ShareASale Review 2026: The Network Closed, and Here Is What to Do Now
ShareASale was one of the oldest affiliate networks, and it no longer exists as a separate platform. Awin, its owner, moved its customers over by August 2025 and closed it in October 2025. Many guides still describe it in the present tense. This page says what happened, what carried over for publishers and merchants, and what Awin costs today, all read on Awin's own pages on 8 November 2026.
Quick answer: ShareASale is closed. Awin moved all active customers by 15 August 2025 and shut the ShareASale platform on 6 October 2025, and shareasale.com now redirects to Awin. Partnerships, commission rates and cookie periods carried over unless an advertiser changed them. For merchants, Awin prints Access at $99 a month plus a 3.5% tracking fee, shown at a $49 special price until 30 November. If you are searching for ShareASale fees or sign-up steps, you will not find a working version, so use Awin.
What Was ShareASale?
ShareASale was an affiliate network where merchants listed programs and publishers applied to promote them. Wikipedia dates its founding to 2000 in Chicago, though that page carries a self-sourcing warning, and Awin says it has owned ShareASale since 2017. After the closure, Awin describes the combined platform as having more than 9,500 advertisers and 250,000 active publishers, which are Awin's own figures. To see what programs on networks like it pay, browse our list of top affiliate programs.
We could not read any first-party archive of ShareASale's old fee schedule. Older blogs give different figures for a joining fee and deposit, and none has a source we can check, so we do not repeat them. The platform is closed, so they no longer apply.
ShareASale Timeline: From Denial to Closure
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Awin buys ShareASale |
| 9 May 2024 | Awin says reports of a summer 2024 shutdown are wrong and that an upgrade is expected in 2025 with notice |
| 10 Mar 2025 | Awin announces upgrades starting at the end of the second quarter, closure by the end of 2025, and new customers going to Awin |
| 27 Jun 2025 | Awin publishes a troubleshooting guide for publishers |
| 14 Aug 2025 | Awin announces the upgrade is complete and gives 6 October as the closure date |
| 15 Aug 2025 | The last active customers are moved, according to Awin and trade press |
| 6 Oct 2025 | The ShareASale platform closes. The ShareASale plugins become maintenance-only |
One blog gives other dates for the end of tracking and the final payment run. No Awin page we read prints them, so we do not use them.
If You Were a ShareASale Publisher
These are the points Awin documents in its upgrade FAQ and troubleshooting article.
| Carried over | Did not carry over or changed |
|---|---|
| Partnerships, with no reapplication | Ratings and feedback, which Awin replaces with its own performance measures |
| Commission rates and cookie periods, unless the advertiser changed them | Payment statements, which are no longer accessible |
| Most tracking links | Old Payoneer accounts, which must be set up again |
| Eligible pending commissions, paid from the old balance, including amounts below the threshold | Short links with no clicks in the 12 months before the move, which now show an inactive page |
| Existing Awin credentials for people who already had an Awin account | Parameter names: exports show sas-cts, clickref carries sas-click and afftrack moves to clickref2 |
What to do now
- Check your payment details. Awin requires two-step verification to view or change them, and only an Account Owner can update them. Payments run by ACH for US accounts and Payoneer for accounts outside the US, with a $20 lowest threshold setting for USD and a $50 default.
- Look for missing programs. A merchant may be missing from My Programmes if it was not upgraded, upgraded early, had a negative balance, is closing or declined. You may need to join some manually.
- Fix dead links. Replace any short link that shows an inactive page.
- Wait before reporting a missing sale. Reports update once a day and transactions can take up to 24 hours, so Awin suggests waiting 24 to 48 hours. Our guide to the affiliate KPIs worth tracking shows what else to check.
- Watch for odd paperwork. Some payments from 1 April 2025 may show Awin Inc. as the payer, and some former publishers may receive an unclaimed property letter from a state.
- Check tax details. Awin's FAQ does not explain how tax forms were handled, so confirm in your account.
If You Were a ShareASale Merchant
Merchants moved to a new Awin ID. Awin's checklists list what changed and what you had to do.
- Carried over: account balance, creatives, partnerships, tracking links, profile overview and UTM parameters.
- Accept the Awin terms and set up two-step verification as an owner or admin.
- Swap the plugin. The ShareASale plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce and Shoplazza became maintenance-only after 6 October 2025, so features such as Order Auto-Void ended. Remove the old plugin to avoid duplicate transactions.
- Move your product feed. If the old ShareASale FTP location stays in use, products stay visible but stop updating.
- Rebuild any API integration. Anyone using ShareASale API calls for transactions or reports has to set up Awin's APIs.
- Expect different validation. ShareASale locked valid transactions on the 20th of the following month. Awin uses a 50 day auto-validation period.
What Awin costs merchants
| Plan | Monthly price | Tracking fee | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | $99, shown at a special $49 until 30 November (no year printed) | 3.5% per transaction | First month free, 3 month minimum, 14 day cancellation notice |
| Accelerate | $199, shown at a special $99 | 2.5% per transaction | Not stated on the page |
| Advanced | Custom | Not listed | Custom |
Awin prints an example: on a $100 sale with a 6% partner commission, the partner gets $6 and Awin $3.50 on Access or $2.50 on Accelerate. The page lists no setup fee or deposit, which is not proof that none exists. Some competitor pages claim Awin takes a 20 to 30% override on commission. That is not on Awin's page, so we do not repeat it. The upgrade also extended 2025 pricing and rates for upgraded advertisers, and Awin may reassess them later. For other software options, see our affiliate management software tools.
Common Problems During the Move
Awin documents these in its troubleshooting guide. Few third-party sources report problems at all, and the ones we found were anecdotes.
| Problem | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A merchant is missing from My Programmes | It was not upgraded, upgraded early, had a negative balance, is closing or declined | Join the program on Awin directly if it is there |
| An under review message when joining | The partnership needs the merchant's approval | Wait, or contact the merchant |
| Duplicate Awin profiles | Awin cannot merge them. They appear when name, URL, email, owner name or address do not match | Use one profile and contact Awin about the other |
| Final payments labelled Awin Inc. | A legal entity change from 1 April 2025 | Check your bank statement for that name |
| Inactive short links | No clicks in the 12 months before the move | Create new links |
| A sale not showing | Reports update once a day | Wait 24 to 48 hours, then raise it |
What Reviewers Say
Trustpilot is the only review site that loaded for both. G2 and Capterra blocked our fetch and we use none of their figures. The ShareASale reviews predate or straddle the migration, and Trustpilot samples are mostly people with a complaint, so treat both scores as a signal and not a verdict.
| Page | Score | Reviews | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| shareasale.com | 1.4 / 5 | 89 | 87% one star, 10% five star |
| awin.com | 2.8 / 5 | 1,032 | 37% one star, 44% five star |
As printed by Trustpilot on 8 November 2026. It is a different population from the ShareASale page and from Awin's own client list.
Awin After the Move: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Awin runs the payments: ACH in the US, Payoneer elsewhere, once or twice a month
- Partnerships, commission rates and cookie periods carried over
- Published merchant pricing, from $99 a month plus a tracking fee
- A large network by its own count: 9,500+ advertisers and 250,000 active publishers
- Documentation for the migration, with checklists for both sides
Cons
- Ratings, payment statements and some short links did not carry over
- Merchants had to swap plugins, feeds and APIs
- The price page shows a special price ending 30 November with no year
- Trustpilot shows 37% one star for Awin and 87% for ShareASale
- Awin's FAQ does not explain tax form handling in the migration
What to Use Instead of ShareASale
Awin is the direct successor, and our Awin review and payout rules goes through it. If you want other networks, our CJ Affiliate alternatives guide and impact.com alternatives guide compare them for publishers and brands. Brands choosing software should read our Refersion alternatives guide. Our own platform, for brands that want to work with creators on Shopify or Amazon, is described on our page for Shopify merchants.
Our Verdict
The useful fact about ShareASale in 2026 is that it is over. If you read a page that lists its fees, minimum payout or sign-up steps in the present tense, it is out of date. If you were a publisher, the practical risks were dead short links, lost statements and a new payment set-up, and Awin documents each. If you were a merchant, the work was swapping the plugin, feed and API and accepting a new validation period.
We have not run a program on Awin ourselves. Everything here comes from Awin's own announcements and help pages and the review pages we could read. Where Awin's pages disagree or are silent, we say so.
ShareASale FAQ
Is ShareASale shutting down?
It has already closed. Awin moved all active ShareASale customers to its own platform by 15 August 2025, and the ShareASale platform officially closed on 6 October 2025. shareasale.com now redirects to Awin's page for former ShareASale users.
What happened to ShareASale?
Awin, which has owned ShareASale since 2017, upgraded its customers onto the Awin platform and then shut the old one. Awin first said in May 2024 that a summer 2024 shutdown was a false report, announced the upgrade in March 2025 and completed it in August 2025.
Did I lose my affiliate links and commissions?
Awin says partnerships, commission rates and cookie periods carried over unless the advertiser changed them, and most tracking links keep working. ShareASale short links with no clicks in the 12 months before the move stopped tracking and show an inactive page. Eligible pending commissions were paid from the old balance, including amounts below the threshold, and payment statements are no longer accessible.
Do I have to apply to merchants again?
Not for partnerships that moved. Awin says partnerships transferred with no reapplication. If a merchant upgraded early, its partnerships did not migrate automatically and publishers had to join those programs manually.
How much does Awin cost for merchants?
Awin's US pricing page lists Access at $99 a month, shown at a special $49 until 30 November, plus a 3.5% tracking fee per transaction, with a 3 month minimum and 14 day cancellation notice. Accelerate is $199, shown at $99, plus 2.5%. Advanced is custom. The page prints no setup fee or deposit, which is not proof that there is none.
How do publishers get paid on Awin?
Awin runs the payments: ACH for US accounts and Payoneer for accounts outside the US, once or twice a month. For USD the lowest threshold you can set is $20 and the default if you never set one is $50. Two-step verification is required to view or change payment details.
Was ShareASale legit?
Yes, it was a real network founded in 2000 and owned by Awin from 2017. Its Trustpilot page shows 1.4 out of 5 from 89 reviews, mostly one star, and those reviews straddle the migration. Awin shows 2.8 from 1,032.
What is the difference between ShareASale and Awin?
ShareASale was a separate network that Awin bought and then merged into its own platform. Merchants moved to a new Awin ID and different tools, and publishers moved to Awin's dashboard and payment methods. Validation moved from a lock on the 20th of the following month to a 50 day auto-validation period.
What are the best ShareASale alternatives now?
Awin is the direct successor. Other networks publishers use include CJ Affiliate and Impact, and brands can use software such as Refersion, UpPromote or PartnerStack. We keep those comparisons on their own pages, linked below.
How were taxes and 1099 forms handled in the move?
Awin's upgrade FAQ links to tax details but does not explain how tax forms were handled in the migration, so we cannot say. Check your Awin account and ask Awin support.
