Recurring affiliate programs are sold on one word, and the word does a lot of hiding. Two programmes can both advertise recurring commission while one pays for a year and the other pays for as long as the customer keeps paying. The headline percentage is the least useful number on the page. The duration, the conditions attached to it and the cookie window decide what a referral is actually worth.
Below are three programmes as their own pages described them in October 2026, laid side by side, followed by what each structure means once real customers start cancelling. Terms change, so treat every figure here as a snapshot and read the current page before you build content around any of them.
Three recurring affiliate programs, side by side
The three are Kinsta, a managed WordPress host; Kit, the email platform formerly called ConvertKit; and HubSpot, the CRM and marketing suite. They were chosen because each represents a different answer to the same question: how long should an affiliate be paid for one referral?
| Term | Kinsta | Kit | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recurring rate | 10% monthly | 50% | 30% monthly |
| How long | For the customer’s lifetime | 12 months, then a status-tier share | Up to one year |
| After year one | Still 10% | +10% Bronze, +15% Silver, +20% Gold, if you keep status | Nothing |
| One-off payment | Bonus of $50 to $500 | None stated | None stated |
| Cookie | 60 days, last touch | Not stated on the page | 180 days |
| Payout notes | Credited to the next monthly payout; no minimum stated | Paid-ad referrals don’t count toward status | EFT or PayPal, $10 minimum; runs on Impact |
Kinsta’s terms come from its affiliate programme page, which offers a one-time bonus of “$50 to $500” plus “lifetime monthly commissions of 10%”. The page doesn’t break down how the bonus varies by plan, so don’t assume you will see the top of that range. Kit’s terms are on its own affiliate page, and HubSpot’s are covered in depth in our post on high ticket affiliate programmes, so this post won’t repeat them.
Lifetime, capped, and bonus plus recurring
Strip away the branding and you have three structures. Each one shifts risk between you and the merchant in a different way.
Lifetime at a low rate
Kinsta pays a modest 10%, but for the life of the customer. The merchant is betting that a low share over many years is cheap. You are betting your referrals stay. Hosting suits this model because moving a site is a chore, and customers tend not to do it on a whim. The upfront bonus softens the slow start.
A high rate with a cap
HubSpot pays 30% for up to a year and then stops. You get paid quickly and you carry less churn risk, because a year is a short window to lose a customer in. But a customer who stays five years earns you the same as one who stays twelve months.
A high rate, then a conditional tail
Kit sits between the two. It pays “50% commission for 12 months” per referred paying customer, then adds recurring commission indefinitely through status tiers: Bronze (10 or more paying referrals a year) adds 10%, Silver (50 or more) adds 15%, and Gold (100 or more) adds 20%. Recurring revenue continues “for the lifetime of that customer” only while you hold at least Bronze. Referrals through paid methods such as pay-per-click ads don’t count toward status, and the tier structure applies to customers acquired on or after 1 January 2024.
That condition matters. The tail is not a reward for the original referral; it is a reward for continuing to refer. If your Kit content stops converting, the lifetime part can fall away even though the customers you sent are still paying.
What “lifetime” means once customers cancel
Lifetime commission lasts exactly as long as the customer does. Nobody publishes their churn rate on an affiliate page, so you are always modelling with a number you cannot see. The useful exercise is to run the same customer through each structure and watch where the lines cross.
Here is a hypothetical with invented round numbers. Imagine a customer paying $100 a month under each structure, which no real product does, and ignore any bonus.
- Customer cancels after six months. The 10% lifetime structure pays $60. The 30% capped structure pays $180. The 50% structure pays $300.
- Customer stays three years. The 10% lifetime structure pays $360. The 30% capped structure still pays $360, all of it in year one. The 50% structure pays $600 in year one, then $10 a month at Bronze, which is $840 in total.
- Customer stays ten years. The 10% lifetime structure pays $1,200, and keeps going. The capped structure is still at $360.
The pattern holds whatever price you plug in. Short-lived customers favour high, capped rates. Long-lived customers favour lifetime terms, provided the conditions on them hold. A hosting product with sticky customers and a tool people try for a month and drop should not be judged by the same headline rate.
Recurring income also compounds slowly. Each month’s referrals stack on the last, so a page earns its true run rate only after many months. When you compare it against other placements, measure affiliate EPC on your own traffic over a long enough window to include those later months.
Cookie length and the slow buying decision
Recurring products are often bought slowly. Someone researching an email platform or a CRM reads comparisons, starts a trial, asks a colleague and signs up weeks later. The cookie decides whether that late sale is yours. HubSpot’s 180-day window allows for a long evaluation; Kinsta’s is 60 days with last-touch attribution, which means a later click on someone else’s link takes the credit.
Kit’s page does not state a cookie length, so don’t assume one. Ask, or test with a clean browser before relying on it. Our guide to affiliate link tracking explains how the cookie connects a click to a credited sale and where that chain breaks. HubSpot runs on Impact, and the Impact affiliate programme post covers how that network reports and pays.
Choosing a programme for your site
Start from your audience, not the commission table. A site read by people building WordPress sites fits hosting; a site for creators fits an email platform; a site for B2B marketers fits a CRM. Promoting a recurring product your readers won’t keep is the fastest way to turn a lifetime rate into a few months of commission.
Then read the conditions. Check whether recurring commission is capped, whether any tail depends on referral volume, which traffic sources are excluded, and when payouts happen. If you are building a software review site from scratch, our posts on SaaS SEO and low-competition affiliate niches help with where to compete. Whatever you promote, keep your affiliate disclosure clear, because readers of software comparisons are doing real research.
The limitation is plain. This post compares three programmes’ published terms and one hypothetical. It cannot tell you how long any merchant’s customers stay, how often referrals convert, or what any affiliate earns. Those numbers come only from your own reports, and terms can change after you have written the content.
Frequently asked questions
What is a recurring affiliate program?
A programme that pays commission each time a referred customer pays, usually monthly, rather than once per sale. How long it pays varies: some pay for the customer’s lifetime, others for a fixed period such as twelve months.
Does Kinsta pay lifetime recurring commission?
Its affiliate page offers “lifetime monthly commissions of 10%” plus a one-time bonus of “$50 to $500”, with a 60-day tracking cookie and last-touch attribution.
How long does Kit pay commission?
Kit pays 50% for 12 months per referred paying customer. After that, status tiers add 10%, 15% or 20% indefinitely while you keep at least Bronze, which requires 10 or more paying referrals a year.
Is lifetime commission always better than a capped one?
No. It pays more only if customers stay long enough. With short-lived customers, a higher rate capped at a year can pay more in total.
The takeaway Read past the percentage. Duration, conditions on any lifetime tail and cookie length decide what a recurring referral is worth, and how long your readers stay subscribed decides which structure wins.
