Best referral software in 2025: Top 10 solutions for every business type

If you're searching for the best referral software to power your growth through word-of-mouth marketing, you're not alone. In 2025, referral programs are long past simple refer-a-friend tools. They are now sophisticated engines for customer acquisition, loyalty, and advocacy across B2B and B2C industries.

Whether you run a fast-growing e-commerce brand, a global enterprise, or a tech-forward B2B SaaS company, this comparison guide will help you evaluate the top referral platforms based on pricing, flexibility, and integrations.

What is referral software?

Referral software helps businesses acquire new customers by encouraging existing users, partners, or influencers to refer others. These platforms often include:

• Customizable referral links or codes
• Automated reward delivery
• Fraud prevention
• CRM and e-commerce integrations
• Analytics and ROI tracking

The best referral software goes beyond just tracking referrals – it helps build trust, increase customer lifetime value, and scale acquisition through advocacy. The best-of-the-crop also offer gamification mechanics that integrate seamlessly to referral campaigns.

Why referrals still matter in 2025

Optimizing CAC (Customer Acquisition Costs) is the Holy Grail of many businesses’ strategies. The incentive is clear: acquiring new customers can cost four times more than retaining existing ones, drastically hurting the profit margin.

Referrals are the logical answer. Buyers referred by a friend are 18% more likely to stay with your company and subsequently generate more revenue, according to a study by Harvard Business Review.

Big names have shown success already. Brands like Dropbox and PayPal managed to grow 3,900% in just 15 months or achieve an impressive 10% daily growth, respectively, through a well-built customer referral program with a robust reward structure that leads to an increased customer base.

Learn more: Successful referral program: 6 fundamental practices and examples.

Choosing the best referral software for your business

The right referral platform depends on your business model, team capabilities, and growth goals:

• For enterprises with strong development and product teams: Open Loyalty offers full control with API-first flexibility, open-source access, and composability rarely matched by alternatives.
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• For e-commerce startups: ReferralCandy and Referral Factory offer basic, fast-to-launch solutions but are best suited for smaller-scale needs.
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• For growing brands: Friendbuy and Yotpo provide mid-market capabilities, although customization and pricing may require trade-offs.
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• ‍For global enterprises: Extole, Ambassador, and Buyapowa support advanced scalability, though implementation timelines and platform complexity may be limiting factors.

If you're already running a loyalty program, using a referral software like Open Loyalty or Yotpo ensures seamless integration between loyalty and referrals – maximizing customer retention and word-of-mouth.

Read more: Loyalty software buyer's guide.

The 10 best referral software tools in 2025

Here's a comparison of ten leading solutions suitable for both B2B and B2C businesses across all pricing tiers.

For a fair comparison, we’ve based descriptions and opinions on distinguished directory portals such as G2 and Capterra.

Every product has at least a screenshot, and we tried to include actual screens of the product in use when available.

Open Loyalty

Open Loyalty is an API-first engine for introducing gamified referral programs. It stands out by being focused on long-lasting goals instead of one-off referral campaigns.

Enterprises can engage users by combining referrals with points, achievements, tiers, badges, challenges, and much more.

Open Loyalty is best for: Enterprises seeking an API-driven loyalty solution to power long-lasting referrals through gamification.

What people think about Open Loyalty (from Capterra):

• ⭐ “On the campaign configuration side, we appreciate the different types of programs we can create that can improve user engagement and keep them happy.“
• ⭐ “The API documentation is kept up to date and is easy to consume. The team at Open Loyalty are great, they consistently provide good service and are willing to help if required.“

• 👎 “It is a little limited in terms of reporting functionality via the admin console or API.“
• 👎 “Other problems are attributed to the language barrier and different time zones.“

To book a demo, click here.

ReferralCandy

ReferralCandy is a straightforward referral platform with a quick learning curve, best known for its Shopify integration. While it offers simplicity and speed, it may lack the depth needed by complex businesses. 

Campaigns are easy to launch, but limited flexibility and branding control can be a drawback for some teams.

ReferralCandy is best for: E-commerce businesses looking for a plug-and-play referral solution.

What people think about ReferralCandy (Capterra):

• ⭐ “Setup was painless, it's quite flexible in how you implement the referral system and support has been sublime.”
• ⭐ “Great product, does the job well! and amazing support.”

• 👎 “Also I find the monthly price that will be charged after the trial quite high since it is not only that but also the percentage that is taken off the referrals that are made.“
• 👎 “Integration was a little confusing seeing that there are multiple different ways to integrate it, which means you may have to trouble shoot multiple different solutions if a problem arises.“

Friendbuy

Friendbuy caters to D2C brands with a need for loyalty and referral features, offering solid integrations and analytics. However, its higher pricing tier and moderate learning curve may present hurdles for smaller businesses. 

Customization options exist, but require a careful setup to unlock their full potential.

Friendbuy is best for: Businesses seeking a scalable referral and loyalty solution with intricate personalization capabilities.

What people think about Friendbuy (Capterra):

• ⭐ “I really like that you can see the facebook feed of what people are saying when they share the referral link.”
• ⭐ “It's an easy way to incentivize and encourage customers to spread the word and refer your brand. Activity is tracked automatically, but rewards are given manually.”

• 👎 “I think the overall dashboard could look better and provide more support to help us push more referrals out.”
• 👎 “The level of customization available is fairly low, which made it difficult to add FriendBuy to our website in a seamless and on-brand way. Pricing is on the expensive side compared to some of its competitors.”

Extole

Extole offers a robust solution for large-scale enterprises looking to implement highly segmented and controlled referral campaigns. Its features support a wide range of enterprise needs, but complexity and setup time can deter less experienced teams. 

The referral platform prioritizes depth over speed-to-launch, making it ideal for long-term investments.

Extole is best for: Large enterprises aiming to leverage customer advocacy at scale in the long term.

What people think about Extole (Capterra):

• ⭐ “The onboarding experience along with the cutover to our new website both went smoothly.”
• ⭐ “I have only been using extole for almost a year after being transferred and I worked with two amazing CSMs.”

• 👎 “Integration was a huge headache and extremely frustrating.“
• 👎 “The lack of a completely separate staging environment.“

Referral Rock

Referral Rock serves both B2B and B2C businesses with its no-code platform. It’s packed with automation features, but the interface can feel dated and requires adjustment. 

While great for businesses without development resources, some users may find its customization options somewhat constrained for unique campaign strategies.

Referral Rock is best for: Businesses seeking a referral program solution with multi-channel capabilities.

What people think about Referral Rock (Capterra):

• ⭐ “The software is easy to use and we like the ability to generate reports within the Admin dashboard.”
• ⭐ “Our account manager was amazing and greatly helped with onboarding / customization”

• 👎 “Features such as limited custom fields, awkward formatting, lacking conversion script instructions, etc made the set up process frustrating.“
• 👎 “Choosing text size is a real pain since there is no way to know exactly what size you are choosing.“
  

Ambassador

Ambassador supports complex referral ecosystems, including affiliate and partner programs. It is flexible and integrates with popular CRM tools, but users often cite the setup process as lengthy and technical. 

It’s powerful, but better suited for teams with dedicated marketing and tech support.

Ambassador is best for: Companies with strong marketing teams looking to manage multiple types of referral and affiliate programs in one platform.

What people think about Ambassador (Capterra):

• ⭐ “Fantastic customer success team, easy to set up, and a fantastic our of the box solution.“
• ⭐ “Great customer service, supportive and experienced team, and an awesome partner.”

• 👎 “Ambassador used to offer other forms of payments but they recently started offering just PayPal which can be inconvenient for some.”
• 👎 “Unable to use the software and they keep charging me.”

Mention Me

Mention Me brings a personalization-first approach to referral marketing, primarily in the fashion and retail sectors. The platform focuses on message testing and customer journey touchpoints, but may fall short for businesses outside its niche. 

Integration limitations and cost make it more suitable for established e-commerce players.

Mention Me is best for: Established retail and e-commerce brands aiming to harness customer advocacy.

What people think about Mention Me (Capterra):

• ⭐ “The software creates a smooth customer journey. It, for the most part fits seamlessly into our website making it look native to us which is vital for a referral programme.”
• ⭐ “I love the name sharing functionality which allows our customers to refer in conversation, in say, discussions about the climate crisis.”

• 👎 “There are a couple of things design-wise that would enable the platform to align with our design requirements better.”
• 👎 “Some of the reports aren't that useful.”

Buyapowa

Buyapowa caters to global enterprises with complex infrastructure, offering a secure and scalable platform. While rich in features like tiered rewards and gamification, implementation often involves longer onboarding and support cycles. 

It’s a strong contender for regulated industries, but less agile for SMBs or experimental teams.

Buyapowa is best for: Large enterprises seeking a customizable and scalable referral solution without quick turnaround times.

What people think about Buyapowa (Capterra):

• ⭐ “They are excellent partners, quick to provide fresh insight to concepts and ideas.”
• ⭐ “The ease of use for our members. The process is very user friendly which is great for our members.“

• 👎 “If errors appear, they are directly visible to the customers.“
• 👎 “Implementation of back-end APIs are difficult in a large corporation.“

Referral Factory

Referral Factory is designed for quick setup with minimal technical overhead. Ideal for marketers, it offers ready-made templates and intuitive configuration. 

It's important to note that its simplicity comes at the cost of advanced customization, which may limit options for complex or brand-specific referral strategies.

Referral Factory is best for: Businesses seeking a quick and easy setup for referral programs without coding.

What people think about Referral Factory (Capterra):

• ⭐ “I also really like the Rewards Dashboard, where you can your active rewards in one overview.
• ⭐ “Number of reward options available: no matter where your customers are and what they like, there is something to reward them for referring.”

• 👎 “Because our forms have a lot of custom fields it can be difficult to see all the information.“
• 👎 “Integration with our bookings platform has been difficult.“
  

Yotpo (Referrals)

Yotpo Referrals integrates seamlessly with Yotpos’s loyalty and SMS tools, appealing to e-commerce teams seeking one platform for multiple retention strategies. 

However, its bundled pricing can deter smaller brands, and the system may feel overbuilt for companies focused only on referrals.

Yotpo Referrals is best for: E-commerce businesses looking for an integrated marketing platform with referral capabilities.

What people think about Yotpo (Capterra):

• ⭐ ”They're priced relatively competitively and will allow you to explore various marketing and user experience solutions to see if they're a good match for your business.“
• ⭐ “Ease of use, 100%. A lot more functions that I don't use, but room to grow into.”

• 👎 “That Google Seller Ratings and Google Shopping Ads are only available in the Prime tier and that you have to upgrade to 250 reviews per month to get the Google functions.”
• 👎 “I did not like my experience with them. They overcharge and far underdeliver. They are all about sales.”

Final thoughts on selecting the best referral software

Referral marketing continues to be a high-impact growth strategy – if powered by the right technology.

Whether you’re looking for a gamified referral engine like Open Loyalty or a plug-and-play app like ReferralCandy, the platforms listed here are the best in 2025.

Each has strengths, and your best choice will depend on whether you prioritize:

• Fast time to market
• Customization and developer tools
• Enterprise integrations 
• Built-in loyalty and gamification features

Choose wisely – and let your customers become your most powerful marketing channel.