PartnerStack Reviews

We used PartnerStack with various types of partners. Integration partners, agencies, affiliates, resellers, and trusted advisors were the most common.

We used it to pay out commissions, as well as content adoption and content housing. 

We leveraged the Link tracking, UTM, JS snippet and more to track the success of our tracking links.

We were also using it to communicate with partners and to track revenue.

At Maropost we drove over 1.3M in new revenue. Not to mention brand adoption through our partners marketing efforts. In addition, we ran and launch many marketing campaigns with our partners.

Outside of that, the leadership and rest of the company was able to see the impact of our partners.

There are three main areas that I would say were the most useful, one would not necessarily be a feature, but their UI is very easy to use. 

As soon as you log in on the left-hand side, you can easy access your partners, messages and more. From a UI perspective, it is simple to use. From a partner standpoint, when they log in, the first thing they see is their commission payouts, any information we want them to see the partner can access their tracking links directly from the front page. There are a lot of benefits from the UI perspective that I found to be one of the most important things, both internally and externally, in terms of adoption.

From a feature perspective, one of my favorites and most beneficial, is the communication function. I was able to go to the messaging section where all communication is stored, including all outbound and inbound emails. But more importantly, I can view everything by going to the actual partner record within a partner profile within PartnerStack. I can see the people they referred and their commission payouts, and I could see their communications with our team. 

I managed hundreds of partners and needed something simple and straightforward. Communication was an important aspect for me.

The second feature was their automation, which included implementing automated emails as well as one-off emails. It's also in the communication function, but it's basically my ability to set up automated messaging based on various stages of their lifecycle. When they sign up, I can configure my welcome and onboarding emails. I can also set off an email automatically if they received a specific number of clicks on their tracking links and I can even send them an email if they got their first customer. The automation component was extremely beneficial.

Last but not least, while they do charge a fee to handle commissions, it was far easier for them to handle commissions than it was for me or my finance team. Connecting it to our CRM was crucial to track and automate commission payouts. 

All my finance team required was a breakdown. It was simple. I didn't have to bother them with payouts. All I had to do was grant them access to PartnerStack, and my finance department would simply export the receipt or documentation of who was paid out to ensure that it was correct.

There are 2 main areas of opportunity for PartnerStack to improve on their platform. 1. You can only merge the default tracking link into an email. As someone who is trying to engage my affiliates and or referral partners on a monthly send, if I want them driving to a different location every month, I have to manually go in and change that link, and then notify my partners via email. As opposed to having 20 links and being able to choose which one to merge into an email. It's a strategy play. If Marketing has a specific blogpost we want to drive traffic too, I have to go in and change the default link vs creating a new link, merging it into an email and sending an email to all my partners with their monthly link to share.

The second piece of functionality is that they can do a lot of creative things when it comes to progression paths, managing payouts, and other such things but can't do progression paths similar to airline miles. Earn it this year and you've earned it the next year even without anymore sales, referred leads and so on.

In the sense that if I earn platinum status as a partner in 2021, I keep that status in 2022 even if I don't sell or refer anymore in 2022. But in 2023 I would move to the correct tier based on my progression path efforts in 2022. 

That's how I prefer to do it. They don't have the capability to automate that process right now. I have to manage that piece manually, which isn't too difficult. 

Those are the two main areas where I believe there is room for growth. 

PartnerStack also includes an LMS but it's not the easier to use that is for sure.

I implemented and used PartnerStack for almost 2 years across 4 instances and 10+ partner types. I am implementing PartnerStack at the moment with Sendoso.

In terms of stability, PartnerStack is the leader in the industry.

You could probably look at it and argue with others, but they've been around long enough. PRM has been around for well over a decade. But I don't think stability will be an issue. If anything, I believe you're seeing more PRMs emerge. I recently spoke with one that launched in December but whose name I can't recall off the top of my head.

There is so much more opportunity in the partner world today than there was ten years ago. From a financial stability standpoint, as well as an industry stability standpoint, I believe they are solid.

They're putting a lot of money into events and customer growth. They are heavily investing in collaborations. I believe their stability is quite strong, especially given how aggressively the market is driving partnership adoption.

Scalability, in my opinion, is relatively simple. It is all dependent on the methodology, scalability, and managing my partners. As I hire new employees, I can assign the partners to different positions. That process could even be automated. If they join an agency, they are assigned. Scaling with PartnerStack was quite easy for me.

I think the evolution of your program is even more interesting, because, you're working with these people who have hundreds of customers who are doing the same thing you are in terms of a partner program. 

There are advantages and disadvantages, but the ability to evolve your program and get a different methodology, like a coach, outside the forest kind of methodology, was extremely beneficial. However, scaling with them is easy, because I can put that various automation in place. I can grant finance access to PartnerStack so that they can obtain what they require as well. It was very simple for me to use them in terms of scalability.

We are not using Sendoso right now. We are replacing another platform with this one, we are just finished the legal documents, and I'm just waiting for finance to sign off. Hopefully, that will be implemented, and by mid-July, we will have launched our new partner programs.

Onboarding was excellent from the standpoint of assistance. For example, their ticketing is also quite good. I can submit a ticket directly from within PartnerStack and usually receive a response within 24 hours. Their actual team and the people you work with, such as your own account manager, are FANTASTIC.

We met with our account manager once a week to discuss strategies and tactics, such as "What are we missing? "What are you finding in the market?" What are we overlooking?  Where's our area of opportunity? And how can you make, connections with partners with whom we should collaborate?" PartnerStack is a really good company to work with all around which is the reason I am signing up again.

Positive

In my opinion, the initial setup is not difficult at all.

The good news is that they cater to both people who are familiar with partner programs and those who are unfamiliar with them. I only gave them one piece of feedback: I had been running partner programs for nearly a decade at that point, so I knew what programs I wanted to launch. I was aware of the methodology and everything else. And they tried to put me through the regular process, which is a really good process if you have someone who doesn't necessarily know or isn't certain of what they want to accomplish.

After getting them to accelerate my onboarding, I launched my partner program in three weeks, fully built out PRM, everything in three weeks. Huge help from the PartnerStack team.

Because I'd already built everything out, they were able to push me through the process in about one or two calls. However, their process, in my opinion, is very good for someone with less experience because they go through the process of understanding your ICP. They assist you in understanding your IPP, as well as what programs you should and should not run. They assist you in understanding what the payout structures could or should be based on their hundreds of thousands of customers. I believe it is a good process. It was simply too slow for me, but I was able to speed up.

Bottomline, I can do more with less. I can have 1 partner manager manage 100 partners with the partners customer based being more than 1000! Which means, financially my program & teams are way more profitable.

I can reduce the strain of what I need from internal teams by leveraging the tools in PartnerStack. Which all plays into the profitability of my team and program. There's a lot I can get done because I'm not restricted by the various departments. That's not to say it's a bad thing. I have a close relationship with marketing, but removing them from the equation would be ideal when it comes to the small things. If I can take finance out of the equation and they don't have to worry about it, that's good for both of us.

It enables me to scale the program at a much fast rate and I can articulate and show the rate of growth. As an example, "We put this PRM in place, new partner pages and we added 300 partners. As a result, we increased the scale to BLANK percent. Furthermore, we increased our revenue growth rate from 20% to 25%. Oh and our margins went from 50 to 65% due the team being able to do more with less and way more efficient and effective". That's how I look at the PRM. Does it make our lives easier and we can do more with less. Is it also putting me in a position where I can actually track the success of my program?

Depending on what you are negotiating, it's usually a 12-month or two-year agreement. I believe they can be done on a monthly basis as well. We prefer quarterly payments, that's what we will request. 

If I recall correctly, the previous company paid on a month-to-month service in the sense that we paid monthly, but we had a two-year contract.

They have options and variables that you can choose from. I believe it is just a part of the negotiations.

Yes, I researched 10+ solutions. Allbound, Torchlite, Zift, Impartner to name a few. There are a lot of solutions out there that require a little bit more customization, which takes more time, which I don't have. I decided to go with PartnerStack because it's easy to use. Their UI is easy to use. 

I am very familiar with the PartnerStack platform. I was able to implement it at Maropost in 3 weeks with the launch of their partner programs. Great onboarding process, great team to work with as your partner manager and incredible integration reps who help you build our your workflows within PartnerStack. Before you launch they go through testing to make sure they are connected to your CRM correctly and everything is functioning correctly.

There are probably three main reasons I'm choosing PartnerStack. One is my relationship with PartnerStack, in that I know the platform and the people all the way to the top. Two, I think the user interface is super simple to use and implement. From the partner and employee perspectives, there's that piece of adoption standpoint. The third piece is that it is also a strategic move. We are both marketing leaders.

By using it, we have the opportunity to collaborate on co-marketing, which benefits both Sendoso and PartnerStack.

I had one with another partner leader last week, and it all depends on what your trying to achieve. PartnerStack is not the cheapest option available. They are the industry leader, which has advantages. But if you're not going to take advantage of those advantages, it's pointless. The real question is, how many programs are you going to run? What are you hoping to achieve? For my part, I'm attempting to incorporate as much as possible into a single solution. If the other partner leaders are only going to run an affiliate program, there is no point in using PartnerStack, that is a total waste of money. Use another solution that only handles affiliate links and commission calculations. You don't require anything as sophisticated. You don't need the Ferrari, all you need is a Honda for example.

If you're thinking about just running a tech program, I wouldn't use them either. However, if you want to run multiple programs, affiliates, agencies, tech, and possibly strategic partnerships, which is what we'll be doing, we'll have four programs on the partner's stack. At that point, it makes perfect sense to look for something a little more sophisticated, such as PartnerStack, Allbound, or even Impartner.

For me, I just need something that will be simple to launch. It contains 95 percent of what I want and need. And now that I'm familiar with the platform, I am confident I can get it up and running in two weeks. 

PartnerStack also provides email content. They provide you with prebuilt items as well as a variety of other items. It is dependent on what you are looking for. If you're looking for something that's super simple to onboard and implement, as well as super simple for your partners to do, and you're not just running one program, PartnerStack is probably your solution. They are not, in my opinion, for a one-program type of thing.

I would rate PartnerStack a nine out of ten, because, I believe there is room for improvement and growth from that standpoint. From a product standpoint, I believe there is an opportunity for them to improve in certain areas. As a result, I'd give them a nine. I'd give them a 10 for their staff, team, and implementation process because I think they are excelling. I would give them a 10, but after providing feedback on where they can improve, I don't think that's fair.

I am using PartnerStack to launch and manage affiliate programs. For example, referral programs, co-selling programs, or reselling programs.

PartnerStack has facilitated client management by enabling us to efficiently manage their affiliate program through the use of partner technology. This not only streamlines the process but also grants us access to a wider network of publishers through the solution's partner ecosystem.

The features that enable commission-based partner management and payment are the most valuable aspects of PartnerStack. This is undoubtedly the top priority. Additionally, their newly introduced discovery tool is impressive.

While there have been significant advancements over the years, reporting remains an area where we constantly seek improvement in terms of both accuracy and comprehensiveness.

I have been using PartnerStack for approximately three years.

The solution is stable.

I rate the stability of PartnerStack a nine out of ten.

The solution is scalable.

We have 15 people using the solution.

I rate the scalability of PartnerStack a nine out of ten.

I have used the support from PartnerStack. PartnerStack's technical support is generally satisfactory. As with any company, the quality of support received may depend on the individual representative responding to the inquiry. While there may be some stronger or weaker support personnel, overall, PartnerStack is responsive and attentive to their client's needs.

We use lots of other solutions that are similar to PartnerStack.  

The better solution can vary depending on the situation. For SaaS and B2B, in particular, PartnerStack is among the top choices since it was designed specifically for this purpose. PartnerStack offers three different partnership models, including affiliate, referral, and resell, which provides a range of options to choose from. PartnerStack's scalability is a significant advantage as it enables businesses to expand their partnership programs, which is not always possible with other affiliate-centric networks and platforms.

The data and analytics of some of the other solutions are stronger than in PartnerStack.

Typically, it takes approximately three to six weeks for clients to integrate PartnerStack into their processes. The integration is relatively simple, and although it requires some support from both sides, PartnerStack provides excellent support to help businesses implement their software successfully.

The deployment process is always a collaborative effort between PartnerStack, our agency, and the client. While we assist in facilitating the deployment, ultimately it is the client who carries out the process.

The deployment does not need a lot of human resources.

As an agency managing several clients on PartnerStack, the success of a program depends on the specific client, company, and product involved. However, we have observed that PartnerStack can yield positive ROI results for the types of programs we run, provided they are set up for success.

The pricing of the solution is fair. It's not the cheapest, and it's not the most expensive.

We did evaluate many other solutions.

The maintenance of PartnerStack is not a challenging task, but it requires us to stay up-to-date with the technology and any new features or improvements that may arise. As an agency, it is crucial for us to remain knowledgeable about these updates, as we are responsible for representing our clients effectively.

To achieve success in a partnership program, it's crucial to understand that it requires both resources and technology. PartnerStack's technology is effective in managing and scaling programs, but it still requires dedicated effort from people and resources to achieve desired outcomes. Therefore, a successful partnership program requires a combination of resources and technology to be successful.

I rate PartnerStack nine out of ten.