We charge $0 until your first affiliate actually signs up

Building Referralful (https://referralful.com/?utm_source=indiehackers.com&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=bip) in public. Affiliate tracking for SaaS, built on Stripe. Quick week-one update.

Most affiliate tools start at $49/mo. You pay that whether you have zero affiliates or fifty. We went the other way: completely free until your first affiliate joins, then $19.99/mo. If nobody signs up to promote your product, you find that out for $0.

A few things we've learned in the first week:

Directory submissions are slow. We submitted to about 15 (Capterra, SaaSworthy, G2, Product Hunt, and others). Most take 1-2 weeks to review. Some require a business-domain email, not Gmail. If you're planning a launch, start these a month early.

Community posts beat cold outreach. Writing about how Stripe affiliate tracking works technically (cookie windows, recurring commissions, webhook-based attribution) on dev.to and here started real conversations. That feedback loop is more valuable than any listing at this stage.

Too early for real conversion numbers, and we're not going to invent them. The product is live, the Stripe integration works, and we'll share actual data when we have it.

Anyone here running or thinking about an affiliate/referral program for their SaaS? Happy to talk through the technical decisions.

(disclosure: I build Referralful)