Last Updated on 30/09/2025
Compared to other leads, referred leads are four times more likely to convert. That’s because buyers most often trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising channel, making referral marketing invaluable for most businesses.
However, to run a successful referral program or scale it effectively, you need the right referral marketing software. And with so many options available, it’s almost like finding a needle in a haystack.
Thankfully, brands can set up and scale referral programs using the best referral marketing tools.
What Is Referral Marketing Software?
Referral marketing software helps businesses manage and automate customer referral programs. These tools typically generate unique referral links or codes, track conversions, and automate the distribution of rewards. A software development company can integrate referral tools with its CRM to seamlessly attract new leads.
At its core, referral program software simplifies and automates the process of turning customers into brand advocates. The best referral marketing software integrates seamlessly with a business’s existing tech stack, including CRM and email services. They also provide detailed analytics on campaign performance.
If your CRM is Salesforce, working with a Salesforce Consulting partner like Think Beyond can help align your referral platform with broader sales workflows and automation.
7 Best Referral Marketing Software
Below are some of the best referral program software we’ve seen in action. We’ll give you a lowdown on these referral tools, from their features to pricing, and a couple of drawbacks we’ve noticed in each.
1. Referral Factory
Best for: Small businesses and startups
Pricing: Starts at $95/month with a 15-day no-credit card trial.
Rated the #1 referral marketing platform by Influencer Marketing Hub, Growth Marketing Pro, Stack Diary, G2, Capterra, and more, Referral Factory is a codeless plug-and-play referral marketing software that helps businesses launch referral campaigns in just a few minutes, not days.
It features a drag-and-drop campaign builder and offers 100+ pre-built referral program templates that can be browsed by industry or business type. The software supports over 200 referral rewards and incentives, including vouchers, cash rewards, gift cards, donations, and bank transfers to more than 50 countries.
Referral Factory integrates with most popular CRM Software, including HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, and Zapier, enabling you to manage referrals directly within your existing workflows.
For businesses seeking deeper CRM alignment, Salesforce Integration Services from trusted partners like 360 Degree Cloud can streamline referral tracking and automation across the customer lifecycle.
You can automate referral requests to your existing customers and effortlessly generate referral links for all CRM contacts.
The platform also offers comprehensive tracking and analytics functionality, allowing users to monitor year-to-date (YTD) referral revenue, conversions, and daily referrals generated. All tracking data can be exported to your CRM or accessed via API.
Drawbacks
- The Referral Factory campaign builder UI is not the best and can be strange to get used to.
- Lacks integration with payment platforms. You can’t pay rewards to qualifying referrals directly through the platform.
- API integration is only available for users on the Basic Plan ($200/month) or higher.
2. ReferralCandy
Best for: E-commerce businesses
Pricing: Starts at $59 per month (+ 3.5% commission fee) with a 14-day free trial period.
ReferralCandy is one of the most used referral software programs by e-commerce brands, trusted by over 30,000 online stores. It’s an email-based referral marketing software that helps store owners automate referral programs, track results, and prevent fraud.
ReferralCandy provides various pre-built referral templates to help new users get started quickly and easily. You can create branded campaigns by editing colors, logos, fonts, banners, and other elements to match your brand’s styling.
Another significant upside of ReferralCandy is its value for money. Compared to competitors, it’s one of the few software solutions that offer nearly all essential features across all tiers. Its lowest plan includes fraud prevention, unlimited referred customers, campaign analytics, and detailed reporting.
ReferralCandy integrates seamlessly with all major e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento. Additional integrations with marketing tools, such as Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and Google Analytics, make it a strong option for e-commerce businesses with international target audiences.
Drawbacks
- ReferralCandy doesn’t presently offer page-specific affiliate codes, meaning you can’t direct traffic to targeted products or aspects of your site.
- Customizing ReferralCandy email templates requires technical expertise. You need to have good HTML knowledge or use a developer. The same goes for its API and JavaScript integration.
3. ReferralRock
Best for: Businesses of all sizes
Pricing: Ranges from $175/month for small businesses up to $25k/year for large enterprises. 15-day free trial included.
ReferralRock offers comprehensive referral marketing solutions, with a strong focus on exceptional customer service. The platform enables you to embed a one-click sharing button across emails, checkout pages, apps, and landing pages, making it easy for customers to refer others.
This company stands out for its concierge-style onboarding, which includes a complimentary strategy session. This involves dedicated program advisors who assist with campaign building, content creation, technical integration, and custom reward options based on audience analysis.
It also features a standalone member portal, where customers can log in to share referral links, track referral status, and monitor rewards in real-time. You also get customizable reward structures that can be time-based, multi-step, point-based, etc., allowing you to find the best fit for your services and customers.
ReferralRock syncs seamlessly with over 60 popular sales, marketing, eCommerce, and CRM tools, including HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Shopify, Leadpages, Marketo, and more.
Drawbacks
- Its built-in referral program templates aren’t 100% customizable.
- Custom field limitations and lack of conversion script instructions.
- Getting started with the platform can be a complex process.
4. Ambassador
Best for: Large enterprises
Pricing: Starts at $300 per month, offering a demo but no free trial. Setup fees apply.
Ambassador is a cloud-based referral solution designed to help businesses build, manage, and optimize referral programs across online and offline channels. With features like email automation, customizable rewards, and robust tracking systems, Ambassador provides businesses with the tools to transform existing customers into brand ambassadors.
The platform features unique share links for online and in-person sharing, including QR codes for mail flyers, receipts, and yard signs. It offers an asset library containing videos, audio, images, and other media types.
You can launch campaigns in over 200 languages across more than 40 countries. Integration with popular platforms like Shopify, HubSpot, Stripe, and Salesforce allows you to manage referral processes within existing systems.
Drawbacks
- Requires technical expertise to set up.
- Setup fees, limited customization, and a learning curve make it more suitable for larger enterprises (with an abundance of resources) rather than small businesses.
- No priority support for lower-tier plans.
5. Everflow
Best for: B2B and e-commerce brands
Pricing: Custom-priced, available upon request. Free trial included.
Everflow is an all-in-one performance marketing and referral management solution that enables businesses to manage, track, pay, analyze, and optimize their referral programs. With Everflow, you can equip your best customers with resources that take them from just referrers to rockstar brand advocates.
The software enables businesses to run multiple referral marketing campaigns across various channels, including email, social media, and other digital platforms. It also features a partner marketplace where you can discover and onboard new referral partners with just a few clicks.
Everflow offers sophisticated tracking options, including view-through attribution, unique QR code tracking, and coupon code tracking, ensuring accurate attribution of sales and interactions. The software can trigger payments based on CRM pipeline stages such as approved leads, subscriptions, renewals, and upsells.
You can drill into campaign performance by analyzing key metrics, such as conversion rates, top advocates, and low-performing promotions, to fine-tune your approach.
Drawbacks
- The user interface is not as good as that of other referral tools.
- It offers more than referral marketing programs, thus its long list of features might be overwhelming for first-time software buyers.
- It’s not the best for email referral programs.
6. Invite Referrals
Best for: SaaS businesses
Pricing: Available upon request. 14-day free trial included.
Founded in 2009, InviteReferrals is a powerful referral software trusted by over 10,000 businesses, including global brands like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, American Express, Motorola, and Mozilla. The platform enables you to reward customers for referral activities, including sharing, subscribing, registering, making purchases, or installing the app.
InviteReferrals supports flexible campaigns across websites, mobile apps, and social media, enabling businesses to engage with their customers wherever they are. You get comprehensive campaign management across multiple platforms, including mobile, tablet, and desktop websites, Android and iOS mobile apps, Facebook timeline apps, and email campaigns.
With support for over 45 languages and multiple integrations with platforms such as Shopify, Mailchimp, Magento, and WooCommerce, InviteReferrals is ideal for businesses seeking global reach and flexibility. Additional features like customizable campaigns, email notifications, and wallet integration enhance the user experience.
Drawbacks
- Setting up campaigns on the platform is not very straightforward.
- Low-tier plans have limited features, which forces users to upgrade to higher plans.
- Pricing isn’t transparent.
7. Mention Me
Best for: B2B brands
Pricing: Custom pricing upon request. Offers a demo but no free trial.
Renowned for its unique data-driven approach to referral marketing programs, Mention Me is a referral platform that offers a full suite of customer marketing tools.
The software supports up to 20 languages, 15 flexible reward types (coupons, gift cards, third-party rewards, free delivery, etc.,) and 18 sharing methods. Its signature NameShare feature allows more customers to refer friends by sharing their names during conversations.
Mention Me presents its referral program offerings in two broad packages: Acquire and Optimize.
Acquire focuses on basic referral campaigns, featuring A/B testing, fraud prevention, NameShare, and automated reward fulfillment.
The Optimize package goes beyond the basic refer-a-friend program. It helps businesses turn customer advocacy into an optimized multi-channel customer acquisition gateway. An example is its referrer lookalike targeting, which enables you to feed your top-performing referrer data into paid social campaigns to reach more brand advocates.
The platform’s A/B testing functionality enables businesses to experiment with various campaign elements, including design, copy, rewards, and timing. Backed by a dedicated customer success team, Mention Me ensures that referral campaigns are optimized for maximum impact.
Drawbacks
- No free trial or demo.
- Lacks integration with marketing tools, hence potential data-syncing issues.
- Limited customization flexibility is a deal-breaker for businesses that prioritize cohesive identity.
Wrapping Up
Referral marketing campaigns involve numerous moving parts. From tracking referrals to attributing leads to the correct referrer and managing rewards, it’s almost impossible to pull them all together manually. Referral marketing software automates the entire process, freeing up valuable time and resources.
Any of the referral marketing platforms above should help you achieve success, especially if you’re just getting started. And as you grow, they’ll also help you scale your referral program easily.
