Search "best WordPress affiliate plugins" and you get a dozen near-identical lists ranking fifteen plugins that do completely different things — as if a link cloaker and an Amazon product-box tool were competing for the same slot. They're not. The useful question isn't "what's the best plugin," it's "what job do I need done?" Sort them that way and the choice becomes obvious. Here's every category, the plugins that own it, and the one job none of them actually do.
First: are you running a program, or promoting products?
This single distinction trips up more people than anything else, so settle it before installing anything.
- Running an affiliate program means you have a product and want other people to promote it for commission. That needs a program manager — AffiliateWP is the standard — to track referrals, manage affiliates, and pay commissions.
- Promoting products means you write content and earn by linking to other companies' products. This is the ordinary affiliate publisher, and it needs link management, not a program manager.
If you're a blogger or niche-site owner earning through Amazon and other programs, you're in the second group — everything below is for you. Installing AffiliateWP when you meant to manage your own promotional links is the classic wrong turn.
Job 1: Cloak and manage the links you promote
The foundation. Cloaking turns long affiliate URLs into tidy branded redirects (yoursite.com/go/product) you manage from one dashboard. Two plugins own this, both from the same maker:
- Pretty Links — quicker to set up, concise URLs, and a genuinely useful free tier. The better fit for bloggers who publish more than they micromanage, and for sharing links across channels like newsletters and video.
- ThirstyAffiliates — more structured, with categories, tags, and an in-editor insertion button: highlight a word, search your library, insert. It pulls ahead once a site has many links to keep organised, and it can auto-link chosen keywords sitewide.
Rule of thumb: fewer links and a publishing focus, Pretty Links; many links and an organisation focus, ThirstyAffiliates. Both cloak and count clicks well.
Job 2: Build product displays and comparison tables
Plain text links convert fine, but visual product boxes and comparison tables often convert better — and that's a different job from cloaking.
- Lasso takes a conversion-first approach: attractive product displays and comparison tables, while also centralising link management for both Amazon and non-Amazon programs. Its "Opportunities" feature scans your content for mentions of brands you have links for and prompts you to add them. It's for affiliates who want their on-site promotions to look professional and work harder, not just be tidy.
Job 3: Pull live Amazon product data
Amazon is a special case because its terms require current data and compliant displays, and the Product Advertising API is fiddly.
- AAWP is the specialist: it connects to Amazon's API to insert live product boxes, bestseller lists, and comparison tables that stay up to date and compliant. For Amazon-centric sites at scale, it's the go-to. (affiliate-toolkit is another Amazon-capable option.)
If your site is Amazon-heavy, an Amazon display plugin plus a cloaker for your non-Amazon links is a common, sensible stack.
Job 4: Track performance — and where it stops
Finally, tracking. The usual recommendation is MonsterInsights, which brings Google Analytics into WordPress and can track affiliate-link clicks alongside your wider site analytics. It's a solid clicks-and-traffic layer.
But here's the honest limit, and it's the whole reason this section matters:
Cloaking plugins count clicks. MonsterInsights counts clicks (through Google Analytics). None of them know your commissions — so not one of these plugins can tell you which link or page actually earned. They all stop at the clicks layer of the affiliate analytics stack. That's not a knock on any of them; it's simply outside what they do.
The comparison, by job
| Plugin | Primary job | Cloaks | Displays / tables | Amazon API | Click tracking | Revenue | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pretty Links | Cloak & manage | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | — | | ThirstyAffiliates | Cloak & manage at scale | ✓ | basic | — | ✓ | — | | Lasso | Displays + management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (display) | ✓ | — | | AAWP | Amazon product data | — | ✓ | ✓ | basic | — | | MonsterInsights | Analytics (via GA) | — | — | — | ✓ | — | | AffiliateWP | Run your own program | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ (your program) |
Notice the last column. For a publisher promoting others' products, every option reads "—" on revenue. That empty column is the gap.
The job none of them do: revenue attribution
Put the stack together and you can cloak beautifully, display products attractively, and count every click — and still not know which page earns your money. Knowing that requires the one thing no link or display plugin has: your actual earnings, reconciled against your clicks. That's the revenue attribution problem, and it lives one layer above everything on this page.
Because WordPress makes adding a script trivial, you can fill the gap without disrupting your setup: keep whichever cloaker and display plugin you like, and add analytics that reaches revenue. Clickolytics is cookieless and drops in alongside your plugins — it tracks outbound clicks by page and reconciles them against your imported earnings, so the revenue column your plugins leave blank finally gets filled.
Fill the revenue column: keep your favourite WordPress plugins and add Clickolytics's script to see which links and pages actually earn — cookielessly. See how it works →
How to choose, by profile
- Blogger, modest number of links: Pretty Links (free tier is enough to start).
- Large content site, many links: ThirstyAffiliates for organisation.
- Conversion-focused, wants comparison tables: Lasso.
- Amazon-centric niche site: AAWP for Amazon data, plus a cloaker for the rest.
- Running your own affiliate program: AffiliateWP.
- Everyone, for the revenue layer plugins skip: a dedicated affiliate analytics tool on top.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best WordPress affiliate plugin? It depends on the job — Pretty Links/ThirstyAffiliates for links, Lasso for displays, AAWP for Amazon, AffiliateWP to run a program.
ThirstyAffiliates or Pretty Links? Same maker; Pretty Links is simpler and blogger-friendly, ThirstyAffiliates is more structured for large link libraries.
Program manager or link manager? AffiliateWP runs your own program; link tools manage the links you promote. They're different jobs.
Do the plugins track earnings? No — they count clicks. Revenue needs your clicks joined to your commissions.
Related reading
- Affiliate Link Management in WordPress — cloaking, tracking, and the workflow in depth.
- How to Track Affiliate Links — every method compared, plugins included.
- Affiliate Revenue Attribution Explained — the revenue layer plugins skip.
- Glossary: link cloaking.