11 Best Referral Programs to Earn Money [Researched In-Deapth]

Have you already searched for the best referral programs to increase your income? We couldn’t agree more that such programs can multiply your monetization channels. And it’s really accessible to anyone. With minimal effort, referrals can provide you with additional sources of income.

Should you choose from you-think-can-be-successful referral program examples and iron out your flow? Is it that simple? To answer that question, we’ve done some heavy lifting and packed referral programs that can work best for digital marketing in 2025. 

Get full info with numbers below so you can choose with knowledge and grow more revenue with a few clicks.

What is a referral program?

Before we start, let’s figure out a few things. First of all, a referral program is a marketing approach used by companies and e-commerce businesses to reward existing customers for the promotion of a brand or product. It’s simply done through recommendations to friends, family, and acquaintances.

This strategy is what we call word-of-mouth marketing (WOM). It’s best known by a variety of names, like a referral-associated program, refer-a-friend program (RAF), advocate program, invite-a-friend, customer reward program, loyalty program, referral rewards program, etc.

It favorably helps any company to increase customer acquisition, and of course, it rewards customers with referral bonuses, credits, discounts, free products, recurring and bounty commissions for new sales, or real cash as a percentage of a sum.

Best referral-focused programs greatly enhance your long-term revenue. Make sure you harness a simple-flow, successful referral customer program.

How does a referral program work?

The major ingredient of the refer-a-friend program is referral software. It monitors referrals made by satisfied customers. Depending on the referral campaign, programs can use promo codes, rewards cards, referral codes, and similar means for tracking.

The referral marketing software orchestrates the entire referral process and transfers bonuses or payout rewards to loyal customers, aka brand promoters.

So, it works great for each member of the team. Companies acquire new customers, brand promoters get regular referral rewards, and happy customers get great product or service recommendations from their friends.

For example, if Publishers take up a referral-based program with Adsterra ad network, they get 5 % rewards per sum spent by their invited acquaintances. The more referrals a publisher facilitates, the more revenue grows. As simple as that!

Referral marketing vs. affiliate marketing

Now, to avoid confusion, let’s differentiate referral and affiliate marketing. They have much in common, as they both refer to performance marketing. Still, these are two different things. Why? Let’s highlight the main features of each way to earn.

Affiliate marketing stands for accumulative brand promotion carried out by affiliate marketers, YouTube vloggers, content creators who usually earn money from their websites or blogs, etc. Businesses reward these affiliates for generating leads, sales, or other targeted users’ actions.

With a referral marketing program as an example, you can generate additional revenue simply through recommendations and have enough time to carry out your main activities. It gives you more independence and control of your time. It looks like a great addition to your monetization strategy without much hassle.

The table below will help you choose between the two if you are in the decision-making process.

How to choose referral programs?

Let’s have a thought-through analysis of what to look for in a referral program that companies offer as a customer acquisition tool and earning method.

We put together the most workable points to keep close at hand when you select a successful referral program to make money:

• Frequency and promptness of getting your payouts
• Reputation and reliability of referral business
• Your personal preferences and those of your audience, colleagues, and your overall network
• Intuitive application dashboard
• Transparent monetization tracking capabilities within your referral dashboard
• Easy-to-ease mechanics and processes of referrals
• Reward you want: extra money, bonus, or discount for the product
• Threshold amount to withdraw your earnings 

Best variety of referral programs

Not every initiative is such a success. There are indeed a lot of examples of referral programs and possibilities for becoming a referral partner for a program. You need to see what is currently trending in the market and what fits you and your network as the go-to solution. 

In addition to that, always read the Programs’ Terms and Conditions carefully to understand how referrals work. As it usually looks like an Everest climb, we’ll explore a few interesting programs in digital space together.

We’ll dive a little deeper into the available offers, and that might save you time researching for a win-win solution. Get a nice cup of coffee, and let’s go for it.

Advertising networks

1. Adsterra Referral Program

Adsterra is the most straightforward example of a referral program that we’ll use to explain all the nuances so you can be aware of what to expect.

Adsterra’s Publishing Partners use a unique referral link from their dashboard account to earn extra income. They share the referral link with their peers and invite friends, other website owners, webmasters, and bloggers to start monetizing with Adsterra’s ads. 

New Partners can choose Popunder, In-Page Push, Social Bar Ads, Interstitials, or Smartlink (Direct Links) and place them on their websites and/or social media. 

When your referrals use the Link to sign up as a Publisher, Adsterra will receive a notification from the software that the referral comes from you – our referring Partner. Adsterra will provide 5% of your referrals’ earnings to your regular payouts. And that’s a commission per EVERY revenue of your referrals on a REGULAR basis.

With Adsterra referral program, you enjoy:

• Intuitive dashboard to go about without the irritation of looking for what you need.

• Transparent metrics tracking of money payouts for your every successful referral.

• A variety of payment methods, including in your local currencies. You can get in-depth information on what currency you can earn rewards in with Adsrerra.

• The minimum amount to withdraw your earned money.

How to get your link to earn money:

1. Sign up or log in.
2. Open the Referrals page once in your publisher’s account.
3. Copy a unique INVITE LINK, aka a referral link. For better performance capabilities, you can choose a piece of code with a link for:
   • your website
   • other usage
4. Paste your link to the suitable place and start earning from your referrals! (We’ll provide you with tips on where to insert any link in a minute!)

You can become Adsterra’s Publisher and a referral Partner anytime. Go through quick registration to see how it works.

Hosting

2. Bluehost

Bluehost provides everything necessary for building a successful online presence, including fast hosting and e-commerce capabilities. To enlarge their customer base, they also encourage customers to join in.

When you refer someone to Bluehost, you become a referrer and receive a unique link that allows you to earn referral rewards. A successful referral is made when you’ve managed to motivate a new customer who purchases Bluehost hosting services.

Please note: 

• Terms and conditions.
• The total limit of 500 people for participation.
• Your referral must purchase hosting and some add-on essential services.
• You must be a resident of the United States, participating in the program as a referrer.

3. Hostinger

It is a popular global web hosting provider. It offers reliable and reasonably priced services to its customers. Their refer-a-friend program will allow you to earn up to $200 for a friend invite.

Please note: 

• FAQ
• New referrals are unlimited
• Both the referrer and referral, existing and new customers get perks (i.e., double-sided referral programs).
• Referrers get 20% of the purchase price of a valid sale.
• Referral needs to buy a yearly hosting plan or longer web hosting or VPS plan.
• 20% off is given to your friend through your referral link.
• The payout is carried out after a 30-day money-back guarantee on their hosting services, plus 15 for accounting and administrative purposes.
• You get payouts through PayPal or a wire transfer.
• Once you earn over US$ 50 or US$ 200, depending on your payment method, you’ll be able to withdraw your money.
• To register, please go to Hostinger.

4. Fasthosts

The UK-based Fasthosts provides its customers with hosting services and the latest security in hardware, features, and some easy-to-use site-building tools. With the motto that friends stick together and save together, it presents referral program software, a control panel for current customers, and their own referral program.

Please note: 

• Terms and conditions
• Referrers have to be current customers.
• Unlimited referrals and earnings.
• You get £20 in credit with each successful referral signup.
• Invited customers get a 1-month free trial on some products.
• Invited customers must not be existing customers during the last six months.
• There must be no conjunction with other promotions, cash-back, or voucher offers.

5. HostGator

Since 2002, HostGator helps pros and newcomers to host their products and grow their web presence. With 30% of existing customers being web pros, the company has 2 million+ sites hosted. It rewards customers for referrals to their program. You get access to reports and earnings, links and banners, and viewing important announcements at the affiliate portal.

Please note: 

• Terms of Services
• New customers can get access to better prices
• It pays you for valid sales with a 2-month turnaround time and with 10 days added after the month the sale took place
• To register, please visit HostGator

6. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting is the hosting service that helps launch a website and allows you to start with web hosting in minutes. You don’t need to sign up specifically for the program, the refer-a-friend program link is in your A2 Hosting account if you are a customer.

Please note: 

• More info.
• You earn a $50 hosting credit for everyone you refer.
• Referred customers must be new customers and have your unique tracking URL.
• To register, please go to A2 Hosting.

Cloud storage

7. Dropbox

Dropbox allows you to share, store, and work with files using a unified cloud platform, as well as streamlining remote work and boosting efficiency. You can go through swift registration on their referral page.

Please note: 

• How-to-manual.
• Paid fee reward is up to 32 GB.
• Your newly referred customers receive 500 MB of extra free storage.
• It’s impossible to apply referrals with Dropbox team accounts.
• It’s applicable to users Dropbox Basic, Plus, Family, and Professional.
• To sign up, please install the Dropbox desktop app.

Email Marketing

8. GetResponse

Being a digital marketing platform, GetResponse automates email marketing campaigns and maximizes your conversion funnel. Within their program, a customer refers acquaintances traditionally by sharing or posting a unique referral link.

Please note: 

• Terms and conditions.
• It’s unlimited invites to the referral website.
• Your potential referral reward is $30 credit per each referred customer for future payments.
• The limit accumulated sum is $480/year in credits.
• To register, please go to GetResponse.

9. ConvertKit

A popular email marketing service for bloggers, ConvertKit offers an affiliate program where bloggers can earn by referring others to their services. Kit helps automate routine tasks and space out more time to grow your business by streamlining email creation and smooth audience management.

Kit affiliate program allows for 50% commission for 12 months, plus 10-20% recurring income beyond 12 months if you reach the Bronze, Silver, or Gold tier.

Please note: 

• Terms and conditions.
• Your potential recurring commission is 30%.
• To sign up, please visit Kit.

Connect and SEO

10. SEO Surfer

Surfer presents an omni-featured platform for keyword research, content creation, optimization, content scaling, and better ranking. Their customer referral program example is more of an affiliate program. However, as it is indispensable and popular among bloggers and creators to rank their web pages high on Google, we included it in our list.

The commission structure is about CPA (cost-per-acquisition), where each referrer gets one-time commissions for new users who purchase. PartnerStack is the partnership management platform that provides resources and creatives, links for promotion, statistics tools, and withdrawal capabilities for your earnings.

Please note: 

• Terms of Service.
• You can get 75% CPA of first monthly subscription and 15% CPA of first yearly subscription.
• Referral rewards are calculated regularly at the end of the month.
• You can get cash rewards via PayPal or Stripe with other methods for non-PayPal regions.
• Commission becomes available 45 days after the user’s first purchase.
• To register, please visit SEO Surfer.

E-learning and blogging

11. Teachable

It is a platform for implementing online education. There is one more possibility to earn money for bloggers and creators who teach or want to promote courses. Not all referral programs are alike. So, we see a mixture of affiliate marketing and referral incentives here. With detailed campaign reporting and segmenting referred traffic, you can monitor campaigns for any period by conversions, clicks, etc.

Referral campaigns are based on Impact’s industry technology and payment processing platform. The platform tracks performance, and you earn a commission for referring creators to any page.

Please note: 

• FAQ.
• You earn a 30% commission for every referral signup via a unique referral code from the partner portal.
• The customer referral program gives you recurring commissions per one year (per sale).
• 30-day cookie window.
• To register, please sign up at Teachable.

How to promote a referral link effectively?

The other vital question remains. How would you apply referral promotion? Keep in mind that a link by itself might look spammy. To tackle that, do a little magic and accompany it with a nice story.

Use these practical tips on how exactly to stimulate your referrals.

Text links

This will work great if you have a blog or personal website with content devoted to digital marketing and monetization. You can create an appealing copy about your favorite business.

Blogs

Write a valuable write-up about the company you’d like to refer to. Or teach your audience some tips on how to make money with your site or social media traffic. Insert your invite link to the article or banner.

For example, if you register as an Adsterra Publisher, get the INVITE LINK for referrals, and leave a message in the live chat to share banners with you. Then, download these referral ads and place them on your website or web page with a common “<a href>” tag.

Full-fledged website

Here, possibilities are even wider. You can devote one referral landing page to your favorite company.

Friends, acquaintances, and colleagues

Simply inform your network people about your plans to try the new way to earn money. It’s even better if you are beneficially using the product or service yourself right this moment. 

Social Networks

That will turn out superb if you are a social media enthusiast and keep your followers well-updated on Facebook, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok. On its own, multiple channels of social media monetization are worth implementing and investing.

Insert your program referral link when you post a lifehack, come up with a new status, or apply your YouTube descriptions. 

Comments

You can benefit if you’re in the middle of regular discussion within communities on the web, like forums, chat groups, or posts. It’ll be great advice to your peers looking for new monetization ways. Alternatively, add the link generated from your refer-a-friend program to your profile signature.

Emails

This is another way to spread the word and get referring feedback from your audience. Be sure to follow the anti-spam laws and recipient rights. If you want to share your personal review and send a referral code or link to your friends and family members, you can just write a Gmail letter.

Referral invites among your closest circle is probably the quickest way to kick start your signup process and qualifying purchases.

Instant messaging apps

Another worthy channel is referral messaging to your network through popular chats and apps, including WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Viber, Signal, etc., without employing a landing page. It works excellently with a double-sided referral program. You can explain what the referred person gets in the way of benefits, free gifts, “store credit”, or another type of value.

Overall, you can harness the synergetic approach and use these channels accumulatively.

Conclusion

So this is it. Well done! You’ve immersed yourself in a few successful referral program examples in the best way possible and walked the steps you need to take to make money on customer acquisition. Whenever you take up a referral initiative and encourage your next purchase, please double-check the current terms and conditions of your referral e-commerce store or new business.

Now, if you want even more ways to multiply your monetization marketing channels, you can also try Adsterra’s Smartlink (Direct Link). Here, you need to copy and paste a html link on to your site or social media.

The smart algorithm will adjust the ads for your audience automatically. You can register and look around Adsterra Publisher’s account totally free.

Best referral programs FAQ