Should I use an affiliate network like ShareASale or run my program in-house?

Adam Simone from Leaf Shave gave a great, real-world example on the Future Commerce podcast of how a brand’s affiliate strategy evolves. He explained that after building some initial traction, they decided to get serious about diversifying their revenue and traffic sources. So, as he put it, they really tried to kick into gear their affiliate program. Their first move was to convert existing content creators they’d worked with into formal affiliate partners. This is a classic "in-house" first step. You're working with people who already know and presumably like your product, giving you a warm start and a high degree of control over the relationships.

From there, Leaf Shave tried using GRIN, which is a popular creator management platform, but Adam mentioned they "didn't love it" for their needs. This is a critical part of the story. It shows that even with dedicated software, managing a program "in-house" can be a heavy lift that doesn't always feel right. The administrative work of finding, managing, and paying partners is significant. For Leaf Shave, the solution was to move over to ShareASale. Adam says they've been "hammering home" on building their program there. The lesson is that moving to a large, established affiliate network like the ShareASale network was a conscious choice for a brand that was ready to scale. They traded some direct control for access to a massive, established pool of affiliates who are actively looking for programs to join. It took the burden of discovery off their plate and plugged them into an engine built for broad reach.

For contrast, Shibo Xu of Refersion made a powerful point on Honest Ecommerce about how you should begin. He argued you can start really, really small, and that you don't even need a software platform or a network at first. His advice was to simply identify the people who already support your brand and create a simple system to reward them. He's seen some of the most successful small affiliate programs run on nothing more than a Google Sheet. You track a few unique coupon codes, look up which orders they drove, and then manually pay out commissions via PayPal.

This approach completely reframes the starting point. It’s not about choosing between a complex SaaS platform and a massive network. It’s about formalizing the word-of-mouth that’s probably already happening. Noah Tucker echoed this idea on the Ecommerce Coffee Break podcast, saying that for brands with a passionate customer base, a structured affiliate program can pour fuel on the fire that's already burning. Turning Customers And Community Into Affiliates is often the lowest-hanging fruit and the most authentic starting point for a program.

So the answer isn't a simple "network vs. in-house." It's about a sequence. The journey Adam Simone described with Leaf Shave is what happens when a brand is ready for the next level of growth and reach. They'd done the groundwork and needed an engine to scale. But the starting point for most brands should be what Shibo Xu described: an intentionally simple, in-house system built around your truest fans. Master that, build your processes, and prove the model with your core advocates. Once the revenue is flowing and you know what works, then you can decide if the scale and reach of a network is worth the cost and the more hands-off nature of the relationships. Starting in-house builds the foundation; a network lets you build a skyscraper on top of it.