ShopMy vs LTK: commission, payouts, and the LTK competitors and alternatives worth comparing
This is the comparison most creators actually run, because ShopMy and LTK are the two serious curated networks and they are genuinely close on the numbers that get advertised. What follows separates what each company officially documents from what gets repeated in comparison posts, because on this particular pair the gap is unusually wide and most of the confident payout figures you will read are neither official nor consistent with each other.
The short answer
ShopMy and LTK are both screened creator affiliate networks anchored in fashion, beauty and home retail, and the honest difference between them is not the commission rate, which is close to identical. It is how much each company will actually put in writing. ShopMy publishes its payment terms in its creator guide: payouts weekly every Friday, an $11 minimum before a deposit releases, Stripe or PayPal, and commissions that stay pending 30 to 120 days. LTK publishes commission ranges of 10% to 25%, reaching up to 30%, and then says only that creators are paid regularly once commissions build up. It names no payout day, no minimum balance and no cookie window anywhere on its public creator pages. One more correction worth having: the 5,000 follower bar quoted for LTK all over the internet is real, but LTK scopes it to applicants outside the US and Canada, so American creators are routinely quoted a requirement that does not apply to them. Choose LTK for the deeper retailer network and whole-cart attribution, ShopMy for faster low-threshold payouts and the stronger brand deal marketplace. Neither one carries software or pays recurring commission.
Both platforms re-checked against their own official creator documentation on 20 August 2026 · No commission fee · Last updated August 2026
Curated by · affiliate links clearly labeled
Estimated monthly
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Estimated and illustrative, not a guarantee. Real earnings depend on your audience and what fans buy.
■ at a glance
ShopMy vs LTK at a glance: official terms against reported ones
Official means the platform states it on its own creator pages. Reported means it comes from creators or coverage the company has not confirmed in writing. Both companies were re-checked on 20 August 2026, and the split below is the single most useful thing on this page, because almost every ShopMy vs LTK article presents both columns as equally certain when they are not.
| What you are comparing | ShopMy vs LTK | The detail, and whether it is official |
|---|---|---|
| Commission rate | Effectively a tie | OFFICIAL on both sides. ShopMy states rates typically run 10% to 30%, set by the brand, on the item price before tax and shipping. LTK states its brands typically offer 10% to 25%, and that the average rate can reach up to 30%, set by the retailer. Anyone telling you one of these platforms clearly pays a higher percentage is comparing anecdotes, not rate cards. The rate is not where these two differ. |
| What the commission is paid on | LTK pays on the whole cart | REPORTED, and it is the most valuable difference on this page. LTK is widely reported to credit the shopper entire basket during the attribution window, so a link tapped for a $30 top can pay commission on a $400 checkout. ShopMy pays on the item bought. For creators whose audience checks out with large baskets, cart-wide attribution is worth more than several points of headline rate, and it is the strongest single argument for LTK. |
| Payout schedule | ShopMy weekly Friday, LTK unstated | ShopMy is OFFICIAL: payouts occur weekly, every Friday. LTK is not. Its public creator pages say only that creators are paid regularly once they build up commissions, taking the brand return period into account. LTK is REPORTED to have moved to weekly Friday payouts during 2024, and that is probably accurate, but it is not something LTK documents where a creator can check it. |
| Minimum payout threshold | ShopMy $11, LTK genuinely unclear | ShopMy is OFFICIAL: you need at least $11 showing under Next Payment for a deposit to release, paid through Stripe or PayPal. LTK publishes no creator payout threshold at all. Secondary sources confidently state $100, and other equally confident sources state $25. Both cannot be right. The only $100 figure traceable to LTK itself sits in its referral program terms and refers to closed net commissions in that specific program, not to ordinary creator payouts. Treat every LTK threshold number you read, including ours, as unverified. |
| How long money sits pending | ShopMy 30 to 120 days | OFFICIAL for ShopMy, which states commissions typically remain pending for 30 to 120 days while the retailer return window closes and the retailer pays ShopMy. LTK acknowledges the return period affects timing but puts no numbers on it. This is the part of affiliate income creators consistently underestimate: the sale clearing is not the same as the money arriving, and on either platform a purchase made today may not be spendable for months. |
| Follower requirement | 5,000 for LTK, but not in the US | OFFICIAL and widely misquoted. LTK words it precisely: creators applying from outside the US and Canada need a minimum of 5,000 followers, plus high quality regular content and an engaged audience. LTK publishes no follower minimum for US or Canadian applicants. American creators are talked out of applying every day by a number that LTK explicitly scopes to other markets. ShopMy publishes no follower minimum either, and the roughly 1,000 figure attached to it is creator-reported. |
| Getting approved | Both screened, ShopMy referrals help | Neither platform is open signup, which is the real barrier rather than any follower count. LTK reviews applications and rejections are common and often unexplained. ShopMy also screens, but a referral from an existing ShopMy creator is widely reported to improve the odds meaningfully. If you have a contact already on ShopMy, that is the single most useful thing you have, and it is worth asking before you apply cold. |
| Does the platform take a cut | Reported for ShopMy, not published | REPORTED and worth stating carefully. ShopMy is widely described as running an 82/18 revenue share, meaning the creator keeps $82 of every $100 of commission. ShopMy own payment guide does not state any such deduction, and describes displayed rates as an estimate of what you earn from the retailer. Read together, the sensible reading is that the rate you see in the app is already net of whatever ShopMy takes, so it is not an extra cut applied afterwards. LTK likewise keeps a share of the retailer commission and does not publish the split. |
| Brand deal marketplace | ShopMy Opportunities is stronger | REPORTED, and consistently enough that it is worth weighting. ShopMy Opportunities is well regarded for surfacing real paid brand collaborations, and a lot of professional creators join ShopMy specifically for it rather than for affiliate commission. LTK has brand collaboration tooling, but creators describe the marketplace experience as lighter. If sponsored work is a meaningful part of your income plan rather than an occasional bonus, this belongs in the decision. |
| The shopping app | LTK has one, ShopMy does not | LTK runs a consumer shopping app with its own browsing audience, which means some of your sales come from people discovering you inside LTK rather than from your own followers. That is a genuine distribution advantage nothing else in this category offers. The trade is that LTK leans on getting your audience into its app, while a ShopMy storefront opens in any browser with nothing to install. Which you prefer depends on whether you would rather borrow an audience or keep the click friction at zero. |
| Software and SaaS catalog | Neither carries it | Both platforms are built on physical retail. Neither has AI tools, developer software or SaaS subscriptions in its catalog, and neither pays recurring commission on a subscription that renews. For a fashion, beauty or home creator that is irrelevant. For a creator whose most-asked question is which writing tool or analytics stack to subscribe to, it is the whole problem, and it is not solved by picking the other one of these two. |
| Best fit | Category decides, not rate | LTK suits fashion, beauty and home creators with large-basket audiences who want the deepest retailer network. ShopMy suits creators who want faster money at a low threshold, can find a referral, and care about paid brand deals. Tech, AI and software creators are not really served by either, because the catalog does not contain what they recommend. |
■ how to decide
How to choose between ShopMy and LTK
Start with your category, not the comparison
This decides more than every other factor combined and it is the question creators skip. Both platforms are retail networks anchored in fashion, beauty and home. If that is what you recommend, the rest of this page is a real decision and either answer can be correct. If what your audience actually asks you about is software, AI tools or anything sold as a monthly subscription, then ShopMy versus LTK is the wrong comparison entirely, because the product you would recommend is not in either catalog. Work out which side of that line you are on before you compare payout thresholds, because no rate card rescues a catalog that does not stock what you talk about.
Weigh cart-wide attribution against payout speed
This is the genuine trade between the two. LTK is reported to pay on the shopper whole basket during the attribution window, which is worth real money if your audience buys several things at once, and it compounds in categories like home and fashion where baskets are naturally large. ShopMy pays on the item bought, but releases money weekly at an $11 threshold that it actually publishes. Early on, when your commissions are small, ShopMy structure gets money to you months sooner. At scale, with a big-basket audience, LTK attribution model is likely worth more. Your current earnings level should decide which of those two you weight.
Discount any payout number nobody will put in writing
Apply this generally, not just here. ShopMy documents its threshold, its payout day, its payment rails and its pending window, so you can plan cash flow around it. LTK does not, and the numbers filling that vacuum contradict each other by a factor of four. When two sources state $25 and $100 for the same threshold with equal confidence, neither of them checked. Before you rely on any affiliate platform payout figure, find it on the platform own site. If it is not there, treat your income timing as unknown rather than as whatever the most recent blog post asserted.
Check whether the follower rule you were quoted applies to you
US creators are the ones losing out here. LTK states a 5,000 follower minimum for applicants outside the US and Canada, and publishes no minimum for US or Canadian creators. That distinction gets flattened into a blanket 5,000 requirement in most write-ups, and it stops American creators applying who would have been considered on the strength of their content. Engagement and a coherent, well-curated feed carry more weight in the review than raw follower count. If you were put off LTK by a number, check whether that number was ever addressed to you.
Treat approval as the real gate, and plan for rejection
Neither platform is open, and this is where most creators actually stall. LTK rejections are common and frequently come without a usable reason, and there is no published route to a fast reconsideration. ShopMy screens too, but a referral from a creator already on the platform is consistently reported to help, which makes asking around a genuinely higher-yield move than polishing your application. Decide in advance what you will do if both say no, because the answer is not to wait. Open programs and direct brand relationships pay while you reapply.
■ how to apply
How to choose, apply and set up on either platform
Audit what you actually recommend over your last thirty posts
Do this before applying anywhere, because it answers the category question with evidence instead of instinct. Go back through your recent content and list every product you named. If it is overwhelmingly clothing, beauty, or home goods, a retail network is the correct tool and you are choosing between ShopMy and LTK on the merits above. If a meaningful share is software, apps, AI tools or subscriptions, note what proportion, because that is the share of your recommendations neither platform can monetize for you, and it is usually the highest-value share.
Apply to both, in the right order
There is no penalty for holding accounts on both, and approval timelines make sequencing worthwhile. Ask your network for a ShopMy referral first, since that is the lever with the best reported effect and it costs one message. Apply to LTK in parallel rather than waiting, because its review runs on its own schedule and a rejection there does not affect ShopMy. US applicants should apply regardless of follower count, given that LTK publishes no US minimum. Have a public, current profile and a consistent posting rhythm in place before you submit either one.
Set your payout rails up on day one
On ShopMy that means connecting Stripe or PayPal immediately, so nothing sits waiting on an admin step once you clear the $11 threshold. Take the 30 to 120 day pending window seriously in your planning: money you earn this month is generally not money you can spend this quarter. On LTK, find your payout settings inside the creator dashboard and confirm the terms there rather than trusting a number from an article, including the ones on this page, because LTK does not publish them publicly and your dashboard is the only authoritative source you have.
Give everything a single permanent destination, whichever you join
Both platforms give you a storefront, and both storefronts only hold what their catalog carries. The recommendations that fall outside it, the software you use daily, the gear from brands not on either network, the direct brand relationships you built yourself, still need somewhere to live. One page holding everything you recommend, kept current and disclosed properly, is what your bio link should point at. It is also the part of the setup you keep if you ever leave, get rejected, or decide the split between the two was not worth managing.
Disclose on every placement, on both platforms
US FTC guidance requires a material connection to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and it applies identically to ShopMy links, LTK links, and anything you post yourself. In practice that means disclosure near the start of a caption rather than buried after hashtags, visible text on Stories rather than small type over a busy background, and a standing disclosure on any page that lists affiliate products. This is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy, and neither platform handles it for you.
■ if it is not a fit
What most ShopMy vs LTK comparisons get wrong
Three things recur across almost every article ranking for this comparison, and all three are worth correcting. The first is the confident payout table. You will find posts stating LTK minimum payout as $100 and others stating $25, both written as plain fact, and neither traceable to anything LTK publishes. LTK public creator pages say creators are paid regularly once commissions build up, and stop there. The only $100 figure that traces back to LTK itself appears in its referral program terms and describes closed net commissions in that program specifically, which is not the same thing as an ordinary creator payout threshold. ShopMy, by contrast, publishes $11, weekly Fridays, Stripe or PayPal, and a 30 to 120 day pending window in its own creator guide, where anyone can check it. When one company documents its terms and the other does not, that difference is itself worth knowing, and flattening both into a tidy side-by-side table hides it. The second is the follower myth. LTK states a 5,000 follower minimum for applicants outside the US and Canada. That qualifier disappears in most write-ups, and the result is US creators concluding they are ineligible for a platform that publishes no US follower requirement at all. If you are in the United States and you were talked out of applying by the 5,000 number, it was never addressed to you. The third is the framing itself. Both platforms sell physical retail, so for a huge share of the creators reading a ShopMy vs LTK comparison the honest answer is that either will work and the decision matters far less than the deliberating suggests. The creators for whom it genuinely matters are the ones whose audience buys large baskets, where LTK cart-wide attribution is a real edge, and the ones earning small amounts who need money to actually arrive, where ShopMy published $11 threshold is a real edge. Our own position should be equally plain. Favly is not a retail network and does not compete with either of these on fashion or beauty: if that is what you recommend, pick one of them, and LTK retailer network is deeper than anything we would claim. We are built for the shelf neither of them stocks, the AI tools, SaaS and software that people ask creators about and that pay recurring commission for as long as the customer stays subscribed. If your last thirty recommendations were mostly clothes, this page has done its job by sending you to ShopMy or LTK.
What Favly does differently
- ✓ No follower gate and no application queue. Claim favly.com/@you and start today.
- ✓ Built for the AI tools, SaaS and tech gear you already recommend.
- ✓ Recurring commissions: subscription tools can pay every month a fan stays subscribed.
- ✓ Affiliate income and brand deals in one storefront, with #ad disclosure by default.
■ side by side
ShopMy vs LTK and Favly, honestly compared.
The comparison below is not ShopMy against LTK, which the table above already covers. It is what both retail networks share, set against a storefront built for software recommendations, because that is the axis where the two of them behave identically and the choice between them changes nothing.
| Capability | Favly | ShopMy vs LTK | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carries AI tools, SaaS and software | × | Both ShopMy and LTK are anchored in fashion, beauty and home retail. Neither catalog contains software or subscriptions, so the recommendation a tech creator is asked for most often has nothing to link | |
| Pays recurring commission on subscriptions | × | Both pay a one-time commission that ends when the sale clears. Only around 27% of affiliate campaigns of any kind pay on renewals, and neither of these is among them | |
| No application or approval queue | × | Both screen applicants. LTK rejections are common and often unexplained, and ShopMy approval is reported to depend partly on having a referral | |
| No follower minimum anywhere | Partial | LTK publishes a 5,000 follower minimum for applicants outside the US and Canada and none for US applicants. ShopMy publishes none, though creators report a practical bar around 1,000 | |
| Publishes its payout terms in writing | Partial | ShopMy documents $11 minimum, weekly Friday payouts and a 30 to 120 day pending window. LTK publishes no threshold, payout day or cookie window on its public creator pages | |
| Deep fashion and beauty retailer network | × | This is genuinely theirs and we will not claim otherwise. LTK in particular has retailer relationships and a consumer shopping app that nothing in our category matches. If you recommend clothes, use them | |
| Commission on the shopper whole cart | × | Partial | Reported for LTK, which credits the entire basket during the attribution window. ShopMy pays on the item bought. Cart-wide attribution is a real advantage for large-basket retail audiences |
| Built-in paid brand deal marketplace | Partial | Partial | ShopMy Opportunities is well regarded and is why many professional creators join it. LTK collaboration tooling is described as lighter |
■ faq
Questions creators ask about ShopMy vs LTK.
Is ShopMy or LTK better?
Neither is better in the abstract, and the commission rates are close enough to be a tie. LTK has the deeper retailer network, a consumer shopping app that brings its own browsing audience, and reported cart-wide attribution that pays on the shopper entire basket. ShopMy publishes faster payout terms, releasing weekly on Fridays at an $11 minimum, and has the stronger brand deal marketplace. Big-basket fashion and home audiences favour LTK. Smaller or newer creators who need money to actually arrive favour ShopMy.
What is the difference between ShopMy and LTK?
The commission rates are nearly identical, roughly 10% to 30% on ShopMy and 10% to 25% reaching 30% on LTK, both set by the brand rather than the platform. The differences are structural. LTK is reported to pay on the whole cart, runs a consumer shopping app, and publishes almost nothing about payout timing. ShopMy pays on the item bought, has no app for shoppers, and documents its payout terms precisely. LTK is a distribution advantage, ShopMy is a cash-flow and transparency advantage.
Which pays more, ShopMy or LTK?
Not answerable from the rate cards, because they overlap almost exactly. What actually changes your total is attribution rather than percentage. LTK is reported to credit the shopper entire basket during the attribution window, so one tapped link can pay on everything checked out with it, which favours audiences that buy several items at once. ShopMy pays on the item bought. For large-basket retail categories LTK usually wins on total earnings, and for small single-item purchases the difference largely disappears.
Which pays faster, ShopMy or LTK?
ShopMy, and it is the one payout question with a documented answer. ShopMy states payouts occur weekly every Friday once you hold at least $11 under Next Payment, paid via Stripe or PayPal, with commissions pending 30 to 120 days beforehand. LTK does not publish a payout day or minimum balance on its public creator pages, and the thresholds quoted for it in articles range from $25 to $100 without agreement. Check your LTK dashboard rather than any published figure.
How many followers do you need for LTK?
If you are in the United States or Canada, LTK publishes no follower minimum at all. The widely quoted 5,000 follower requirement is real but LTK states it specifically for applicants outside the US and Canada, along with high quality regular content and an engaged audience. That qualifier is dropped in most articles, which has convinced a lot of American creators they are ineligible when they are not. For US applicants, content quality, engagement and a coherent curated feed carry the review.
Is ShopMy or LTK easier to get approved for?
Both screen applicants and neither is open signup, which is the real barrier rather than follower count. LTK reviews every application and rejections are common and frequently unexplained. ShopMy also screens, but a referral from a creator already on the platform is widely reported to improve your odds meaningfully. So ShopMy is often the easier door if you can find a referral, and if you cannot, both are genuine applications with no guaranteed outcome.
Can you use ShopMy and LTK at the same time?
Yes, nothing in either arrangement prevents it, and plenty of creators run both to widen brand coverage and compare what each converts. The practical costs are real though: two dashboards, two payout schedules, two sets of pending commissions to track, and a split audience if you send people to two different storefronts. Most creators who run both lead with one publicly and keep the other for brands only the second platform carries. FTC disclosure applies to both equally.
Does ShopMy take a cut of your commission?
ShopMy is widely reported to run an 82/18 revenue share, keeping 18% of the commission. ShopMy own payment guide does not state any such deduction and describes the rates shown in the app as an estimate of what you earn from the retailer. The reasonable reading is that displayed rates already account for whatever ShopMy keeps, rather than a further cut coming off afterwards. LTK also keeps a share of the retailer commission and does not publish the split either.
What are the best LTK alternatives?
It depends why you are leaving. If LTK declined you or the approval wait is the problem, Mavely has no application, no follower minimum and no fee, which makes it the usual first stop. If you want comparable curation with faster documented payouts, ShopMy is the direct equivalent. If you mainly want catalog breadth, Amazon Associates carries almost everything at lower rates and a 24 hour cookie. And if what you actually recommend is software rather than retail, none of those solve it, because none carries a SaaS catalog or pays recurring commission.
Do ShopMy or LTK work for tech and software creators?
Not well. Both are built around fashion, beauty and home retail, so a creator recommending AI tools, developer software or SaaS finds very little to link and no recurring commission on any subscription a fan keeps paying for. That is a catalog limitation rather than a rate problem, and switching between the two does not change it. Software recommendations monetize on platforms built for them, where a subscription referral can pay every month the customer stays.
▲ go deeper
If you want either platform on its own rather than head to head, ShopMy creator requirements and LTK creator requirements cover the approval side, while ShopMy commission rates and LTK commission rates go deeper on what each actually pays.
Widening the field, LTK alternatives and ShopMy alternatives cover where creators go when one of them says no, ShopMy vs LTK vs Favly adds the third option to this comparison, and creator storefront options covers the category as a whole. If your recommendations lean toward software, SaaS affiliate programs that pay recurring commission and tech affiliate programs are the relevant shelves.
▲ Keep comparing before you commit
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