What is FirstPromoter? Affiliate software for subscription businesses

What is FirstPromoter: affiliate software for subscription businesses

FirstPromoter's documentation describes it as an affiliate tool for subscription and SaaS companies that lets you track, manage and optimize referral-based marketing programs. You connect your billing system, add a tracking script to your site, set reward rules and share a signup link with affiliates. The tool then handles links, tracking, commissions, reports and payouts, so you do not code a program yourself.

Its home page says one account can run affiliate, influencer and customer-referral programs. This guide reads FirstPromoter's docs, home page, pricing page and Stripe integration page as published on October 23, 2026.

How FirstPromoter works: click, referral and sales tracking

Tracking has three stages. First, click tracking: when a visitor arrives through an affiliate's link, the main script records the click and sets two cookies, named _fprom_ref and _fprom_tid. Their default life is 60 days, and the admin panel can change it.

Second, referral tracking: when that visitor signs up or fills in a form, your site sends their email address or user ID to FirstPromoter, which turns the visitor into a referral. Third, sales tracking: FirstPromoter listens to events from your billing provider and links each payment to the referral. Coupon codes give a no-script option, which the docs present for teams that want a no-code setup.

The parts of the system: campaigns, billing link, script and portal

• Campaign: the unit that holds commission rules. Each campaign creates a signup link for affiliates, and affiliates then receive a referral link built on your website address.
• Billing link: native connections for Stripe, Paddle, Chargebee, Recurly and Braintree. Other billing systems can send sales events through an API.
• Tracking script: a short script on your pages, plus a referral call at signup.
• Affiliate portal: a dashboard where promoters get links, see commissions and upload tax forms. It can sit on your own domain on Business and Enterprise.
• Team roles: four built-in roles named Manager, Admin, Admin Plus and Super Admin, with access that can be limited by campaign.
• Payouts: mass payouts and payout schedules with minimum thresholds, listed on every plan.

How FirstPromoter reads Stripe: events, refunds and test mode

For Stripe, FirstPromoter's docs say you connect your account in test mode or live mode and that the setup needs no developer. It reads Stripe webhook events. A successful invoice payment or charge becomes a sale and a commission, a refund or a disputed charge becomes a refund, a deleted subscription becomes a cancellation, and a completed checkout session becomes a signup.

Charges of zero amount and charges with no customer email are ignored, and invoices with a zero amount paid are skipped. That means a free trial with a zero-amount invoice records no sale until a paid invoice arrives.

Who it fits and where it stops: limits to know

FirstPromoter's Stripe page says the tool is not only for SaaS and works for any subscription or recurring-revenue business. Its pages point to founders who want a program running the same day, with a 14-day trial that needs no credit card.

The limits to know: plans are tied to monthly affiliate-driven revenue, some branding and sign-on features sit on Enterprise, and paying affiliates directly from a Stripe account is not available at this time, per its Stripe page. The FirstPromoter review weighs those limits, and the pricing guide explains the plan ladder. To see how it differs from its closest rival, read FirstPromoter vs Rewardful.