoneer (FREE)
As you can see, check and ACH are only supported in the US. However, unlike BuyGoods, you aren’t forced to pay a $40 fee (or more!) every week for a wire transfer. By signing for a Payoneer account, you can get the money in your bank account within 24 hours of receiving payment in the e-wallet.
Is MaxWeb For You?
MaxWeb can be a great alternative for ClickBank if you’re looking for more product options and have a knack for social media marketing. Further, since it offers free international payments, your location doesn’t have to be the US. Lastly, if your domain of choice is aesthetic-based, MaxWeb has excellent offers for you!
4) Rakuten Advertising
Rakuten Advertising is primarily known for listing physical goods, unlike some other affiliate networks that offer a mix of physical as well as digital products.
Rakuten also has a very tight selection process for its affiliate marketing candidates. Right off the bat, we can say that Rakuten may not be one of your top affiliate programs as a beginner (or even an intermediate) marketer.
Plus, on Rakuten, you need to apply separately for each offer, even after you manage to get selected as an affiliate with Rakuten.
Here are some other things about Rakuten that may influence your decision-making process:
Product Type
As mentioned earlier, Rakuten offers physical products. However, Rakuten does have a strong brand portfolio for you to select from. They have worked with many A-list brands such as American Heart Organization, Ray-Ban, Vans, and Papa John.
Commission Model
Rakuten has one of the most versatile commission models in the affiliate marketing industry. It offers CPA (cost per acquisition/action), CPL (cost per lead), CPS (cost per sale), and CPC (cost per click) to its affiliate members.
This gives you many choices as an affiliate marketer, and you can develop a strategy that makes you the most money!
Minimum Payout
Rakuten has a minimum payout of $50.The payments issued by Rakuten are net 60. This simply means you will get paid after 60 days of earning your commissions.
Payment Methods
As a Rakuten affiliate, you can get paid via check, direct deposit, and PayPal. PayPal charges anywhere between 1.9% to 3.5% for transactions.
Further, if you’re based outside of the US and want the commission deposited in another currency, the currency exchange rates PayPal uses are steeper than the actual exchange rates, so you will lose a bit more money there too.
Is Rakuten For You?
As a ClickBank alternative, Rakuten should a top choice for more experienced affiliates – in particular, publishers with a strong affiliate website. If you are interested in promoting physical products, Rakuten is a good way to go!
Additionally, since Rakuten has multiple commission programs, you have some flexibility in designing and implementing the most profitable strategy for your affiliate marketing business!
5) JVZoo
JVZoo is one of the top players in the affiliate marketing industry. JVZoo has been in the industry for the past 9 years. Let’s look at some ways JVZoo is different from ClickBank!
Listed Products
JVZoo features digital MMO (make money online) products. While their offerings are slightly different, many of the offers will seem similar to ClickBank.
Commission Programs
JVZoo supports the CPS model of commission (i.e. Cost Per Sale). So, when the affiliate signs up with this network, they get paid for all products, software, or services that are sold successfully.
This commission model works best for affiliate marketing offers that promote irresistible features for their products and have a lower refund rate. When a customer asks for a refund, the sale is counted as unsuccessful and any money the affiliate earned from that sale is returned.
Minimum Payout
JVZoo has a minimum payout amount of $50, so when you sign up with JVZoo, you can withdraw/transfer money into your bank after earning at least $50.
Payout Method
JVZoo supports numerous payment methods, including PaPpal, BlueSnap, Authorize.net, Zift, Stripe, Check, and Direct Deposit.
Is JVZoo For You?
JVZoo is one of the top affiliate network alternatives for ClickBank. It also offers digital products. However, they have more payment options than ClickBank, so JVZoo may be a favorable option for international affiliate marketers.
You can learn more about how JVZoo compares to ClickBank in our guide to JVZoo vs ClickBank!
6) CJ Affiliate
CJ Affiliate is one of the longest-standing affiliate networks in the industry. Like ClickBank, CJ Affiliate offers a mix of physical and digital products from software, retail, and other categories. Even though it is one of the older platforms, CJ Affiliates has a strong fanbase in the affiliate marketing community.
And just like Rakuten, if you sign up for CJ Affiliate, you must then apply for each offer separately, which can get time-consuming.
Product Types/Offers
CJ Affiliate has many different types of offers for their affiliates to choose from, including in the higher-ticket category and from exclusive brands. However, ClickBank does offer a larger selection of products than CJ Affiliate overall.
CJ Affiliate has product offers from the online retail, digital products, and software categories.
Commission Model
CJ Affiliate has many different commission programs, depending upon the type of product/offer. It supports CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead), CPS (cost per sale), as well as CPC (cost per click) commission models.
Minimum Payout
CJ Affiliate allows you to withdraw your commission within 20 days of earning it, as long as the minimum balance is $50 for direct deposit and $100 for the check. For their international affiliate partners, CJ Affiliate offers to pay via Payoneer.
Payment Methods
CJ Affiliate allows its affiliates to withdraw commissions via direct deposit (the US only), check (the US only), and Payoneer (worldwide). Currently, CJ Affiliate does not offer PayPal or any credit options.
Is CJ Affiliate For You?
CJ Affiliate is a go-to platform for affiliate marketing professionals that want to work with more exclusive brands in the market. Additionally, it has a good reputation in the industry, making it a great choice for people who want to explore but keep their risk to a minimum.
See how CJ stacks up ClickBank in our ClickBank vs CJ guide!
7) Shopify
I had to include Shopify in here, just because it gets brought up so often!
Contrary to popular belief, Shopify is not a direct competitor of ClickBank. Shopify gives you the ability to start your own e-commerce store and is intended for product owners, while ClickBank makes it possible to promote other people’s products as an affiliate.
If you want to be an affiliate, go with ClickBank. If you just want to sell your own product, consider Shopify. And of course, if you want to get help from affiliates to sell your product, go with ClickBank!
The point here is, ClickBank is more of a complement to Shopify. If you manage a Shopify store and you’re selling your products there, you can turn one or more of your products into a direct response-style offer on ClickBank and encourage affiliates to promote them for a commission!
This can give you greater brand exposure, more overall sales, and a new customer acquisition channel with people you can sell to on the back end. Win-win!
NOTE: While Shopify advertises its own affiliate program, this is focused on growing Shopify by getting more people to sign up for a paid plan and sell products through Shopify.
You can sign up for Shopify’s own affiliate program if you’re an entrepreneur, content creator, influencer, coach, etc. with a relevant audience of business owners. However, unlike ClickBank or other affiliate networks mentioned in this blog, the only product you would be promoting with Shopify’s program is a paid Shopify plan to prospective merchants or product owners.
Ultimately, when it comes to Shopify, there’s no reason why you can’t do both! ClickBank won’t help you build an e-commerce store like Shopify does, but we do support you in building an affiliate program for your business – and we even offer a free custom Shopify integration so you can pipe all customer data and order details from Clickbank to your Shopify store for fulfillment.
8) ShareASale
Last but not least, ShareASale is one of the strongest ClickBank alternatives because it has a lot of different products. ShareASale is a truly massive global affiliate network that focuses on physical products. However, despite being at such a mammoth scale, ShareASale has a stricter selection process than ClickBank.
Plus, ShareASale has a system that filters out non-performing or poor-performing affiliate marketing professionals in due time. It doesn’t always warn them while doing so. As a result, ShareASale might not be the best network to use as a beginner or when experimenting with new affiliate marketing methods.
Let’s get some more insights into this self-described CPS network and see if it is a good fit for you!
Product Type
ShareASale primarily focuses on physical products and offers various choices for its affiliate marketing members. They have top products from categories such as gardening products, fashion, green appliances, and business equipment.
Commission Model
ShareASale has many different commission types to offer to its affiliates. It supports CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead), CPS (cost per sale), as well as CPC (cost per click) commission variants. The amount of commission earned by affiliates for each product can vary massively, based on the type of commission program offered by the merchant.
Having multiple product choices can help you build a strategy that maximizes your ROI.
Minimum Payout
ShareASale has a default minimum payment threshold of $50. However, this threshold can be set higher.
Payment Methods
If you have signed up with ShareASale as a marketing affiliate, you can get paid via check, direct deposit, international direct deposit, wire transfer, and Payoneer.
Even international affiliate members can select between multiple payment options, unlike other affiliate marketing networks we’ve covered in this blog, which may offer only 1 payment method to their international affiliates.
Is ShareASale For You?
ShareASale is a good option for affiliate marketers who want more variety in physical products. While ClickBank has an elaborate database, ShareASale has some excellent physical product offers.
However, if you’re a beginner, becoming an affiliate with this network can be challenging, as it has a strict selection process. In fact, low-performing affiliates may also get booted off the system many times without warning.
Learn more about ClickBank vs ShareASale in our guide!
ClickBank Alternatives Wrap-up: Is ClickBank For You?
We acknowledge that there are quite a few good players in the affiliate marketing industry, especially if you’re a publisher. ClickBank’s track record remains impressive, however, with over $6 billion in commissions paid out to our clients.
Even if you’re a beginner, ClickBank has a huge community of star affiliate marketers who regularly share their knowledge and expertise! It can be a great platform for finding affiliate marketing mentors and building a successful affiliate marketing career.
ClickBank is also unparalleled when it comes to affiliate education and resources, with a popular YouTube channel, comprehensive blog, and expert Affiliated podcast!
Get Started With ClickBank
If you’re interested in giving ClickBank a try, check out our free “Getting Started” course – perfect for brand-new affiliates and affiliates new to ClickBank’s marketplace. You can begin your ClickBank journey here, today!
And if you’ve got a product to sell? As an offer owner, advertiser, or merchant, sign up with ClickBank as a seller to list your products and get them promoted by some of the most talented affiliate marketers in the world!
We hope this guide helped you find the right affiliate network for you – and that ClickBank is one of them. If you haven’t already signed up for a free ClickBank account, begin today!