Run your affiliate program with any payment processor
Reditus connects natively with Stripe. For every other payment processor (Paddle, Chargebee, PayPal, and anything else that can send payment data) your affiliate program runs through the Reditus Payments API. Customers run their programs this way in production today. This guide explains how it works, what to expect, and the honest limitations.
When to use the API instead of the Stripe connection
- You bill through Paddle, Chargebee, PayPal, or another processor without a native Reditus connection.
- You are on Stripe but prefer not to grant full Stripe account access. The API works with unique identifiers instead of your customer database, which makes it the GDPR-friendly path; some Stripe customers choose it for exactly that reason.
- You have a custom billing stack and want full control over what data leaves your systems.
The two ways to work with the Payments API
1. Forward all payments (simplest)
Send every payment to Reditus with the customer email or a unique ID attached. Reditus does the matching on its side: if the payment belongs to a referral in the system, a commission is generated; every other payment is simply ignored. You do not need to filter anything before sending.
2. Minimal-data mode (most private)
If you want to share as little as possible, first query the API to see which referrals exist in the system, then send payment data only for those specific customers. Combined with unique IDs, the whole flow runs without Reditus ever seeing your customer database.
Setting it up
The tracking side is identical to every Reditus setup: the tracking script in your site header and the sign-up snippet at registration. The payment side replaces the Stripe connection with API calls from your backend.
An honest time estimate: about four hours of developer time to forward all payments, depending on your processor and stack. Test the full flow first on the sandbox environment at app.getreditus.net (sign up there for API access, keep endpoints on .net while testing, then switch endpoints, API key, and tracking script to .com for production). The endpoint reference lives in the developer documentation.
Refunds and fraud protection
Send refund data to the refund endpoint and Reditus automatically rejects the full commission, with no manual step. Partial refunds are not supported: any refund rejects the entire commission. In practice this is the question we hear most about the API, because it removes the worry of paying out on a purchase that gets refunded right after.
Honest limitations
- Coupon-code tracking is Stripe-only. On the API path, affiliates promote with tracked links. Link tracking covers the full attribution flow; there is no coupon-based attribution without the Stripe connection.
- Your backend does the forwarding. Reditus has no processor-specific webhook packages (for Paddle or otherwise), so your developer writes the forwarding logic against your processor’s webhooks or your own billing events.
Notes per processor
- Paddle: forward payment events from your backend as they come in from Paddle. Working with the customer email or your own unique IDs both work. See the Paddle overview page for the full picture.
- Chargebee: same flow; forward payment events from your Chargebee webhooks or backend. See the Chargebee overview page.
- PayPal and everything else: if it can send payment data, it works. The API does not care which processor the payment came from.
FAQs
Do commissions work exactly the same as with Stripe?
Yes. Recurring commissions, tiers, payouts on the 1st of the month, thresholds, and fraud detection all work identically. The only functional difference is coupon-code tracking (Stripe-only) and that your backend sends the payment data.
Is the data flow GDPR-friendly?
Yes, and it can be stricter than the native connection: with unique IDs and minimal-data mode, Reditus only learns about the specific referrals in your program, never your full customer base.
Can we migrate an existing program and keep using our processor?
Yes. Migrations are free and white-glove, affiliates keep their existing links, and the payment side runs through the API from day one. See the migration page.