The Problem: You Outgrew AffiliateWP
You installed AffiliateWP because it was the obvious WordPress choice. It works, but you're paying $149.50-$349.50/yr, some features live behind separate add-ons ($99 each), and if you enable the Payouts Service you're paying a 3% platform fee plus Stripe's processing fee on top of your annual license.
You've either hit that wall already or noticed you're stacking add-ons to unlock features that should be included. And migration feels scary because you don't want to lose historical referrals, active affiliates, pending payouts, or your creative library.
Royal Affiliate Pro ships a built-in one-click migration wizard specifically for AffiliateWP customers. It moves everything: affiliates, referrals, visits, payouts, creatives, and linked coupons. Rollback is one click for the first 24 hours.
This guide walks the whole process. It takes 5-15 minutes depending on program size, no CSV exports, no downtime for your affiliates.
What Gets Migrated
The wizard handles the vast majority of your AffiliateWP data automatically. A small set of items (commission rates, payment gateway credentials, add-on-specific settings) get reconfigured once on the Royal Affiliate Pro side.
| Data Type | Migrated? |
|---|---|
| Affiliates (with user accounts, status, contact fields, tags) | Yes — full |
| Referrals (all statuses: pending, paid, unpaid, rejected) | Yes — full |
| Visits and click history | Yes — full |
| Payouts (paid + pending) | Yes — full |
| Creatives (banners, links, images) | Yes — full |
| Coupons already linked to affiliates | Yes — remapped |
| Custom fields on affiliate registration | Yes — most |
| Commission rates | No — reconfigure |
| Payment gateway config (Stripe/PayPal keys) | No — reconnect |
| AffiliateWP add-on settings (Recurring Referrals, Direct Link Tracking config, etc.) | No — equivalents in RAFP |
The migration wizard preview screen shows exact record counts before you commit, so you know what's coming across before you run it. Custom fields tied to specific AffiliateWP add-ons are flagged individually with a "needs remap" note so you can handle them one at a time.
Pre-Migration Checklist
Five things to do before you run the wizard. Total time: about 10 minutes.
- Back up your WordPress database. UpdraftPlus, SiteVault, or your host's snapshot tool. Migration is non-destructive to AffiliateWP tables (they stay intact until you deactivate the plugin), but a database backup is standard hygiene before any bulk operation.
- Note your current AffiliateWP commission rates. Royal Affiliate Pro has more granular commission tiers than AffiliateWP; you'll re-enter rates once post-migration and probably improve them (per-product, per-category, tier-based).
- Screenshot or export your current payout gateway config. You'll re-enter Stripe or PayPal credentials in Royal Affiliate Pro after activation — same connection, different UI.
- Communicate with active affiliates if you have a large program (50+ affiliates). A quick heads-up email that their dashboard is moving prevents support tickets.
- Purchase your Royal Affiliate Pro license at royalplugins.com/royal-affiliates/pricing/. Any tier works — Pro ($99), Business ($199), Agency ($299).
Step-by-Step Migration
Seven steps from install to first verified referral. Follow them in order.
1. Install Royal Affiliate Pro alongside AffiliateWP
Upload the .zip from your Royal Plugins account, activate, and enter your license key. Both plugins can coexist during migration — Royal Affiliate Pro does not activate its own referral tracking until you deactivate AffiliateWP in the final step.
2. Navigate to Royal Affiliate > Migration
Left-hand admin menu after activation. First tab: "AffiliateWP" (SliceWP and YITH are also supported from the same screen if you're switching from those instead).
3. Preview the Migration
The wizard auto-detects your AffiliateWP tables and shows a preview with record counts: X affiliates, Y referrals, Z visits, N payouts, M creatives. Verify these match what you expect from your current dashboard before you continue.
4. Run the Migration in Batches
Click "Start Migration." The wizard processes records in batches of 500 with a live progress bar. For a typical program (500 affiliates, 10,000 referrals, 50,000 visits) this takes 3-8 minutes. Larger programs may take 15-30. Do not close the browser tab — WordPress needs to complete the batches.
If you have 5,000+ affiliates or 100k+ referrals, run the migration during a low-traffic window (early morning your timezone). The wizard is safe to interrupt — rollback restores AffiliateWP as source of truth — but a clean, uninterrupted run is faster.
5. Verify the Results
After completion, the wizard shows a summary: successful records, skipped records (with reasons), and any errors. Click into the Royal Affiliate > Affiliates screen and confirm your affiliate list matches. Sample a few referrals — commission amounts should match to the cent.
6. Reconnect Payment Gateways
Go to Royal Affiliate > Settings > Payments. Enter your Stripe or PayPal credentials (same keys you had in AffiliateWP). Test with a $0.01 sandbox payout if you want to be sure.
7. Deactivate AffiliateWP
Once verified, go to Plugins > deactivate AffiliateWP. Do not delete it yet — leave it deactivated for 7-14 days as a safety net. If everything runs clean, you can delete AffiliateWP tables at that point (Royal Affiliate > Migration > Cleanup).
Rollback (If Something Looks Wrong)
Royal Affiliate Pro's migration wizard has a one-click rollback button in the wizard preview screen for 24 hours after migration.
Rollback drops all migrated records from Royal Affiliate Pro tables and leaves AffiliateWP untouched (which is why we said don't deactivate AffiliateWP until you're fully verified).
If you're past the 24-hour window and need to roll back, restore from the database backup you took in the pre-migration checklist.
We've never had a customer need rollback after a passing verification step. But it's there if you need it.
Post-Migration Verification Checklist
Run through these five checks before you announce the switch to affiliates or delete AffiliateWP.
- Test a referral link end-to-end. Grab your own affiliate link from an existing affiliate, click it in an incognito window, add a product to cart, complete a test order with a coupon code or real card. Confirm the referral appears in Royal Affiliate Pro within 1-2 minutes.
- Check the affiliate dashboard. Log in as a test affiliate account. The dashboard should show earnings, referrals, and payouts identical to what was in AffiliateWP.
- Confirm coupon-based tracking still works. If you use coupon codes for affiliate attribution, apply one to a test order. Royal Affiliate Pro tracks the same way.
- Verify at least one pending payout. Open Royal Affiliate > Payouts, find a pending payout that existed in AffiliateWP, and confirm the amount and affiliate match.
- Spot-check custom fields. If you had custom registration fields in AffiliateWP, open an affiliate profile and confirm those fields carried over. Some AffiliateWP add-on-specific fields may show a "needs remap" note — the wizard flags these individually.
Common Issues + Fixes
Three issues account for essentially every post-migration support ticket. All three have five-minute fixes.
Cause: AffiliateWP tracking cookie is still being set on the frontend.
Fix: Deactivate AffiliateWP completely (Plugins > Deactivate). Both plugins tracking simultaneously creates a cookie collision.
Cause: Some AffiliateWP add-ons (e.g. Custom Registration Fields) store fields in add-on-specific tables that the wizard can't auto-detect.
Fix: In Royal Affiliate > Settings > Custom Fields, recreate the missing fields. Existing affiliates get the field added with empty values; you can bulk-populate via CSV re-import or leave affiliates to fill in during their next login.
Cause: Payment gateway credentials were not re-entered post-migration.
Fix: Royal Affiliate > Settings > Payments — enter Stripe API keys or PayPal Payouts credentials. Same credentials from AffiliateWP work.
What You Gain from Switching
The migration itself is the small win. The bigger win is what's different about the plugin on the other side.
- Zero additional platform fees on any payout — pay only your Stripe or PayPal processor fees. AffiliateWP's Payouts Service adds a 3% platform fee on top.
- Everything's included at every tier — Stripe Connect, PayPal Payouts API, auto-payout thresholds, fraud detection, gamification challenges, multi-tier MLM. No add-ons to buy.
- New capability: Royal MCP Pro integration — 7 AI-agent tools (bulk approve, bulk generate coupons, bulk generate payouts, get performance data) let you manage the whole program from Claude Desktop or any MCP client. Nobody else in the WordPress affiliate space ships this.
- 400KB plugin footprint vs AffiliateWP's ~8.3MB — faster admin, less database load, cleaner uninstall if you ever need to.
See the full side-by-side breakdown at Royal Affiliate Pro vs AffiliateWP.