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Build a Powerful, Self-Hosted Affiliate Program and Eliminate SaaS Fees

Are you drowning in spreadsheets trying to manage your influencer affiliate program? Manually tracking discount codes, calculating tiered commissions, and processing payouts is an error-prone nightmare that strains relationships and stalls your growth. It's time to stop the administrative chaos.

This playbook guides you through building a robust, in-house affiliate marketing engine on your own infrastructure. By constructing a custom affiliate module directly within your self-hosted WooCommerce store and integrating it with Mautic, you gain complete control over your data and operations. This stack automates everything from link and code generation to sales attribution and complex, tiered commission calculations, all without relying on expensive, recurring third-party SaaS platforms.

Expected Outcomes

  • Eliminate recurring monthly fees from third-party affiliate SaaS platforms.
  • Achieve 100% data ownership and control over your affiliate program and customer data.
  • Automate the tracking and attribution of sales to specific influencers, even in complex tiered structures.
  • Drastically reduce administrative overhead and manual errors in commission calculation.
  • Build stronger, trust-based relationships with influencers through transparent and reliable reporting.
  • Create a fully customizable and scalable affiliate system that grows with your business.

Core Tools in This Stack

WooCommerce

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A flexible, open-source e-commerce platform built on WordPress. It allows users to create a highly customized online store to sell anything, anywhere.

Key Features
  • Open-source and fully customizable
  • Seamlessly integrates with WordPress
  • Extensive marketplace for themes and extensions
  • Sell physical, digital, and subscription-based products
  • Built-in payment processing (WooPayments) and support for major gateways
  • Configurable shipping options and tax calculations
  • Built-in blogging and content marketing capabilities
  • REST API for developers
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Free, Paid

Tier: Low

Ease of Use

Medium

Mautic

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Mautic is the world's largest open-source marketing automation platform, providing detailed audience tracking and powerful tools to help businesses build and manage personalized customer journeys and marketing campaigns.

Key Features
  • Lead Nurturing & Tracking
  • Visual Campaign Builder
  • Contact Segmentation
  • Personalization & Dynamic Content
  • Email Marketing Automation
  • Landing Pages & Forms
  • Detailed Reporting & Analytics
  • Extensible via Plugins & API
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Open Source, Free

Tier: Free

Ease of Use

Moderate

The Workflow

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Integration Logic

  • Catalyst Module for WooCommerce

    The Catalyst Module for WooCommerce acts as a bridge, pushing data from WooCommerce to Mautic. When a customer registers or an order reaches a specific status (e.g., 'Completed') in WooCommerce, the module captures customer details (name, email, address) and order information (products purchased, order total, date). It then uses the Mautic API to create a new contact or update an existing one. Custom fields can be mapped, and tags can be automatically applied in Mautic based on the products purchased, enabling granular segmentation and personalized marketing automation campaigns.

Build Your Zero-Fee Affiliate Engine

Escape spreadsheet chaos and automate your commissions and payouts for good.