A 2018 product with
a 2026 price tag.
FirstPromoter has a loyal cohort of customers who picked it years ago and never re-evaluated. That's fine. If you're evaluating referral tools in 2026 — now is the year to ask what they've actually shipped since, and whether $49/mo up front still matches the modern equation.
Herd | FirstPromoter | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | $49/mo |
| Pricing shape | Variable. We earn when you earn. Rate gets smaller as you scale. | Flat fee regardless of results. Same price whether you earn $0 or $50K. |
| Whose incentive is your growth? | Ours — we only earn when your program does | Yours alone — they get paid the same regardless |
| Free tier | Up to $1,000/mo of referred revenue, forever | 14-day trial, then the bill starts whether the program works or not |
| Affiliate experience | Embedded inside your own product | External portal at firstpromoter.com |
| Payouts | Automatic via Stripe Connect | CSV export, manual |
| Tax compliance (W-9 / 1099) | Collected at partner signup; threshold tracked per partner | On you |
| Product cadence | Actively shipping — new surfaces weekly | Effectively static since ~2019 |
| Voice / brand | Founder-written. Direct. Opinionated. Has a point of view. | Generic enterprise copy written around 2017 |
| Best for | Bootstrapped → early-stage SaaS that wants it live this afternoon | Teams who picked it 7 years ago and haven't re-evaluated |
Comparison reflects publicly available information as of Q2 2026. We'll update if FirstPromoter ships something new. We hope they do.
The honest read.
FirstPromoter isn't a bad product. It's a fine product that stopped evolving. Same dashboard as 2019. Same external-portal affiliate UX as 2019. Same $49/mo before you know the program works. If you signed up five years ago and it's still quietly doing its job, there's no strong reason to move.
But if you're evaluating tools fresh today: Herd costs nothing until your program crosses $1K/mo of referred revenue, the affiliate experience renders inside your own product instead of at firstpromoter.com, and payouts settle automatically via Stripe Connect. That gap has grown for seven years straight.
We also import from FirstPromoter. Your affiliate list, their codes, their payout history — the importer keeps attribution intact so you don't burn anyone's earnings in the migration.