Not a ranking. A working guide to which network covers what, and which ones you'll end up holding.
Rui Correia Posted
Every list like this is a ranking, and rankings are the wrong shape for this question. You don’t choose a network. The retailer chooses it, and you follow.
So this is organised the way the decision actually happens: which network covers what, what each one is like to work with, and roughly what order to join them in.
How the choice actually gets made
You want to write about a retailer. That retailer runs its programme on one network. If you’re not on it, you can’t earn from them.
Repeat that thirty times over two years and you have six accounts, six logins, six reporting formats and six payment schedules. Nobody planned it. It accumulated.
Which means the real question isn’t which network is best. It’s which ones you’ll need, and in what order.
Awin
The one to join first if you’re UK-based. Deep coverage of British high street and online retail, and the most forgiving application process of the major networks — they review on identity and clarity rather than traffic volume, so a small honest site gets through.
Quirks: a small refundable deposit at sign-up, and an invitation code field that confuses everyone. Neither is a barrier.
Impact
Not really a network in the traditional sense. It’s a platform where each brand runs its own programme and sets its own contract, which means joining Impact doesn’t get you anything on its own — you then apply to each brand separately.
More admin, better terms, and increasingly unavoidable: Rakuten Advertising is migrating onto it, so a lot of publishers will end up with an account whether they planned one or not.
CJ Affiliate
Large, established, strong in travel and finance as well as retail. Publishes a figure of over 3,800 brands.
The thing that catches people is the numbering: you get a company ID, a property ID per site and an ad ID per link, and tools ask for them interchangeably.
Rakuten Advertising
Solid retailer coverage, and currently in the middle of moving onto the Impact platform. Brand relationships and tracking links carry across, but banking details don’t — that’s the one to watch if you already have an account.
Rakuten publisher login and signup
FlexOffers
Broad, US-weighted, and easier to join than most — no traffic threshold, though it does want phone and site verification. Useful as a second or third account for coverage rather than a first.
Watch the payment thresholds, which vary by payout method more than people expect.
digidip and Skimlinks
A different category. Rather than joining programmes yourself, these catch retailer links you haven’t affiliated and monetise them on a revenue share.
Useful as a safety net for the long tail. digidip is invite-only and now part of the mrge group; Skimlinks is owned by Taboola and takes a share of commission. Both work alongside your own accounts rather than instead of them.
Amazon
Enormous coverage, a twenty-four hour cookie window, and low rates in most categories. Still worth having because readers buy there regardless.
One serious caveat as of 2026: the Product Advertising API now requires ten qualifying referred sales in the trailing thirty days before granting access, which means a new site can't get Amazon product data at all. The full picture is here.
What order to join them in
- Awin, if you're UK-based. Broadest useful coverage, easiest approval.
- Whichever network your top three retailers actually use. Check before joining anything else.
- Impact, once a brand you want requires it - which will happen.
- An automatic layer for the long tail, once you have enough traffic for the gaps to matter.
Joining everything at once is a common mistake. Each account is an application, a login and a reconciliation job, and an empty account earns nothing.
The part nobody warns you about
It’s not joining the networks that hurts. It’s holding six of them.
Six dashboards, six export formats, six definitions of a confirmed sale, six payment dates. Building a single number you trust takes a day a month and is out of date by the time it’s finished.
That's the problem Squirrel exists for — seventeen networks in one view, with your own accounts always taking priority and the gaps filled where you don't have a relationship.
If you want to know where you currently stand, a free link audit shows the split across your site in about a minute. No account needed.
Common questions
Which affiliate network is best for UK publishers?
Awin has the deepest UK retail coverage and the most forgiving approval process, which makes it the usual first account. But the right network is whichever one your target retailers actually use.
How many affiliate networks do publishers need?
Most established publishers end up with four to six, because retailers choose their own network and coverage rarely overlaps.
Is Awin better than Impact?
They’re different things. Awin is a traditional network with network-wide terms. Impact is a platform where each brand sets its own contract, which means more admin but more negotiable terms.
Can I use more than one affiliate network at once?
Yes, and most publishers have to. The complication is reporting, because each network measures and pays differently.