If you have ever built a website before, you’ve probably heard of HubSpot before. It is perhaps one of the most popular content management systems besides WordPress and the platform gives you the opportunity to manage absolutely everything about your business — from your email list to anything regarding formatting. 

But did you know that a HubSpot affiliate program also exists? So, if you run a blog or site about digital marketing or building websites, you may want to recommend HubSpot services to your audience. Read on to find out more about HubSpot affiliate marketing!

HubSpot Affiliate Program Review

What is HubSpot?

While we first described HubSpot as a content management system in the intro of this article, the truth is that it can be considered a CRM rather than a CMS. It is a full-stack marketing platform that can be used for almost everything you might want to do if you want a website to be successful.

There are five hubs from what we gathered, and they can be used for different purposes. For example, the Marketing Hub is aimed at improving your conversions and growing your traffic while the Sales Hub focuses on automation and marketing insights. 

The CMS is obviously there to assist you when you manage your content, but the HubSpot Service Hub allows you to access a wide range of software tools that can take your customer support to a whole new level. 

An Operations Hub also exists, which you can use for syncing your applications and bettering your performance on the whole. 

Needless to say, these are all services that you can recommend in your content so as to explain to your audience why HubSpot might be worth giving a shot. 

What we do have to note about HubSpot is that it is not cheap, so you may have to address that segment of your readership that can actually invest in a less affordable product in this sense. 

Becoming a HubSpot affiliate

Since the cost of HubSpot services can be somewhat off-putting even for seasoned affiliate marketers, we have to specify right from the beginning of this section that you do not need to be a HubSpot user in order to access the affiliate program. 

The rest of the info that you have to know is that after you complete your application, you will get access to a dashboard that includes HubSpot affiliate tracking as well as everything else, including your affiliate links. 

Furthermore, this affiliate program operates through the Impact affiliate network, so if you already use that platform, everything will be quite easy to manage for you. 

We’ve talked about the many advantages ensured by affiliate networks in many of our previous articles, but probably the most significant one is that you have everything in the same place — your earnings, your stats, and data such as where you’re getting your conversions from. 

Joining the program is made easy by a relatively straightforward process. You can use both Impact and HubSpot’s own referral page to create an application. 

As you probably expect, you will be asked for some basic information such as your name, your country, as well as your website, and you’ll also be presented with some rules that you should always abide by so as not to get booted out of the program. 

You will get a reply from an affiliate manager over the course of several days to a week or more. Once you are approved, you can start advertising HubSpot services right away. 

HubSpot affiliate program commission & more

Here’s the part of the article that most anyone reading this post is interested in. What makes this program stand out from the crowd is the fact that it allows you to opt for the type of commission you want to get. 

For example, if you choose the flat rate, you will be paid 100% of the first month’s revenue without being able to expect any recurring earnings later on. Every purchase made through your HubSpot affiliate link can make you several hundred dollars if you opt for this model.

Another model does exist, though, and if you feel that it might work better for you, we strongly suggest considering — and the reason we’re saying this is that it involves recurring commissions, too. 

With this one, you get 15% monthly commissions on all of the people who have joined the platform through your link, with monthly payouts of up to one whole year. The company claims that your minimum earnings for this type of model stand at approximately $276 per month. 

The HubSpot affiliate hub also comes with a payment threshold, but the great thing about it is that it is just $10. Unlike other brands, this program does not function on a Net60-based model, which means that you can get your money after just 30 days have gone by and your commission has been checked. 

As a HubSpot referral affiliate, you can opt for either one of two payment methods — PayPal or bank transfers. 

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Pros and cons to being a HubSpot affiliate

When it comes to any affiliate program you may have checked out in the past, there are both advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered. 

Starting out with the pros, the commissions that you can earn with HubSpot are truly worth writing home about. You can make anything between $250 to $1,000 or more depending on what subscription your audience picks. 

The cookie lasts for 90 days, which isn’t bad given that the industry standard stands at just 30 days. 

The HubSpot affiliate academy also exists to assist you with each step of your journey — and it includes access to a wide range of materials, including a Hubspot affiliate marketing course. 

Unfortunately, there are some downsides that need to be given some thought to, as well, and the first one is that the services offered by the brand really aren’t affordable. This, in turn, can make it very challenging for you to convince your audience to try them out.

On top of that, almost no other CMS is better than WordPress when it comes to SEO and online marketing, and that’s because there are billions of plugins for these purposes that are compatible with the world’s largest CMS, meaning WordPress, but that do not work with HubSpot. 

We also came across another drawback and we thought we might mention it here although we don’t know for sure how much it still applies. Apparently, if you are based in a country and someone makes a purchase from another one, they will be directed to their local website and you’re not going to make a commission for that. 

Finally, if a person from your audience is already a HubSpot user, you’re obviously not going to make any earning even if they do manage to opt for the offer you might be promoting. 

Read more: What is email automation? How does automated email sending work?

Affiliate marketing with HubSpot – Is it worth it?

Giving a clear answer to this question is practically impossible as it all boils down to what you have in mind, the amount of traffic you’re getting on your site, and also how willing your readers might be to get a HubSpot subscription. 

Some estimates that we stumbled upon suggest that unless you have a massive number of unique visitors accessing your blog or site every month (something around at least 10,000 users), you might not be able to achieve a lot of success with this affiliate program. 

Making money by being a HubSpot affiliate calls for quite a bit of time and commitment, and quite a bit of expenses on your behalf — in the sense that you will need to publish content and use your social media to promote everything, and even use PPC if you want the needle to move in right direction. 

By contrast, with other affiliate programs you do not have to do that much work even if the commission rates that you can expect with them are lower. 

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Alternatives to the HubSpot affiliate program

As we might have mentioned, there are other options if your blog or site is in the digital marketing niche and you still want to make decent commissions, but you honestly believe that your audience might not want to try HubSpot simply because of its cost. 

Most of the alternatives showcased below aren’t as complex or generous in terms of features as HubSpot, but there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from joining several different programs so that you can recommend pretty much the same services (just from different companies) to your readers. 

GetResponse

This program is more or less similar to HubSpot’s in terms of earning models in the sense that you can either earn $100 per sale or opt for the recurring 33% commission. 

In terms of tracking cookie duration, the one that GetResponse has to offer is better since it lasts for 120 days, not just 90. One of the main drawbacks that we discovered relating to this affiliate program is the fact that the brand keeps your earnings for up to three whole months until they’re good to go. 

Like HubSpot’s affiliate program, this one is managed by a separate network — CJ Affiliate. The minimum payout threshold is $50.

Wishpond

This is a pretty complex option in terms of marketing since similarly to HubSpot, Wishpond can manage pretty much everything for someone building a new website — from email marketing to landing pages, marketing funnels, automation, forms, pop-ups, and even Shopify marketing. 

The only problem is that the pricing isn’t really transparent and any person interested in getting a Wishpond subscription needs to actually contact a representative and they’ll suggest a plan. 

But the Wishpond affiliate program might be right up your alley since it offers a 30% recurring commission. Everything is managed by FirstPromoter, so you’ll be able to access your stats without too much hassle. 

ActiveCampaign

We’re planning a review of the ActiveCampaign affiliate program really soon. Like HubSpot and Wishpond, this one can be used as a full-stack marketing platform. Their biggest selling point is the email marketing feature, but these days, the brand also offers services such as marketing automation or sales engagement. 

As an ActiveCampaign affiliate, the minimum you can make is 20% out of every new subscription — but this is a recurring rate, so you’ll earn the same percentage each time your referrals renew their plans. 

Fortunately, ActiveCampaign’s pricing is much more budget-friendly since it varies depending on the subscription — from $29 per month to $149 and more for Enterprise solutions. Therefore, your audience might be less wary when it comes to trying out these services. 

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Wix.com 

There’s not a lot to say about this one other than the fact that it has a truly immense payout threshold ($300). You can be paid every month if you manage to reach that limit, though. 

The program allows you to make $100 for every premium user with a lifetime cookie. The tracking dashboard is pretty easy to work with and you also get lots of marketing materials, ranging from banners and referral links to landing pages. 

Squarespace

This website builder has been getting very popular over the past few years, especially since their smart marketing campaign involved reaching out to influencers and building out their websites for free. 

The platform is extremely easy to use, and this is perhaps their most important selling point. As a Squarespace affiliate, your commissions can vary from $100 to $200 for each purchase made through your links — but the rest of the info is a little confusing. 

The largest monthly plan on Squarespace is called Commerce Advanced and is billed at $49, so we’re assuming that the biggest commission rate is available for that one. The program is managed by Impact, so what is something that both the HubSpot and the Squarespace programs have in common. 

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