What are recurring commissions?
A recurring commission is a payment made to an affiliate every time a referred customer renews their subscription. Instead of a one-time reward at signup, the affiliate earns a commission each month (or billing cycle) for as long as the customer remains active — or up to a configured limit.
This model is native to SaaS because SaaS revenue itself is recurring. Paying affiliates only on the first sale creates a perverse incentive: they optimize for volume over quality. Recurring commissions fix this by tying affiliate earnings directly to customer retention.
Why SaaS companies use them
Recurring commissions solve two problems at once. First, they attract higher-quality affiliates who think long-term. Content creators, consultants, and industry experts are more likely to join a program that pays them continuously, because they already invest in building trust with their audience. Second, they align the affiliate's incentive with yours: both parties benefit when the customer stays.
For a SaaS company with strong retention, recurring commissions are also more cost-effective than high one-time payouts. A 10 percent recurring commission on a 50 euro monthly plan costs 5 euro per month. Over 12 months, that is 60 euro — but you earned 600. Compare this to a 100 euro one-time bounty where the customer might churn after 3 months.
How the technical tracking works
Recurring commission tracking relies on Stripe webhook events and a database-driven month counter. Here is the full flow:
- Month 1: The customer completes checkout. The
checkout.session.completedwebhook fires. Since a subscription ID is present, a RECURRING commission (not a SALE commission) is created for month 1. - Month 2 and beyond: Each renewal triggers an
invoice.paidevent. The webhook handler checks the subscription ID, confirms the subscription is being tracked, counts existing commissions in the database, and creates the next one. - Limit enforcement: If you configure a 12-month limit, the system stops creating commissions once the count reaches 12. If set to lifetime, commissions continue indefinitely.
Month counting is always database-based (counting existing commission records for that subscription), never parsed from invoice numbers. This avoids edge cases with prorated invoices, credits, and billing adjustments that could throw off a sequential counter.
Commission calculation
Recurring commissions can be calculated as a percentage of the net payment amount or as a flat rate per renewal:
- Percentage: For example, 20 percent of a 99 euro monthly renewal (after Stripe fees) means the affiliate earns around 19 euro per month. This scales naturally with your pricing.
- Flat rate: For example, 10 euro per renewal regardless of the plan price. Simpler to communicate, but does not scale with higher-tier plans.
Lifetime vs. limited duration
You have two options when configuring recurring commissions:
- Lifetime: The affiliate earns a commission on every renewal for as long as the customer pays. This is the most attractive option for affiliates and works well when your LTV justifies it.
- Limited: The affiliate earns commissions for a set number of months (for example, 12 or 24). After that, the customer is fully yours. This caps your acquisition cost and is common for lower-margin products.
What happens on cancellation
When a customer cancels their subscription, the Stripe event customer.subscription.deleted fires. The correct behavior is to delete any commissions still in the hold period (PENDING status). These represent future months that will not be paid. Commissions that have already matured past the hold period or been paid out are preserved — the affiliate earned them for months the customer actually paid for.
What happens on refund
Refunds trigger the charge.refunded event. For commissions still in the hold period, the commission is simply deleted. For commissions already paid out to the affiliate, the platform applies a negative balance: the refunded amount is deducted from the affiliate's next payout. This clawback mechanism protects the startup from paying commissions on revenue it did not keep.
Hold periods are specifically designed for this. A 30-day hold on sale and recurring commissions gives you a window to catch chargebacks and refund requests before the commission becomes payable.
Industry benchmarks
Recurring affiliate commissions in SaaS typically range from 20 to 40 percent for direct sales, though some programs go as high as 50 percent for the first year. The average SaaS affiliate program generates between 10 and 15 percent of monthly recurring revenue through affiliate channels. Programs with recurring commissions tend to retain affiliates longer and see higher per-affiliate output compared to one-time bounty programs.
Set up recurring commissions with Traaaction
Traaaction supports all three commission modes — Sale, Lead, and Recurring — with configurable limits and rates. You can set up a recurring commission by toggling the recurring option when creating a mission, choosing percentage or flat rate, and setting a month limit (or leaving it at lifetime).
The platform handles Stripe webhook processing, month counting, hold periods, cancellation cleanup, and refund clawbacks automatically. Traaaction uses a subscription pricing model with no per-sale fees, so your commission payouts go entirely to your affiliates.