The AffSafe payout report 2026: what the registry data shows

This is the first edition of the AffSafe payout report, an annual analysis of the commercial terms recorded across every affiliate program and ad network in the registry. It exists because the terms that decide affiliate income — carryover, deductions, payment timing — are almost never published, and the vertical has no independent benchmark for them.

Method. Every listing in the registry records commission structure, offer types, payment methods, minimum payout and licensing status, alongside six scores contributed by verified affiliates. Where a program holds the Safe Mark, those fields have additionally been verified during a nine-point audit. This report summarises what those records show, and states clearly where the sample is too small to generalise.

Commission structure. Hybrid deals are now offered by the majority of affiliate programs in the registry, which is a change from the CPA-or-RevShare split that characterised the vertical a few years ago. The driver is regulated-market economics: with a known tax burden, operators can price acquisition precisely, and affiliates want part of the value banked immediately rather than carried as risk.

RevShare levels. Quoted lifetime percentages cluster in a band that is narrower than the marketing suggests, and the difference between the top and bottom of that band is usually smaller than the difference made by deductions. In practical terms, a program's deduction policy moves affiliate income more than its headline rate does.

Carryover. This remains the sharpest dividing line in the registry. Programs that reset negative balances monthly are materially better partners for affiliates with small player cohorts, because they remove the single largest source of income volatility. We record carryover position on every profile precisely because it is so rarely stated on the program's own site.

Payment terms. Net-30 from month end is the dominant standard, with minimum payouts most commonly set at a few hundred euros. Bank transfer remains the near-universal method. The variance that matters is not the stated term but adherence to it, which is why payment reliability is one of the six scored categories rather than a recorded field.

Licensing. Every program in the registry holds at least one licence, but licence scope varies widely relative to the markets programs actually accept traffic from. Affiliates should treat the presence of a licence as the beginning of the check, not the end of it.

Ad networks. Pricing models split across CPM, CPC and CPA, with most networks offering at least two. Regional supply is the strongest differentiator: networks are effectively specialists in a small number of markets regardless of how their coverage is described, and buyers who ignore that spend their test budget discovering it.

What we would like to publish next year. Realised payment dates against contracted terms, deduction percentages on a like-for-like basis, and twelve-month player retention by program. All three depend on affiliates submitting verified data, which is the mechanism the registry runs on.

If you work with programs in the registry, submitting a rating adds to the dataset behind next year's edition. If you operate a program and want your terms independently verified, the Safe Mark audit is the route.