Dub.co vs Tolt: Which Affiliate Program Platform Fits Your SaaS in 2026?

Affiliate programs have become a cornerstone growth channel for SaaS businesses. For subscription-first products, referral and affiliate-driven acquisition can often deliver revenue at a fraction of the cost of paid ads or traditional partnerships.

But not all affiliate platforms are built the same.

Dub.co and Tolt are two tools that approach affiliate marketing from slightly different angles — one as part of a broader link attribution and partner ecosystem, the other as a focused SaaS affiliate program provider.

In this comparison, we’ll break down how Dub.co (with its Dub Partners feature) stacks up against Tolt on core features, payouts, tax compliance, analytics, and pricing — so you can decide what suits your program best.

What Is Dub.co?

Dub.co is a link attribution and partner management platform that treats affiliate revenue as part of a broader growth and analytics pipeline. Rather than just tracking clicks or conversions, Dub puts emphasis on attribution from link → lead → sale, giving teams actionable insights about what actually drives revenue.

Affiliate and referral programs in Dub live under its Dub Partners feature. This is not a separate product — it’s part of the same platform that handles link tracking, conversion analytics, and partner workflows.

The philosophy is simple: if your team cares about understanding why revenue happens as much as that revenue happened, Dub lives closer to that need.

Notable points about Dub.co include:

• Built-in affiliate/referral program management (Dub Partners)
• Real-time conversion analytics
• Link attribution from first click to downstream revenue
• Flexible reward structures and partner engagement tools
• Automation for payouts and tax compliance

Dub is clearly geared toward teams that see affiliate programs as a strategic revenue channel, not just a side experiment.

What Is Tolt?

Tolt is a dedicated affiliate and referral management platform built specifically for SaaS startups. Like Dub Partners, it aims to give SaaS teams a complete system for running affiliate programs — but with a narrower focus.

Tolt helps you:

• Launch affiliate programs tied to your billing systems (Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee)
• Track referrals, conversions, and revenue automatically
• Manage affiliates with an intuitive dashboard
• Offer branded portals without heavy engineering work
• Pay affiliates via automated or manual mechanisms

Tolt’s positioning is straightforward: make affiliate marketing accessible and efficient for SaaS founders without requiring enterprise-level budgets or complexity. It’s designed to launch a program quickly and handle the essentials — commission tracking, payouts, and recurring revenue attribution — in a clean, developer-light way.

How the Two Compare — Feature by Feature

Setup and Ease of Use

Dub’s broader ecosystem means there’s a bit more to learn at first — but the payoff is deeper integration between links, analytics, and partner activity. The affiliate component is integrated but sits alongside other tools, so teams get a more holistic view of their marketing performance.

Tolt’s setup is intentionally simple. You connect your Stripe, Paddle, or Chargebee account, configure your program, and go live — often within 15 minutes. The dashboard focuses squarely on affiliate data, making it immediately approachable for teams new to affiliate marketing.

Early takeaway: If you want low friction to just launch a program, Tolt wins. If you want deeper linkage between affiliate performance and broader campaign analytics, Dub has an edge.

Payouts and Compliance

Payout workflows are one of the practical areas where affiliate tools diverge.

Dub automates payouts via Stripe Express (and PayPal where Stripe isn’t supported). Once connected, payouts are essentially one click — no CSV exports, no juggling multiple payment providers. Dub also automates tax compliance, collecting W-9/W-8 forms and preparing 1099-NEC forms for U.S. affiliates.

This saves operational overhead and reduces the risk of errors when dealing with large networks.

Tolt offers automated global payouts in its higher tiers, including PayPal, Wise, and wire transfers. Tax compliance (like W-9/W-8 collection or 1099 preparation) varies by plan level, and while automatic payouts are part of growth and pro plans, they aren’t available in the most basic tier.

Early takeaway: Dub’s payout and compliance automation is more hands-off at scale. Tolt’s payout automation is solid, but its compliance capabilities are more tied to plan level.

Rewards, Commissions, and Structures

Reward flexibility matters once your affiliate program grows.

Tolt supports traditional commission structures — one-time or recurring commissions based on sales — along with coupon and double-sided incentives. That’s valuable when affiliates and referred customers both benefit.

Dub takes reward modeling a step further. Affiliates can earn based on clicks, leads, or sales, with options for flat-fee or percentage-based commissions. You can also add conditions — for example, higher rewards for specific customer segments — and award bounties as performance incentives.

In practice, this means Dub is more customizable for nuanced partner programs with varying goals and KPIs.

Analytics and Attribution

Many teams start affiliate programs hoping for easy revenue tracking. But actual attribution — linking traffic, trial users, upgrades, downgrades, and churn — is where the tool earns its keep.

Tolt tracks the click → trial → paid conversion path automatically, with integrations that sync conversion events from Stripe, Paddle, and Chargebee. You get clear dashboards to monitor affiliate performance and revenue impacts.

Dub’s analytics layer is broader. Because Dub already tracks link performance and events across clicks, leads, and conversions, affiliates’ contributions can be understood in the context of broader marketing performance. You can filter by partner, geography, device, and more — with real-time event streams and exportable data.

For teams that value attribution clarity rather than basic dashboards, Dub’s analytics approach tends to reveal deeper insight.

White Label and Branding

Both tools recognize that affiliate programs look more professional when they live under your brand.

Tolt is a branded affiliate portal that can be hosted on your domain, making it feel native to your product experience.

Dub also offers white-labeling, with the added benefit that it can tie affiliate experiences directly into broader partner workflows and reporting views. Depending on your needs, this can make a tighter brand experience overall.

So, Which Should You Use?

The Bottom Line

Both Dub.co and Tolt are strong options for SaaS affiliate programs — but they aren’t the same tool.

Tolt excels at being simple, accessible, and affordable for startups that want a standalone affiliate system without extra overhead. Its onboarding, Stripe/Paddle integrations, and branded portals make launching fast and low-friction.

Dub.co, with its partner management layer, is better suited for teams that view affiliates as part of a strategic growth engine and want attribution clarity that reaches beyond simple commission tracking. Its automation and analytics are more substantial, but so is its learning curve and price point.

If you’re just dipping your toes into affiliate marketing, Tolt is a perfectly reasonable choice. If affiliate performance is a growth lever that feeds into broader business metrics — revenue, churn, campaign performance — Dub.co starts to make more sense.

Either way, both tools reflect the 2026 landscape: affiliate programs are essential, but the path you take depends on how central that program is to your growth strategy.