ClickBank
ClickBank is a private online affiliate marketplace and e-commerce platform founded in 1998, connecting 100,000+ affiliates with product sellers globally. Operating as merchant of record, it charges 7.5% plus $1 per-sale fees and has cumulatively paid $7.3 billion in commissions.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1998
- HeadquartersBoise, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What ClickBank does
ClickBank, operating through its Delaware parent Click Sales Inc., is a privately held online affiliate marketplace and e-commerce platform founded in 1998 and headquartered in Boise, Idaho. The platform connects product sellers with over 100,000 active affiliates worldwide and processes sales across 190+ countries, supporting both digital and physical product categories. ClickBank serves as merchant of record, handling integrated payment processing, tax remittance, 1099 contracts, affiliate payouts, and FTC/FDA compliance review on behalf of sellers, while affiliates gain access to a curated catalog of offers, reliable tracking, and on-time commission payments. The company positions itself as a top 100 internet retailer with cumulative payouts exceeding $7.3 billion to affiliates and sellers over 27+ years of operation.
The platform is built on proprietary infrastructure including device-level attribution tracking, customizable order forms with upsell capabilities, automated fraud protection software, and SSL-encrypted payment processing. It supports both Revenue Sharing and Cost Per Action (CPA) commission structures and integrates with a broad ecosystem of third-party tools — Shopify, Kajabi, Voluum, Everflow, AWeber, Payoneer, ClickFunnels, Zapier, and Bluehost among them — plus server-to-server tracking integrations with Google Ads, TikTok Ads, and Pinterest Ads. The Spark by ClickBank sub-brand delivers affiliate-marketing education (copywriting, email marketing, paid and organic traffic courses) alongside a Discord community, functioning as a customer-acquisition and activation layer for new affiliates.
ClickBank monetizes primarily through a transaction fee of 7.5% + $1.00 per sale on all platform-processed transactions, supplemented by a one-time $49.95 product approval fee covering compliance review. Pricing is flat-rate and pay-as-you-go with no monthly subscription. The platform serves two primary, equally weighted customer segments — Affiliates (media buyers, email marketers, performance agencies, individual affiliate marketers) and Sellers/Product Owners (entrepreneurs, course creators, e-commerce brands) — using a horizontal segmentation approach that does not differentiate by industry vertical. Leadership includes CEO Kelly Householder, CTO Jason Scherer, CFO Ryan Vestal, Chairman/former CEO Brad Wiskirchen, and founder Tim Barber; the company is bootstrapped with no disclosed venture capital or private equity investment.
ClickBank firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ClickBank
- Legal name
- Click Sales Inc.
- Website
- https://clickbank.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1998
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- ClickBank is a private online affiliate marketplace and e-commerce platform founded in 1998, connecting 100,000+ affiliates with product sellers globally. Operating as merchant of record, it charges 7.5% plus $1 per-sale fees and has cumulatively paid $7.3 billion in commissions.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ClickBank industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Affiliate Marketing Marketplace
- NAICS
- Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (519290), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Retail-Nonstore Retailers (5960), Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Content & Media Subscriptions (CRAFAIAA)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Merchant Services Aggregators & SMB Acquirers (FSAMABAK)
Keywords
Where ClickBank is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Boise
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
ClickBank business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Transaction Fees: ClickBank charges 7.5% + $1.00 per sale for all transactions processed through the platform. This covers integrated payments, global reach, affiliate management, reporting & analytics, and fraud protection.
- Product Approval Fee: One-time fee of $49.95 for initial product approval, including internal compliance review of product materials, sales funnel, marketing/promotional copy, and price points.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Product Approval Fee - One-time compliance review |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Platform Fee - Per transaction charge |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
ClickBank product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ClickBank operates an online affiliate marketplace and e-commerce platform that connects product sellers with nearly 100,000 active affiliates worldwide. The platform provides integrated payment processing, affiliate management, fraud protection, compliance review, and reporting & analytics as the merchant of record, charging a 7.5% + $1.00 fee per sale plus a one-time $49.95 product approval fee.
Product overview
ClickBank is a unified e-commerce platform and affiliate marketplace that connects product sellers with affiliates to facilitate digital and physical product sales. The core offering consists of the ClickBank Marketplace for affiliate product discovery, integrated Payment Processing for handling transactions and payouts, and Affiliate Management tools for seller operations. The platform supports both Revenue Sharing and Cost Per Action (CPA) commission models. ClickBank's product portfolio includes Spark by ClickBank as its educational sub-brand offering courses like Affiliate Foundations and landing page lessons, the Spark Discord Community for affiliate networking, the Platinum Program for top sellers, and specialized tools like the Accelerator Store, E-commerce to Direct Response Success Center, and Elite Affiliate Manager Guide for scaling affiliate programs. The platform provides fraud protection, compliance review, rich analytics, and seamless integrations with hundreds of marketing tools including Shopify, Zapier, Google Ads, and various email and tracking platforms.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Spark by ClickBank: A trusted collection of courses, community, and tools to help learn affiliate marketing, how to use ClickBank, and how to drive traffic.
Products and services
- ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace A proprietary affiliate marketplace where sellers list products and affiliates discover and promote them, featuring Gravity scores, filtering by category, and access to high-converting offers.
- ClickBank Payment Processing Integrated payment processing that handles transactions, tax remittance, 1099 contracts, and affiliate payouts as the merchant of record across 190+ countries.
- Spark by ClickBank Education program and sub-brand offering courses on copywriting, email marketing, paid ads, organic traffic, and ClickBank platform tutorials, along with community resources.
- CPA on ClickBank A cost-per-action commission structure allowing sellers to offer CPA deals to affiliates alongside traditional revenue sharing models.
- Performance E-Commerce A new affiliate product category combining e-commerce with performance-based affiliate marketing, including resources for e-commerce brands to transform products into direct response offers for performance affiliates.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over $7.3 billion in commissions paid to affiliates and sellers
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use ClickBank
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
ClickBank technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration18 records
Feature5 records
ClickBank partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- LootRushcoreClickBank partnered with LootRush to provide seamless, low-cost USD banking solutions for global affiliates and businesses. This partnership addresses challenges in international payments and US banking access for the global affiliate community.
- ShopifycoreClickBank offers seamless integration with Shopify, allowing e-commerce brands to connect their stores with ClickBank's affiliate marketplace and payment processing.
- VoluumcoreNative integration with Voluum tracker for affiliate marketing campaign tracking and optimization.
- PayoneercoreIntegration with Payoneer for international affiliate payment solutions and banking access.
- ClickFunnelscoreIntegration with ClickFunnels for building landing pages and sales funnels for ClickBank products.
- KajabicoreIntegration with Kajabi for course creators and digital product sellers to connect with ClickBank's affiliate network.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
ClickBank competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Awin: Awin is a global affiliate network operating in multiple geographies. Both ClickBank and Awin run affiliate marketplaces with comparable commission structures and serve advertisers seeking performance-based customer acquisition through publisher networks.
- ShareASale (Awin Group): ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network owned by Awin that connects merchants with affiliates. Both ClickBank and ShareASale operate marketplace models with similar transaction-fee revenue models and serve SMB to mid-market sellers, though ShareASale skews toward traditional e-commerce merchants.
- Rakuten Advertising: Rakuten Advertising is a global affiliate marketing network under Rakuten. Both ClickBank and Rakuten Advertising provide affiliate marketplace infrastructure, tracking technology, and payment processing for advertisers across consumer and digital product categories.
- WarriorPlus: WarriorPlus is an affiliate network focused on internet marketing and digital product launches. It directly competes with ClickBank in the digital info-product affiliate space, particularly for software and online course creators.
- CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction): CJ Affiliate is one of the largest global affiliate marketing networks, directly comparable to ClickBank in connecting advertisers with publishers across digital and physical products. Both operate marketplace models with transaction fees and serve as intermediaries between sellers and affiliate promoters.
- Impact: Impact is a leading partnership management platform covering affiliate, influencer, and B2B programs. Both platforms offer affiliate tracking, attribution, and marketplace discovery, but Impact positions more toward enterprise SaaS brands and offers a more modern tech stack.
- JVZoo: JVZoo is a digital marketplace focused on software and digital product affiliate marketing. It is highly comparable to ClickBank in product category focus (digital products) and target audience (digital product creators and affiliates), though smaller in scale.
Emerging players
- PartnerStack: PartnerStack is an affiliate and partner management platform focused on SaaS and B2B programs. It overlaps with ClickBank's affiliate marketplace model but specializes in subscription/revenue-share programs for software products, representing a modern, focused competitor.
Regional players
- Digistore24: Digistore24 is a digital sales platform based in Europe with a comparable affiliate marketplace model for digital products and info-products. Both companies serve the same end market (digital creators, info-product sellers, and affiliates), but Digistore24 is more EU-focused while ClickBank is global.
Broad incumbents
- Shopify Collabs: Shopify Collabs is Shopify's native affiliate program tool for merchants. While broader in scope as part of the Shopify e-commerce platform, it overlaps with ClickBank as a channel for sellers to set up affiliate programs, particularly e-commerce brands.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ClickBank social profiles
Digital presenceClickBank compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance6 records
ClickBank financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ClickBank leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
ClickBank funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ClickBank M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ClickBank
What does ClickBank do?
ClickBank operates an online affiliate marketplace and e-commerce platform that connects product sellers with nearly 100,000 active affiliates worldwide. The platform provides integrated payment processing, affiliate management, fraud protection, compliance review, and reporting & analytics as the merchant of record, charging a 7.5% + $1.00 fee per sale plus a one-time $49.95 product approval fee.
Is ClickBank a public or private company?
ClickBank is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was ClickBank founded?
ClickBank was founded in 1998. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is ClickBank based?
ClickBank is headquartered in Boise, United States, in the North America region.
How does ClickBank make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Transaction Fees are the primary driver. The others are product Approval Fee.
Who are ClickBank's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Awin, ShareASale (Awin Group), Rakuten Advertising, WarriorPlus, CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction), Impact and JVZoo. PartnerStack is listed as an emerging player. Digistore24 is listed as a regional player. Shopify Collabs is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does ClickBank have an API?
Yes. ClickBank offers an API for developers and partners. The Orders API includes parameters for GDPR compliance such as "declinedConsent" to indicate customer marketing consent. The platform also provides Google Ads Conversions API integration for server-to-server tracking, as well as S2S (server-to-server) tracking integrations for Pinterest Ads and TikTok Ads.
What industry is ClickBank in?
ClickBank's product category is Affiliate Marketing Marketplace. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRAFAIAA, Digital Content & Media Subscriptions, with a secondary code of FSAMABAK, Merchant Services Aggregators & SMB Acquirers. Its NAICS code is 519290 and its SIC code is 5960.