Affiliate/referral is the performance half of monetization: $0 fixed, you earn a
commission only when a user you refer converts. It pairs naturally with sponsorship —
the "fixed fee + affiliate hybrid" is the single best deal model for an OSS repo,
because it gives the sponsor a guaranteed retainer and lets you share upside when
their users actually convert. See ../data/sponsor-types.yml
deal_models.fixed_plus_affiliate.
All commissions below are reference only and change frequently. Re-verify at the official URL before promoting. This doc only lists programs confirmed at the company's own site as of 2026-06-29. See
../data/affiliate-programs.ymlfor the structured DB.
Most developer-tool companies do not run a public affiliate program. The biggest names in the OSS/devtool world — OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, Supabase, Vercel (outside v0), Cloudflare, AWS — have no individual-earner referral commission. Their "partner programs" are B2B channel programs for consultancies and resellers, not for an OSS author with a README.
That means two things:
- Do not trust third-party affiliate directories (OpenAffiliate, AffiliPilot, Awin listings). They frequently publish programs that do not exist on the company's own site. This file is the de-bunked list.
- The listable programs are concentrated in scraping/automation, hosting, and a few AI-voice/learning SaaS. If your repo's audience is in one of those verticals, affiliate is a real revenue line. If your audience is "AI API consumers," there is almost nothing to monetize via referral today.
| Company | Category | Commission (reference only) | Cookie | Payout / min | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Railway | Cloud deploy | 15% recurring, 12 mo | n/d | GitHub Sponsors / BMC, no min | ★★★ best devtool fit, cash via Sponsors |
| Neon | Serverless Postgres | $20 cash per qualifying referral | n/d | GitHub Sponsors, monthly | ★★★ OSS-program purpose-built for maintainers |
| ElevenLabs | AI voice API | 22% recurring 12 mo (11% Business) | n/d | PartnerStack, $5 min | ★★★ TTS/voice in devtools/agents |
| Apify | Scraping | 20%→30% (3 mo then lifetime, cap $2,500/customer) | 45 d | PayPal/bank/Wise, $100 + ≥3 customers | ★★★ scrape/automate |
| Bright Data | Proxies/scraping | 50% up to $2,500/customer + 15% 2nd-tier | 90 d | PartnerStack | ★★★ proxy infra |
| ScrapingBee | Scraping API | 25% recurring lifetime (cap $62.25/mo) | n/d | PayPal, $50 + ≥2 customers | ★★★ scrape API |
| Browserless | Headless browser | 20–30% tiered recurring, 12 mo | 90 d | PayPal/bank, $50 | ★★★ Puppeteer/Playwright |
| n8n | Automation | 30% recurring 12 mo (Cloud only) | n/d | PayPal, €100 | ★★★ self-hostable automation |
| Make | Automation | 35% recurring 12 mo | 30 d | Wise, $100 + ≥3 users | ★★ low-code automation |
| Raycast | macOS devtool | 30% recurring (Pro) | n/d | Wise, £50 | ★★ macOS audience only |
| Pluralsight | Dev learning | $1/free trial + 30%/10%/5% one-time | 7 d | CJ | ★★ dev-learning audience |
| DigitalOcean | Cloud hosting | 10% recurring 12 mo (affiliate) OR $25 credit (referral) | n/d | Network (Awin/CJ) | ★★ deploy/host; use affiliate for cash |
| Netlify | Jamstack hosting | 20% recurring, up to 12–24 mo | n/d | PartnerStack (application required) | ★★ frontend deploy |
| Vercel / v0 | Frontend deploy | v0: 30% recurring 6 mo + $5/lead | n/d | Dub | ★★ v0/AI-editor centric |
n/d = not documented on the official page. ★★★ = strong OSS/devtool audience fit.
| Company | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Hetzner | sunset 2026-06-15 | Personal referral links dead; now a generic €20 new-customer promo. No cash. |
| Notion | closed to new | $50/signup + 20% yr1, 180-day cookie — but "not accepting new affiliates." |
| ShareASale | defunct 2025-10-06 | Merged into Awin. Sign up at awin.com (consumer-retail-skewed). |
| Heroku | dead | No cash referral program; Enterprise End of Sale for new customers (Feb 2026). |
These were confirmed absent at the official site as of 2026-06-29. Third-party directories that list them are wrong; do not promote them as affiliate programs.
AI API / model platforms (the big blind spot): OpenAI, Anthropic, Replicate, Together AI, OpenRouter, Mistral, Groq, Hugging Face, DeepSeek. Their "partner networks" (OpenAI Partner Network, Claude Partner Network) are B2B enablement programs with no commissions. Mistral's Ambassador pays in API credits, not cash. There is effectively no affiliate monetization for an "AI API consumer" audience today.
Cloud/hosting: Render, Fly.io (both confirmed "we do not have one"), Cloudflare (channel-only, no individual program; Warp+ credits ended Nov 2024), AWS (organization-only via Partner Network; "AWS affiliate" pages misdirect to Amazon Associates retail).
Database / backend / monitoring: Supabase, PlanetScale, Upstash, Sentry, PostHog, Meilisearch, Axiom — none run a referral/affiliate program. (Upstash has a $1,000/mo credit grant for accepted OSS projects — that's sponsorship, not affiliate. Sentry has a sponsored-account application for OSS/edu/startup — also not affiliate. PostHog explicitly states "we do not have any official partners.") Turso launched a Partner Program (May 2026) that says "earn revenue share" but discloses no rates — a closed partner network, not a listable affiliate (status: unverified).
Dev SaaS: Linear, JetBrains, Egghead, Frontend Masters (now Master.dev), Zapier — no public affiliate program. (Zapier's referral benefit is restricted to certified Solution Partners with a professional website; not open to OSS authors.)
GitHub itself: No public referral/affiliate/reseller-commission program. Verified across github.com/partners, the Copilot Partner Program, and third-party directories. GitHub Sponsors is donations, not affiliate. Individual OSS authors cannot earn referral commissions on GitHub paid plans.
If you want to browse many devtool affiliate offers in one dashboard, join a network. Only two are true open marketplaces; the rest are per-merchant infrastructure.
| Network | Type | Best for | Signup | Min payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PartnerStack | Open marketplace | Best for devtool/SaaS — 2,500+ programs, devtool-dense (Netlify, n8n, ElevenLabs, Bright Data) | Free self-serve, no invite | $5 |
| Impact | Open marketplace | Broad cross-brand; less devtool-dense, more marketing SaaS (Shopify, Semrush, Canva, Hostinger) | Free self-serve | $10 |
| Lemon Squeezy | Per-merchant MoR | Indie/dev SaaS (acquired by Stripe, still active) | Join each merchant individually | ~$10 |
| Rewardful | Per-merchant infra | SaaS infra (Stripe/Paddle); Raycast, Replit, Beehiiv, Baremetrics | Join each brand's portal | per-merchant |
| Tolt | Per-merchant infra | SaaS startups; Typefully, Fathom, Folk.app | Join each brand's portal | ~$50 |
| Awin | Open marketplace | Former ShareASale parent; consumer-retail-skewed, not devtool-relevant | Free, 1–3 day approval | $20 |
Practical move: create a free PartnerStack account (it has the densest devtool inventory and a $5 payout floor), then apply to each brand's program individually. Some auto-approve; some review. Add tax info before withdrawing.
Pure affiliate pays nothing if conversions are slow; pure fixed sponsorship caps your upside. The hybrid captures both:
"$[X]/mo retainer guarantees you a spot and baseline exposure; +[Y]% of converted users from your referral link lets you share upside when it works. Estimated — reference only; we'll show you the click/signup numbers monthly."
This is the model to pitch founder_growth and ecosystem prospects (see
../data/sponsor-types.yml). Sponsors like it because
their downside is capped; you like it because a hit converts asymmetrically. Use the
Sponsor Fit Score conversion_path dimension to
decide whether a prospect can even attribute conversions — if not, drop the affiliate
leg and sell fixed-only.
Affiliate links in an OSS repo must be disclosed, or you will lose the trust that makes the repo valuable in the first place.
- FTC requirement (US) / similar in EU/UK/AU: clearly and conspicuously disclose that you earn a commission on linked products, before the link or at the point of the link. "Affiliate" or "we may earn a commission" is the standard phrasing.
- README convention: a one-line disclosure near the affiliate link, e.g.
> ⚄ Affiliate link — we earn a commission on signups, at no cost to you.See the copy-paste snippet in../templates/readme-sponsor-block.md. - Separate from sponsorship logos: a sponsor who pays a fixed retainer is a sponsor; a vendor you link for commission is an affiliate. Do not blur them — label each clearly.
- Never link a product you wouldn't recommend unpaid. The conversion hit from a single bad recommendation outlasts the commission.
- Pick vendors your audience actually converts on. A 30% recurring commission on a product your users don't buy is worth $0. A 10% commission on the hosting they already use is real money.
Log every affiliate deal in ../templates/affiliate-tracker.csv
(date, company, program, referral URL, commission type/rate, cookie days, clicks,
signups, conversions, revenue, payout method/min, status). Reconcile monthly against
the network's dashboard. Affiliate revenue is recognized on conversion/payout, not
on click — do not log clicks as revenue.
Most domestic AI-API platforms (国内大模型 API) and major cloud vendors do not run
public individual affiliate programs comparable to the above. Domestic monetization for
an OSS repo leans on fixed sponsorship + 分销 (reseller/distribution) deals negotiated
directly with 国内 AI-API 平台、云服务商、开发者工具商, often as a "固定费用 + 返佣"
hybrid. See the Chinese README (../README.zh-CN.md) for 国内
私信模板 and the ¥500–¥5,000/mo band. Treat any 国内 "affiliate" listing on a
third-party directory as unverified unless the vendor's own site confirms it.
See also: sponsor-types · sponsor-fit-score · readme-monetization · pricing