Dub review of the link attribution and affiliate platform

Dub is a link attribution platform that combines branded short links, click-to-sale conversion tracking and affiliate program management in one product. It suits SaaS and online businesses that want to know which links, creators and partners drive revenue, and it is overkill if you only need a handful of short links.

What Dub is

Dub (dub.co) is made by Dub Technologies, Inc., a fully remote company led by founder and CEO Steven Tey. Its About page says it launched in 2022 as a side project called dub.sh, rebranded to dub.co in 2023 and became a company in 2024. The source code is public on GitHub, where the repository has about 25.1k stars and documents self-hosting.

Dub is not the same product as DupDub, an unrelated AI voice tool. Dub sells two connected products: Dub Links (short links and analytics) and Dub Partners (affiliate and referral programs). The Business plan and above include both.

Who Dub is for, and who should skip it

Dub is built for marketing and growth teams, creators and software companies that want to tie clicks to signups and sales. Its About page shows customers such as Framer, Vercel and Perplexity, and the vendor runs a Startup Program with 50% off the first year.

• Good fit: SaaS companies launching an affiliate or creator program, teams that already use Stripe or Shopify and want revenue attribution per link, and developers who want a short link API.
• Skip it if: you only need a few short links a month (Dub's free plan or a basic shortener is enough), or you run a referral program for a local service business, where tools built around customer referrals fit better.

How Dub works

Dub works in three layers that build on each other. You create a branded short link on your own domain, Dub records each click with location, device, browser and referrer, and if you add its conversion tracking, it follows that click through to a lead and a sale.

Dub Links

Short links come with QR codes, a UTM builder and templates, custom link previews, deep links, link cloaking, expiration, password protection, device and geo targeting, tags and folders. A/B testing arrives on Business. Since August 2026 you can connect a custom domain hosted on Vercel or Cloudflare in one click through Domain Connect.

Dub Analytics and conversions

Real-time analytics show clicks, leads and sales per link, with filters, custom date ranges and CSV export. Conversion tracking, customer insights and event webhooks start on Business. Integrations include Stripe and Shopify for sales, Google Tag Manager and Segment for events, Zapier and Make for automation, and Slack and Raycast.

Dub Partners

Dub Partners runs affiliate, creator and referral programs: partner sign-up and applications, reward rules (including dual-sided incentives and bounties), an AI landing page generator, an embedded referral dashboard on Advanced, and automated global payouts with tax compliance. In 2026 it added USDC stablecoin payouts, retainer-style rewards, an AI reward builder and AI application screening. The vendor says partner payouts through Dub passed $20 million.

Developers get a REST API with SDKs, webhooks and a Dub MCP server so AI agents can call the API.

Dub pricing

Dub has a free plan and three paid plans with a set monthly price, plus custom Enterprise. Yearly billing takes 10% off and gives the whole year's usage upfront. Prices checked 7 Nov 2026, in US dollars.

Every paid plan has a 14-day free trial. Dub's FAQ says it offers full refunds if you are unhappy, you can cancel at any time and keep access until the end of the billing period before dropping to the free plan, and open-source projects and nonprofits get 25% off. If you hit the payout limit, you cannot send more payouts until the next billing period.

What a small affiliate program costs

A startup paying partners $2,000 a month in commissions fits inside Business on monthly billing. That costs $90 for the plan plus 5% payout fees ($100), so about $190 a month before the commissions themselves. Yearly billing brings the plan to $81 a month ($972 a year).

What users say about Dub

The clearest public signal for Dub is developer interest: its open-source repository has about 25.1k GitHub stars. Dub's own site says it reached Product of the Month on Product Hunt in 2024 and links its G2, Product Hunt and Trustpilot profiles.

The vendor's testimonials come from customers such as Framer and Chatbase, and one quoted customer says Dub beats Bitly, which they had used for years. Treat these as the vendor's selection rather than a balanced sample.

Security, platforms and company facts

Dub is a web app with an API, so it runs anywhere you have a browser. Dub says it completed a SOC 2 Type II audit in 2024, and SAML SSO and audit logs come with Enterprise.

• Company: Dub Technologies, Inc.; founder and CEO Steven Tey; fully remote team.
• Developer tools: REST API with native SDKs, webhooks, MCP server, public source code with self-hosting docs.
• Integrations: Stripe, Shopify, Segment, Google Tag Manager, Zapier, Make, Slack, Raycast, WordPress and more.

Recent Dub updates

Dub ships often and dates every changelog entry. On 10 July 2026 it changed yearly plans to give 12 times the monthly usage upfront on top of the 10% discount. Domain Connect arrived on 19 August, the AI reward builder on 17 August, retainer-style rewards on 11 September and AI application screening on 15 October 2026. It also launched a Program Marketplace for discovering affiliate programs and the Startup Program this year.

Limits and drawbacks

Dub's main limit is that conversion tracking and affiliate programs, the features that set it apart, start at $90 a month. The free and Pro plans are link shorteners with analytics, not attribution tools.

• Partner payouts carry a 5% fee on Business and Advanced, on top of the plan price.
• Monthly payout caps can pause payouts until the next billing period.
• Tracked events and new links are metered, so a viral link can push you up a plan.
• The free plan keeps analytics for only 30 days and allows 1 user.

Dub alternatives

These alternatives do the same job for one half of Dub or the other: branded short links, or affiliate program management.

• Bitly: pick it if you only need short links and QR codes and want a familiar brand; its Core plan is $10 a month billed annually, with a free plan that carries ads.
• Rebrandly: pick it for high-volume branded links, for example bulk links for SMS, with enterprise options such as SSO, SCIM and HIPAA BAAs.
• Rewardful: pick it if you run a Stripe-based affiliate program and prefer a 0% transaction fee on affiliate revenue; plans start at $49 a month.
• Affonso: pick it if you want help finding affiliates and creators for a software product, plus one-click partner payouts and a 14-day trial.
• Reditus: pick it for a B2B SaaS affiliate program that wants access to a ready-made network of more than 28,000 affiliates, by its own count.

Verdict

Dub is one of the strongest options for a software company that wants short links, revenue attribution and an affiliate program under one roof, and its full refund policy and 14-day trial lower the risk. I would pick it for a SaaS startup launching a partner program. I would skip it if you only need a link shortener, where the free plan or a simpler tool will do.