What is the advantage of using affiliate software instead of an affiliate network?

Using affiliate software offers the distinct advantage of eliminating the need to pay commissions to an affiliate network. This typically means that businesses can retain more of their profits since they are not sharing a portion of their revenues with a third-party network that usually facilitates the relationship between merchants and affiliates. By utilizing affiliate software, companies take control over their affiliate program, which may also allow for more flexibility in how affiliates are managed and compensated.

While some options present appealing scenarios, such as not needing to find affiliates or gaining immediate access to a wide network, these conditions are often not exclusively true with affiliate software when compared to affiliate networks. In fact, affiliate networks do provide access to a larger pool of affiliates, but this access comes at the cost of networking fees or commissions. Likewise, the concern over needing technical expertise is often mitigated by many modern affiliate software solutions that are designed to be user-friendly, though initially, this might not have been the case.