The modern Dub Partners alternative
for subscription businesses.
Dub.co is a genuinely best-in-class open-source link shortener with an affiliate product (Dub Partners) built on top of the same edge infrastructure. The link layer is excellent. The affiliate layer is newer than dedicated platforms and shallower on commission depth. Rekomi is the affiliate-first alternative, where the commission engine is the entire product. If you are auditing Dub.co alternatives because you need depth on the affiliate side, this is the read.
When to pick which.
You want a multi-model commission engine (per sale, per click, per lead, one-time or recurring) with delays, max caps, and stickiness. You want Rekomi to run affiliate payouts for you, globally, via Stripe Express and PayPal, with W-9 collection and year-end 1099-NEC prep for US affiliates. You want AI to help you scale. You treat affiliate management as a primary growth channel, not a side feature next to your link shortener.
You are already on Dub for link infrastructure, your affiliate program is genuinely simple (flat-percent RevShare), and you want one less vendor. The Dub link layer is open source, fast, and dev-friendly. If those things are core to your team's identity, the trade-off favors staying on Dub Partners.
The full comparison.
How we keep this honest
Every row reflects real product behavior on the date above. We update this page when either product ships material changes. Nothing here is invented to make Rekomi look better.
Which one fits your situation.
Affiliate platforms are not one-size-fits-all. Here is a straight read on which tool wins for each profile we see.
Dev-tool SaaS already running Dub for link infra
If Dub Partners covers your commission needs (flat-percent RevShare or simple CPS), staying on Dub keeps your stack tight. If you need tiered commissions, hybrid models, global payouts handled for you, churn-aware RevShare, or AI features, switch to Rekomi.
SaaS founder running affiliate as a primary growth channel
Rekomi treats affiliate management as the entire product surface. Commission depth, payout flexibility, AI co-pilot, curated network, all built deep. Dub treats affiliate as a feature next to its primary link shortener.
Founder who values open-source
Dub's link infra is open source and the codebase is excellent. If you weight open source highly, the trade-off favors Dub Partners. Rekomi is closed-source by design as a commercial product.
Founder with affiliates outside Stripe Express countries
Rekomi runs affiliate payouts for you. Stripe Express (42 countries) and PayPal (110+ more) cover 150+ countries, with a full audit trail and US 1099-NEC prep handled at year end. Dub Partners is Stripe-Connect-first.
Where the modern build pays off.
The pillars below summarise the side-by-side above. We keep the read honest by including the cases where Dub Partners still wins today.
Our case.
As commission tracking software, Rekomi's engine is meaningfully deeper. Per-sale commissions with one-time / capped / lifetime recurring, delays, max caps, stickiness, churn-awareness, performance tiers, partner groups, and per-affiliate overrides handle the long tail Dub Partners does not fully address. Rekomi runs affiliate payouts for you, globally, via Stripe Express and PayPal. US 1099-NEC prep handled at year end, AI co-pilot, curated network, and Stripe-native subscription handling all exist because affiliate management is our entire product surface, not a side feature.
What both ship.
Stripe-native tracking, refund-aware attribution, signed S2S hooks, and standard commission models. Both tools clear the bar on the table-stakes. The differences live in everything built on top of that foundation.
No spin.
Dub's link shortener is genuinely top-tier. Click latency at the edge is industry-leading. The open-source codebase is a real moat and the dev community around Dub is active and growing. If you treat the affiliate program as one feature in your stack rather than a primary growth channel, Dub Partners gets the job done with one less vendor and a tighter integration story.
Our straight answer.
Use both is a real answer here. Dub for branded short links and link infrastructure, Rekomi for the commission engine, payout flow, and audit trail. If your affiliate program is genuinely simple and you are already on Dub, stay. If you are starting an affiliate program from scratch, or your current program has outgrown a flat-percent model, Rekomi is the best Dub.co alternative for serious affiliate management. The depth difference compounds as your program grows.
Common questions.
What are the best Dub.co alternatives for serious affiliate programs?
Rekomi for affiliate-first depth. Of the Dub.co alternatives we audited (Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tapfiliate, PartnerStack), each one optimizes for a different shape of program. Rekomi is the cleanest fit when affiliate management is a primary growth channel rather than a side feature next to your link shortener. The other compare pages on this site walk through each one.
Is Rekomi a Dub alternative for link shortening?
No. Rekomi has first-party affiliate tracking links, but we are not a general-purpose URL shortener. If you want to shorten any link to anything, use Dub. If you want to manage an affiliate program, use Rekomi. Many teams use both.
Can I use Dub for link shortening and Rekomi for affiliate management?
Yes. Many founders do exactly this. Use Dub for branded short links across marketing, and Rekomi for the commission engine, affiliate dashboard, and payouts. The two stacks complement each other well; you are paying for what each one is best at.
Does Dub Partners run affiliate payouts for you?
Yes. Dub processes partner payouts (bank/ACH, PayPal, or stablecoin) with a 5% payout fee, 3% on Enterprise. Rekomi runs affiliate payouts for you via Stripe Express at a lower 3% fee (2.5% on Enterprise), with PayPal for more countries, a full audit trail, and US 1099-NEC prep handled at year end.
What about Dub's open-source advantage?
Dub's link layer is open source. Rekomi is closed-source by design as a commercial product. Our security posture is documented at /security and /trust. If open source is a hard requirement, Dub wins on that axis.
Migration from Dub Partners to Rekomi?
Supported via a CSV importer you run yourself, on every Starter+ plan. Export from Dub (Program → Partners → ⋮ kebab menu → Export as CSV. Dub emails the file for partner lists over 1,000 rows; smaller lists download immediately). Toggle the Clicks column on when exporting so each partner's lifetime click count carries over, then upload in Settings → Migrate, done in minutes. Note that Dub's CSV does not include tracking links (a partner can have many); imported affiliates get fresh Rekomi tracking slugs. Historical conversions and commissions import too (Settings → Migrate → Step 2): already-paid commissions lock as history, unpaid ones pay out only if you authorize it.
Will my Dub partners have to update their existing referral links?
Usually yes, because Dub's partners export carries no link column (a partner can hold many short links), so imported affiliates get fresh Rekomi slugs. Rekomi recognizes ?via= natively, so if you preserve a partner's slug (hand-build a CSV with a `partner_link` column from Dub's API, or ask us to scope a backfill), their existing ?via=alex link keeps working unchanged. For Dub short-link mode (dub.sh/abc-style opaque keys), you either swap the CNAME target to Rekomi tracking or email affiliates one new link. See /docs/brands/migrating-from-other-platforms for the full matrix.
Which has faster click tracking?
Dub's link layer runs on Vercel's edge network and they have tuned it since 2022, so they are a category leader in raw click latency. Rekomi's click tracking is first-party, served from a regional API, and on a custom domain it loads first-party to dodge ad blockers. For affiliate attribution the latency difference is operationally invisible; what matters more is that the cookie is first-party.
Where depth matters.
The difference between 'we have RevShare' and 'we have a commission engine' becomes real around month four of running a serious program. Here is what depth looks like.
The honest stack: Dub for links, Rekomi for affiliate.
Many teams will get the most out of using both. Here is how the boundary works in practice.
- Branded short links across marketing
- QR codes and link analytics
- Open-source self-hosted option
- Best-in-class click latency at the edge
- Dev-friendly API for link infra
- Multi-model commission engine with the long tail
- Automatic affiliate payouts (Stripe Express, live)
- PayPal payouts for more countries
- US 1099-NEC prep handled at year end
- AI co-pilot, curated SaaS network, embeddable dashboard
Switching from Dub Partners, step by step.
The Dub importer reads the kebab-menu CSV export and carries each partner's lifetime click count over when the Clicks column is toggled on. The export has no link column, so affiliates get fresh Rekomi slugs (a hand-built partner_link column is preserved when present). When a status column exists, Dub's 8-state vocabulary collapses to Rekomi's 4.
- Email is the dedup key. Name, status, and slugs auto-mapped.
- `via` is one of Rekomi's 19 default attribution params; no config needed.
- Lists over 1,000 partners are emailed by Dub; smaller lists stream directly.
- One Rekomi link per affiliate; multi-link partners need an API-side backfill (contact support).
Looking at someone else?
Side by side, always
Every comparison page on Rekomi is fact-checked the same way. Pick the affiliate platform you are auditing and read the honest read.
Weighing Dub Partners against Rewardful or FirstPromoter? Read those head-to-heads too; most teams comparing them shortlist Rekomi as the third option.
Switch from Dub Partners this week.
Self-serve importers ship for 20 platforms: Rewardful, Tapfiliate, FirstPromoter, PartnerStack, Dub Partners, Tolt, Lemon Squeezy, Gumroad, impact.com, PromoteKit, LeadDyno, Trackdesk, Partnero, UpPromote, GoAffPro, ReferralCandy, Refersion, BixGrow, Shopify Collabs, and Everflow; most of the API pulls also bring leads, lifetime click counts, and commission history. White-glove sales and payout backfill included for early adopters. You stay in control.
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