Commission Junction vs Clinkbank vs Clicksure

In the world of affiliate marketing, you have essentially three options. You can work through an affiliate network run by a giant, reputable company. Networks like Rakuten, Amazon Associates, or eBay Partners all fall into this category. They tend to be very legitimate, but not always the highest converting, depending on your niche and approach. When used properly, they can be excellent - it’s simply a matter of using them correctly.

The second option is to go with one of the higher quality non-corporate-backed affiliate networks. Among these, Clickbank remains one of the most well-known and widely used. Any other high-quality network in this space is typically measured against the bar Clickbank has set over the years.

The third option is to use one of the smaller, shadier affiliate networks. Most savvy marketers tend to avoid these, either because they’re unlikely to pay out reliably or because they rely on questionable marketing practices to generate results.

This post will discuss Clickbank, as well as two of its primary competitors: Clicksure and Commission Junction. Is Clickbank really as potent as claimed? Can you succeed with other networks?

Clickbank

Clickbank is one of those affiliate networks that is hard to quantify when you do a simple Internet search. You’ll end up with a lot of low-quality “how to make money” posts, often from people selling products through Clickbank that they want you to buy. You’ll find people complaining that the network is a scam, though when you dig deeper, the details often don’t add up. Yet Clickbank has been running since 1998. Why is that?

As it turns out, satisfied users don’t post as much about their success as dissatisfied users post about their failures. It’s why a product can have a flood of negative reviews and still be genuinely good - satisfied users simply don’t leave reviews as often. This means search results tend to surface dissatisfied users, while the successful ones are quietly making money every day.

Clickbank is a massive network. As of 2026, it boasts a library of over 6 million unique products and reaches 200 million customers worldwide, with hundreds of Platinum affiliates generating more than $250,000 per year in sales on the platform alone. Those aren’t numbers a scam operation produces.

Where many people go wrong is they go too broad. Much like Amazon, you have to pick a niche and go all-in with it. If you’re too broad, you lose SEO focus and the quality of your traffic suffers.

On the other hand, many people simply look for Clickbank products with the highest commissions and go after them without considering the competition. Clickbank’s commissions are genuinely impressive - performance affiliates commonly earn 50%, 70%, or even higher on digital products - but those top offers attract a lot of competition. You need to find a niche you can make your own.

Clickbank has numerous benefits. It’s a large, established network that has been around since 1998, so it’s not going to disappear overnight or skip out on payments. It’s available in over 150 countries, making it ideal for international marketers. It also has relatively low entry requirements, making it an accessible starting point for new affiliates. If you find your niche and work it well, you may never need to look beyond Clickbank’s walls.

Clicksure

Clicksure was once positioned as a competitor to Clickbank, but as of 2026, it has largely disappeared from credible affiliate marketing discussions. At various points in its history, Clicksure was accused of facilitating scam-like products - particularly in the binary options space, where CPA payouts started at $250 but were tied to extremely questionable offers.

Clicksure itself was not necessarily the scam, but its low bar for filtering products meant its marketplace filled with low-quality and deceptive offers. That reputation proved difficult to shake, and the platform never meaningfully addressed it. Today, there is little verified activity or current data available for Clicksure, and most serious affiliate marketers have moved on entirely.

If you come across Clicksure being recommended somewhere, treat that recommendation with significant skepticism. There are far better options available - and it’s worth knowing which CPA scam networks to avoid before committing to any platform.

Commission Junction

Commission Junction, now widely known as CJ Affiliate, is one of the oldest and most established affiliate networks around, also founded in 1998. By scale, it is genuinely impressive: CJ reaches over 1 billion customers per month, handles 157 million transactions, and racks up 14 billion interactions per year. Those are enterprise-level numbers that reflect the platform’s strength with major brand advertisers.

CJ is relatively easy to get into, though new users often find the internal interface less intuitive than they’d like. Finding the right offers and navigating the dashboard has historically been a friction point, though the platform has improved over the years.

One of the biggest advantages CJ has over Clickbank is brand recognition. You’ll find major, well-known companies running affiliate programs through CJ, which means you don’t have to work as hard to convince your audience that a product is legitimate - they’ll often already know the brand.

The trade-off is commission rates. CJ’s typical commissions run in the 10-30% range, which is significantly lower than what Clickbank’s digital product marketplace offers. If you’re selling high-ticket physical products or driving serious volume, CJ can absolutely be worth your time. But if you’re focused on margin and passive income from digital offers, Clickbank’s commission structure is generally more rewarding.

Overall, which of the two remaining serious contenders is better? It depends on your niche and business model. Clickbank wins on commission rates and is ideal for digital product affiliates. CJ wins on brand trust, scale, and physical product variety. As for Clicksure - skip it entirely. It’s no longer a relevant part of this conversation.