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Guides June 15, 2026 7 min read

How to set up an affiliate program for your iOS app (2026 guide)

To set up an affiliate program for your iOS app, you need four things: a discount worth promoting, a personal App Store custom offer code for each affiliate, a way to redeem that code inside your app, and a system that attributes every subscription — and its renewals, refunds, and churn — back to the right code so commissions can be calculated. That’s the whole machine. Affiliate links and cookies are not part of it, because they can’t follow a customer into the App Store’s native purchase flow.

This guide walks through each step in order, using tools Apple already gives you.

Traditional affiliate software attributes sales through tracked links and browser cookies. That works when the purchase completes on a web page. An iOS subscription doesn’t — it completes inside StoreKit, in a purchase sheet your affiliate tool cannot observe. The click gets logged; the conversion doesn’t. We covered the mechanics in detail in why most affiliate tools can’t see your mobile subscribers, and if you’re weighing web platforms like PartnerStack or Impact against this reality, there’s a factual comparison here.

The signal that does survive the jump into native checkout is a store discount code. Apple calls them offer codes. The customer redeems the code at the moment of purchase, and Apple reports the redemption back to you, tied to the exact code used. Give each affiliate their own code, and attribution is solved at the source.

Step 1: Decide the offer

Before touching App Store Connect, decide what the customer gets and what the affiliate gets.

  • Customer side: a percentage off, most commonly on the first year of an annual subscription. “20% off your first year” is easy to say in a video and easy to understand. The subscription renews at full price afterward.
  • Affiliate side: a commission rate on the revenue their code brings in. Recurring commissions (a cut of every renewal, not just the first payment) are the strongest motivator for promoting a subscription product. We break down the numbers in how much commission should you pay app affiliates.

Keep it to one clean discount across your program. One offer, many codes, is far easier to manage than a different deal per affiliate.

Step 2: Create the offer and custom codes in App Store Connect

Offer codes live in App Store Connect under your auto-renewable subscription’s pricing section. The setup:

  1. Open your app → Subscriptions → your subscription group → the subscription itself.
  2. Under Subscription Prices, open Offer Codes and create a new offer. Choose the offer type — pay as you go, pay up front, or free — and the discounted price. For an affiliate program, a pay-up-front discount on the annual plan is the typical shape.
  3. Set customer eligibility. You can target new subscribers, existing subscribers, expired subscribers, or a combination. New subscribers is the standard choice for acquisition-focused affiliate programs.
  4. For each affiliate, create a custom code on that offer: a memorable string like ANA20 or FITWITHMARK. Set a redemption limit and an expiration date (custom codes can also have no end date).

A few Apple constraints worth knowing before you scale: you can have up to 10 active offers per subscription at a time, and custom codes take a redemption limit of up to 25,000 per batch. If you want the full picture of code types and limits, we’ve written a complete explainer on App Store offer codes.

Step 3: Make the code redeemable in your app

Customers can redeem offer codes three ways: in the App Store app, through a redemption URL, or — the one that matters most for affiliates — inside your app. StoreKit provides the redemption sheet; you add an “Have a code?” entry point on your paywall, and Apple’s own UI handles input, validation, and the discounted purchase.

This in-app path is critical for an affiliate program. When an influencer says “use my code ANA20 in the app,” the customer expects to type it where they buy. If they can’t, some will give up, and that sale either vanishes or lands unattributed. A small paywall change — roughly a 15-minute integration — closes that gap.

Step 4: Attribute the whole subscription, not just the first purchase

Redemption is only the beginning of the money. A subscriber acquired in June generates a renewal next June, might get a refund in July, might churn in year two. If your affiliate deal includes recurring commission — and it should — you need the full lifecycle tied to the code.

Apple delivers this through App Store Server Notifications: signed events for purchases, renewals, refunds, and expirations, including the offer redeemed. Your job is to receive those events, match them to the affiliate whose code was used, and keep a running ledger per affiliate. A spreadsheet can technically hold this, but spreadsheets don’t listen to server notifications at 3 a.m. This lifecycle ledger is exactly what Affiliate Raccoon automates: store events flow in, every event lands against the right affiliate, and dashboards on both sides update in real time.

Step 5: Set commission terms and put them in writing

Before inviting anyone, write down the terms: the commission rate, whether it’s one-time or recurring, the revenue basis, and the payout threshold.

One detail that prevents disputes later: calculate commissions on net revenue — what you receive after Apple’s platform fee — not on the sticker price. State it plainly in your terms. Affiliates accept it readily when it’s transparent from day one; they resent it when it appears as a surprise deduction.

Step 6: Invite affiliates and hand them their code

With the machinery ready, recruitment is the remaining work: creators in your niche, power users, newsletter writers. Each affiliate gets their personal code, the discount pitch for their audience, and their commission terms. (Sourcing and outreach is its own craft — see how to find influencers to promote your subscription app.)

One thing that separates programs affiliates actually push from programs they forget: transparency. If an affiliate can watch their redemptions and accrued commission in real time, they keep promoting. If they have to email you to ask whether last month’s sales were counted, they quietly stop.

Step 7: Close the month, approve, pay

At month end, freeze the numbers: redemptions, renewals, refunds deducted, commission per affiliate. The affiliate invoices you for their balance (above your payout threshold), you approve and pay. Commissions are tracked and calculated automatically in a proper setup — the payment itself stays a deliberate, human step. That’s a feature, not a gap: you review before money moves.

FAQ

Does Apple have a built-in affiliate program for apps? No. Apple’s own affiliate program stopped paying commissions on apps and in-app purchases back in 2018. Today, running an affiliate program for an iOS app means building it yourself on top of offer codes — which, conveniently, gives you full control over rates and terms.

Do offer codes work if the customer doesn’t have my app installed yet? Yes. Redemption URLs and App Store redemption prompt the customer to download the app as part of the flow. The attribution still lands on the code.

Can I run the same program on Android? Yes, with Google Play’s own mechanisms — the moving parts differ. We cover it in how to run an affiliate program for your Android app.

If you’d rather not build the ledger, the portals, and the invoicing yourself: Affiliate Raccoon sets this up end to end — codes, attribution, real-time dashboards for you and your affiliates. Start a 7-day free trial.