Are you seeking for the best website affiliate link management plugin?
The correct affiliate URL management plugin will help you add relevant connections to your site so you never lose money. They will make it easier to monitor, update, and optimize your connections for maximum sales.
We compare Pretty Links vs ThirstyAffiliates to help you choose an affiliate plugin for your website.
Pretty Links vs. ThirstyAffiliates: Which is best for your site?
Plugins for Affiliate Link Management: Why?
Affiliate marketing pays you when someone buys a product through your referral link. This is a terrific way to generate money online without making and selling digital downloads or physical things.
However, adding affiliate links to your site is not enough. You must place and show those connections to the correct people to obtain sales.
Additionally, click-throughs, conversions, broken links, obsolete URLs, and more should be monitored.
This takes time and effort, so many marketers employ an affiliate link management plugin. The right plugin can automate contextual linking and improve affiliate link management.
This Pretty Links vs ThirstyAffiliates tutorial compares two popular affiliate plugins to find the best one for your website.
Overview: Pretty Links vs. ThirstyAffiliates
An effective link management plugin is essential for affiliate marketers. Let's start with an overview of these two popular link management plugins.
Overview of ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates is an affiliate management plugin that replaces unsightly URLs with branded links.
WordPress affiliate plugin ThirstyAffiliates
Link scheduling, Google Analytics connection, automatic keyword linking, geolocation-specific links, and an automatic 404 checker are all included to make money blogging with WordPress.
Organizing connections into categories makes working with several affiliate partners easier.
Our websites, including WPBeginner, have used ThirstyAffiliates for over 5 years.
Pretty Links Overview
A popular WordPress affiliate link management plugin, Pretty Links is trusted by over 200,000 websites.
Pretty Links affiliate plugin for WordPress
Pretty Links simplifies long affiliate URLs into snappier ones. Posting these links on social media, podcasts, forums, and other venues is easier.
You can also construct domain-named links to reassure security-conscious shoppers.
Pretty Links is a complete affiliate link management tool with advanced features like automatic link addition and detailed conversion reports.
Affiliate Link Management
Affiliate links help monetize WordPress blogs and websites. However, maintaining those linkages can be time-consuming, especially for small teams. Without good link management, you may miss moneymaking chances.
See how these plugins help you manage affiliate URLs.
ThirstyAffiliates manages affiliate links
ThirstyAffiliates lets you manage links in WordPress. This saves a lot of time if you need to update URLs.
If an affiliate partner changes a link, you can adjust the URL once in the WordPress panel and ThirstyAffiliates will instantly reroute your WordPress page.
Add affiliate URLs to ThirstyAffiliates dashboard
Category support works like WordPress post and page categories in ThirstyAffiliates.
This keeps your links structured regardless of how many affiliate partners you have.
Add categories to ThirstyAffiliates affiliate links
However, links cannot be tagged.
Pretty Links Manages Affiliate Links
Pretty Links, like ThirstyAffiliates, centralizes affiliate link management.
Manage affiliate links with Pretty Links
This means you may adjust an affiliate link once and Pretty Links will update your WordPress website.
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates manage links similarly, however Pretty Links has more functions. Categories and tags can be added to affiliate links first.
How to tag affiliate URLs with Pretty Links
Even your affiliate tags are managed in a separate section.
This is helpful if you have many affiliate partners or links to arrange.
Organizing WordPress affiliate links by tags and categories
Each link in Pretty Links contains a ‘Notes’ section for self-reminders or notes for others.
So you can communicate with clients, guest bloggers, partners, and anyone else who shares your WordPress dashboard.
Add remarks to affiliate URLs
Winner: Pretty Links
Both plugins are helpful for link management.
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates save a lot of time with link management, regardless of how many URLs you add to your online business, blog, or website. ThirstyAffiliates provides less features to manage links than Pretty Links, which has a little advantage.
Link Checker
Broken links hurt any website, but 404 errors damage affiliate marketers.
A visitor who clicks on an affiliate link is usually considering buying the product. If they get a 404 error, you lost a sale.
Affiliate marketers need a link management plugin to address broken links before they cost money. This is what both plugins give.
ThirstyAffiliates Link Checker
ThirstyAffiliates' Automatic 404 Checker checks and reports site issues. It displays link information in the WordPress dashboard's 404 checker.
ThirstyAffiliates' 404 checker
ThirstyAffiliates will notify your site admin of broken URLs found in this tab. However, you cannot send these email notifications to a separate email address, which may be a problem if you share the WordPress dashboard.
The plugin's settings must be activated to allow the Automatic 404 Checker.
Enabling auto-link
ThirstyAffiliates lets you check the health of links as you add them to your marketplace or website.
This lets you test links before publishing.
Checking Health Check for 404 errors
Link Checker: Pretty Links
Pretty Links' Link Health function checks your site and flags broken links monthly.
Like ThirstyAffiliates, this functionality must be enabled in the plugin's settings.
Pretty Links URL health check enabled
Pretty Links scans your best-converting links first, unlike ThirstyAffiliates. This capability is useful for huge sites with hundreds or thousands of affiliate URLs.
The WordPress dashboard displays the Link Health report, but Pretty Links may email you about broken links. Pretty Links emails your site admin by default, but you can modify this in the plugin's options.
Sending site admin affiliate marketing notifications
Winner: ThirstyAffiliates
Both plugins let you find and fix broken links in WordPress without manually tracking 404 pages.
However, ThirstyAffiliates allows you click a button to test a link before publishing. This plugin has a tiny benefit over Pretty Links because it quickly prevents 404 errors.
Link Scheduling
Scheduling automates affiliate website procedures. This is crucial for busy website owners who can't manually enable and disable affiliate URLs.
If your affiliate partners run sales or other time-sensitive promotions, you can prepare your campaigns in advance.
Compare these plugins for link scheduling.
DrinkingAffiliates – Link Scheduling
Set your affiliate URL launch date and time with ThirstyAffiliates.
Schedule affiliate link launches
You can also redirect users who click your affiliate URLs before or after they expire.
You may display a custom landing page noting that the deal has finished and suggesting other affiliate items visitors might like.
How to plan WordPress affiliate link launches
This improves user experience and may turn 404 errors into revenue.
Pretty Links—Link Scheduling
Pretty Links doesn't let you schedule link launches like ThirstyAffiliates. You can expire links automatically on a date or after a given number of hits. This is ideal for FOMO-driven conversions.
Pretty Links affiliate link expiration
Automatically redirect visitors after a link expires, like ThirstyAffiliates. You might use a page builder plugin to create a Sorry page or direct them to another affiliate offering.
Winner: Tie
Choose ThirstyAffiliates over Pretty Links if you like to plan affiliate programs in advance. Pretty Links makes it easy to expire links after a particular number of hits.
URL Cloaking
Link cloaking replaces sophisticated affiliate URLs with user-friendly, branded connections. This makes links appear more trustworthy, encouraging shoppers to click.
Cloaked URLs are shorter and easier to distribute on social media. Link cloaking hides your affiliate ID, making it harder for nefarious third parties to hijack your links and steal your commissions.
Let's compare ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links' affiliate URL masking since it's so significant.
Pretty Links—URL Cloaking
You can shroud links in Pretty Links whenever you add them. Simply enter the original link and the cloaked URL you want to utilize.
You can then choose 301, 307, or JavaScript redirection.
Pretty Links affiliate link redirection
You may then mark the links as no-follow or sponsored to fully control WordPress SEO.
The keyword ‘sponsored’ alerts search engines that the URL is an ad. Although no-follow and sponsored links are similar, ‘sponsored’ helps search engines understand this is an affiliate URL, therefore Pretty Links pays attention to the subtleties.
You may need to supply a promo code or customer ID to the target URL. Pretty Links makes this as easy as checking a box.
Parameter passing using Pretty Links
ThirstyAffiliates URL Cloaking
ThirstyAffiliates hides affiliate URLs like Pretty Links. You simply enter the original link and the new URL, making the process nearly identical.
URL hiding in WordPress
You may quickly mark URLs as nofollow, adjust whether the cloaked link opens in a new tab, and give query strings to the destination URL.
ThirstyAffiliates only permits 301, 302, and 307 redirection, therefore it has less possibilities than Pretty Links.
To indicate affiliate links as sponsored, add this rel attribute tag to the plugin's settings.
Add rel attributes to ThirstyAffiliates links
This is harder than Pretty Links' sponsored links.
ThirstyAffiliates' smart uncloaking tool helps you obey Amazon's terms. The Amazon Associates Program prohibits redirections, including link masking. Without this regulation, you may be banned from their affiliate program.
Creating an Amazon Affiliate Store with WordPress makes it easy to uncloak a link.
Smart uncloaking from ThirstyAffiliates
Better yet, you can activate automatic clink uncloaking for the entire category by adding all your Amazon links to it.
Amazon links on your website are now uncloaked by default. This is a feature Pretty Links doesn't offer and is appealing to Amazon affiliate link users.
Uncloak Amazon affiliate links
Winner: ThirstyAffiliates
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates both offer extensive link masking.
ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links help affiliate marketers develop shareable, user-friendly, and safe links. If you use many Amazon links, ThirstyAffiliates' automatic link uncloaking is essential.
Automated Keyword Linking
It's easy to overlook blog post affiliate links. This is worse for multi-author WordPress blogs and guest bloggers.
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates may automatically turn keywords and phrases into affiliate links. Let's see how both plugins handle automatic keyword linking.
Pretty Links—Automatic Keyword Linking
You can include unlimited keywords and phrases while creating a URL. Pretty Links automatically inserts the affiliate link when you use these words in articles and pages.
Pretty Links auto-inserts affiliate URLs
Better, Pretty Links will search your earlier material for these keywords and phrases. If you've published content, you can make money from your past catalog without updating it.
Pretty Links' options tab lets you customize auto-linking on your site.
Set a limit on how many affiliate URLs Pretty Links can add to a page to avoid distracting visitors or annoying them.
The Pretty Links auto-link function
Pretty Links can include a disclosure to every page it auto-inserts an affiliate URL.
Pretty Links can make you extra money without fines or reputation damage from undisclosed links.
Automatically inserting WordPress affiliate disclosures
Automatic keyword linking by ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates works similarly, letting you add keywords to each link. ThirstyAffiliates will automatically link every website or post using that word.
Autolinking keywords with ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates, like Pretty Links, limits the number of affiliate links per page or article.
It allows you to specify a global plugin restriction and a specific affiliate link limit, unlike Pretty Links.
Globally limiting auto-link affiliate URLs
Disable auto-linking on your homepage and archive pages in the plugin's general settings. You can disable page/post auto-linking.
Sales and landing pages often contain a strong call to action. This is an easy approach to deactivate affiliate URLs on all your sites to avoid distracting from that CTA.
Which is best for your site: ThirstyAffiliates or Pretty Links?
These extra settings allow you more control over WordPress auto-linking.
After auto-linking, it can be hard to track affiliate URLs across your website. The Link Inserted Scanner lists all pages and posts that use a given affiliate link.
This is a simple yet effective approach to trace URLs, even with auto-linking.
The Link Inserted Scanner
Winner: Tie
All affiliate marketers need auto-linking to get extra commission. ThirstyAffiliates offers some extra features, but both Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates provide all you need to automatically add affiliate URLs to your content while maintaining control.
Reports on affiliate marketing
Monitor your affiliate links' performance. So you can see what's working and what's not and change your affiliate marketing to obtain the greatest results.
See how ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links compare affiliate marketing reports.
ThirstyAffiliates provides affiliate marketing reports.
ThirstyAffiliates includes a multi-tab reporting dashboard. You can check your top-performing affiliate links and total clicks here.
The ThirstyAffiliate affiliate reporting function
Some links are more popular in specific places. ThirstyAffiliates' Geolocation Report records link clicks by visitor location to help you discover trends.
Based on data, you may display users different content based on their location.
We recommend ThirstyAffiliates and Google Analytics for more details. ThirstyAffiliates will submit all its data to Google Analytics after this connection.
You may even compare it to Google Analytics. Thus, you can learn about converts' gadgets, operating systems, and how they found your site.
This is how WPBeginner uses ThirstyAffiliates to maximize insights.
Google Analytics is powerful but tough to set up. Thus, we propose MonsterInsights. It is the greatest WordPress analytics solution and displays ThirstyAffiliates and Google Analytics data in the dashboard.
Affiliate Marketing Reports: Pretty Links
Pretty Links' reporting dashboard doesn't instantly display data like ThirstyAffiliates'. You must create bespoke reports by selecting the links to analyze. Start by generating typical reports that show total and unique clicks on each affiliate link.
This is helpful, but clicks don't guarantee sales and affiliate earnings. You may also construct conversion reports that show total conversions and conversion rates for each link.
Pretty Links affiliate report creation
There's no default location-based data exploration like ThirstyAffiliates. Pretty Links integrates MonsterInsights with Google Analytics.
This enhances the built-in Pretty Links reports with more detailed information, including visitor locations.
To measure clicks in real time, MonsterInsights sends data to Google Analytics.
Pretty Links' auto-trim clicks tool removes recognized robots and unidentified browser clients from click data, stats, and reports. This can considerably increase report accuracy and quality.
Winner: Pretty Links
Both of these plugins make it easy to get all the data you need to make data-driven decisions, especially MonsterInsights. However, Pretty Links' auto-trimming tool can greatly improve this information, making it our top affiliate report choice.
Community and Professional Support
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates are simple. Let's evaluate their assistance solutions since even seasoned affiliate marketers require help sometimes.
Pretty Links: Professional and Community Support
Pretty Links includes thorough online documentation and a blog with step-by-step guides on anything from using specific Pretty Links features to running a successful affiliate site.
Affiliate marketing blog Pretty Links
Submit a Premium Support Request ticket for one-on-one support.
Pretty Links says 1-2 business days for a response.
Affiliate marketing support ticket
Pretty Links recommends using their contact form or posting to their WordPress repository support forum if you don't have a support license.
Pretty Links staff members answer inquiries fast on the free forum. If you plan to convert, read our advice on how to ask for and acquire WordPress assistance.
An official WordPress repository free support forum
Community and Professional Support ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates has a big knowledge base for both free and commercial plugins. They also publish affiliate marketing ideas and ThirstyAffiliates tutorials on their site.
This may be all you need to answer your queries and solve your issues, like Pretty Links.
Premium customers can send a ticket for one-on-one help and receive a response within 24-48 hours. Again, this matches Pretty Links' support.
Affiliate marketing help portal
Use the ThirstyAffiliates contact form or help forum if you have the free plugin. The ThirstyAffiliates crew watches this forum and reacts quickly, making it a wonderful resource for free plugin users.
Winner: Tie
Both plugins provide several support options. After comparing free and paid assistance, we're convinced you'll get the help you need with Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates.
Price Comparison
To establish a profitable affiliate marketing business, choose a plugin within your budget. See which plugin is most affordable.
Pretty Links: Price Comparison
Pretty Links provides three pricing levels for beginners, affiliate marketers with numerous websites, and professional marketers with up to 5 websites.
The Pretty Links price list
For beginning marketers with one WordPress website, the Beginner plan ($99.50 per year) provides everything you need. Only the number of websites you may utilize Pretty Links on distinguishes Beginner from the more expensive subscriptions.
If you have numerous websites, upgrade to Marketer for $149.50 a year to use Pretty Links on two.
Super Affiliate, the most expensive plan ($199.50 a year), lets you use Pretty Links on up to 5 websites.
ThirstyAffiliates: Price Comparison
Like Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates plans simply differ on how many sites you may use the plugin on.
For $79.50 per year, the Basic plan should suit beginning affiliate marketers with one website.
ThirstyAffiliates affiliate pricing.
ThirstyAffiliates is cheaper for several websites. For $129.50 per year, ThirstyAffiliates Plus lets you utilize it on 5 websites.
The most expensive ThirstyAffiliates package costs $199.50 per year for up to 10 websites.
Pretty Links' most expensive package costs $199.50 per year and allows just 5 websites to use the plugin.
Winner: ThirstyAffiliates
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates offer similar capabilities for a single website at similar prices. If you own more than 2 websites, ThirstyAffiliates seems most cost-effective.
The ThirstyAffiliates plugin is essential for anyone with more than 5 websites.
Which is best for your site: Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates?
Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates are superb affiliate link management plugins with advanced auto-linking.
Both plugins can boost revenue and save so much effort. Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates make affiliate marketing easier for hobby bloggers and company owners by auto-linking keywords and managing links from one place.
The right affiliate marketing plugin depends on your website, affiliate partners, and functionality.
However, each plugin has pros and cons. Use ThirstyAffiliates to schedule links in advance. ThirstyAffiliates' smart link uncloaking is essential if Amazon is your main affiliate partner to comply with Amazon's terms and conditions.
Pretty Links' auto-trimming option is ideal if you're worried about bots or harmful third parties compromising data accuracy. This feature has greatly improved affiliate reports, thus it's essential for accurate statistics.
We hope this post helped you choose Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates for your site. See also our guide on creating an email newsletter and our expert picks of the top email marketing services for small businesses.
