EZ Affiliate comparison
ReferralCandy alternative: EZ Affiliate compared
EZ Affiliate and ReferralCandy both turn customers and creators into a sales channel, with refer a friend and affiliate programs in one app. EZ Affiliate has a free plan and one paid plan at a flat $19 a month. ReferralCandy starts at $39 a month plus a 10.5% success fee on referral sales, and has no free plan. EZ Affiliate also adds a points based loyalty program with VIP tiers, and keeps the affiliate dashboard inside your own store. ReferralCandy offers more kinds of reward, which matters if you want to pay referrers in cash or gift cards.
The short version
Choose EZ Affiliate when
- You want a flat price. EZ Affiliate is free, or $19 a month. ReferralCandy’s plans run from $39 to $799 a month, each with a success fee on referral sales.
- You do not want to share the revenue your program brings in. ReferralCandy’s success fee is 10.5% on Basic and 3.5% on Grow. Neither EZ Affiliate plan adds a fee on referral sales.
- You want to start on a free plan. EZ Affiliate Free covers 5 affiliates, 100 referrers and 100 loyalty members. ReferralCandy has a 7-day trial and no free plan.
- You want loyalty points with VIP tiers. EZ Affiliate gives points on every order, with VIP tiers and birthday points on Pro. ReferralCandy’s loyalty campaigns give store credit back, without points or reward tiers.
- You want affiliates to log in on your own store. The EZ Affiliate dashboard sits in your store’s customer accounts. ReferralCandy’s affiliate portal is hosted by ReferralCandy.
- You want referrers rewarded without any work. Store credit lands in the referrer’s account automatically once the reward clears.
- You want it live quickly. One setup wizard turns on referrers, affiliates and loyalty together.
ReferralCandy may suit you better if
- You want to pay referrers in cash, gift cards or free products. ReferralCandy lists all three, with payouts through PayPal and Tremendous. EZ Affiliate rewards referrers with store credit or a discount, and pays affiliates by PayPal or bank transfer.
- You want more tools for fraud and testing. ReferralCandy lists a Fraud Center, automatic blocking and A/B testing. EZ Affiliate holds every reward for 14 days and voids it if the order is refunded.
- You sell outside Shopify or need integrations. ReferralCandy also runs on BigCommerce and WooCommerce, connects to Klaviyo and subscription apps, and has an API.
At a glance
| EZ Affiliate | ReferralCandy | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans, per month | Free and $19 | $39, $79, $249 and $799 |
| Fee on referral sales | None | Success fee of 10.5%, 3.5%, 1.5% and 0.25% |
| Free plan | Yes: up to 5 affiliates, 100 referrers and 100 loyalty members | No. 7-day free trial. |
| Loyalty | Points on every order, with VIP tiers and birthday points on Pro | Store credit back on orders, without points or reward tiers |
| Where affiliates log in | Your store’s customer accounts | A portal hosted by ReferralCandy, with your branding |
| How plans differ | Free has limits on partners and members. Pro has none. | Every feature on every plan. Higher plans lower the success fee. |
| Rewards for referrers | Store credit, added automatically, or a discount on a product or collection | Discounts, cash, store credit, free products and custom rewards |
What you save
EZ Affiliate is free for small programs and a flat $19 a month after that. ReferralCandy has four plans, and each adds a success fee to its monthly price: $39 plus 10.5% on Basic, $79 plus 3.5% on Grow, $249 plus 1.5% on Scale and $799 plus 0.25% on Enterprise.
ReferralCandy charges the success fee on the order subtotal of new customers your program brings in, for each customer’s first three orders. So the bill rises as the program works. With $2,000 a month in referral sales from new customers, Basic comes to $249: $39 plus $210 in success fees. ReferralCandy’s own pricing example puts Grow at $499 for a month with $12,000 in referred revenue.
EZ Affiliate Pro stays at $19 in both cases. Against the Basic example that is $230 a month less, or about $2,760 over a year.
ReferralCandy does include every feature on every plan, so what you choose there is a volume level, not a feature set. If you need what it adds, such as cash rewards for referrers, that can be worth the fee. If you want referrals, affiliates and loyalty running for a known monthly cost, EZ Affiliate does it for less than half of ReferralCandy’s lowest monthly price, before any success fee.
A loyalty program with points and tiers
Both apps can reward repeat customers with store credit. ReferralCandy’s loyalty campaigns give a percentage of each order back as store credit, and its loyalty page says they do not include points, reward tiers or birthday rewards.
EZ Affiliate’s loyalty program is built on points. Customers earn 1 point for every $1 they spend on products, new members get a welcome bonus, and each time a member reaches a reward’s worth of points the app adds store credit to their account and emails them. On Pro you can add up to three VIP tiers that multiply points for your best customers, birthday points, and an expiry date on unused credit.
Customers follow their balance in a rewards panel on your storefront and on a Rewards page in their account.
Affiliates log in on your own store
EZ Affiliate puts the affiliate dashboard inside your store’s customer accounts. An approved affiliate logs in the way any customer does and sees their earnings, discount codes, a link generator, their orders and their payout history.
ReferralCandy’s advocate and affiliate portals are hosted by ReferralCandy with your branding, on a refr.cc address or your own subdomain. It also offers a customer account extension that shows a customer’s referral link and rewards.
Where each feature sits
ReferralCandy includes every feature on every plan, so its column shows what you get from Basic ($39 a month plus a 10.5% success fee). EZ Affiliate’s column shows the lowest plan for each feature.
| Feature | EZ Affiliate | ReferralCandy |
|---|---|---|
| Refer a friend program | Free, for up to 100 referrers. Unlimited on Pro. | Every plan |
| Affiliate program | Free, for up to 5 affiliates. Unlimited on Pro. | Every plan |
| Loyalty | Points on every order that turn into store credit, on every plan | Store credit back on orders, without points |
| VIP tiers and birthday points | Pro ($19) | Not part of its loyalty campaigns |
| Where affiliates log in | Your store’s customer accounts | A hosted portal, on a refr.cc address or your own subdomain |
| Invitations after checkout | Thank you page, order status page and email, on every plan | Post-purchase popup, floating widget and thank you page extension |
| Automatic payouts | PayPal, from your own PayPal Business balance, on Pro ($19) | PayPal and Tremendous payouts |
| Refund protection | Rewards and commissions held for 14 days and voided on refund | Review periods, a Fraud Center and automatic blocking |
| Rewards for referrers | Store credit, or a discount on a product or collection | Discounts, cash, store credit, free products and custom rewards |
| Tiered referral rewards | Not listed | FlexiTiers |
| Integrations and API | Not listed | Klaviyo, subscription apps, Zapier, and an API with webhooks |
| Store platforms | Shopify | Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace and Magento 2 |
EZ Affiliate plans
Free covers small programs, and Pro removes the limits for one flat price. Plans are billed in USD every 30 days through Shopify.
| Plan | Price | What it includes or adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Up to 5 affiliates, 100 referrers and 100 loyalty members. The affiliate signup form and in-store dashboard, tracking by link and discount code, automatic store credit for referrers, loyalty points that turn into store credit, and manual affiliate payouts by PayPal or bank transfer. |
| Pro | $19 / month | Unlimited affiliates, referrers and loyalty members. Automatic PayPal payouts, multiple commission levels, custom discount codes for affiliates, a customizable signup form and emails, bulk customer invites, VIP tiers, birthday points and store credit expiry. |
How EZ Affiliate works
- Three programs from one setup. A setup wizard turns on affiliates, referrers and loyalty in any combination and walks you through each one. Nothing is locked in: every choice can be changed later in Settings.
- Tracked by link and by code. Every partner gets a referral link and a discount code. A link click is remembered in the shopper’s browser for 30 days, and a discount code credits the order on any device. The tracker embed in your theme does the work, so switch it on first.
- A portal inside your store. Approved affiliates log in to your store’s customer accounts and find their earnings, discount codes, a link generator, orders and payout history. There is no third party login to explain.
- Refunds are caught first. Commissions and rewards stay pending for 14 days after the order and are voided if it is refunded in that time, so you do not pay out on returned orders.
- Payouts on a schedule. Payout bills are generated on the 1st and 16th of each month for affiliates whose cleared balance meets your threshold, $50 by default. Pay them by PayPal or bank transfer and mark each bill paid, or on Pro let the app send PayPal payouts automatically from your PayPal Business account.
- Rewards that spend themselves. Referrers and loyalty members receive Shopify store credit automatically, and Shopify offers it at checkout whenever the customer is signed in. The loyalty program runs on Shopify’s new customer accounts.
Switching from ReferralCandy to EZ Affiliate
You can set EZ Affiliate up on the Free plan first, then switch your invitations over once it is tested.
- Install EZ Affiliate and run the setup wizard. Turn on the programs you want (affiliates, referrers, loyalty) and the wizard walks you through each one. You can start on the Free plan.
- Set up refer a friend. Choose what a referrer earns, for example $10 in store credit, and the discount their friend receives. Then add the post-purchase block to your thank you page and turn on the post-purchase email, so every customer is invited after they buy.
- Set your affiliate terms. Choose the commission rate, the discount an affiliate’s customers receive, PayPal or bank transfer as the payout method, and the payout threshold.
- Import your affiliates. Upload a CSV file with
email,first_name,last_nameandcodecolumns. Each affiliate is created active with their existing Shopify discount code attached, so codes they have already shared keep working. A template is on the import page. - Add the affiliate dashboard to customer accounts. Affiliates log in to your store to see their earnings and add the PayPal email they want to be paid at. Each one gets a new link in the form
yourstore.com?ref=CODE, so ask them to replace any old links. - Switch on the tracker embed. It is the part of your theme that reads referral links and credits each order to the right partner, and it shows the loyalty Rewards button.
- Launch loyalty when you are ready. Pick how much customers get back (1% to 20% of what they spend), the size of each reward and a welcome bonus. Points then turn into store credit by themselves. If you ran a loyalty campaign in ReferralCandy, switch it off first so nobody is rewarded twice.
- Place a test order. Open a referral link, place an order and check that it appears on the Orders page under the right partner.
Each step is covered in the EZ Affiliate documentation.
Common questions
Is EZ Affiliate cheaper than ReferralCandy?
Yes. EZ Affiliate is free for up to 5 affiliates, 100 referrers and 100 loyalty members, and Pro is a flat $19 a month. ReferralCandy’s plans are $39, $79, $249 and $799 a month, each with a success fee on referral sales of 10.5%, 3.5%, 1.5% or 0.25%.
Does EZ Affiliate charge a success fee?
No. Neither plan adds a fee on the sales your referrers and affiliates bring in. Free costs nothing and Pro is $19 a month, with no limit on affiliates, referrers or loyalty members.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. Free covers up to 5 affiliates, 100 referrers and 100 loyalty members, with automatic store credit for referrers and manual affiliate payouts. Pro is $19 a month and removes every limit.
Does EZ Affiliate run both referral and affiliate programs?
Yes, and a loyalty program as well. Referrers are customers who share with friends and earn store credit. Affiliates are creators and influencers who earn a commission on each order, paid by PayPal or bank transfer. You can move a partner from one program to the other at any time.
How are referrers rewarded?
You choose a fixed reward per successful referral, either Shopify store credit or a discount on a product or collection, and the discount the referred friend receives. Store credit is added to the referrer’s account automatically once the reward clears its 14-day pending period.
Do affiliates need a separate login?
No. The affiliate dashboard is a page inside your store’s customer accounts. Approved affiliates log in to your store and see their earnings, discount codes, a link generator, their orders and their payout history.
Can I move my affiliates from ReferralCandy?
Yes. Use Import affiliates on the Partners page and upload a CSV file with email, first_name, last_name and code columns. Each affiliate is created active with their existing Shopify discount code attached, so sales through codes they have already shared keep being tracked.
How we compared
Details about ReferralCandy come from its Shopify App Store listing, its own pricing and loyalty pages and its help center as they read on November 11, 2026. Prices, plans and fees change, so check them before you decide. ReferralCandy is the property of its owner. Casual Ecommerce makes EZ Affiliate and is not affiliated with ReferralCandy.
Start with EZ Affiliate for free
Install EZ Affiliate from the Shopify App Store and launch on the Free plan. Pro is a flat $19 a month when you outgrow it.