How to Migrate from Rewardful to Refgrow (Complete Guide)

Rewardful has been a popular choice for SaaS affiliate programs, particularly for Stripe-only businesses. But as your program grows, you may find yourself bumping into its limitations — MRR caps, lack of an embedded widget, limited payment provider support, or pricing that scales faster than your revenue.

If you've been considering a switch, this guide walks you through the entire migration process from Rewardful to Refgrow, step by step. We'll cover why companies are making the move, what to prepare before you start, and how to execute the migration with zero downtime for your affiliates.

Why Migrate from Rewardful?

Rewardful works well for early-stage SaaS companies running simple Stripe-based affiliate programs. But as programs mature, several pain points tend to surface:

MRR Limits That Punish Growth

Rewardful's pricing tiers are tied to tracked MRR. Once your affiliate-driven revenue crosses a threshold, you're forced into a higher plan — even if you're not using additional features. This creates an uncomfortable dynamic where your affiliate program's success directly increases your platform costs in unpredictable jumps.

Refgrow takes a different approach. Plans are based on features and affiliate count, not MRR. Your Growth plan at $49/month stays at $49/month whether your affiliates drive $10K or $100K in monthly revenue.

Stripe-Only Limitation

Rewardful only supports Stripe. If you use LemonSqueezy, Paddle, Polar, or Dodo Payments — or if you're considering switching billing providers — you're stuck. Refgrow supports all five major SaaS billing platforms out of the box, with the same automatic conversion tracking across all of them.

No Embedded Widget

With Rewardful, affiliates manage their dashboard on a separate portal. Refgrow offers an embeddable widget that lives inside your own product — affiliates never leave your app. This creates a more seamless experience, higher engagement, and stronger brand consistency.

Missing Advanced Features

Features like AI-powered affiliate recruitment, multi-tier commissions, product-specific commission overrides, and white-label reseller mode are either absent from Rewardful or locked behind enterprise plans. In Refgrow, they're available on standard plans.

Feature Comparison: Rewardful vs. Refgrow

Here's a side-by-side look at how the two platforms stack up:

Before You Start

Migration is straightforward, but a bit of preparation ensures a smooth transition:

• Document your current commission structure — percentage or flat rate, cookie duration, recurring or one-time, any product-specific overrides.
• List all active affiliates — names, emails, referral codes, and any custom commission rates.
• Check pending payouts — settle any outstanding commissions in Rewardful before migrating so affiliates aren't left waiting.
• Note your current tracking setup — where is the Rewardful script installed? Is it in your main app, landing pages, or both?
• Identify your billing provider — have your Stripe (or other provider) API keys and webhook secrets ready.

The entire migration typically takes 30-60 minutes of active work, and can be done with zero downtime if you follow the steps in order.

Step 1: Export Your Affiliate Data from Rewardful

Start by exporting everything you'll need from Rewardful:

1. Log into your Rewardful dashboard.
2. Navigate to Affiliates and export your affiliate list as CSV. This should include:
   • Affiliate name and email
   • Referral code / link slug
   • Commission rate (if custom per affiliate)
   • Total earnings and referrals
   • Signup date
3. Go to Conversions and export your conversion history. While you won't re-import every historical conversion, this data is useful for reporting continuity.
4. Export any coupon codes you've assigned to affiliates — you'll recreate these in Refgrow.
5. Take screenshots or notes of your campaign settings: commission percentage, cookie lifetime, recurring commission toggle, minimum payout threshold.

Save all exports in a dedicated folder. You'll reference them throughout the migration.

Step 2: Create Your Refgrow Account

Head to refgrow.com/register and create your account. The 14-day free trial gives you full access to all features — no credit card required to start.

1. Sign up with the same email you use for your SaaS business.
2. Once logged in, you'll land on the Projects dashboard.
3. Click Create Project and enter your product name, website URL, and logo.

At this point, don't worry about connecting your billing provider yet — we'll do that in the next step along with your commission configuration.

Step 3: Set Up Your Project with the Same Commission Structure

This is where you replicate your Rewardful campaign settings in Refgrow:

Commission Settings

1. In your Refgrow project, go to Settings → Commission.
2. Set your commission type — percentage or flat rate — matching what you had in Rewardful.
3. Set the commission percentage (e.g., 20%).
4. Enable recurring commissions if your Rewardful campaign tracked recurring payments.
5. Set the cookie duration to match your previous setting (common: 30, 60, or 90 days).
6. Configure the minimum payout threshold (e.g., $50).

Product-Specific Commissions (Optional)

If you had different commission rates for different products or plans, Refgrow lets you set per-product overrides. Go to Settings → Product Commissions and add entries for each product ID from your billing provider.

Connect Your Billing Provider

1. Navigate to Settings → Integrations.
2. Select Stripe (or your billing provider).
3. Enter your API key and webhook secret.
4. Refgrow will generate a webhook URL — save this for Step 6.

Step 4: Import Your Affiliates

Now bring your affiliates over to Refgrow. You have two options:

Option A: Bulk Import via API

Use the Refgrow REST API to programmatically create affiliate records. This is the fastest approach if you have many affiliates:

// Example: Import affiliates from CSV using the Refgrow API
const affiliates = parseCsvFile('rewardful-affiliates.csv');

for (const affiliate of affiliates) {
  await fetch('https://api.refgrow.com/api/v1/affiliates', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer rgk_your_api_key',
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      email: affiliate.email,
      name: affiliate.name,
      referral_code: affiliate.referral_code, // Keep the same codes!
      commission_override: affiliate.custom_rate || null
    })
  });
}

Important: Preserve the same referral codes your affiliates were using. This way, any existing links they've shared continue to work after migration.

Option B: Manual Import

For smaller programs (under 50 affiliates), you can add affiliates manually through the Refgrow dashboard. Go to Affiliates → Add Affiliate and enter each affiliate's details.

Recreate Coupon Codes

If you used coupon-based attribution in Rewardful, recreate those coupons in Refgrow:

1. Go to Coupons in your Refgrow project.
2. Create each coupon with the same code and discount value.
3. Assign each coupon to the correct affiliate.

The coupon codes in your billing provider (Stripe, etc.) remain unchanged — you're just telling Refgrow which affiliate owns which coupon.

Step 5: Switch Your Tracking Code

This is the step where the actual cutover happens. Replace the Rewardful tracking snippet with Refgrow's:

Remove the Rewardful Script

Find and remove the Rewardful snippet from your website. It typically looks like this:

<!-- Remove this -->
<script>(function(w,r){w._rwq=r;w[r]=w[r]||function(){(w[r].q=w[r].q||[]).push(arguments)}})(window,'rewardful');</script>
<script async src='https://r.wdfl.co/rw.js' data-rewardful='your_id'></script>

Add the Refgrow Tracking Script

Add the Refgrow tracking code to your website — ideally in the <head> section of every page:

<!-- Add this -->
<script src="https://refgrow.com/tracking.js" data-project="your_project_id"></script>

This single script handles:

• Referral link detection (reads ?ref= parameter)
• Cookie setting for attribution
• Cross-domain tracking support
• Automatic Stripe Checkout integration

Add the Affiliate Widget (Optional but Recommended)

One of Refgrow's biggest advantages is the embeddable widget. Add it to your app's dashboard so affiliates can manage everything without leaving your product:

<script src="https://refgrow.com/embed.js"
  data-project="your_project_id"
  data-email="{{current_user_email}}">
</script>

Step 6: Update Webhook Endpoints

Webhooks are how your billing provider notifies Refgrow about new charges, subscriptions, and refunds. This step is critical for automatic conversion tracking.

For Stripe

1. Log into your Stripe Dashboard → Webhooks.
2. Find the existing Rewardful webhook endpoint and disable or delete it.
3. Click Add endpoint and enter the Refgrow webhook URL from Step 3 (format: https://refgrow.com/webhook/stripe/your_project_id).
4. Select the relevant events:
   • checkout.session.completed
   • invoice.payment_succeeded
   • customer.subscription.deleted
   • charge.refunded
5. Copy the webhook signing secret and paste it into your Refgrow project settings.

For Other Providers

If you're also moving to a new billing provider (LemonSqueezy, Paddle, Polar, or Dodo), Refgrow provides dedicated webhook endpoints for each. The setup process is similar — add the endpoint URL in your billing provider's webhook settings and paste the signing secret into Refgrow.

Step 7: Notify Your Affiliates

Communication is key to a smooth transition. Here's a template you can adapt:

Subject: We've upgraded our affiliate program — here's what changed

Hi [Name],

We've moved our affiliate program to a new platform to give you a better experience. Here's what you need to know:

• Your referral links still work. No changes needed — all your existing links and coupon codes continue to track correctly.
• New in-app dashboard. You can now manage your affiliate account directly inside [Your Product] — no more switching to a separate portal.
• Same commission structure. Your [X]% recurring commission hasn't changed.
• More payout options. In addition to PayPal, you can now receive payouts via Wise (bank transfer).

If you have any questions, just reply to this email.

Thanks for being part of our affiliate program!

Key points to emphasize:

• Existing referral links and codes continue to work (because you preserved the same codes in Step 4).
• Commission rates haven't changed.
• The experience is better — in-app widget, more payout options, multi-language support.
• No action required from affiliates (unless you want them to log in and explore the new dashboard).

Post-Migration Checklist

After completing the migration, run through this checklist to make sure everything is working:

• Test a referral click. Open an affiliate link in an incognito window and verify the cookie is set.
• Test a conversion. Complete a test purchase through a referral link and confirm it appears in Refgrow.
• Check webhook delivery. In your Stripe dashboard, verify the Refgrow webhook endpoint is receiving events with 200 responses.
• Verify affiliate dashboard. Log in as an affiliate (or use impersonation) and confirm the widget displays correctly with accurate data.
• Review payout settings. Ensure PayPal and/or Wise credentials are configured for automated payouts.
• Disable Rewardful. Once everything is confirmed working, cancel your Rewardful subscription to avoid double billing.
• Monitor for 48 hours. Keep an eye on conversion tracking for two days to catch any edge cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my affiliates lose their historical earnings data?

Refgrow tracks new conversions going forward. Historical conversion data from Rewardful won't be imported, but you can retain those records in your exported CSV for reference. Affiliate balances and pending payouts should be settled in Rewardful before migrating.

How long does migration take?

Most teams complete the migration in 30-60 minutes. Larger programs with hundreds of affiliates may take a bit longer for the import step, but the API makes it fast.

Can I run both platforms simultaneously during transition?

Technically yes, but it's not recommended because it can lead to double-counted conversions. The cleanest approach is to do the cutover in a single session: remove Rewardful tracking, add Refgrow tracking, and update webhooks all at once.

What if I use a billing provider that Rewardful doesn't support?

If you've been using a workaround (like manual conversion logging) because Rewardful only supports Stripe, Refgrow's native support for LemonSqueezy, Paddle, Polar, and Dodo means you can switch to fully automatic tracking — a significant upgrade in reliability.

Is there a migration service?

Yes. If you'd prefer a hands-off migration, reach out to our support team and we'll handle the transition for you at no extra cost.