Best WooCommerce Referral Plugin (Top 10 for 2024)

What is a WooCommerce referral program?

A referral program, also known as a refer-a-friend program, is a marketing strategy designed to encourage existing customers to refer your brand to their friends and family. This is a formula that has been proven to work time and time again.

So, what makes WooCommerce referral programs so popular? Well, think of referral programs as a win-win-win type of situation where the advocate who referred a friend gets a reward, their friend gets their own reward, and you acquire a new customer.

However, the thing that makes referral programs especially worthwhile is that they help store owners expand their existing customer base at a fraction of the cost that a regular marketing campaign would require.

What is a referral program plugin?

The backbone of every referral program is a referral plugin. These plugins are built for the WooCommerce platform in an effort to provide store owners with the features needed to create a referral system that fits the needs of their business.

Now, every WooCommerce referral plugin comes with its own set of features, but some of the must-have features should include a user-friendly dashboard, multiple referral methods, automated referral tracking, automated reward tracking, real-time reporting, program analytics overview, etc.

Finding the right WooCommerce referral plugin

To find the right WooCommerce referral plugin for your WooCommerce store, you need to know how your store can benefit from it. For example, are you trying to get started with referral marketing? Are you trying to increase customer loyalty? Are you perhaps looking for a referral program that just offers discount coupons but no referral links?

Whatever your reason for implementing a WooCommerce referral program is, look for a referral plugin that meets the needs of your business – and doesn’t require you to break a bank just so you can implement it.

How do you benefit from referral plugins?

A good implementation of a WooCommerce customer referral program has the potential to bring many benefits to your store. It can help you acquire new customers through word-of-mouth marketing while maintaining a cost-effective marketing strategy.

This means that you can leverage your existing customers to promote your business, which reduces your marketing expenses. Additionally, studies show that referred customers are 90% more likely to trust and buy from a brand recommended by a friend.

A good referral program will bring enough successful referrals that will lead to higher conversion rates and a higher lifetime value. Not only that but while your referral program is bringing in new customers, your customer loyalty will increase, as well.

Why?

Well, rewarding your existing customers for referrals increases their loyalty. And loyal customers are one of the major benefits of having a WooCommerce referral program.

Believe it or not, loyal customers have the power to make or break your WooCommerce store, and if you create a powerful referral system that takes care of your customers, they will continue shopping with your store and become advocates of your brand.

So why not try to implement a WooCommerce referral program? Here is our list of the best WooCommerce referral plugins for 2023.

WooCommerce Refer a friend

WooCommerce Refer a Friend plugin can help you create a simple yet powerful referral system on your website that you can get up and running in no time.

WooCommerce Refer a friend plugin comes in two different versions:

• WooCommerce Refer a Friend Light
• WooCommerce Refer a Friend PREMIUM

If you are looking for a simple referral program where users can have referral links to share with friends, the Light version can do just that. After installing it, under the “My Account” dashboard page, users will find a referral link that they can share with their friends. You can set up a coupon reward for Advocate, and define an email that will notify them of a reward. They can also see their rewarded coupons under the My Account page, below the referral link. This is a simple plugin and will do a good job for simple referral programs.

If you want to reward both the advocate and his friend, if you want to check statistics on how well your referral program is doing, if you want shortcodes so you can create special landing pages for referral programs, ability to have referral codes next to links, compatibility with WooCommerce Subscription and much more, this is where the Premium version comes up. Currently, outside SaaS apps that you pay monthly, no plugin has so many features as WooCommerce Refer a Friend PREMIUM, while also keeping the plugin light and easy to use through the modern admin interface.

Referral link and Coupon referral program

• Easy referral program setup with modern admin interface
• Both guest and registered users can have referral links or referral discount coupons
  • referral links are visible in several places, such as Refer a friend tab under the default My Account page
  • Product page tab (if activated)
  • Landing page of your choice (you can use a shortcode to display wherever you want)
• You can use either referral links or coupons, or both
• Share via socials
  • Email, Facebook, X (Twitter), WhatsApp & Viber

Fraud prevention

• Multiple fraud prevention systems
  • IP address check
  • Shipping address check
  • Email address check
  • Phone number check
• Customizable fraud prevention options

Customers can track discount coupons

• Coupons displayed under the My Account page
• Coupons sent to customers via email
• Customers can track referral coupons
• Customers can see the status of the friend’s order

Referral program settings

• Set the value of each coupon
• Define the minimum order amount
• Choose whether the coupon is category & product-specific, or not
• Compatible with WooCommerce Subscription
  • Sign-up discount coupons and recurring coupon rewards

You can learn more about how to combine WooCommerce with Refer a friend plugin by reading Using a Referral Plugin with WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Customize email

• Two templates
  • One template is sent when advocates share their referral link
  • The other is sent when a coupon code reward is issued
• Include sender name

Check out WooCommerce Refer a friend documentation for more details on Configuring emails.

Check and track program performance

• Track how often referral orders are made
• Track who brought in the most referrals
• Export data into a CSV
• Track referral events

WooCommerce Refer a friend plugin is easy to set up and it’s very light so you know it won’t slow down your website.

WPLoyalty

Unlike WooCommerce Refer a friend plugin which focuses entirely on Referral programs, WPLoyalty is a platform that offers an all-in-one Loyalty program solution, but with a twist.

Users can choose between Points, Rewards, Levels AND Referral programs, or use them all together as a Loyalty program. While their Points program is free to use, the rest of the features do require a subscription. This includes the WPLoyalty’s Referral program, which is the main focus of this article.

Since WPLoyalty’s referral program for WooCommerce requires a subscription, this means that it does come with a nice set of features.

Here are some of the features users get with WPLoyalty:

Core features

• Simple setup
• User-friendly interface
• Customer management
• Instant reward notifications
  • For both advocates and their friends
• Easy redemption options
• Automatic emails
• Set up expiry date per campaign
• Set up Points expiry (outside of the referral program)

Diverse referral rewards

• Fixed discount
• Percentage discounts
• Freebies
• Free shipping
• Redeemable points (works in conjunction with WPLoyalty Points program)
• Multiple rules and conditions

NOTE: Guest referral is only available as an add-on, which will increase the subscription cost by close to 20%, depending on the plan you choose.

Analytics

• Real-time analytics feature
• Track clicks, conversions, and ROI

Brand customization

• Customer reward page
• Email customization

ReferralCandy for WooCommerce

Though its primary focus was on the Shopify platform, the ReferralCandy team expanded its offer with a plugin that integrates well into the WooCommerce ecosystem. It offers a great platform designed to help you automate customer referral campaigns.

Referral candy for WooCommerce also comes with a built-in live-chat support option which speaks a lot about their commitment toward improving their product.

Here are some of the features users get with ReferralCandy:

Core features

• Automatically pay out coupon rewards to advocates
• Referral nudges such as pop-ups, email reminders, and social media sharing buttons
• Create unique rewards such as store credit, gift cards, cash rewards, and many more
• Unique referral links for each customer
• Email service provider integrations
  • Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Facebook Pixel
  • Send email blasts

Analytics

• Detailed analytics about the program
• Referral reports

Brand customization

• Email customization
• Set up a landing page
• Set up a widget

Fraud prevention

• Built-in automated fraud prevention mechanisms

LoyalGenie

LoyalGenie is a loyalty solution for WooCommerce stores that currently offers a Referral program and a Points and rewards program. Unlike other clunky WooCommerce plugins, LoyalGenie comes with its own dashboard that offers a modern approach to program management.

LoyalGenie offers two programs that can work separately AND together, but for the purpose of this article, we will only focus on the Referal program and discuss the benefits it can bring to the WooCommerce platform.

Here are some of the features users get with LoyalGenie:

Core features

• Easy setup
• User friendly interface
• Customer management
• Automated referral program
• Instant reward notifications
  • For both advocates and their friends
• Different rewards for program members
  • Single-sided and double-sided rewards
• Unique referral links
• Referral program promotion
• Automatic referral approval process
• Easy redemption options
• Automatic emails
• Dedicated Loyalty page
• Dedicated Loyalty widget

Analytics

• Real-time analytics
• Referral activity overview
• Track referral stats
  • Referral revenue
  • Average referral order
  • Lifetime referral order
  • Referral traffic
  • Average conversion rate
  • Total advocates
• Track top advocates
• Track referring websites

Referral sharing

• Sharing via email
• Sharing via socials such as Facebook, X (Twitter) and WhatsApp

Brand customization

• Detailed Loyalty page customization
  • For both guests and program members
• Detailed Loyalty widget customization
  • For both guests and program members
• Detailed email customization

Fraud prevention

• Built-in automated fraud prevention mechanisms
• Choose which fraud rules you want to implement

AutomateWoo – Refer a friend

Refer a friend by AutomateWoo is an add-on to AutomateWoo, a powerful marketing automation tool for the WooCommerce platform. This means that in order to set up a referral program, you need to have the AutomateWoo plugin installed, as well.

This simple add-on allows you to quickly create a program customized for your WooCommerce store. It also comes with unlimited email support, which may come in handy.

Here are some of the features users get with AutomateWoo – Refer a friend:

Core features

• Effortless referral management
• Automatic referral approval process
• Manuals referral approval process
• Program report
• Integration with AutomateWoo workflows

Referral sharing

• Sharing via email
• Sharing via socials (Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp)

Post-purchase widgets

• Post-purchase share widget on the order confirmation page
• By creating order follow-up emails

Fraud prevention

• Ability to set up custom fraud rules

NOTE: Make sure to factor in the cost of AutomateWoo on top of that which is an additional $119/year, at the time of writing this article.

Retainful

Retainful is another great solution for setting up a WooCommerce referral program that can help you turn your existing customer base into brand advocates.

This plugin follows the same practices as the rest but provides a bit more when it comes to other features you can integrate with your program, such as abandon cart emails, marketing automation, email segmentation, etc. We will focus on the Retainful’s referral program plugin only.

Here are some of the features users get with Retainful:

Core features

• Launch a referral program within minutes
• Coupon code rewards for advocates and friends
• Unique referral link for each customer
• Referral widget that showcases your program
• Several types of referral rewards
• Coupon expiry date
• Referral program promotion

Analytics

• Easy referral management
• Track issues rewards
• Track total revenue

Customization

• Drag & drop email editor
• Reminder emails
• Brand customization
• Shortcodes personalization

Other features include Referral link sharing, Post-purchase pop-ups, Automatic fraud prevention, etc.

Referral System for WooCommerce

This complete referral marketing solution for WooCommerce comes with a nice set of features that will help you attract new customers and increase the loyalty of your existing customer base.

An additional benefit of this plugin is that integrates well with WooCommerce Points and rewards extension, which is a useful feature if you plan to expand your referral program and create a better loyalty program platform for your customers.

Here are some of the features users get with Referral system for WooCommerce:

Core features

• Light-weight and well-optimized
• Offers sign-up rewards for advocates and friends
• Offers several types of referral rewards
  • Fixed-price discount coupons
  • Percentage discount coupons
  • Loyalty points as a referral reward

Analytics

• Customers can track their rewards through My account page

Referral sharing

• Customers can share their referral link via email or socials
  • Socials include Facebook, LinkedIn and X (Twitter)

Coupon Referral Program

WooCommerce Coupon Referral Program is quite similar to the Referal System plugin but offers a few additional features. On top of that, it is compatible with WooCommerce Points and Rewards and WooCommerce Subscriptions.

When you combine all of these, you can create a loyalty program that will improve the customer engagement rate and overall customer satisfaction.

Here are some of the features users get with Coupon Referral Program:

Core features

• Quick set up
• Easy-to-use referral tools
• Program management
  • Referral management by user role
• Referral link redirection
• Coupon reporting

Customization

• Customizable branding options
• Customizable referral button
• Customizable referral template

Referral sharing

• Customers can share their referral link via email or socials
  • Socials include Facebook, LinkedIn and X (Twitter)

Other features include Referral reminders, Coupon restrictions, CSV export, Recurring payments with coupons.

Gratisfaction

Unlike some of the plugins on this list that focus strictly on Referral programs, Gratisfaction offers an all-in-one loyalty solution that helps businesses drives leads, referral, followers, purchases, repeat purchases, and more.

Here are some of the features users get with Gratisfaction:

Core features

• Multiple single-sided programs
• Multiple double-sided programs
• Built-in goal campaigns
  • Increase sales and repeat sales
  • Increase customer loyalty
  • Grow email list
  • Increase referrals
• Integrations with multiple email service providers
  • Klaviyo, Aweber, Constant Contact, etc.

Customization

• Various pre-built templates, including a WooCommerce referral program

Referral sharing

• Customers can share their referral link via email or socials

Gratisfaction plugin is packed with so many features that you may not even use some of them. It can be overwhelming at first, so if you decide to go with this plugin, make sure you load up with patience.

InviteReferrals

InviteReferrals is a referral software that can help businesses grow and acquire new customers through referral marketing. It comes with its own platform that connects to your WooCommerce store. The platform offers a great dashboard with an overview of all the necessary information needed to run your program.

Here are some of the features users get with InviteReferrals:

Core features

• Multiple platform support
  • Mobile, tablet & desktop
• Android & iOS apps
• Customizable reward logic flow
  • Single-sided and double-sided rewards
• Personalized coupon-based program
• Automated notifications
• Multiple roles for e-commerce store users
• Referral fraud prevention mechanisms

Analytics

• Referral statistics
• Automated referral tracking
• Automat

Referral sharing

• Multiple referral and social sharing options
  • Email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X (Twitter), WhatsApp

Customization

• Branding customization
• Customizable coupon-based program

Conclusion

Implementing a WooCommerce referral program can be a powerful strategy for your businesses as it can increase sales, improve customer loyalty, and help you cut down costs by eliminating other, more expensive, marketing strategies.

But how do you know which one of these is the best WooCommerce referral plugin? Well, that depends on what your business needs and how it can benefit from a referral program. We suggest you make a list of everything you expect from a referral program and compare it to the features offered by the plugin(s) you selected.

Once you find the right one and implement it, listen closely to what your customers say, as that will quite possibly determine its success. It’s very important that your referral program reflects both the vision of your brand and the needs of your customers. If you achieve that equilibrium, your store will soon start to thrive.

That being said, our suggestion for an easy-to-use referral plugin that you can get up and running quickly is definitely WooCommerce Refer a friend, but if you’re looking for a full loyalty program plugin, then LoyalGenie is your go-to solution. It offers all the essential features you require, with the added advantage of an intuitive user interface and a visually appealing design.