Rakuten clients are being migrated to impact.com (April 2026 alliance). Trcker is the self-serve alternative — paired with Ezra, the AI affiliate manager — that skips the forced re-platforming entirely.
If you're a Rakuten Advertising client, your existing program is being migrated onto impact.com's platform per the April 28, 2026 alliance. Trcker is the cleanest self-serve alternative for brands who don't want to follow that migration: no setup fee, no commission override, no annual contract, no sales call. First-party server-side tracking on your own domain (not Rakuten or Impact domains) survives the browser privacy restrictions that erode network-domain tracking. Multi-touch attribution included, paired with Ezra (the AI affiliate manager) you operate via Slack. Choose Impact if you want continuity with Rakuten's publisher base and managed-service relationships; choose Trcker for a clean break from the network-override model.
If you stay with Rakuten, the underlying platform changes anyway as you move onto impact.com per the April 2026 alliance. This is a re-platforming event you can either accept or use as a switching point. Trcker is the self-serve alternative that lets you skip the migration entirely — no inherited Impact tier-gap, no sales call, no annual contract. The migration window is the natural moment to evaluate options instead of landing on Impact's platform by default.
Rakuten's pricing is sales-led with no public rate card, but typical structures include a percentage override on every commission paid to publishers — on top of setup fees and network fees. Trcker charges a flat platform fee with 100% of payouts going to your partners.
Rakuten's tracking primarily runs through Rakuten-owned domains via pixel-based redirects, which underperform under Safari ITP, Firefox ETP, Chrome's third-party cookie deprecation, and ad blockers. Trcker supports custom domains for postback tracking, so attribution happens on your domain and survives modern browser privacy restrictions.
Rakuten's onboarding is sales-led and managed-service-heavy, with multi-week setup. Trcker is self-serve: sign up, create your first offer, fire a test event, share your tracking link — same day. Monthly billing instead of annual contracts.
Rakuten and post-migration Impact leave operator workflows in dashboards and email threads. Trcker pairs with Ezra — an AI affiliate manager you operate via Slack. Ask Ezra to onboard a partner, summarize the week, flag anomalies, or pull a report. Same authentication, same data, same audit trail as Trcker.
Rakuten's network model means the network owns the publisher relationship and the rules engine. With Trcker, you recruit your top publishers directly, and your team has full visibility into recruitment, attribution rules, and fraud thresholds. The April 2026 migration is the natural moment to take back control rather than trust an inherited platform you didn't choose.
On April 28, 2026, Rakuten and impact.com announced a strategic alliance making impact.com Rakuten's exclusive technology platform. Rakuten Advertising clients are being migrated onto impact.com's infrastructure over time. The Rakuten brand persists, but the underlying tracking and reporting stack is becoming Impact's — including impact.com's tier-gap pricing and sales-led onboarding model.
No. The migration to impact.com's platform happens whether you proactively manage it or not — that's the point of the alliance. But you are not contractually required to remain with Rakuten through that migration. Many brands are using this moment as a switching opportunity rather than inheriting Impact's pricing model and interface by default. Trcker is the cleanest self-serve alternative.
Same network. Rakuten acquired LinkShare in 2005 and rebranded the platform multiple times — most users still call it Rakuten Linkshare even though the official name has been Rakuten Advertising for years. Login URLs and dashboards still reference Linkshare in some places. The April 2026 alliance with impact.com applies to all of it.
Yes. The main migration work is updating tracking links and reaching out to your top 20-50 Rakuten publishers directly. Most major publishers work with multiple platforms and will join your direct program if you offer comparable terms. Most brands recover 60-80% of active publisher revenue within 30-60 days of a network switch.
Rakuten Rewards is a separate part of the Rakuten alliance — it remains a Rakuten property and continues to source affiliate offers through both Rakuten Advertising and increasingly through impact.com. If your traffic depends on Rakuten Rewards specifically, the cleanest path is to follow the migration to impact.com so your Rewards integration continues seamlessly. If Rakuten Rewards is one channel among many, you can move your tracking platform to Trcker and keep separate integrations with the publishers and consumer apps you care about.
Yes — first-party server-side tracking on your own custom domain is Trcker's default. Rakuten's tracking primarily runs through Rakuten-owned domains via pixel-based redirects, which underperform under Safari ITP, Firefox ETP, Chrome's third-party cookie phase-out, and ad blockers. Trcker's first-party tracking typically captures meaningfully more conversions than network-domain tracking.
Set up your affiliate program in 5 minutes. No setup fee, no override, no annual contract, no inherited migration to Impact.
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