Stripe-native

A Stripe-native affiliate or partner tool plugs into your Stripe account and reads payments, subscriptions and refunds itself. When a customer who came through a partner link pays, the tool sees the charge and works out the commission. For example, FirstPromoter, Rewardful and Tolt are built around this kind of connection, so a partner programme can run without a developer wiring up each sale.

If you take payments through Stripe, this removes the most error-prone part of a partner programme, which is matching sales to the person who referred them. Commissions stay correct when a customer renews, upgrades or is refunded. It matters most for subscription businesses. If you sell through another payment provider, or mostly invoice by bank transfer, a Stripe connection does little for you and you should look at other tracking methods.

• Ask which Stripe events the tool reads, such as renewals, upgrades, refunds and disputes.
• Test whether a refunded payment reduces or removes the commission automatically.
• Check whether the connection is read-only or needs wider access to your Stripe account.
• Ask how the tool links a Stripe customer to a partner when the customer pays days after clicking.