Definition
Recurring commission
A recurring commission is paid on every subscription payment, not just the first. It is the standard model in SaaS affiliate marketing.
The principle: every invoice paid by the referred customer creates a new commission, for as long as the program allows. Twenty percent on a €29 subscription earns €5.80 a month rather than €5.80 once.
It became the norm because the economics demand it on both sides. A SaaS company earns over the customer's lifetime, not on the first invoice; an affiliate offered €5.80 once has no reason to build an audience around that product. A program that only pays on the initial sale ends up recruiting against competitors who pay every month.
The hard part is technical and invisible: for a renewal to pay anyone, the system has to find the original sale's affiliate months later. Nothing guarantees that by default — a payment processor does not spontaneously copy attribution data onto subsequent invoices. An integration that overlooks this credits the first sale and then nothing, with no error and no alert.
Related terms
Lifetime commission
A lifetime commission keeps paying for as long as the referred customer pays, with no time limit. It is the most generous form of recurring commission.
Affiliate-driven MRR
Affiliate-driven MRR is the share of monthly recurring revenue brought in by affiliates. It is the number that says whether a program is a channel or a gadget.
Clawback
A clawback is the recovery of a commission already paid out, when the matching sale is refunded after the affiliate was paid.