Best Affiliate SDK for Mobile Apps in 2026

Picking the right affiliate SDK for your mobile app

Choosing the best affiliate SDK for mobile apps isn't straightforward. You want to run a creator or affiliate program for your app. Someone refers an install, a user signs up, and you pay them a commission. Simple enough. But somehow, the tooling decision isn't quite so simple.

There are dedicated affiliate SDKs, enterprise MMPs that can be configured for affiliate use cases, no-code platforms, and a few newer entrants that fall somewhere in between. Each makes different trade-offs on pricing, integration complexity, platform support, and what kind of attribution they're actually optimized for.

We built Appfiliate, so the usual disclaimer applies. But this guide is intended to be genuinely useful for the developer evaluating options and looking for a straight-shooting rundown. I'll try to be transparent about where we shine and where other tools make more sense.

What to look for in an affiliate SDK

Before we dive into product comparisons, here are the factors that actually matter when you're evaluating options:

* Creator dashboards. Does each affiliate get their own login to see clicks, installs, and earnings? This sounds like a nice-to-have until you're DMing with twenty creators asking for screenshots of their stats. A self-serve dashboard keeps creators engaged and saves you hours of back-and-forth. * Pricing model. Some platforms charge flat monthly fees, others take a percentage of affiliate-generated revenue, and others require you to get on a sales call. The right model depends entirely on the size of your program. Commission-based pricing favors small programs. Flat-rate pricing favors larger ones. * Setup complexity. If you're a three-person team, you probably don't want to spend two weeks setting up an enterprise attribution platform just to track a handful of creators. Integration time matters more than most comparison articles give it credit for. * Platform support. iOS and Android are table stakes. But if you're building in Flutter, React Native, or Unity, native SDK support for your framework can save you from writing bridge code or maintaining a custom integration. * IDFA and privacy requirements. Post-ATT, some attribution tools still require IDFA or force you to show an App Tracking Transparency prompt. For creator attribution specifically, this is usually unnecessary. Link-based attribution works without any device identifiers and avoids the conversion drop that ATT prompts cause. * Subscription and purchase tracking. If you're running a subscription app, you need more than just install attribution. You need to track purchases, renewals, and cancellations to calculate RevShare commissions accurately. Webhook integrations with platforms like RevenueCat and Stripe make this dramatically easier than manual event tracking.

The options

• Appfiliate

- Purpose-built for creator and affiliate attribution - SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, and React Native - Three lines of code to integrate - Webhook integrations with RevenueCat, Stripe, Superwall, Adapty, and Qonversion handle purchase tracking automatically - Every creator gets their own dashboard to track performance. CPI, RevShare, and hybrid commission models supported. No IDFA needed. The downsides are real: no ad network integrations, no deep linking, no SKAdNetwork support, basic fraud protection. If you need those, this isn’t the tool for you. This is perfect for indie and mid-size developers running creator programs for subscription apps.

• Branch

Branch owns deep linking. When someone clicks on a link, installs your app, and you need to direct them to a specific screen in the app instead of the home screen, Branch is the best. Their SDK is well documented, and they have a generous free tier for basic deep linking and attribution. They’ve expanded into more attribution, but deep linking is their bread and butter. For affiliate cases specifically, you can use Branch, but you won’t have creator dashboards, commission management, or per-creator revenue tracking out of the box. You’ll need to build that part yourself.

• AppsFlyer

The enterprise MMP. 100+ ad network integrations, best-in-class fraud protection with Protect360, mature SKAdNetwork support, and cohort analysis that’s worth the cost at scale. If you’re actually spending money on paid acquisition on Meta, Google, and TikTok, AppsFlyer is the industry standard for a reason. For creator programs, it’s overkill. You’re paying enterprise prices (starts at $500/mo with annual commitment) for a platform designed to optimize ad spend across networks. You can do creator tracking, but you’ll need to set it up yourself, and there’s no creator dashboard or commission management.

• Tapp

SDK-based affiliate tracking for iOS and Android. They’ve been iterating rapidly and positioning heavily around privacy. They have a RevenueCat integration for subscription. Their dashboard is clean, and their docs are getting better. Definitely worth considering, especially if you’re evaluating other SDK-based solutions. The biggest missing pieces relative to other options are no cross-platform SDKs (no Flutter or React Native) and sales-based pricing, which can be tough for smaller teams.

• GoMarketMe

The no-code solution. GoMarketMe uses App Store Connect and Google Play Console APIs to pull data, so you don’t need to integrate an SDK. For developers who can’t or won’t modify their app, this is a huge win. The downside is granularity. You can only access the data the store APIs provide, which means no real-time event data and less granular attribution. Their pricing is commission-based with no monthly minimums, which is amazing for small programs but adds up as you scale.

• Insert Affiliate

The longest-tenured player in the dedicated mobile affiliate space. They support iOS, Android, and Unity. That Unity SDK is a differentiator if you’re a game. They offer both SDK and API-based integration options, and being around longer means more edge cases and more established support. You have a few more integration steps than some of the newer options, and pricing is sales-based. However, if you’re a gaming studio or team looking for an affiliate platform that’s been around longer, Insert Affiliate may be worth exploring.

Comparison table

Feature	Appfiliate	Branch	AppsFlyer	Tapp	GoMarketMe	Insert Affiliate
Best for	Creator/affiliate programs	Deep linking	Enterprise paid acquisition	Privacy-first affiliate tracking	No-code affiliate tracking	Gaming / Unity apps
iOS SDK	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No (API-based)	Yes
Android SDK	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No (API-based)	Yes
Flutter SDK	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
React Native SDK	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Unity SDK	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Creator dashboard	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Commission management	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Webhook integrations	RevenueCat, Stripe, Superwall, Adapty, Qonversion	No	No	RevenueCat	No	No
IDFA required	No	Optional	Optional	No	No	No
Pricing	Flat monthly	Free tier + paid plans	Starts ~$500/mo	Sales-based	Commission-based	Sales-based
Setup time	Minutes	Hours	Days	Hours	Minutes (no SDK)	Hours

Our recommendation

There’s no “best affiliate SDK for mobile apps” because it depends entirely on what you’re building and how you plan to grow.

For creator and affiliate programs specifically, Appfiliate is what we’d recommend (obviously). It was built for this exact use case: per-creator tracking links, a self-serve creator dashboard, commission management, and webhook integrations that handle subscription revenue automatically. If you’re an indie developer or mid-size studio running a creator program, you don’t need an enterprise MMP. You need something that takes minutes to integrate and gives your creators a dashboard. Check our pricing for specifics. For enterprise paid acquisition, AppsFlyer is the standard. If ad spend optimization and fraud detection are your primary concerns, that’s the right tool. Branch is the right pick if deep linking is a product feature, not just a marketing tool. For no-code simplicity, GoMarketMe makes sense if you want zero code changes and your program is small enough for commission-based pricing. For game developers, Insert Affiliate’s Unity SDK is filling a niche no one else solves.

You can also stack these tools. We see many apps running AppsFlyer for paid ad attribution and Appfiliate for creator campaigns as teams increasingly separate their acquisition channels. Different traffic sources, different tooling, cleaner data. We wrote a detailed comparison of Appfiliate vs AppsFlyer vs Branch if you want to go deeper on that dual-stack approach.

FAQ

* Do I need an affiliate SDK if I’m only working with a few creators? Technically, no. You could track things manually with UTM parameters and spreadsheets. But even with five creators, manual tracking breaks down fast. You lose real-time visibility, creators can’t see their own stats, and commission calculations become error-prone. An SDK pays for itself in time saved pretty quickly. * Can I use an MMP like AppsFlyer as my affiliate tracking tool? You can, but it’s not designed for it. You’d need to manually create tracking links per creator, build your own dashboard for creator visibility, and handle commission calculations separately. It’s like using Photoshop to crop a photo. It works, but you’re paying for (and configuring) far more than you need. * What about building affiliate tracking in-house? We’ve talked to plenty of developers who tried this. The initial build seems straightforward, but you quickly run into edge cases around attribution windows, deferred installs, subscription renewals, and creator payouts. Most teams that build in-house end up maintaining a system that cost more than any SDK would have. We wrote about how to set up an affiliate program for a mobile app if you want to understand the full scope of what’s involved. * Does the SDK affect app performance or size? Lightweight SDKs like Appfiliate add negligible overhead, typically under 100KB and no additional dependencies (except Install Referrer on Android). Enterprise MMPs tend to be heavier because they’re doing more. Always check the specific SDK documentation for current size numbers. * Do any of these SDKs require the ATT prompt? Appfiliate, Tapp, GoMarketMe, and Insert Affiliate do not require IDFA or the ATT prompt. They use link-based attribution instead of device-level tracking. AppsFlyer and Branch can work without IDFA but perform better with it, and their full attribution capabilities may rely on it. We covered how attribution works without IDFA in a separate post. * Which option is cheapest for a small program? GoMarketMe’s commission-based model means zero upfront cost, making it the cheapest option for very small programs. Appfiliate’s flat $79/month is more predictable and becomes cheaper per-install as your program scales. The crossover point depends on your commission rates and volume. For a deeper look at our comparison with GoMarketMe, Tapp, and Insert Affiliate, we published a dedicated breakdown.