Start with the plan, not the software
Write your compensation plan down before you talk to vendors: every bonus, every qualification, every cap, the payout cycle, the rank ladder. Vendors will say they support 'all plans'. The real question is whether your specific rules can be configured, and whether the vendor can show them running in a demo.
If you have not finalised the plan, ask vendors for plan-design help and compliance review. Some, including DIRSL, offer this as a service.
Requirements checklist
Score each vendor against these categories. Weight compensation accuracy and payouts highest; they are where failures hurt most.
- Compensation: plan types, hybrids, simulation, versioning, audit
- Genealogy: placement rules, spillover, performance at your target size
- Payments: gateways per country, wallet features, payout automation, KYC
- Commerce: catalog, autoship, replicated stores, connectors (Shopify/Woo)
- Branding: custom domain, white-label, theme control, apps
- Compliance: income disclaimers, region controls, tax exports, data residency
- Operations: support SLA, training, migration, uptime
- Commercials: pricing model, member definition, fees, exit terms
Red flags
Walk away or dig deeper if you see any of these.
- No live demo with your plan, only screenshots
- 'Unlimited customisation' with every change billed separately
- No published uptime or security practices
- Source code delivered with no update path
- Payout gateway list that does not include your countries
- Vendor markets investment or gifting plans without compliance caveats
- Data export only on request or for a fee
Questions to ask every vendor
- Show me a commission run for my plan on a 1,000-member sample tree.
- What happens when I change a percentage mid-cycle?
- How are refunds and chargebacks clawed back from commissions?
- Which of my countries can you pay out to, and how?
- Where is my data hosted, and how do I export all of it?
- What is included in the price, and what is extra?
- Who do I call when a payout run fails on Friday night?
Total cost of ownership
Model three years. For a licence: purchase price, hosting, SSL, developer retainer, upgrade fees, add-ons, and your own time managing servers. For SaaS: subscription, transaction fees, add-ons. Include the cost of a delayed launch; weeks of implementation have a real revenue cost.
Typical result for a 5,000-member company: a $5,000 licence costs $25,000 to $40,000 over three years once hosting and development are counted; a $299/month SaaS plan with a 1% payout fee on $100k monthly payouts is roughly $47,000, with no implementation project and no servers to run. The gap narrows as payout volume grows, which is why Enterprise SaaS tiers switch to flat pricing.
Scoring template
Give each category a weight (sum to 100) and each vendor a 1–5 score. Multiply and total. A simple weighting that works for most launches: Compensation 30, Payments 20, Compliance 15, Commerce 10, Branding 10, Operations 10, Commercials 5.
Making the decision
Shortlist two vendors, run your plan on both, and talk to one reference customer each. Negotiate exit terms before you sign: data export format, notice period, and migration support. Then launch small, run two or three real commission cycles, and only then open enrollment widely.