Checked 25 September 2026 against AffiliateWP’s own documentation, linked below. “Not stated” means the documentation doesn’t say, not that the feature is missing. We make WP Referral Clarity, so treat our column with that in mind. We looked for other third-party AffiliateWP reporting add-ons to include and didn’t find any we could verify, so this page compares with AffiliateWP itself.
Do you need a reporting add-on at all?
Often not. If you run a small programme, check payouts monthly and rarely get questions from affiliates, AffiliateWP’s own reports are enough. An add-on earns its place when affiliates keep asking about pending commissions, when several people need the same report every week, or when you want suspicious patterns surfaced before payouts.
The comparison
| Need | AffiliateWP Reports | AffiliateWP Affiliate Portal | WP Referral Clarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Admin reports on referrals, affiliates, payouts, visits and campaigns | Yes, with date presets and custom ranges | Not an admin tool | Dashboard plus live reports with combined filters |
| Affiliates see their pending referrals | No. Pending is admin-only by design. | Not stated | Yes, with the reason and an expected date where you set a rule |
| A plain-language reason for each status | Not stated | Not stated | Yes, wording you edit per status and context |
| Saved and scheduled reports by email | Not stated | Not stated | Yes: daily, weekly or monthly digests |
| Export | Export of affiliates, referrals, payouts and visits (format not stated on the Reports page) | Not stated | CSV and print-ready PDF with your branding |
| Review screen for unusual patterns | Anti-Fraud settings flag or reject by rule (some on Pro only) | Not stated | Anomalies screen: bursts, look-alike customers, volume spikes. Read-only. |
| A modern full-screen area for affiliates | No | Yes: dashboard, links, referrals, visits, payouts, creatives | No. Adds a panel and a Why column to the existing Referrals tab. |
What AffiliateWP’s Reports screen gives you
AffiliateWP’s reports have five tabs: Referrals, Affiliates, Payouts, Visits and Campaigns. They cover earnings paid and unpaid, referral counts, new affiliates, top converters and earners, visit and conversion figures, and payout history, with presets from Today to Last Year or a custom range. For a monthly look at how the programme is doing, that’s solid.
What the documentation doesn’t mention is saving a filtered report, sending it to someone on a schedule, or explaining an individual referral’s status.
What the Affiliate Portal add-on changes
The Affiliate Portal replaces the standard affiliate area with a full-screen interface: dashboard, affiliate URLs, referrals, visits, payouts, creatives and settings, designed to work on phones. It’s a better home for affiliates.
It doesn’t change what affiliates can see about pending referrals. AffiliateWP’s own referral status documentation says pending referrals don’t appear in the affiliate’s dashboard, and that’s the behaviour we’d expect in the Portal too. If that’s the cause of your support emails, a nicer dashboard won’t fix it.
What WP Referral Clarity adds
Ours sits on top of AffiliateWP and only reads its data; it never changes a referral. For admins it adds a quick dashboard and live reports you can combine filters on (status, dates, affiliate, campaign, tier, product, source). It also has saved and scheduled reports, CSV and PDF export, and an Anomalies screen for patterns worth a second look.
For affiliates it adds a panel on their Referrals tab with their unpaid total and each pending referral, the reason and an expected date where you’ve set a rule, plus a Why column on their history. The wording is yours to edit. Our guide on what pending means in AffiliateWP shows how it cuts the “where’s my commission?” emails.
What it doesn’t do: it doesn’t replace the affiliate area’s design (that’s the Portal’s job), block or reject referrals, or pay affiliates. It works alongside AffiliateWP’s Anti-Fraud settings rather than instead of them.
Can you use them together?
Yes, with one caveat to check. Referral Clarity adds its panel and Why column to AffiliateWP’s standard Referrals tab. If you replace the affiliate area with the Affiliate Portal, test on a staging site that the panel still appears where your affiliates look, before relying on it.
How to choose
- Count the affiliate emails. If most are about pending commissions, visibility is the fix, not reports.
- Count the people who need reports. One admin checking monthly doesn’t need scheduling. A team getting the same report every Monday does.
- Look at your payout process. If you pay without reviewing, add a review step first, whichever tool supplies the flags. Our guide on spotting affiliate fraud has a weekly routine.
- Check your AffiliateWP plan. Several Anti-Fraud checks are Pro-only, so what you already have matters.
Ready to decide? See screenshots, requirements and pricing for WP Referral Clarity.
View the add-on