Compare ThirstyAffiliates vs. Pretty Links Plugin (A ThirstyAffiliates Alternative)

Pretty Links vs ThirstyAffiliates

Are you looking for a viable Pretty Links alternative for your affiliate marketing needs? Would you like to know more about the differences between Pretty Links vs. ThirstyAffiliates?

Well, you’re in luck! We’ve compared the features side-by-side, and the results are in!

In this post, we’ll compare Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates. To better suit your needs, we’ve included both the free and pro versions of each.

One thing we often find is, other link cloaking and link management solutions aren’t built with bloggers in mind. Busy bloggers need to leverage their resources to get the most time possible for doing what they do great: creating content.

Unlike Pretty Links, ThirstyAffiliates is a solution purpose-built with bloggers and niche website owners in mind. We focus hard on the tools that matter. So, if you’re looking for a purpose-built tool, ThirstyAffiliates is the only Pretty Links alternative you should consider.

As bloggers, niche site owners, and affiliates ourselves, we know what features are must-haves and what makes a tool like this great. We’ve been refining our tool for many years and are always finding new and innovative ways to improve.

Here at ThirstyAffiliates, we pride ourselves on our customer service and try our best to ensure everyone has a good experience while using our product.

We give a 14-day refund satisfaction guarantee on our ThirstyAffiliates Pro product. We also take care of our customers personally when it comes to customer support issues. We’ll never just send you to an inactive forum.

With that all said, it’s difficult to compare two products directly based on features. But we hope you find this comparison informative!

Both ThirstyAffiliates and Pretty Links come in “free” or “lite” versions – which we’ll compare first. As you can see in the table below, the ThirstyAffiliates free version is a favorable alternative to Pretty Links Lite.

 ThirstyAffiliatesPretty Links Lite
Shortening / Destination CloakingYesYes
Link CategorizationYes – uses hierarchical WP taxonomy called “Link Categories”, which works just like Post CategoriesYes – uses its own grouping method called “Groups”
Uses Custom Post Types Yes – uses standard WP core post type technology No
Multiple Redirect OptionsYes – 301, 302, 307Yes – 301, 302, 307
Link PrefixesYes – customizable link prefixesNo – uses direct URLs
StatsYes – includes Reports interfaceYes – includes Reports interface
Affiliate Link Picker ToolYes – works just like WP link tool + Advanced Link Picker as wellYes – basic list
Link Insertion OptionsStandard Link, Shortcode, ImageStandard Link
Show Category Slugs in URLsYesNo
Import/Export SettingsYesNo
Attach Images/Banners To Affiliate LinksYesNo
No FollowYes – globally or per link overrideYes – per link
Open in New WindowYes – globally or per link overrideYes – per link
Pass Additional Query Strings Yes Yes
Modularized DesignYes – you can turn off the parts of ThirstyAffiliates you don’t need for extra plugin speedNo
Import/Export SettingsYes – easily export then import your global settings into another site for faster setupNo
Quick Add LinksYes – quick add tool lets you add links on the flyYes – but not from editor (WP dashboard widget)
Built-In Proactive Link FixerYes – fixes older links in the contentNo
Uncloak OptionYes – to make links compatible with Amazon Terms of ServiceNo
Rest API CompatibilityYesNo

Next, we compared the two premium versions. Check out how ThirstyAffiliates compares with Pretty Links Pro.

 ThirstyAffiliatesPretty Links Pro
Site License3 Levels
– Single site
– 5 sites
– 10 sites
3 Levels
– Single site
– 2 sites
– 5 sites
Automatic updatesYesYes
Automatic Keyword LinkingYes – with inbuilt caching and support for Unicode charactersYes
Advanced Statistics ReportsYes – multiple advanced Reports in a dedicated sectionYes – Single report screen
Geolocation Link RedirectYesYes
CSV Import / Export ToolYes – also supports mergingYes
Amazon API ImportingYesNo
Google Analytics Click Event PushingYes – support legacy, universal, and GTMYes – but via a plugin integration
High-Speed HTAccess RedirectYesNo
Link Event Notification EmailsYesNo
REST API CompatibilityYesNo
URL Shortening (with bit.ly)YesNo
Automatic 404 CheckerYesNo
PriceVariesVaries

We hope this comparison of Pretty Links vs. ThirstyAffiliates will help you decide which tool is right for your needs. To learn more about the differences between the ThirstyAffiliates versions, click here.

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Affiliate Link Disclosure

20 thoughts on “Compare ThirstyAffiliates vs. Pretty Links Plugin (A ThirstyAffiliates Alternative)

    1. Ha! You’re the first one to notice since July, Will.

      They’re meant to be little green ticks but are pointing at a non existent file. I’ll fix that up tomorrow.

      Also, our plugin is free now, so feel free to download and try it out. Even better 🙂

  1. Ticks are still not working… lol

    I’m leaning toward Prettylink because I think it has one more useful feature: tweet badges.

    Does thirstyaffiliates offer that?

    1. Hey bee, thanks for spotting that. All fixed.

      I’m yet to hear anyone asking for tweet badges and I haven’t found a solid use case for that feature myself yet either. Is there any particular scenario you could share that you’re thinking of using that feature for? I’d love to include some more social aspects maybe with an add-on but to be honest from what I hear many people find it’s a bit superfluous for a link management tool. We’re focusing on other more important integrations for now unless there’s a really great reason to include it.

      Also, just to update the post above, our core plugin is entirely free now (we don’t have the tiered versions mentioned above anymore) so you can pick and choose the add-on pieces you’ll actually use. Feel free to download ThirstyAffiliates from WordPress.org and have a play.

  2. You plugin is cool, due to less downloads from plugin directory its always a doubt whether plugin will be updated by developer regularly or not.
    Can you add functionality of link like this – domain.com/affiliate-link without any default slug in-between.

    Thanks !

    1. Hi Ashraf,

      Yes, we only listed our plugin on the directory like 6 months ago. Before that it was 100% premium, but we changed our business model which allows us to give away the core product for free.

      No slug is something that’s been on our list, but we haven’t had a lot of requests for it. I’ll look into it.

  3. Would love to see a fresh update to this post. It’s late 2017 and a lot of things have changed. Including higher prices, unfortunately.

    1. Hi Bradley, you can. Keep in mind that Pretty Link doesn’t use Custom Post Types so beware of link clashes between the plugins. I suggest putting your ThirstyAffiliates link prefix to something you know you haven’t used in Pretty Link. Hope this helps!

  4. Any chance ThirstyAffiliates will get the split testing feature of Pretty Links? This is the only feature that’s really swaying me to Pretty Links.

    1. Hey Rick,

      We used to have an add-on for split testing but going by the numbers it was the least purchased and downloaded add-on we ever had!

      Unless we get a lot of demand I doubt we’d put this in since most people split test on the landing page level and will generally just substitute the first affiliate link for some other affiliate link in the variation page.

      Hope this makes sense!

      If anyone else wants this feature please write in or leave a comment.

  5. I want to purchase Thirsty Affiliate plugin as I am impressed with comparison, I am currently using pretty like and as I see the Thirsty affiliate have fast HTaccess redirect and also import + link shorting,
    the question is, I am using Pretty links on my blogs now and have more than 300+ URL’s…

    Just need to know, can Thirsty affiliate import it? From pretty link or do you have any settings to migrate form, pretty link?
    Please let me know, so I can decide to purchase thirsty affiliates. As I dnt want o do manual migration of more than 300+ links…

  6. Can I import redirections from popular “Redirection” plugin? I have been using that since day one.

  7. Great comparison! I really love thristy affiliates as it’s saving a lot of time and effort. I love it’s reuseable link concept so we can change it once and it will affect everywhere.

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