Is Siren for you?
An honest, fast-read fit page. No pitch. Just what Siren is, who it fits, who it doesn't, and what you'll need to run it.
In one paragraph
Siren is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for running incentive programs. What makes it different is that one sale can trigger several programs at once. An affiliate can earn a referral commission, an instructor can earn a royalty, and a quarterly bonus pool can track your top performer, all on the same transaction. You run as many programs as you need, side by side, with each one carrying its own rate and rules. Every commission and payout record lives in your own WordPress database, so your program data is yours.
Best for
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Stores, platforms, or sites running on WordPress
Siren is a WordPress plugin. If you're not on WordPress, it's the wrong tool. Attribution hooks into WordPress integrations like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, LearnDash, Gravity Forms, and NorthCommerce.
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Businesses that need more than one commission rule
Honestly, this is where Siren earns its keep. Run a VIP tier, an instructor royalty, a vendor revenue share, and a lead-gen bounty side by side. Each program has its own rate, rules, and enrolled partners, and multiple programs can pay out on the same sale.
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Course platforms and creator marketplaces
Siren's royalty model pays creators based on product ownership. Sell an instructor's course and they earn automatically, no referral link required. Stack that with an affiliate program and the person who drove the sale gets paid alongside the person who built the product.
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Subscription products with refund and renewal mechanics
Recurring commissions are included on Essentials and above. You can model renewals as their own conversion type with their own rate, so initial purchases, renewals, and upgrades all stay distinct instead of collapsing into one commission.
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Businesses that want their data on their own server
Every collaborator, conversion, commission, and payout record lives in your WordPress database. There's no shared-tenant SaaS, no data locked into a vendor you can't leave.
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Teams that want to design programs with AI help
Beacon, Siren's free AI assistant, can draft a complete program recipe from a plain-language description and answer configuration questions without making you read the whole docs tree first.
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Programs where auditability and dispute investigation matter
Every major record carries a built-in activity feed: a timestamped history of conversions, obligations, payouts, refunds, and reversals on that record. When a collaborator asks why a commission didn't fire, you open the conversion, scan the feed, and the answer is usually right there. No hunting through logs, no asking a developer.
Not best for
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Shopify or other non-WordPress platforms
Siren doesn't run on Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or anything else that isn't WordPress. A separate WordPress instance won't track orders from those stores either.
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Multi-level (MLM) program structures
Siren doesn't model affiliate hierarchies where parents earn from their downline's sales. If that's core to your business, a dedicated MLM platform will serve you better than any general-purpose affiliate tool.
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Lifetime-customer attribution
Lifetime commissions are on the roadmap but not shipped yet. If an affiliate permanently owning a customer and earning on every future purchase is non-negotiable for you, AffiliateWP has a Lifetime Commissions add-on today.
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Cross-site tracking across independent WordPress installations
Attribution stays inside one WordPress installation. If you need a single program that tracks referrals across several independent sites, Siren isn't built for that shape.
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MemberPress-first membership sites
Siren doesn't integrate directly with MemberPress yet. If MemberPress drives your commerce, Easy Affiliate (from the same team) is the cleaner choice today.
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Standalone Stripe checkouts without WordPress commerce
Siren watches WordPress integrations for conversions. A pure Stripe checkout with no ecommerce plugin wrapping it gives Siren nothing to listen to.
Platform assumptions
What Siren expects the world around it to look like.
Can Siren do this?
Quick yes/no on the questions we get most.
I need an affiliate program for my WooCommerce store
Yes. Siren's core use case. Start with the Basic Affiliate Program recipe.
I want instructors to earn royalties when their courses sell
Yes, including stacking with an affiliate program so both get paid on the same sale. See the Course Creator Royalty Program and Affiliate and Royalty Stack recipes.
I want to run a lead-gen bounty program and a sales program side by side
Yes. Use a program group to decide which one wins per conversion. See the Affiliate and Lead Gen Combo recipe.
I need to pay marketplace vendors a percentage of each sale they're part of
Yes. The Marketplace Vendor Commission recipe is built for this.
I want a quarterly top-performer bonus pool
Yes. Use a distributor. See the Monthly Sales Bonus or Management Incentive Plan recipes.
I want affiliates to earn from their recruits' sales
No. Siren doesn't support MLM tiers by design. Use a dedicated MLM platform.
I want to track referrals across five separate WordPress sites
No. Attribution is per-installation. A different tool is the right fit if cross-site tracking is core to your setup.
Three recipes that show Siren in action
If one of these sounds like what you're trying to build, you're probably a fit.
Basic Affiliate Program
Simple percentage commission on every referred sale.
Includes 1 program
Affiliate and Royalty Stack
Affiliates earn for selling, creators earn royalties — both on every sale.
Includes 2 programs
Marketplace Vendor Commission
Vendors earn their percentage on every product they sell.
Includes 1 program
Free AI assistant
Still on the fence? Ask Beacon.
Describe the program you have in mind. Beacon will tell you whether Siren is the right fit, and if so, which recipe to start from.
Works as a Custom GPT inside ChatGPT, or as an MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, JetBrains, and other MCP-compatible clients. No signup required.
Fast answers
What is Siren, exactly?
Siren is a self-hosted WordPress plugin for designing incentive programs. Affiliate programs, royalties, revenue shares, referral programs, lead-gen bounties, scheduled performance bonuses. It uses one consistent set of building blocks: programs fire per-transaction, distributors fire on a schedule, and program groups sort out which program wins when two overlap.
How is Siren different from a classic affiliate plugin?
Classic plugins give you one affiliate program with a global commission rate and per-affiliate overrides for exceptions. Siren gives you named programs with their own rates and rules, and lets one sale trigger several programs at once. An affiliate can earn a referral commission, an instructor can earn a royalty, and a quarterly bonus pool can track top performers. All on the same transaction.
Do I need to be technical to run Siren?
No. Siren's admin UI covers most setup, and recipes (one-click program configurations) cover many common scenarios. Beacon, Siren's free AI assistant, can draft a program recipe from a plain-language description. Developers get a full REST API and extension framework when they need to go further.
Can I run Siren on Shopify or Webflow?
No. Siren is a WordPress plugin. It needs WordPress and a WordPress commerce plugin (like WooCommerce or EDD) to track conversions. If you're on Shopify or another non-WordPress platform, Siren is not the right fit.
Does Siren work with my LMS?
LifterLMS and LearnDash are supported natively, including course-completed and lesson-completed events. Other LMSes that sell through WooCommerce will still trigger sale-based commissions, because Siren watches WooCommerce orders. Course-level events, though, need a native integration.
What about data ownership?
Every collaborator, conversion, commission, obligation, and fulfillment record lives in your WordPress database. There's no shared-tenant SaaS service you have to trust. You can export or migrate anytime.
How does Beacon fit in?
Beacon knows every Siren feature, recipe, and configuration pattern. Use it as a Custom GPT inside ChatGPT, or as an MCP server in Claude, Cursor, VS Code, JetBrains, or any other MCP-compatible client. It helps you design programs, generate recipes, and troubleshoot setup without reading the full documentation tree.
What does Siren cost?
Siren Lite is free. Siren Essentials is $199/yr and unlocks multi-program support, program groups, distributors, the collaborator portal, recurring commissions, and advanced attribution. Siren Plus ($229/yr, 3 sites) and Siren Pro ($499/yr, 10 sites) are the same feature set on more installations. Renewals stay at the original price.
Try Siren Lite. It's free.
Start with Siren Lite. No credit card, no trial clock. If it's a fit, upgrade when you're ready. If it's not, you'll know fast.