There’s a lot to love about digital product affiliate programs.

Unlike physical products, these digital apps, courses, tools, and platforms are created just once and can be sold an unlimited number of times. This means producers can often offer higher commissions. And there’s the potential for recurring income on subscriptions and plans, too.

Today, there are countless online solutions to everyday needs, from online courses to VPNs to marketing tools and platforms, which means there’s no shortage of ways to earn money selling digital products.

To help you separate the great from the good (and the just plain bad), we’ve analyzed the best digital product affiliate programs and networks.

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1 ExpressVPN

Our growing desire for online anonymity has sparked a surge in demand for VPNs.

ExpressVPN is one of the most popular. And it’s also one of the best: our research into the top VPN affiliate programs reveals ExpressVPN is the most commonly #1-ranked provider among big news sites.

The VPN appeals to a wide audience, with dedicated apps for any platform or device you could name — from Android, iOS, and Windows to PlayStation and Xbox.

ExpressVPN’s affiliate program has a flexible commission structure, with rates increasing based on sales volume. But as standard, you’ll earn $13 for a one-month subscription, $22 for a six-month package, and $36 for every 12-month plan you sell.

URL: ExpressVPN affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: $13 – $36 per sale
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: VPN software
Payment methods: PayPal, wire transfer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Brand creatives, dedicated affiliate account manager, specialized landing pages, affiliate marketing newsletter, optimization advice

2 Shopify

One in five retail sales now happens online, set to rise to one-quarter by 2026. So it’s not hard to figure out why so many people want to start their own ecommerce store.

Enter Shopify, the tool that helps them turn their dreams of ecommerce success into reality. The platform’s user-friendly interface and educational resources make it simple for even the technically-challenged to build an online store from scratch. That’s why millions of merchants in 170+ countries trust it.

Shopify offers a three-day free trial with no credit card required, giving affiliate marketers an easy way to close the deal. When your referred customers buy a paid plan within 14 days of clicking your affiliate link, you’ll earn a fixed bounty commission of up to $150 (depending on the plan they choose).

Before applying for Shopify’s affiliate program, bear in mind you must have your own website with an established audience and original content. Plus experience with Shopify or a different ecommerce platform is a prerequisite. That’s right: no noobs here.

URL: Shopify affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: Up to $150 per sale
Cookie duration: 14 days
Products/Services sold: Ecommerce marketing software
Payment methods: PayPal
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Creative assets, pre-made lead magnets, detailed performance insights, affiliate marketing dashboard

Read more:

Shopify Affiliate Program Review

3 WP Engine

WordPress is far and away the world’s most popular website builder and content management system. In fact, if we had 100 website-owning affiliates reading this right now, 43 of them would have WordPress sites.

However, WordPress isn’t quite as intuitive as more dedicated (and pricier) website builders like Squarespace and Wix. You still need a hosting provider, and you might want to buy a WordPress theme, which is where WP Engine comes in.

While there are lots of cheaper hosting providers out there, WP Engine stands out with its superb customer support — it boasts a 96% satisfaction score — and watertight security, which blocks 26+ billion attacks yearly.

WP Engine also has an excellent affiliate program, paying $200 for every hosting plan sale, even if the customer only chooses a $30/month plan. Alternatively, if you sell a higher-priced plan (say, $600/month), your earnings are worth the customer’s month #1 payment.

As if that wasn’t enough, WP Engine also pays a 35% commission on sales of website themes.

URL: WP Engine affiliate program
Managed by: ShareASale
Commission rate: Up to $200 or the value of the first month’s payment
Cookie duration: 180 days
Products/Services sold: WordPress hosting, website themes
Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, international direct deposit, wire transfer, Payoneer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Generic promo code (with custom codes for top performers), banners, co-branded landing pages, product data feed, bonus campaigns, affiliate marketing newsletter

4 Adobe

From storing and sharing files and documents to designing and editing images, videos, websites, and mobile apps, Adobe is the biggest name in digital marketing and creative software.

Adobe’s products appeal to a vast audience — individual creators, marketing and web design agencies, and even schools and universities — making it a good fit for affiliate marketers in a wide range of niches. And it offers regular signup incentives, such as student discounts and bundles, to help you close the deal.

(Just don’t look at their Trustpilot reviews.)

Given the range of products Adobe sells, its affiliate program has a somewhat complex commission structure, with rates varying between different products and contract types:

Product	Creative Cloud & Document Cloud	Adobe Stock
Monthly subscriptions	85% of first month	$72
Yearly subscriptions (monthly payment)	85% of first month	$72
Yearly subscriptions (one-time payment)	8.33% of first year	n/a
Single purchase	n/a	8.33%
Three assets per month	n/a	85% of first month

URL: Adobe affiliate program
Managed by: Partnerize
Commission rate: Varies
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: Creative, marketing, and document management solutions
Payment methods: Wire transfer, check, credit card, PayPal
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Marketing banners, text links, exclusive promotions, information on new releases and product launches, daily product-level reporting tools

5 MacPaw

Sick of that annoying popup insisting your Macbook lacks disk space (even though you’ve got, like, 30 GB free)? Want to protect your Mac from cybersecurity threats? Looking to unpack archived files or encrypt new ones?

MacPaw has a solution for all that stuff — and much more.

It (currently) offers 11 helpful apps, most of which are built specifically for Mac users. And its products have been featured in the world’s biggest tech publications (think Cult of Mac, Engadget, and Appleinsider), giving it superb brand awareness among techy audiences.

MacPaw’s affiliate program pays a default commission of 35% on all sales that convert within the generous 180-day cookie window.

However, affiliates can unlock higher commissions for hitting certain sales targets (e.g. your rate increases to 40% per sale for monthly volumes of $5,000 – $9,999.99).

URL: MacPaw affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: 35%+ per sale
Cookie duration: 180 days
Products/Services sold:
Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Localized landing pages, dedicated affiliate management, cross-device tracking, creative assets, performance-based incentives

6 Buzzsprout

Podcast listenership has risen by almost 200 million people since 2019 — and that number’s only going to keep increasing. For better or worse, this growing interest has convinced many of us to start our own podcasts. And Buzzsprout arms us with the tools to make it happen.

The platform provides podcast hosting, promotion, and tracking tools, and helps you reach the widest possible audience by listing your podcast on all the top directories (including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts).

It even offers a free-for-life plan including two hours of uploads per month, making Buzzsprout a very easy sell.

Speaking of selling, the Buzzsprout affiliate program pays $20 for every (paid) account you refer. To encourage would-be customers to click your affiliate link, your referrals receive $20 of credit, too.

Best of all, Buzzsprout has a lifetime cookie window. So even if your referrals don’t sign up for a paid account for years, you’ll still earn a commission.

URL: Buzzsprout affiliate program
Managed by: In-house
Commission rate: $20 per sale
Cookie duration: Lifetime
Products/Services sold: Podcasting software
Payment methods: PayPal
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Podcasting guides

7 Teachable

Know how to cook, make macramé wall hangings, or play the bassoon? Platforms like Teachable equip you with the tools to turn your talent into passive income.

Arguably the best thing about Teachable is its intuitive interface. It lets users create online courses or coaching services fast with its simple drag-and-drop builder. And it offers direct integrations with a host of other tools (including MailChimp, Zapier, and ConvertKit), giving course creators more ways to reach and engage their audiences.

Given its impressive feature set, it’s no surprise to learn that over 100,000 creators have used the platform to sell more than $1 billion in coaching and courses.

Teachable’s affiliate program pays 30% per sale — including 12 months of recurring commissions for annual plans. So you could earn hundreds of dollars from a single referral.

URL: Teachable affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: 30% per sale
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: Online course software
Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Marketing advice, monthly affiliate marketing newsletter

8 MailerLite

Most email software is basic and cheap or advanced and expensive.

MailerLite sits somewhere in between, with simple, affordable prices — including a superb free plan — and an impressive feature set that includes useful extras like transactional emails (be sure to mention this if you’re targeting ecommerce site owners).

It even lets users build websites, landing pages, and signup forms — and all those tools are available on every plan. Yep, even the free one.

So you shouldn’t have much trouble selling the benefits of MailerLite. And when you do, MailerLite’s affiliate program will pay you 30% recurring lifetime commissions for each successful referral.

To put that in context, if a customer you refer chooses a $27/month plan, you’ll earn $8.10 every month, for as long as they keep using the platform.

URL: MailerLite affiliate program
Managed by: In-house
Commission rate: 30% recurring lifetime commission
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: Email marketing tools
Payment methods: PayPal
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Professional branding and marketing assets, dedicated partner support, custom affiliate marketing dashboard

9 Notion

For anyone sick of juggling multiple tools and apps for jotting down meeting notes, project management, campaign planning, and company knowledge sharing, Notion is the perfect solution.

Broadly speaking, Notion is a productivity and note-taking tool, but that doesn’t really do it justice. With its building block-based interface, you can use it to create any type of page by adding to-do lists, code, videos, kanban boards, you name it.

In fact, we use Notion ourselves, and we can’t speak highly enough of it!

With Notion’s affiliate program, you earn 50% recurring commissions for 12 months on sales of new Plus, Business, or AI plans. Sell a two-person annual Plus plan (worth $200) and you’ll earn a total commission of $100.

URL: Notion affiliate program
Managed by: PartnerStack
Commission rate: 50% recurring commission for 12 months
Cookie duration: 90 days
Products/Services sold: Productivity and note-taking software
Payment methods: PayPal, Stripe
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Affiliates resource center containing promotional best practices, guides, and videos

10 FreshBooks

Ask any freelancer or small business owner about their least favorite part of their job, and we’ll bet you dollars to donuts they say invoicing. It’s boring, it takes a bunch of time, and it requires constant chasing up.

Yuck.

FreshBooks has the solution. Its simple, affordable accounting and invoicing software tracks unlimited expenses and sends unlimited invoices, saving customers up to 553 hours a year on mind-numbing paperwork. So it’s not hard to see why over 30 million users in 160+ countries use the platform.

Unlike most other affiliate programs, FreshBooks pays out on free trials. That’s right: you can earn up to $10 from a referral, even if the customer doesn’t actually buy anything.

But the real money comes from selling paid plans, with commissions starting at $55 per sale and rising to $200 for hitting certain volume-based targets.

URL: FreshBooks affiliate program
Managed by: ShareASale
Commission rate: Up to $200 per sale
Cookie duration: 120 days
Products/Services sold: Invoice and accounting software
Payment methods: Check, direct deposit, international direct deposit, wire transfer, Payoneer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Dedicated affiliate management team, article ideas, marketing strategy ideas, affiliate tools for performance tracking

11 Semrush

Semrush is one of the biggest and best-known digital marketing SaaS platforms, offering 40+ tools covering SEO, keyword research, competitor analysis, PPC, social media marketing, and more.

It’s trusted by some of the world’s top brands, including one in four Fortune 500 companies, and has over seven million users globally. All that brand awareness makes it easier to convince your audience to buy.

(And if they still have doubts, just persuade them to see for themselves by signing up for a free trial).

With Semrush’s affiliate program, you earn $0.01 for new account registrations and $10 per free trial. To earn the big bucks, you’ll need to promote Semrush subscriptions, which will net you up to $200 per sale.

URL: Semrush affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: Up to $200
Cookie duration: 120 days
Products/Services sold: SEO and content marketing software
Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Exclusive Semrush creatives, experienced account managers

12 MasterClass

When you’re learning a new skill, you want to feel like you’re being taught by the best of the best.

Enter MasterClass, an online course platform offering bite-sized classes from renowned experts, educators, and speakers like Noam Chomsky, Shea McGee, and Starbucks chairman Mellody Hobson.

MasterClass prices start at $10 per month for unlimited access. So it’s kind of like the Netflix of self-improvement (let’s face it, you’re probably not going to learn that much from Selling Sunset).

On the face of things, MasterClass is basically the same as Teachable. But its affiliate program works differently, because you get paid for referring learners rather than course creators.

As an affiliate marketer, you’ll pocket a 25% cut of every MasterClass sale you refer.

URL: MasterClass affiliate program
Managed by: Impact
Commission rate: 25% per sale
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: Online courses
Payment methods: PayPal, check, wire transfer, direct deposit, ACH transfer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Promo codes, deep linking, product catalog

13 Mindvalley

When it comes to self-improvement, there are various platforms offering online courses and classes. And then there’s Mindvalley, which is more like a lifestyle than a learning platform.

Sure, members get access to online lessons from leading educators, covering everything from body and soul to career and entrepreneurship. But they also get a bespoke curriculum that adapts to the individual user’s goals and interests, and access to an online community of fellow learners. Mindvalley even runs regular, continent-spanning live events.

Looking for trust factors to help seal the deal? Be sure to mention Mindvalley’s impressive client base, which includes the likes of Facebook, Google, and the UN.

All affiliate marketers who join Mindvalley’s program get free access to all the platform’s classes, worth $499 per year. You get a 30% cut from every referred sale, plus 10% on second-tier commissions.

With an average order value of $350 and EPCs of $1 – $4, there’s serious earning potential here.

URL: Mindvalley affiliate program
Managed by: In-house
Commission rate: 30% per sale
Cookie duration: 30 days
Products/Services sold: Online learning
Payment methods: Bank transfer, Payoneer
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Dedicated marketing manager, retargeting campaigns, success managers to convert leads, free creatives, email and social media copy, free masterclass funnel with a >20% conversion rate

14 Authority Hacker

Hey look, it’s us!

We’re Authority Hacker, and we help everyone from seasoned affiliate marketers to total noobs identify profitable affiliate niches, find easy-to-rank keywords, and generally build a more successful online business.

Since we started offering affiliate marketing training, we’ve helped over students launch and scale their affiliate websites, so we like to think we’re pretty good. And eBiz Facts agrees, ranking us #1 in their roundup of the Best Affiliate Marketing Courses.

Our affiliate program has a 60-day cookie window and pays up to $990 per sale, making it one of the highest-paying affiliate programs in any niche. Our top affiliates see EPCs of $15+.

However, we don’t partner with just anyone, so check out our affiliate requirements before applying.

URL: Authority Hacker affiliate program
Managed by: In-house
Commission rate: Up to $990 per sale
Cookie duration: 60 days
Products/Services sold: Affiliate marketing training
Payment methods: PayPal
Market(s): Global
Additional resources: Shared webinars and joint promotions, retargeting ads, high-quality educational resources (blogs and podcast episodes)

15 ClickBank

ClickBank isn’t actually an affiliate program; it’s an affiliate network and marketplace serving over 100,000 marketers and vendors.

The platform is home to thousands of digital products across various niches, from survival to sports to self-help. All products are vetted for FTC compliance, while ClickBank keeps close tabs on quality by monitoring refund rates — two major trust factors in a world of shady digital sales.

It’s also the second-most-popular affiliate network in the world, according to our affiliate marketing statistics.

Since launching in 1999, ClickBank has paid over $6 billion in commissions to affiliate marketers, so it’s certainly stood the test of time. And it claims to have never missed a payment.

Speaking of commissions, there are two ways to make money on ClickBank: revenue share and CPA. The former offers a percentage of each sale (with the potential for upsells and recurring commissions), while the latter pays a fixed dollar amount per sale — with no refunds.

URL: ClickBank affiliate network
Payment methods: Payoneer, check, direct deposit, wire transfer
Brands: Thousands of vendors worldwide

Why Promote Digital Products Affiliate Programs

There are several benefits to promoting digital products rather than physical ones.

Many digital products — such as hosting and email tools — make it easy for customers to cancel their accounts. Not only does that make for an easier sell, but it also gives you the chance to generate multiple sales from the same person by pointing them toward new tools and platforms.

They often offer free trials, too. Again, this makes it easier to close the deal. And some providers (like FreshBooks and Semrush) even pay a small commission for trial signups.

Another reason to promote digital products: some programs pay recurring commissions, which are far less common with physical sales. You might even get lifetime commissions, meaning you keep earning for as long as the customer keeps paying for the tool. That makes it possible to earn hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars from a single referral.

Read more:

Best Products For Affiliate Marketing

Conclusion

There are plenty of high-quality affiliate networks and programs in the digital products space.

But before you start picturing all those tasty commissions, you need to find a consistent source of traffic and clicks. In other words, you need to build your own website.

And there’s never been a better time to do it. Our affiliate marketing statistics show that the average affiliate marketer is making more than $8,000 per month.

If you’re interested in earning a substantial income online, we’re here to help.

Sign up for our free training today to learn seven insider secrets for building successful affiliate sites, including how to steal high-converting keywords from your competitors!