Welcome to your quick breakdown of affiliate networks Clickbank vs ShareASale where you’ll learn:
- How they work
- How the two differ
- And, of course, which one is better (Feel free to click the link to jump ahead if you’re short on time!)
Choosing the right affiliate network to work with is super important if you want to ensure you’re earning the most from your affiliate marketing efforts. You want to work with a network that’s easy to use, has the right offers you’re looking for, offers affiliate support, has a clear payout policy, and pays you on time.
In a sea of many different affiliate networks, you can get lost in the choices available. And they’re not all created equally.
Let’s look at the key features, ease of use, similarities, differences, and other important factors when comparing Clickbank vs ShareASale.
Here we go!
If you’re reading this, you probably already know that Clickbank and ShareASale are both affiliate marketing networks. Affiliates go to these platforms to find affiliate programs to promote.
Advertisers use these sites to list their products hoping to attract affiliates who drive sales for their business.
So, these affiliate network act as a middleman connecting publishers (affiliates) with advertisers. They help bridge the gap, sharing affiliate offers with affiliates and giving advertisers a way to promote their affiliate program.
Clickbank and ShareASale are two of the most well-known affiliate networks online. Here’s a look at some similarities and differences between the two…
Similarities
- Free to use for affiliates
- Product variety
- Pay-per-lead and Pay-per-sale models
- Global reach
- Tracking and reporting
- Affiliate support
Both Clickbank and ShareASale are free to join networks for affiliates around the world, offering affiliate tracking, reporting functions, and affiliate support.
To join, you visit the website and register then, get access to the network and full use of the site as an affiliate.
The product variety is vast across both Clickbank and ShareASale. As a Clickbank affiliate, you’ll see various product categories like self-help, beauty and fitness, green products, and arts and entertainment, to name a few.
ShareASale’s product categories include fashion and apparel, home and garden, business and financial services, and automotive and transportation, among others.
Next, you’ll find that both websites offer multiple payment models. Pay-per-lead pays you on a successful lead, like an email capture. Pay-per-sale pays you on a purchase conversion.
Now let’s look at the differences.
Differences
- Pricing structure for merchants
- Merchant requirements
- User interface
- Product structure
First, the pricing structure for merchants is different across Clickbank vs ShareASale.
- Clickbank charges a one-time $49.95 activation fee plus a $2.50 pay period processing fee.
- ShareASale operates on a subscription basis for merchants, charging $35/month in addition to an activation fee of $625.
Next, the merchant requirements vary across Clickbank and ShareASale. Both platforms have certain criteria that must be met for merchants to be accepted, but ShareASale’s vetting process is more rigorous.
The user interface is of course also different. ShareASale offers a more transaction-based, report-driven setup. While Clickbank’s user interface is more user-friendly and streamlined.
Lastly, while both platforms offer a large variety of products, the kinds of products and product quality differ a lot. Clickbank focuses on digital products like e-guides, courses, and software. ShareASale has digital and physical goods, as well as services.
Affiliate tools may or may not be offered by affiliate networks.
These tools can help the affiliate in a variety of ways, like:
- Creating a sales page
- Creating a sales video
- Tracking clicks and conversions
You’d be surprised by some of the innovative options that affiliate networks are offering publishers. And both Clickbank and ShareASale offer some nice options:
Clickbank Affiliate Tools
When you first log in to your Clickbank dashboard as an affiliate, you can access the Affiliate Tools section of the site.
The affiliate tools offered include everything from encrypted links you can create to an education hub to teach you more about affiliate marketing and how to use Clickbank.
- Spark by Clickbank
- Affiliate Link Tools to create encrypted links
- Reporting
Shareasale Affiliate Tools
ShareASale offers a bunch of cool tools available to affiliates too, for everything from API reporting to creating a sales page and more.
Here’s the breakdown:
- API reporting
- Make a video
- Make a page
- Check PPC violation reports
- Product showcase
- RSS notification
Let’s check out the Clickbank vs ShareASale comparison with product categories.
Clickbank Categories
On Clickbank, you can find over a dozen different product categories for affiliates in many niches, like:
- Home and garden
- Parenting and family
- Self-help
- Software
- Travel
Affiliates can browse the categories to find affiliate offers to promote and filter through the results by:
- Rank
- Average conversion
- Initial conversion
- Recurring rebill and,
- Gravity
Here’s an example of an affiliate offer:
For affiliates that choose to promote this offer, you just click Promote, and then you’ll get your unique affiliate link that you can use to start promoting this offer.
Some offers will have a corresponding affiliate page where the affiliate can learn more about the product.
ShareASale Categories
ShareASale works similarly, with thousands of products available in categories like:
- Books/media
- Clothing
- Education
- Gaming
- Automotive
Affiliates can browse offers by category and filter by:
- 7 day EPC
- 30 day EPC
- Joined status
- Sale commission
- Lead commission
- Hit/click commission
- Power rank
- Cookie length or,
- Alphabetical order
You can also use the search bar to find offers by keyword or merchant name.
Once you find an offer you’d like to promote, like this one:
The next step is to apply to the program. Once you apply, there’s typically a review process where the advertiser reviews your application and decides whether they will accept you as an affiliate.
Once approved, you’ll have access to your affiliate link and any assets available to promote the offer!
What’s great about both Clickbank and ShareASale is that they have a nice selection of product categories available.
This makes both networks great options for affiliates looking for different kinds of offers to promote in various categories.
It is a good option for affiliates that operate in one of the categories offered by either or both networks.
Reporting is an important part of the process. If you’re running an affiliate program, you want to provide reporting features so affiliates can track their progress:
- Check clickthru rate
- Look at clicks received per day
- See what affiliate links were clicked
- Review conversion rate for each affiliate offer
- Check conversions
Here’s what Reporting looks like for Clickbank and ShareASale.
Clickbank Reporting
Clickbank’s reporting dashboard is streamlined and easy to browse through.
You can track:
- Clicks (called Hops on Clickbank)
- Initial impressions
- Initial sales
- Conversion rate
- Gross sales
When you land on the Reporting page, you’re given a summary of the above, and then you can drill down and filter the results based on what you’re looking for.
There are also graphs and reports on specific metrics like analytics, trends, and top performers.
Shareasale Reporting
You access ShareASale reports in the top navigation, and there are 17 different reporting features you can access, including:
- Monthly summary
- Reversal report
- Return days analysis
This is about how easy-to-use a website is. This is an important consideration because a site with a poor layout that’s not navigation-friendly and not easy to use will take up your precious time.
Let’s compare ShareASale and Clickbank.
Clickbank Ease of Use
Looking at the affiliate dashboard, Clickbank organizes your daily commission in a chart where you can track sales easily.
You can navigate across the affiliate dashboard pretty easily and find what you’re searching for, from reports to entering the marketplace to find new affiliate products.
Shareasale Ease of Use
ShareASale shares some similarities to the Clickbank’s affiliate dashboard. When you log in, you can see your activity feed on the main page, along with features like:
- Your top merchants
- Total clicks
- Recent transactions
- Offline merchants
The top navigation makes it easy to get where you need to go, whether you want to look at your ledger report, get a link, or access tools to make a video.
Clickbank and ShareASale aren’t the only players out there in the affiliate space. Affiliates want an affiliate network with a range of different affiliate program options.
Some networks are for specific product types, like how Clickbank caters to digital products or, as an Amazon associate, you’ll have access to affiliate links for physical goods.
If you’re looking for a Clickbank alternative or ShareASale alternative, here are some other networks worth checking out:
- FlexOffers
- Commission Junction (or CJ)
- Ebay Partner Network
- Amazon Associates
- Rakuten Marketing
- Walmart Affiliates
- Affiliate Window
- Avangate Affiliate Network
Affiliate marketers commonly join multiple affiliate platforms to diversify their efforts rather than go for what they perceive as the best affiliate network.
Consider the above companies to support your digital marketing efforts.
When looking at Clickbank vs ShareASale to determine which affiliate network is better, we’d have to say…
The winner is ShareASale!
As a ShareASale affiliate, I really like that you get access to a greater variety of products. It’s not just digital products. Physical goods and services are also offered. Plus, their stringent merchant vetting process means, as an affiliate, you know you’re working with a top-tier merchant offering high-quality products.
ShareASale has a nearly 20% market share in the affiliate category, while Clickbank has just under 4% market share, according to this source.
But remember that both companies are different in the products they offer and the audiences they serve. And many affiliates frankly choose to work with both!
I don’t think you’ll lose if you go with either, but overall, our top pick is ShareASale.
Read our ShareASale review to get the best use out of ShareASale as an affiliate!
Have you joined ShareASale as an affiliate?
What was your experience been like?