🚫 Affiliate software was too damn expensive, so I built my own.

I checked out 5+ affiliate platforms. Each one was either overpriced ($49/mo? seriously?) or bloated with stuff I didn’t need.

Way more complexity than needed (multi-level referrals, team management, payout automation, tax reports, CRM integrations... seriously?)

I didn’t need all that. Neither i had budget to use them. I just wanted to:

1. Let someone sign up as an affiliate

2. Give them a personal referral link

3. Track clicks + signups + commissions

4. Let them see their stats

5. Manually pay them out at the end of the month

That’s it.

So I did what every indie dev with too much pride and access to Grok would do... I built my own.

I opened up Grok and typed something like:

"Hey, Can You help me Build a simple affiliate dashboard with referral links, tracking conversions, and storing commissions. Use Supabase as backend."

No joke — Grok realy helped me in building this, and within a weekend, I had a working version.

Here’s what affiliates get:

• A link like unrealshot.com?ref=geek

• A personal dashboard

• Real-time updates of clicks and earnings

• Ability to set PayPal email for payouts

Zero monthly fees. Zero third-party lock-ins. Just good ol’ DIY.

Here’s how it looks:

Built this in a weekend because... why not?

Why I love this more than any $49/mo solution

• I control everything. No shady analytics, no overcomplicated dashboards, no monthly surprises.

• Supabase is blazing fast. Realtime updates feel smooth, and the schema is dead simple.

• It’s personal. Every user feels like they’re part of the project. No bloated “enterprise” nonsense.

Bonus: If I ever want to scale it up—like add referral tiers or automate payouts—I can do it my way.

Final Thoughts

This affiliate system took me about a weekend to build, and now it works exactly how I want it to.

If you’re running your own product and want to reward users for sharing it—but hate overpaying for tools—you might want to just build your own too.

If you’re curious, happy to share more behind the scenes.

Until then, you can grab your referral link here: https://unrealshot.com