AffiliateWP - External Referral Links vs WooCommerce PayPal Payments
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| Feature | AffiliateWP - External Referral Links v1.2.2 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 3.0/5 Visit Details | WooCommerce PayPal Payments v4.2.0 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 2.9/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 700+ | 800,000+ |
| Last updated | August 27, 2025 | October 21, 2026 |
| Editions | AffiliateWP - External Referral Links | WooCommerce PayPal Payments |
| Pros | Lets affiliates promote landing pages on a different domain; Only three settings: store URL, referral variable, cookie lifetime; Cookie keeps the referral across page views on the external site | Official PayPal gateway with smart buttons on product and checkout pages; Pay Later, card fields and Apple Pay or Google Pay wallets; Subscriptions, saved payment methods and ShipStation order tracking |
| Cons | Only useful with AffiliateWP running on the store site; Rewrites links client-side with jQuery only; No reporting of its own; tracking happens in AffiliateWP | Available payment methods depend on PayPal account and country eligibility; Many modules are switched on in settings, so the setup has several steps |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Stores the affiliate ID from the URL in a cookie, Appends the affiliate ID to links pointing at the store, Settings page for store URL, referral variable and cookie lifetime, Filter to change the cookie lifetime, Pantheon-compatible cookie name | PayPal smart buttons on product, mini-cart and checkout, Pay Later messages on product, cart and checkout blocks, Apple Pay gateway, Google Pay gateway, Card fields module, Pay upon invoice alternative payment method, PayPal subscriptions and renewals, Saved payment methods, Fraud protection module, Order tracking through the ShipStation plugin |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | — | PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay |
| Plugins | AffiliateWP | ShipStation |
| Requires WordPress | 5.2 | 6.5 |
| Requires PHP | 7.4 | 7.4 |
| Tested up to | 6.8 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | No |
| External services | — | api-m.paypal.com, www.paypal.com, api-m.sandbox.paypal.com, www.sandbox.paypal.com, api.woocommerce.com, www.paypal.ai, d.joinhoney.com, www.google.com |
| Blocks | — | 6 |