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Payment and models

Recurring commission

Also called recurring commission, rebill commission, lifetime commission.

Short answer

Recurring commission is a commission model in which the affiliate earns commission on every renewal of the referred customer's subscription – not only on the first purchase. The model is used above all in SaaS and subscription services and is typically paid as a share of each payment.

Definition of Recurring commission.

Recurring commission ties the commission to the customer's payments instead of to the single purchase. Every time the referred customer renews their subscription – monthly or yearly – a new commission is triggered, linked to the same original click. At 30 % recurring on a subscription of DKK 100 a month, the affiliate earns DKK 30 a month for as long as the customer stays.

The model is used in SaaS, memberships and other subscription businesses because it shares the risk fairly: the store only pays for customers who actually keep paying, and the affiliate is rewarded for quality traffic rather than quick, short-lived sign-ups. An affiliate business built on recurring commission accumulates income – every month new renewals stack on top of the old ones.

Technically, the model requires renewals to be recognised and linked to the original referral. That usually happens via the payment provider's webhooks: each renewal invoice is sent to the network, matched with the customer's first conversion and deduplicated on invoice ID, so the same invoice never counts twice. The program can also set a recurring cap that limits how long or how much is paid out.

Recurring commission vs. one-time commission

AspectRecurring commissionOne-time commission (CPS)
Triggeredon every renewal of the subscriptiononce, when the order is completed
Income profilea low start that accumulates over timethe whole amount at once
Depends onthe customer's lifetime, churn and any capthe single sale alone

Convert both into expected value per customer – rate times expected payments against the one-time amount – before choosing a program.

How it goes wrong

  • 01

    Churn is ignored in the calculation

    30 % recurring sounds bigger than 90 % as a one-time commission. But if the customer stays 3 months on average, recurring pays 90 % of one monthly payment in total – the same amount, just with waiting and uncertainty. Always calculate on expected customer lifetime.

  • 02

    The cap is not read

    Recurring with a cap of, say, 12 payments is in effect a time-limited agreement. The value per customer is the rate times the payments up to the cap – not income forever.

  • 03

    Renewals are taken for granted

    Commission follows completed payments. A renewal that never goes through gives no commission, and a payment that is later refunded can be rejected at approval – pending commission is not certain income.

At Affilyflow

Recurring commission in practice

Affilyflow supports recurring commission via Stripe: the store connects a webhook, and each renewal is created as a new pending commission, linked to the original referral. The same order or invoice can never count twice – orders are deduplicated on order and invoice ID per program, and a store's webhook can only credit the store's own program.

We never ask for your Stripe API key – only a webhook signing secret. And an ongoing recurring agreement cannot be cut afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

What is recurring commission in affiliate marketing?

Recurring commission is a model in which the affiliate earns commission on every renewal of the referred customer's subscription, not only on the first purchase. If you refer a customer paying DKK 100 a month at 30 % recurring, you earn DKK 30 for every month the customer pays.

How long do I receive recurring commission?

For as long as the customer renews – unless the program has a recurring cap that limits the number of payments, the period or the total amount. The cap is stated in the program terms, so read it before you judge the program's value.

How are subscription renewals tracked?

Renewals are tracked server-side via the payment provider's webhooks. At Affilyflow, the store's Stripe webhook sends the renewal invoices to the network, which links them to the original referral and deduplicates on invoice ID, so the same invoice never gives commission twice.

Can the store cut my recurring rate afterwards?

At Affilyflow an ongoing recurring agreement cannot be cut – it continues on the terms that applied at the click. If the store changes the rate, the change only applies to agreements created by new clicks.

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