Three WordPress Affiliate Themes Compared

If you need a website for your business, what are your options? Using HTML, CSS and PHP, you could develop something very bespoke and individual.

However, that’s very time-consuming and requires you to either code a site yourself, or outsource it to someone who can – making it a very expensive option.If you want to build your website faster, but don’t have the time, skills or a lot of investment money, you’ll probably use a CMS (Content Management System).

And the most popular of these, and the one Amazon Associates recommends, is WordPress.

WordPress allows you to use a variety of useful themes (designs) and plug-ins (extensions) which can be adapted to the needs of your business. With the help of specially designed WordPress themes, optimised for affiliate marketing, a beginner can quickly set up a professional affiliate website, using time-saving ways to include products from various affiliate networks into your own website.

What is an Affiliate theme?

There are thousands of different WordPress themes, which can be obtained from various developers through the WordPress website. Affiliate themes are specifically designed to create and administer sites of this kind, enabling owners to easily include corresponding products from Amazon or other affiliate networks.

In addition to writing blog posts and creating pages, these special Affiliate themes also deliver product integration, publish test reports, or even create price-comparison tables. Some of these themes even have interfaces to Amazon and other partner programs, to import product data automatically, keeping product images and prices up-to-date.

One-stop shop

Affiliate themes have all required functions within one specially designed theme. It’s possible to use WordPress plug-ins on a regular WordPress site for integrating products into affiliate websites, but they usually offer only a few features. You have to use many individual plug-ins for the desired result, whereas an Affiliate theme has everything you need built in to its design.

Too many plug-ins is a bad idea. Using many plug-ins at the same time can adversely affect page speed and the security of your WordPress website. A slow website is anything but user friendly, and Google can punish a slow website with a poor ranking.

It’s also worth noting that since different plug-ins are provided by different developers, when used together, there may be conflicts in the way they work and the way they look together on screen.

Which theme?

Here, we look at three Affiliate themes: affiliatetheme.io, REHub and Compare.

1. affiliatetheme.io

Features

• Customisable theme with different layout settings (boxed, full-width, etc) and Customiser for colours, etc). Custom CSS options
• Interfaces for various affiliate networks: Amazon, affilinet, zanox, belboon, eBay, ADCELL for automatic importing of products
• Overview of product administration by WordPress PostType and many taxonomies and product properties
• Based on the bootstrap framework
• Simpler PageBuilder for better presentation of content
• Extensive evaluation system for products
• Links to social networks without additional plug-ins
• Shortcodes for product presentation, tabs, toggles, alerts, price comparison and much more
• Widgets for product presentation
• Customisable product filter as widget, or as page-builder element
• Direct support from many well-known WordPress plug-ins such as: Yoast SEO, WP All Import and many more

Costs

affiliatetheme.io has three different licence options:

• Single: 79 EUR, usable for one side
• Multi: 279 EUR, up to five websites
• Unlimited: 479 EUR for unlimited websites

These costs include the theme plus a year of updates and support. 35% renewal feewordpress

2. REHUB

REHub is marketed via Themeforest. REHub began as a magazine theme but has developed into an Affiliate theme, now including many features such as comparison tables, product subpages, review templates, etc.

Features

• Customisable CSS, layout settings and Customiser
• Support of WooCommerce
• Support for Visual Composer
• Price comparison
• Table generator
• Different shortcodes available
• AJAX search (Autocomplete) for content available
• Evaluation system for products

Costs

Regular License is USD 59 per site. Support is included for six months. Further support is approx. $17.63 per year

3. Compare

The Compare theme is specially optimised for price comparison, but still offers useful functionality for an Affiliate site.

Features

• Custom CSS, layout settings and Customiser (including colour picker)
• Multilingual (English, German and French)
• Price comparison (including via XML/CSV files)
• Currency support for USD, EUR, GBP and many more
• Many widgets included
• Two category levels available for products
• Many predefined banners
• Shortcodes for buttons, tooltips, price comparison and more
• Links to social networks without additional plug-ins
• Many page templates included (glossary, archive pages, sidebar, blog, contact form etc)

Costs

Regular License is $49 USD. The Extended License for unlimited websites is $2,450 USD Updates and support for six months, which can be extended

Affiliate Themes Feature Comparison

	affiliatetheme.io	REHub	Compare
Detailed instructions with videos
Demo data available
Child theme
API connection to affiliate networks like Amazon Associates
Price comparison
Product shortcodes
Optional extensions
Link masking
Taxonomies
Own product details
Individual product filter
CSV-/XML import	(Optional via WP All Import)	(Optional via WP All Import)
Exit Intent Popup
Autocomplete
Layout settings
Individualization
Responsive design
Costs Single license 5 pcs. license Unlimited	79 € 249 € 479 €	$59 - -	$49 - $2450
Further costs for support & updates Single license 5 pcs. license Unlimited	After 12 months for another 12 months 79 € 249 € 479 €	After 6 months for another 12 months* $29.5 - -	After 6 months for another 12 months* $24 - $1225
Get the theme	affiliatetheme.io	REHub	Compare

* Support for Themeforest Themes is confusing. If a support upgrade is purchased directly with the theme, it costs 30% of the theme price. If you buy the support extension while the support is still valid, then it will cost 50% of the purchase price and once the support has expired, 70% must be paid to receive another 12 months of support. In our example, we have added 50% of the costs.

Conclusion

When selecting the appropriate affiliate theme, consider all the advantages and disadvantages. For the less experienced site owner, support and documentation are important criteria, since all themes are very complex and good documentation (especially through videos) can help you familiarise yourself much more quickly.

Page-loading times and clean source code are also important. Likewise, don’t lose sight of the long-term costs of running, maintaining and upgrading a theme as your business grows. There is a wise saying: “Who buys cheaply, buys twice.”