ClickBank

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.

Name

ClickBank

Legal name

Click Sales Inc.

Website

https://clickbank.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 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

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

• Affiliate marketing platform
• Digital marketplace
• Payment processing
• Performance marketing
• E-commerce platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Boise

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

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

1. 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.
2. 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

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core 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

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration18 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• LootRushcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 27 October 2025ClickBank 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.
• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationClickBank offers seamless integration with Shopify, allowing e-commerce brands to connect their stores with ClickBank's affiliate marketplace and payment processing.
• VoluumcoreTechnology or IntegrationNative integration with Voluum tracker for affiliate marketing campaign tracking and optimization.
• PayoneercoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with Payoneer for international affiliate payment solutions and banking access.
• ClickFunnelscoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration with ClickFunnels for building landing pages and sales funnels for ClickBank products.
• KajabicoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration 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

Direct 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

• Xx.com/ClickBank
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/ClickBankcom
• Facebookfacebook.com/ClickBank
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/clickbank
• Instagraminstagram.com/clickbank

Compliance6 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ClickBank