Are you looking for the best affiliate programs and networks? Bingo.
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for about 12 years now (story how I got started in affiliate marketing). Over time, I’ve used and tested dozens of different affiliate programs and networks.
One of the biggest hurdles in affiliate marketing is finding trustworthy affiliate networks that have advertisers with products you would like to promote.
Unfortunately, not all affiliate networks are honest, keeps up with their payments, and have stable tracking.
Luckily, I have done the hard work for you – this blog post is created to help you find the best affiliate programs & networks 2019/2020.
Want to learn affiliate marketing?
If you’re still a newbie and want to learn the affiliate game, then check out this post on how to get started in affiliate marketing as a beginner.
Alternatively, you can jump right into my affiliate marketing course (currently free) teaching you how to create your first affiliate website in 7 simple steps.
I also frequently share fresh insights from my affiliate journey on my Instagram.
List of affiliate networks
Find most of the world’s affiliate networks globally in the list below, ranked by users. It will get updated with new programs and networks continuously.
* The table is sorted by user votes. If you have used an affiliate network and had a positive experience, consider clicking the star to vote it up.
Affiliate networks – Full comparison
The list of affiliate networks was updated Oct 2020.
Reviews of the 12 best affiliate networks & programs
The best affiliate programs of 2019 & 2020: my own personal favorite affiliate networks are listed below. Click to read the reviews.
- CJ.com
- Amazon
- Awin
- ShareASale
- Adtraction
- Adservice
- Adrecord
- Digital Advisor
- DoAffiliate
- TradeDoubler
- LeadGid
- DoubleResults
1. CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
CJ is another probably the biggest affiliate network, having thousands of affiliate marketing programs to choose from, that is kinda known worldwide. The dashboard itself is relatively easy and grabbing links isn’t too much of a hassle either.
CJ offers the best affiliate programs for beginners due to its simple registration process and large variety of brands, products and services to promote.
Worth to know
The major downside is lack of any customer support – you’ll need to dig deep in order to actually find answers to your questions and it can be pretty frustrating, especially if you have some urgent issues. And their reports are infamous for lagging, so you can expect to encounter some technical difficulties now and then.
Affiliate programs
As for the actual programs they have, the selection is so wide you can find pretty much anything there. Sports, travel, health, family, business, gifts, games – whatever you need, you’ll find a good program for it from CJ.
Markets
CJ is global and they facilitate transactions in more than 150 countries, so it’s very likely your country is one of them.
Sign up
2. Amazon Associates Program
Biggest range of affiliate products
Amazon is not a new name for most people and their Associates Program is one of the most popular monetization options for most USA-based affiliate websites since Amazon is the most popular shopping site in the country. If you’re from the USA, you’ll probably want to sign up for Amazon’s affiliate program.
Worth to know
Since Amazon is so huge, they have far stricter restrictions. They have just a 24-hour cookie and there are tons of things you can’t do or you’ll be kicked out of the program – for example, you can never mention prices in your text and you can’t use Amazon photos (or any other product photos really) if you are not using Amazon’s own API.
Markets
Technically, however, anyone can sign up. 10 other countries besides the USA have their own storefronts and separate Associates Programs: Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, China, Japan, and India.
Even if you’re located outside of those countries though, you can sign up. Amazon ships products everywhere, just with certain limitations (and not all products can be shipped).
Sign up
3. Awin
Affiliate giant in Europe
Awin might be better known for some as Affiliate Window – Awin network combines together Affiliate Window and Zanox networks. With more than 6000 advertisers they are one of the biggest networks in Europe. Their selection is a little more condensed though as they primarily focus on 4 categories: finance & insurance, retail & shopping, telecom, and travel.
Markets
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and USA.
Sign up
4. ShareASale
One of the biggest network worldwide
No affiliate network list wouldn’t be complete without this giant of a network. ShareASale is without a doubt one of the biggest affiliate networks in the entire world. They have an impressive selection of affiliate programs (and by impressive we’re talking about thousands of affiliate programs), ranging from home & automotive products to education.
Affiliate programs
Basically, whatever you want to promote, there’s probably a fitting affiliate program in ShareASale.
Since ShareASale is US-based, most of their programs are also targeted towards USA customers. Another con is the lack of customer support. They do have a help desk but don’t expect to receive help from a personal affiliate manager.
Markets
As mentioned, most programs are tailored more for North American clients, but ShareASale accepts members from all over the world. Here’s a complete list of all the countries they accept. When applying for affiliate programs, just make sure the program offers products that can be shipped or used in your country too.
Sign up
5. Adtraction
High quality network for Scandinavia
Adtraction is the biggest and the best affiliate network in Sweden and other Nordic countries. Having cooperated with them for almost 10 years, they’ve always had stellar service and timely payouts.
Adtraction are very keen to help you grow, negotiate better commissions for you, and always there to help when you need support.
Affiliate programs
The offer selection is not too shabby either. They make sure to only offer the highest quality affiliate programs. Finance services have the biggest weight there, but you can find offers for just about anything, starting from clothing and ending with insurance or interior products (though other categories are rather thin in comparison to finance products).
Markets
Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.
Sign up
6. Adservice
A reliable network with plenty of functionality
Adservice is one of the most reputable affiliate networks in Europe – they have over 4000 publishers and over 1000 campaigns. Beyond that, they collaborate with various trustworthy brands and have a relatively simple dashboard, so using the platform shouldn’t be much hassle for beginners either.
To top that off, payouts are timely, they have loads of different tracking tools and their affiliate managers are friendly and helpful. It’s pretty much the full package for any starting affiliate marketer!
Markets
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, USA, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Poland.
Sign up
7. Adrecord
Remarkable support
Adrecord is based in Sweden and excels with their great modern dashboard. Their selection is the biggest for Sweden – altogether you can find 255 different programs, ranging from beauty and clothing to sports or home & interior. The payout limit is 500 SEK and they will pay on 15th every month. Adrecord offers remarkable support to its affiliates.
Adrecord has a big focus on fashion and shopping, but offers many affiliate programs in other categories as well.
Markets
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland.
Sign up
8. Digital Advisor
Young network in Denmark
Digital Advisor is a pretty new company, having worked in the Danish market for 5 years. They have a remarkable selection of programs for Denmark (and a few other countries) – you can find anything from finances and e-commerce offers to travel services. Altogether they have around 300 different programs to choose from. As an extra perk, you’ll also have personal affiliate manager.
Markets
Argentina, Poland, Norway, Denmark (their main market), Sweden, Spain, Finland.
Sign up
9. DoAffiliate.net
Network focusing on financial programs
DoAffiliate.net, which is created by a Latvian company, is completely focused on financial products, but also has some health related programs. In fact, they’ve even said that finance is their specialty. If there’s one downside to using DoAffiliate, it’s their relatively clunky reporting system which can take some time getting used to.
Markets
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Russia, Georgia, Mexico, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Indonesia, Sweden, Denmark, Panama.
Sign up
10. Tradedoubler
An old giant
Tradedoubler has a long history and their reach is huge – over 2000 brands. If there’s one downside to using Tradedoubler, it’s the dashboard which is a little clunky and not as functional nor modern as you might wish. Tradedoubler is known for not staying up to date with their user interface, and the support is not the best.
However, they still have a huge portfolio of high quality affiliate programs.
Markets
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam.
Sign up
11. LeadGid
Financial programs for eastern Europe
LeadGid is based in Estonia but has its roots in Russia which you can also notice on their platform since some texts might be in Russian. They are very specifically tailored to financial products though they have some other categories featured as well. However, finance products are their bread and butter.
LeadGid stands out for exceptional support from affiliate managers and quick, timely payouts. Not once have they missed with any payment amounts and they always pay almost on the same day after sending them an invoice. Payout limit is also fairly small – 50 euros.
Markets
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Russia.
Sign up
12. DoubleResults
Network for the Baltics
Estonian based affiliate network DoubleResults is fairly small, but they have friendly and supportive customer service and timely payments each month – they have never missed any payments and everything runs smoothly. Also, they don’t have any payout limits.
Similarly to many others, they are focused on financial products, but they offer some e-commerce programs and they have an affiliate program themselves too.
Markets
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Denmark.
Sign up
Best affiliate programs by markets & niches
To help you further, I have made top 3 lists sorted by markets and niches.
Best networks by market
🇺🇸 United States (US)
US has the largest pool of affiliate networks and programs. There’s many good ones. These are the best affiliate networks for the US market according to my experience:
🇬🇧 United Kingdom (UK)
My experience of UK is limited. Affiliate networks for the UK market I recommend:
🇪🇺 EU/Europe
Europe has the best quality support and most high-tech networks and programs when it comes to functionality. It’s difficult to rank them, but here is the list:
🇸🇪 Sweden
Best affiliate networks for Sweden:
Best networks by niche
Finance programs
Personally, I have a lot of experience with financial affiliate programs, since this is our main project. Here’s my top 3 for finance:
️ Travel programs
I have limited knowledge here, but my best guess for the travel niche:
Health programs
Affiliate programs for the health niche:
Education programs
App Development programs
| Rank | Affiliate network | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Shoutem | Sign up |
| #2 | ||
| #3 |
Trust & reliability – use only the top affiliate networks
It’s never easy to know if an affiliate program is trustworthy and reliable. Personally, I have been unfortunate multiple times and picked a bad card:
- In one case, the network declared bankruptcy, leaving me with almost €30 000 unpaid. Ouch.
- Times without number, I’ve discovered that tracking was not working. Networks who lets that happens for long periods of time is a big no.
- Multiple smaller networks have just shut down unexpectedly. Sometimes they paid, sometimes they didn’t.
So how can you avoid it? My advice is to just stick with the top affiliate programs, big brands who got a great reputation, if you’re going to have direct tracking (no network).
When it comes to networks, you can experiment more (networks have less reasons to scam you compared to specific affiliate programs), but don’t rely too much on the smaller unknown affiliate networks for the majority of your revenue.
Focusing on the biggest and best affiliate networks will definitely be the easiest way to reduce risk.
Build passive income with affiliate marketing programs
I’ve been living on passive income from affiliate marketing for more than a decade now.
It took a lot of hard work and patience to get here, but today I’m really living my dream, making more than 6 figure per month, solely from my affiliate projects.
I’ve created 7 step affiliate course for people who wants to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing, including how to choose a niche, setup a host, choosing the right affiliate programs and all other steps you need to get started as an affiliate. It’s currently a free course.
Read more about the affiliate marketing course.