Affiliate Inventory | Best Hosting affiliate programs

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Best Hosting affiliate programs

8 Hosting affiliate programs compared on commission, cookie window and payout terms.

No clear winner — Cloudways and hosting.com lead on 4 of 8 compared terms each. Which one earns more still depends on your audience — the table below shows where each one wins.

Term by term

Best Hosting affiliate programs compared across 15 criteria
Criterion Bluehost Cloudways Top pick GoDaddy HostGator hosting.com InMotion Hosting Namecheap One.com
The money
Commission $65 $50–$125 Up To 30% Commission $65–$125 $55–$125 $50-$150 Per Sale 20–35% 50%
Pays for — Lifetime — — — — — —
Payout type One-time Tiered One-time One-time Tiered Tiered One-time One-time
Tier ladder No tiers Slab 1 $50 per sale, Slab 2 Rate not published, Slab 3 Rate not published, Slab 4 Rate not published; program maximum is $125 per sale, Super Affiliate Negotiated, Hybrid model $30 per sale plus 7% recurring for the customer's lifetime, Two-tier (sub-affiliates) 7% of the commission your recruited affiliates earn No tiers No tiers Entry $55/sale, Tier 2 $75/sale, Tier 3 $100/sale, Top tier $125/sale No tiers Domains (registrations and transfers) 20%, Hosting (Stellar, Reseller, VPS, Dedicated) 35%, SSL certificates 35%, Private Email 20%, PremiumDNS 20%, FastVPN (monthly plan) 100% of the first purchase, then 53% on the next six renewals, FastVPN (annual plan) 53%, RelateSocial (monthly plan) 50% of the first renewal, then 25% on the next eleven, RelateSocial (annual plan) 30% No tiers
Terms
Cookie window 30 days ✔ 90 days — 30 days ✔ 90 days ✔ 90 days 30 days —
Ease of starting 2.8 / 5 ✔ 3.5 / 5 — 3 / 5 2.5 / 5 ✔ 3.5 / 5 3.3 / 5 —
Approval Reviewed ✔ Instant — Reviewed Reviewed Reviewed Reviewed Reviewed
Our rating — — — — — — — —
Getting paid
Paid out Monthly (Processed about 45 days after the end of the month the sale accrued in. The affiliate agreement allows a 45 to 70 day window. Auto-payouts can be enabled.) Monthly (Paid during the last week of each month, provided the approved balance has cleared the threshold.) — Monthly (HostGator states payouts arrive two months and ten days after the end of the month the sale occurred in; its FAQ describes the same wait as about three months. The Newfold agreement says commissions are processed roughly 45 to 70 days after month end.) Monthly (Paid on the 15th of the month after your approved balance clears the threshold.) Monthly Monthly (On Impact you either pick a fixed payout day, the 1st or the 15th, or have it pay automatically once the balance clears the threshold. CJ pays on or around the 20th.) One.com promises payouts within 30 days but does not state a cycle; the actual schedule is set by CJ or Everflow.
Minimum payout ✔ $10 (Stated on Bluehost's own affiliate payouts article. The affiliate agreement itself leaves the threshold to Bluehost's discretion and to whatever platform you are paid through.) $250 (PayPal payouts require $250 in approved commission. Wire transfer is only offered to accounts clearing $1,000 or more per cycle. Taking earnings as Cloudways hosting credit has a lower $100 threshold.) — HostGator says there is no minimum number of referrals before your first payment, but does not publish a dollar threshold. The Newfold agreement states any minimum is governed by Impact. $100 Not published by InMotion. Any threshold is the one Impact applies to the account. ✔ $10 (On Impact the floor is $10 across all methods. Through CJ it is $50 for direct deposit and $100 for a paper cheque in USD, with lower equivalents in EUR and GBP.) Not published. Thresholds are governed by whichever network you join.
Clearing hold ✔ 45 days — — 70 days ✔ 45 days — — —
Payment methods PayPal, Direct deposit PayPal, Wire transfer, Cloudways account credit ACH, Check PayPal, ACH PayPal ACH, PayPal ✔ PayPal, Electronic funds transfer / ACH, Wire transfer, Cheque, Payoneer (CJ only) PayPal, Wire Transfer
Rules
Self-referral — — — — Prohibited Prohibited Prohibited —
Paid search ✔ Restricted ✔ Restricted — Prohibited ✔ Restricted ✔ Restricted ✔ Restricted —
Affiliate assets Banners, Creative assets, Affiliate dashboard, Marketing tools Promotional banners, Exclusive deal codes, Seasonal campaigns, Co-branded landing pages, Dedicated account manager Over 100 banner ads, Text links Affiliate links, Banners ✔ Banners, Text links, Deep linking, A/B tested landing pages, Real-time stats, Custom welcome email and landing page for top affiliates Tracking links, Banners and ad campaign creatives, Deep links to any page on the site, Custom landing pages Banners, Text links, Affiliate widget Tracking links, Real-time reporting

A ✔ marks the better term on that row. Rows where the programs match, where the terms aren't comparable, or where a program hasn't published a figure are left unmarked — a dash means unknown, not zero.

The programs

Related comparisons

Affiliate terms change often, and every figure here comes from each program's own published page on the date above. Confirm the current rate with the merchant before you promote it. Links to the programs are affiliate links.