Paying affiliates to promote your app

If you sell your app through Overskill Payments, you already have an affiliate program — you don't need to build one or bolt one on. It comes from our payments partner, Whop, who is the merchant of record for your sales, and it is switched on for your product from the moment it's created.

This only applies to Overskill Payments. If your app takes payments through its own checkout instead, such as your own Stripe account, it has no built-in affiliate program (see the Rewardful question below).

Three things to know up front:

1. The commission rate starts at 20% of the sale, paid to whoever referred the buyer. We set that rate on your product when it's created (Whop's own default would be 30%). You can change it.
2. Tracking and payouts are automatic — on the right links. An affiliate shares their referral link, a buyer purchases through it, and the commission is calculated and paid out by Whop. You don't run the math, hold the money, or send anything manually. The part worth understanding is which links track a referral — see below.
3. Your affiliates do not need an Overskill account. They never touch the builder. They're promoting your product on the selling side, so they only need a free Whop account — the one that receives their commission.

This is not OfferLab

Worth stating plainly, because it's an easy mix-up: Overskill Payments affiliate commissions have nothing to do with OfferLab.

• Overskill Payments (this article) — you sell your app, we handle checkout through Whop, and the affiliate program is built into your own product. The money is yours, minus the commission and fees.
• OfferLab — a separate, outside platform with its own checkout. If you use it, your app just routes visitors to OfferLab links; your app never handles the money and the commission split happens entirely inside OfferLab.

If you're selling your own app and asking how do my affiliates get paid, the answer is the built-in program described here. OfferLab is only relevant if you've deliberately chosen to sell through OfferLab instead.

Which links track a referral

Referral tracking lives with the checkout, so where the buyer clicks matters:

• For your app, affiliates share your app's own address with their tag on it. Your buyers check out inside your app, so that's where the link should send them: https://<your app address>/?a=<their-username>, for example https://yourapp.overskill.app/?a=janedoe. These links can only credit the affiliate once your app has a partner program switched on: open Monetize in the editor and look for the Partner program card. When the card shows Tracking live, a purchase made in your app within 30 days of the click is credited to that affiliate. The help article Run a partner program for your app walks through the setup.
• If your Monetize panel has no Partner program card yet, or the card says Tracking coming soon, a purchase made in your app doesn't record the referrer yet. Affiliates can start sharing their app links now, but don't promise them commission on those sales until tracking is live.
• Whop's own referral links are for products you sell on Whop's pages. When you invite an affiliate in Whop, Whop gives them links to your products on whop.com, with the same ?a=<their-username> tag. Those links are for sales made on Whop's pages. Your app's products are sold inside your app rather than on a Whop store page, so for your app, use the app-address link above.

Either way, the username in the link is the affiliate's Whop username. That's the account the commission lands in.

Two rates you can set

Your product carries two affiliate rates, and you can set them differently:

• Global affiliate rate — what anyone earns for referring a buyer. Set to 20% by default.
• Member affiliate rate — what your existing customers earn for referring someone. Also set to 20% by default. This is how you turn your own buyers into promoters, and you can reward them more generously than outsiders.

Setting the member rate to 0% makes your members earn the global rate instead — it doesn't turn their commissions off.

Where you change the rate

• If your app has the Partner program card (in Monetize), set the Commission rate (%) there. It applies one rate to every product your app sells and to everyone who refers a buyer, so it sets both rates above to the same number.
• Otherwise, rates live in your Whop dashboard, under your affiliate settings.

Either way, Whop keeps the record of who your affiliates are and what they've earned. We don't run a parallel commission ledger, because doing so would risk paying the wrong number. Whop owns the money and the record of it.

Heads up on your margin: because the 20% is set on your product by default, a referred sale pays that commission out of your revenue, on top of payment processing fees. If you'd rather not offer commissions at all, or want a different number, change the rate before you start promoting.

Common questions

Do my affiliates need an Overskill account? No. They need a free Whop account to get paid, and nothing else. They don't sign up for Overskill, don't need a plan, and never see the editor.

Do I have to set the affiliate program up? No. It's on your product from creation at 20%. The only reason to touch it is to change the rate or to recruit affiliates.

How do affiliates get paid? Automatically, by Whop, to their Whop account — after Whop's holding period of about 30 days from the sale. You don't send payments yourself, and if the sale is refunded inside that window, the commission comes back with it.

What link should my affiliates share? For your app: your app's address with their Whop username on the end, https://<your app address>/?a=<their-username>. It credits them once your app's partner program shows Tracking live (see Which links track a referral above). For a product you sell on Whop's own pages: the Whop referral link Whop gives them.

How do I find out what an affiliate earned on a specific renewal? Check your Whop dashboard — it's the source of truth for every commission. If the numbers there don't look right, contact support and we'll dig in with you.

Can I invite specific people as affiliates at a custom rate? Whop supports individually invited affiliates alongside the open global rate. You'd set that up in your Whop dashboard.

Can I use Rewardful, FirstPromoter or another outside affiliate tool? No. Overskill doesn't connect to outside affiliate tools, and support can't set one up for you. The built-in program in this article is the way to pay people for sending you buyers, and it only works for apps that sell through Overskill Payments. An app with its own checkout, such as your own Stripe account, has no built-in affiliate program; to use this one, sell your app with Overskill Payments.

Do test purchases pay commission? No. A $0 test checkout produces no commission at all — see test your checkout without paying. Use a real purchase if you need to confirm an affiliate is being tracked.

Is this the same as Overskill's own affiliate program? No — different program, different money. Overskill's affiliate program pays you for referring new Overskill subscribers to us. The program in this article pays your affiliates for referring buyers to your app.

What to read next

• Selling your app — getting paid for your app in the first place
• Setting prices and subscriptions — what your buyers are charged
• Payment fees explained — what comes out of each sale