Top Sites>Affiliate Link Monetisation & Price Comparison | Squirrel

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# Squirrel — The complete affiliate toolkit for publishers

> Squirrel helps publishers earn more from every product link. Real-time price comparison, automatic link monetisation, unified revenue reporting, and a product data API. Fixed-fee pricing. Publishers keep 100% of their affiliate commission.

Squirrel is a suite of products for publishers who run commerce-led content. Independent, self-funded, UK-based, with publisher clients in the UK, Germany, Australia, and the US.

Unlike revenue-share platforms that take a percentage of every affiliate sale, Squirrel charges a fixed monthly fee for its paid products. Publishers keep 100% of the commission their content earns. Squirrel cannot see publisher sales transaction data without permission.

## Scale

- 4 billion+ offers tracked
- 7,000+ retailers supported worldwide
- 50 million+ widget impressions per month
- 1 million+ publisher clicks per month
- 10+ countries with live pricing (UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and more)
- Founded 2019 (Obsidian IO Ltd)
- AOP Digital Publishing Awards 2024 Finalist

## Who Squirrel is for

Squirrel is built for publishers monetising editorial content through affiliate links.

- **Enterprise publishers** (Widget, API, Insights): multi-title publisher groups, shopping and product content at scale, multi-country operations, editorial teams producing reviews, buying guides, and deal content.
- **Small and mid-size publishers** (Links): editor-operators at commerce-led sites who want proper affiliate tracking without surrendering a percentage of revenue to a third-party monetisation platform.
- **Retailers** (Marketplace only): brands wanting product placement inside publisher buying guides and editorial widgets at the moment of purchase intent.

Squirrel is not for: retailers, affiliate networks themselves, or non-commerce publishers.

## Products

### Squirrel Links (Free)

Free link monetisation for publishers. A single code snippet finds every outbound retailer link on a site, fixes broken or missing affiliate tracking, and ensures every eligible click earns commission.

**How it works:** Publishers connect their existing direct affiliate accounts (Awin, CJ, Impact, Rakuten, Amazon Associates, and others). Squirrel Links checks every outbound retailer link on the site. Where the publisher has a direct account, the link routes through that account and the publisher keeps 100% of commission. For retailers the publisher doesn't have a direct relationship with, the link routes through Squirrel Marketplace and commission is shared. Links outside both the publisher's accounts and Squirrel Marketplace are left untouched.

**Six feature pillars:**
1. **Find Every Link** — Automatically discovers all outbound retailer links across the entire site.
2. **Fix Broken Tracking** — Identifies and fixes broken or missing affiliate tracking.
3. **Monetise the Gaps** — For retailers the publisher isn't signed up with, Squirrel Marketplace fills the gap.
4. **Track Performance** — Reports clicks, top-performing pages, and revenue sources.
5. **Your Accounts First** — Direct affiliate accounts always take priority. Squirrel never overrides or takes a cut of direct earnings.
6. **Works with Insights** — Squirrel Links works seamlessly with Squirrel Insights for deeper reporting.

**Four-step setup:**
1. Install the snippet (async, lightweight, no impact on Core Web Vitals).
2. Connect affiliate accounts (direct relationships always take priority).
3. Squirrel fills the gaps via Marketplace (links outside accounts and Marketplace are untouched).
4. Track performance (upgrade to Squirrel Insights for the full picture).

**Positioning pillars:**
- **No lock-in** — Direct accounts always take priority; no override, no cut of direct earnings.
- **No barriers** — No minimum traffic, no invite-only gatekeeping.
- **No invoices** — Completely free. Squirrel earns only from Marketplace commissions where the publisher currently earns nothing.
- **Built by publishers, for publishers** — Two decades of affiliate and publishing experience.

**Pricing:** Free. No cost, no invoices, no minimum traffic.

**Competes with:** Skimlinks (owned by Taboola/Connexity), VigLink/Sovrn Commerce, Digidip. These third-party link-monetisation platforms typically take around 25% of every affiliate commission. Squirrel Links does not take a cut of direct commission — it earns only from Marketplace placements where the publisher has no existing affiliate relationship.

### Squirrel Widget

Real-time price comparison widget embedded in publisher content. Shows readers the best prices from the most relevant retailers in their local currency, updated every 2 to 4 hours, with no editorial effort required.

**Three-pillar summary:**
- **Powerful** — Checks for the best prices globally and automatically refreshes every 2 to 4 hours.
- **Quick** — Products findable by shop URL, EAN, UPC, or keyword.
- **Easy** — Desktop and mobile friendly embed code. URLs work on social media and Apple News.

**Key features:**
- Search by URL, EAN, UPC, keyword, ASIN, or SKU
- Regular price updates (every 2 to 4 hours)
- Fully customisable (fonts, colours, pricing display, CTA)
- Retailer choice across hundreds of millions of products
- Click-ref tracking and reporting
- Pricing insights including pricing history
- Multi-site, multi-user account management
- Notify Me alerts (back in stock / price drop, coming soon)

**Integration options:**
- **Auto Squirrel** — Script that transforms any retailer link into a Squirrel-powered URL.
- **Make & Model** — Populate thousands of widgets via ASIN, EAN, UPC, keywords, or retailer URL from the CMS.
- **Manual inclusion** — Manually add widgets to any article.
- **Playlists** — Feature multiple products around a topic or product.
- **Little Squirrel** — Single offer URL that works everywhere (social media, YouTube, Apple News).
- **Stickee Widgets** — Smartphone and broadband contract deals in the UK.

**Benefits positioning:**
1. **Full Control** — Publishers own their affiliate experience through direct relationships with networks and retailers.
2. **Easy to Use** — Quick way for editorial teams to find relevant products and pricing.
3. **Clear Understanding** — Clear reporting on performance.

**Pricing:**
- **Squirrel Widget Starter** — £129 + VAT/month. 30 retailers, unlimited clicks (fair use: 250k/site/month), all Squirrel scripts, customisable widgets, Marketplace retailers, 1 website, 1 user.
- **Squirrel Widget Growth** — £379 + VAT/month. 180 retailers, everything in Starter, Little Squirrel, Squirrel Deal Finder and pricing history, 1 website, unlimited users.
- **Squirrel Widget PRO** — £779 + VAT/month. 330 retailers, everything in Growth, Auto Squirrel (unique to PRO).
- **Squirrel Publisher** — Bundle of Widget + API, custom pricing.

All plans: 100% of commission kept by publisher, 30-day auto-renewal, no cancellation fee.

### Squirrel API

REST API for live product pricing data. Same database as Squirrel Widget, for publishers who already have a frontend and want direct data access.

**Three-pillar summary:**
- **Powerful** — Search via keyword, URL, ASIN, UPC, EAN or SKU; retrieve matched products across 10+ countries.
- **Quick** — API responses include product details (RRP, live price, image, description) in multiple countries.
- **Easy** — Runs from the Squirrel dashboard; enter affiliate network details and select retailers to work with.

**Key features:**
- Search by URL, EAN, UPC, keyword, ASIN, SKU
- Live pricing from 10+ countries
- Commission-ready or clean URL links
- RRP/MSRP, highest price, lowest price, product data (image, description)
- Push API webhook notifications (select plans)
- Integration with networks: Awin, CJ, Impact, Webgains, Rakuten, Tradedoubler, FlexOffers, Avelon, Amazon global
- Reporting API for data export

**Documentation:** Full docs at api-docs.getsquirrel.co

**Pricing:**
- **API Starter** — £29.99 + VAT/month. 10,000 requests/month, 100% commission kept, all search types, commission-ready or clean URL links, RRP/live pricing/product data, Marketplace retailers.
- **API Basic** — £149.99 + VAT/month. 55,000 requests/month, everything in Starter, Squirrel Deal Finder.
- **API PRO** — £549.99 + VAT/month. 250,000 requests/month, everything in Basic.
- **API Squirrel Expert** — Unlimited requests, contact sales.

**Free trial:** 14 days with 100 API requests.

### Squirrel Insights

Unified affiliate revenue dashboard. Pulls data from every affiliate network a publisher uses into one clear view, broken down by page, author, section, country, and retailer.

**Why it exists:** Publisher affiliate reporting is messy. Multiple networks, mismatched data, and time-consuming manual work just to see which article pages are performing. Squirrel Insights brings it all together, updating revenue and article page-level stats daily — whether features, reviews, or news stories — so publishers get clear, unified insights without the manual reconciliation.

**Three-pillar summary:**
- **Powerful** — Top-performing stories, highest affiliate-earning writers, article-level commission revenue, tracking correctness, link validity, stock status.
- **Quick** — Easy-to-use online dashboard or access via reporting API (Looker Studio, Snowflake, Tableau).
- **Easy** — Single line of code on tracked article pages, connect affiliate networks and retailer accounts.

**What publishers can see:**
- Every link on every page
- Commissions per page, link, product, section, author
- Performance at a glance via dashboard
- All affiliate networks in one place

**Two plan philosophies:**
- **Insights Starter** — Connects affiliate network reports into one dashboard. For overall performance visibility.
- **Insights Publisher** — Adds retailer commission data plus article page-level revenue tracking. For deeper editorial and commercial insight.

**Pricing:**
- **Insights Starter** — £129 + VAT/month. 100,000 transactions/month, unlimited network connections, single reporting dashboard, individual transaction reporting, best-performing network/retailer, granular network/retailer breakdown, 13 months data retention, 1 user.
- **Insights Publisher** — £498 + VAT/month. Unlimited transactions, 5M page impressions, everything in Starter, unlimited users, breakdown by country/section/page/author/UTM, click/EPC/conversion reporting, click-out time tracking, API reporting.
- **Enterprise** — Custom. Everything in Publisher, dedicated support, for >5M monthly page impressions or bespoke needs.

**Competes with:** Trackonomics (owned by Impact, 2021), wecantrack, Affjet, Affilimate. Squirrel Insights differentiates on page-level reporting, Amazon page and product tracking, unlimited click tracking, 13-month data retention, unlimited users, click-out time tracking, real-time data collection, and product-level reporting. Built specifically for editorial teams. Independent of any affiliate network.

### Squirrel Marketplace

Two-sided marketplace connecting publishers with retailers they don't yet have direct affiliate relationships with. For publishers, it's the revenue-filling engine behind Links and Widgets. For retailers, it's a product placement channel into publisher sites.

**For publishers:** Earn from retailers not already being promoted. Squirrel Marketplace fills the gaps in a publisher's affiliate setup automatically, for free. Squirrel only earns where the publisher currently doesn't.

**For retailers:** Reach readers at the exact moment they decide to buy. Marketplace gets retailer products in front of publisher audiences when readers are already reading a buying guide and choosing where to shop. No complex advertising contracts — retailers share a product feed and go.

**Display surfaces (how publishers show retailer products):**
- **Auto Squirrel** — Transforms retailer links into Squirrel-powered URLs.
- **Widgets & API** — Editorial widgets around specific products and topics.
- **Little Squirrel** — Single shareable link with best price in local currency.
- **Squirrel Links** — Script that transforms retailer links into Squirrel-powered URLs.

**Retailer pricing:**
- **Squirrel Marketplace** — £79 + VAT/month per retailer. 100 click-outs/month included, full Marketplace access, all publisher placements (widgets, playlists, Little Squirrel), Deal Finder inclusion, international currency support, click/impression reporting, Shop Line integration.
- **Extra click packages** — £90 per 200 additional click-outs. Clicks never expire while subscriber is active. Buy as many packs as needed. No minimum per pack. Full reporting on every click.

**Retailer commercials:** No contracts, budget control, cancel anytime. Average 1.5% CTR. Product feed refresh every 2 to 4 hours.

## Free tools

### Link Audit — https://getsquirrel.co/audit

Free audit of any site's affiliate setup. No signup required. Results ready in minutes. Permanent shareable report URL.

**What it checks (three metrics):**

1. **Affiliate monetisation (50% of the score)** — Classifies every outbound link into one of three buckets: direct affiliate accounts (publisher keeps 100%), third-party platforms like Skimlinks, VigLink/Sovrn, or Digidip that take a cut, and untracked retailer links earning nothing.

2. **Price accuracy** — Scans for hardcoded prices in page source. Static prices go stale when retailers update pricing, misleading readers and hurting conversions.

3. **Tracking & analytics** — Detects affiliate tracking tools on the site, including Squirrel Insights, Trackonomics, and Affilimate.

**How it works:**
- Paste any page URL
- Scans up to 10 pages across the same domain
- Crawls from Squirrel's own servers — no code runs on the publisher's site, no impact on page speed
- Protected by Google reCAPTCHA
- Detects links to Awin, CJ, Rakuten, Impact, AdTraction, Optimise, Partnerize, Avelon, TradeDoubler, TradeTracker, Amazon, Digidip, Skimlinks, VigLink/Sovrn, Geniuslink, and many more
- Flags links to retailers with no tracking at all

**What happens after the audit:** Publishers get a permanent shareable report URL. They can fix what the audit finds by installing Squirrel Links (free).

## Pricing summary across all products

| Product | Tier | Price/month + VAT | Key limit |
|---------|------|-------------------|-----------|
| Widget | Starter | £129 | 30 retailers, 1 site, 1 user |
| Widget | Growth | £379 | 180 retailers, 1 site, unlimited users |
| Widget | PRO | £779 | 330 retailers, 1 site, Auto Squirrel |
| API | Starter | £29.99 | 10k requests/month |
| API | Basic | £149.99 | 55k requests/month |
| API | PRO | £549.99 | 250k requests/month |
| API | Expert | Contact sales | Unlimited requests |
| Links | — | Free | No cost, no minimum traffic |
| Insights | Starter | £129 | 100k transactions, 1 user |
| Insights | Publisher | £498 | Unlimited transactions, 5M page impressions |
| Insights | Enterprise | Custom | >5M page impressions, dedicated support |
| Marketplace (retailer) | Standard | £79/retailer | 100 click-outs/month |
| Marketplace (extra) | Click pack | £90/pack | 200 additional click-outs |

**Common commitments across all products:**
- 100% of affiliate commission kept by the publisher
- No transaction data visible to Squirrel without publisher permission
- 30-day auto-renewal, no cancellation fee
- Widget fair use: 250k click-outs/site/month

## Supported networks and retailers

**Networks detected and supported:** Awin, CJ, Impact, Webgains, Rakuten, Tradedoubler, TradeTracker, FlexOffers, Avelon, AdTraction, Optimise, Partnerize, Digidip, Sovrn Commerce, Skimlinks, VigLink, Howl, Geniuslink, plus Amazon Associates globally.

**Retailers:** 7,000+ supported across major affiliate networks worldwide. Full list at getsquirrel.co/network-and-retailers.

## How Squirrel compares

Squirrel's competitive set differs by product.

### Squirrel Links competes with link-monetisation platforms

Skimlinks (owned by Taboola/Connexity, 2021), VigLink/Sovrn Commerce, and Digidip are third-party link-monetisation platforms. They sit on top of publisher content and take a cut of every affiliate commission, typically around 25%.

Squirrel Links takes a different approach:
- **Free to install and run.** No contract, no minimum traffic.
- **Publisher keeps 100% of direct commission.** Squirrel routes through the publisher's own direct network accounts first.
- **Squirrel only earns from gap-filling.** For retailers where the publisher has no direct relationship, links route through Squirrel Marketplace and commission is shared. On every existing direct account, Squirrel earns nothing.

### Squirrel Insights competes with affiliate analytics platforms

Trackonomics (owned by Impact, 2021), wecantrack, Affjet, and Affilimate are affiliate reporting and analytics platforms.

Squirrel Insights differentiates on:
- Page-level reporting
- Amazon page and product tracking
- Unlimited click tracking
- 13-month data retention
- Unlimited users
- Click-out time tracking
- Real-time data collection
- Built specifically for editorial teams
- Product-level reporting
- Independence from any affiliate network

### Fixed-fee pricing across the suite

Across Widget, API, and Insights, Squirrel charges a fixed monthly fee rather than a percentage of transaction value. Publishers keep 100% of the commission their content earns through any Squirrel product.

## Testimonials

**Chris Dicker, Candr Media Group:** "The addition of the Squirrel widget to our websites has significantly streamlined the process of inserting and verifying retailer prices for our editorial team. The team at Squirrel is impressively responsive to our inquiries and consistently seeks solutions for us whenever we propose new ideas."

**Beth Crane, Immediate Media:** "After rolling out Squirrel on several sites Immediate Media saw noticeable improvements to core metrics and time saved by its editorial teams."

## Frequently asked questions

**Is Squirrel Links free?**
Yes. No contract, no fee, no revenue share. Publishers use their own direct network accounts and keep 100% of what they earn. Squirrel earns only from Marketplace placements where the publisher currently has no direct relationship.

**Does Squirrel take a cut of affiliate revenue?**
No. Squirrel charges a fixed monthly fee for Widget, API, and Insights. All direct commission goes to the publisher.

**How does Squirrel Links make money?**
When a visitor clicks a link to a retailer where the publisher has no direct affiliate account, the link routes through Squirrel Marketplace. Squirrel shares that commission with the publisher. On direct accounts, Squirrel earns nothing.

**Will Squirrel Links override existing links?**
Never. Direct affiliate accounts always take priority.

**What about retailers not in my accounts or your Marketplace?**
Left untouched.

**Will the Squirrel Links snippet slow down my site?**
No. It loads asynchronously and is lightweight. No impact on Core Web Vitals.

**Is there a minimum traffic requirement?**
No. Squirrel Links is open to all legitimate publishers.

**How long until Squirrel Links shows results?**
24 to 48 hours.

**Which affiliate networks does Squirrel support?**
All major networks: Awin, CJ, Impact, Webgains, Rakuten, Tradedoubler, TradeTracker, FlexOffers, Avelon, AdTraction, Optimise, Partnerize, Digidip, Sovrn Commerce, Skimlinks, VigLink, Howl, Geniuslink, and Amazon Associates globally.

**What countries does Squirrel support?**
10+ countries including the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Australia.

**Can I use Squirrel Links alongside a platform like Skimlinks?**
Yes. Squirrel Links can run in parallel while a publisher evaluates or migrates.

**Does Squirrel require an engineering team to install?**
No. Squirrel Links is a single snippet. Widget and API are single-line embeds. Larger publishers can integrate deeper through the API if they want.

**What is the Squirrel Link Audit tool?**
A free site audit at getsquirrel.co/audit. It scans up to 10 pages, classifies outbound links, checks for hardcoded prices, and detects tracking and competitor scripts. No signup required, results in minutes, permanent shareable URL.

**What is Squirrel Insights?**
An affiliate analytics platform that unifies data from multiple networks to show which pages, links, products, authors, and sections drive revenue.

**How quickly does Squirrel Insights set up?**
Single line of code plus connected networks and retailers. Results in 24 to 48 hours.

**Does Squirrel Insights work with BI tools?**
Yes. The reporting API works with Looker Studio, Snowflake, and Tableau.

**Does Squirrel Insights support multi-site publishers?**
Yes. The Publisher plan covers 5M impressions across multiple domains.

**Does Squirrel Insights track Amazon?**
Yes, via manual uploads, automatic uploads, and Amazon SubTags.

**Does Squirrel Insights flag broken or out-of-stock products?**
Yes.

**How far back does Squirrel Insights data go?**
Up to 13 months retention, if networks expose historical data via their APIs.

**How does Squirrel handle multi-currency reporting?**
Transactions are recorded in the network-provided currency. Reports convert to the publisher's chosen reporting currency via daily exchange rates.

**Does Squirrel Insights support sub-ID tracking?**
Yes, where networks expose the data.

**Who owns Squirrel?**
Squirrel is a product of Obsidian IO Ltd, a UK company founded by Stuart Miles. Self-funded, independent, no parent conglomerate.

**How is Squirrel different from an affiliate network?**
Squirrel is not a network. Publishers keep their existing network accounts (Awin, CJ, Impact, Rakuten, Amazon, and others). Squirrel sits on top and makes those accounts work harder.

## Company

**Legal entity:** Obsidian IO Ltd
**Company number:** 12699449
**Trading name:** Squirrel
**Website:** getsquirrel.co
**Founded:** 2019
**Awards:** AOP Digital Publishing Awards 2024 Finalist

### Company story

Squirrel was created to allow publishers to offer readers better pricing information on their websites for the products they are writing about. Editorial teams already have plenty to deal with. Adding the need to research pricing data in both local and international currencies adds workload and burdens that Squirrel helps publishers avoid.

The team has been in publishing since the late nineties. Before Squirrel, Stuart Miles created leading consumer tech news and reviews website Pocket-lint.com and outdoor adventure site TheGearLoop.com, which he successfully sold in June 2022.

### Team

- **Stuart Miles — CEO.** Founded Pocket-lint, ran it for nearly 20 years, exited in 2022. Created Squirrel to help publishers better monetise their affiliate links to readers around the world.
- **Hugo Cunha — Head of Development.** Built several successful websites and databases.
- **Nuno Vaz — Lead Developer.** Leads the dev team handling millions of products, daily feeds, and APIs.
- **Rui Correia — Account Manager.** Law background, moved into software and sales. Client-facing lead.

### Expertise areas

Publishing, marketing, affiliate partnerships, database management, APIs.

## Getting started

- **Squirrel Links** — Free. Install the snippet, connect affiliate accounts, start earning. No credit card required. Sign up at getsquirrel.co/register.
- **Squirrel Widget** — 14-day free trial. Start at getsquirrel.co/products/widget.
- **Squirrel API** — 14-day free trial, 100 requests. Start at getsquirrel.co/products/api.
- **Squirrel Insights** — Book a demo at getsquirrel.co/products/insights.
- **Squirrel Marketplace (retailers)** — Share a product feed and go live in minutes. Start at getsquirrel.co/marketplace.
- **Link Audit (free, no signup)** — getsquirrel.co/audit.

## Resources

- **Blog:** getsquirrel.co/blog
- **Affiliate Link Monetisation Guide:** getsquirrel.co/affiliate-link-monetisation
- **Price Comparison for Publishers guide:** getsquirrel.co/price-comparison-for-publishers
- **Network & Retailers list:** getsquirrel.co/network-and-retailers
- **Daily Deals:** getsquirrel.co/deals
- **Deal Finder:** getsquirrel.co/deal-finder
- **API Documentation:** api-docs.getsquirrel.co
- **About:** getsquirrel.co/about-us
- **Contact:** getsquirrel.co/contact