Free vs Pro
What is free, and what is not.
17 of 31 capabilities are in the free plugin, including the link cloaker and the whole ad manager. This page exists so nobody has to guess, and so no two pages on this site can disagree about it.
Link cloaking
- Free Branded /go/ links Turn a long affiliate URL into a branded link on your own domain, with a configurable prefix.
- Free rel="nofollow" and rel="sponsored" A checkbox for each on every link. Nofollow is ticked for new links; sponsored is not until you tick it, and it is what Google asks for on paid and affiliate links.
- Free Temporary redirects 307 by default, with 301, 302 or 307 selectable per link. Temporary suits affiliate links, because merchants change destinations.
- Free Expiry dates Set an end date on a link. Afterwards it returns a 404 by default, or sends visitors to your home page or a fallback URL you choose.
- Free Link categories Group links, filter the list, or print a whole category with a shortcode.
- Free Partnership inquiry workflow A way for sponsors to approach you, rather than a mailto: link and hope.
- Pro Keyword auto-linking Turn a chosen phrase into a cloaked link everywhere it appears, without editing posts.
- Pro Broken-link checker Flags cloaked links whose destination has stopped working.
- Pro Link scanner Finds raw affiliate URLs already sitting in your content so you can cloak them.
- Pro CSV import Bring links across from ThirstyAffiliates or Pretty Links by mapping URL, name and slug.
- Pro Advanced link analytics Deeper reporting on cloaked links than the click counts the free version keeps.
Ads and placement
- Free Five ad types Image banners, rich content, HTML or JS code for tags like Ezoic and Mediavine, native AdSense, and email capture forms.
- Free 16+ placement hooks Before and after content, after a paragraph you choose, a sidebar widget, header and footer, before and after the archive post list, around comments, sticky and popup, plus BuddyPress, bbPress and Jetonomy positions.
- Free AdSense and direct rotation Put AdSense and a sponsor in the same slot and they share it: each page view shows one, weighted by a 1 to 10 priority. Schedule the sponsor's dates and AdSense has the slot to itself before and after.
- Free Geo targeting by country Show an ad only in the countries you pick. Country-level targeting is free; the geo BREAKDOWN in analytics is Pro.
- Free CTR comparison Compare click-through rates of ads in the same slot side by side, with a winner badge. Full split testing with traffic splitting is Pro.
- Free Email capture leads Captured addresses are listed in the admin, exportable to CSV and deletable per row, with a hook to forward them to your email service.
- Free Ad tags and bulk actions Tag by sponsor, season or format, filter the list by tag, then switch that whole group on or off at once.
- Pro Ad folders Browse by advertiser, campaign and tag, with a house-ads folder, and pause a whole folder in one click.
- Pro A/B testing Split traffic between creatives and promote the winner. This is Pro, and has been mislabelled before.
Tracking and reporting
- Free Server-side click tracking Real impressions and clicks recorded server side rather than counted by a pixel, with CTR per ad.
- Pro Geo and device breakdowns Analytics split by country and device, which is separate from being able to target by country.
- Pro CSV export of analytics Take the numbers out for your own reporting.
- Pro Revenue analytics Income by ad, placement and advertiser.
Selling ad space
- Pro Advertiser portal A front-end dashboard where members build campaigns, submit them and watch spend, via one shortcode.
- Pro Wallet and credits Top-ups through direct Stripe or PayPal, or through billing you already run: WooCommerce, its Subscriptions and Memberships, Paid Memberships Pro, or MemberPress.
- Pro Campaign moderation queue Approve or reject before anything goes live on your site.
- Pro Classifieds marketplace Grid and list views that visitors switch between, plus an optional map view, with categories, custom fields and paid posting. Pro, and has been mislabelled before.
Compliance
- Free No third-party pixels No third-party tracking pixels on your pages. When you use country targeting, the visitor's IP is looked up with a geolocation service (ip-api.com by default), and IPs are anonymized with a daily-rotating hash.
- Free Ad label A visible label on ads, "Advertisement" by default, shown above or below the ad. You set the text.
- Free AdSense policy-safe rendering Ad code is rendered unchanged, and a Max ads per page setting (10 by default) caps how many ads of any type a page shows.
Two that get confused
The distinctions worth reading twice.
Targeting by country is free
Choosing which countries see an ad is in the free plugin. The geo and device breakdown in analytics is Pro. One decides who sees the ad, the other tells you who saw it, and they are not the same feature.
Link cloaking is free
Branded links, the nofollow sponsored attribute and temporary redirects all ship free. Pro adds keyword auto-linking, the scanner, a broken-link checker, CSV import and deeper link analytics, which are conveniences on top rather than the feature itself.
If you upgrade
One feature set, priced by site count.
Every tier includes all 14 Pro capabilities. You are paying for how many sites the licence covers, not buying features back one at a time.
- Personal $59/year 1 site
- Professional $129/year 5 sites
- Agency $299/year Unlimited sites
Questions
What people ask about the split.
Is the free version actually free?
Yes, and it is not a trial. 17 of the 31 capabilities listed on this page are in the free plugin, including link cloaking, all five ad types, every placement, AdSense rotation and server-side click tracking. There is no licence key, no quota and no SaaS fee.
Is link cloaking free or Pro?
The cloaking itself is free. Branded links on your own domain, the nofollow sponsored attribute and temporary redirects all ship in the free plugin. What Pro adds around it is keyword auto-linking, the scanner that finds uncloaked links already in your content, a broken-link checker, CSV import from another plugin, and deeper link analytics.
Can I target ads by country on the free version?
Yes. Country-level geo targeting is free. The thing that is Pro is the geo and device breakdown in analytics, which is a different feature: one decides who sees an ad, the other tells you who saw it. These two have been conflated before, so they are listed separately above.
What does Pro cost?
Pro is $59 a year for 1 site, $129 for 5 sites, and $299 for Unlimited sites. Every tier includes the complete Pro feature set. The tiers differ only in how many sites the licence covers, so you are not buying features back one at a time.
Do I need WooCommerce?
Not for the plugin itself. WooCommerce or a supported membership plugin is only needed for the Pro parts that take money from advertisers, which are credit top-ups and paid classifieds posting.