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The 51 Best Referral
Program Examples
Here it is folks!
Our big list of the best referral program examples out there right now.

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We’ve analyzed how companies are driving profitable customer
acquisition with referral programs. From Typeform, Uber, Paypal, Prezi
to x, we reviewed 51 companies’ referral programs and campaigns so
you can see what’s common, what’s cutting edge, and what’s a good fit
for you.
Let’s dig into it, shall we?
Software Companies:
1. Typeform

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One of our favorite SaaS companies – Typeform – have established
themselves as the go-to solution for beautiful mobile surveys and
forms. Typeform’s refer-a-friend program offers a 10% double-sided
reward targeted at their Pro customers. The Typeform Growth team
partnered with Referral SaaSquatch to build out their referral program
and have continued to see impressive results every month. You can
read more in our case study here.
2. Dropbox

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Dropbox continues to optimize their impressive referral program with a
clean layout that still nods to the illustration branding the company has
become known for. We all know about the viral case study that showed
off the winning growth experiments of referral rewards and their beta
launch video. Dropbox’s team is constantly looking for areas to increase
retention and referral metrics with in-app storage rewards.
3. Box
Box’s referral program has an experience asks more from the user than
some of the consumer-focused referral programs we profile here. But
that’s not necessarily a bad thing – in B2B having detailed fields in your

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signup process can help your sales team qualify and prioritize their time
on the opportunities with a higher likelihood of closing.
4. Google Apps
The Google Apps referral program uses a single-sided structure,
offering a $15 reward for every paying user. It seems the Google Apps
referral marketing team has changed the program to be more affiliate
focused as they don’t offer a reward for the newly referred users. The
Google Apps refer-a-friend page is well designed, but missing the punch

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in the headline. If you’re giving out a financial incentive, make sure it’s
mentioned in the header of your landing page! There’s nothing like
money to motivate.
5. SugarSync

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File storage competitor SugarSync offers a tiered referral program with
double-sided 500MB and 10GB rewards. The strategy here encourages
customers to invite power users in order to get the best rewards.
6. Evernote

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Popular note-taking software Evernote runs a double-sided refer-a-friend
program to reward users for inviting their friends. The program awards points
when users successfully refer user sign-ups and premium subscriptions, which
can be redeemed for increased storage space or free months.
7. EquityFeed
SaaS stock trading platform EquityFeed rewards their customers with 10%
double-sided discounts for referring new paid customers. EquityFeed’s
referral program continues to be one of their most profitable customer
acquisition channels with a strong trial to paid conversion rate. You can
check out our case study with EquityFeed here.

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8. Marin Software
source: marinsoftware.com
Marin Software, an enterprise software provider, can afford to spend up
to $2,000 for every successful referral. The company is positioned to
offer these high-value referral rewards because their customers spend
between $10K-$100K per month. Marin’s refer-a-friend program offers
$500, $1500 or $2000 rewards depending on which plan referred
customers sign up for.
9. LastPass

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LastPass, a leading SaaS password storage provider, has a single-sided
referral program. The LastPass refer-a-friend campaign issues one
month of their Premium plan for every successful referral. The LastPass
referral program is promoted inside their web application with a minimal
call to action (CTA) in their dashboard. We wrote more about their
program here.
10. HubStaff

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Hubstaff, a strong SaaS time tracking provider, partnered with Referral
SaaSquatch to reward user referrals with a double-sided 10% discount.
Their team is constantly experimenting with ways to promote their
referral program. Hubstaff’s refer-a-friend program is promoted across
their website, web app and FAQ pages. The Hubstaff team is always
looking to improve the customer journey and encourage referrals
when customers are thinking about the value of their product.
11. Shoeboxed

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Shoeboxed is a popular cloud accounting software provider that
recognized the value of customer referrals and wanted to scale their
strategy with a structured referral program. The team at Shoeboxed
partnered with Referral SaaSquatch to integrate an end-to-end solution
that rewards their customers with a 10% discount for every successful
referral.

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12. Prezi
The popular presentation software Prezi, runs a single-sided referral
program. Their campaign is focused on driving new signups to their
entry-level paid plan ‘Enjoy’. Prezi’s refer-a-friend program gives out 3
months free of Enjoy to a user when they sign up three friends for
Enjoy. From what we’ve seen from our customers it’s better to reward
users for every referral they make. Rewarding each referral improves
the ‘program visitor to program invite’ ratio and encourages customers

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to stay engaged with the program.
13. YesWare
YesWare is a popular sales email tool. They run a web refer-a-friend

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campaign to capitalize on their positive word of mouth and reward
customer loyalty. YesWare gives customers 100 free tracking events for
every successful referral. Their referral page even pre-fills email text to
explain the main value of their product and why the referred customer
should try it out.
14. Upserve

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Upserve, a popular restaurant management platform, rewards
customers for their referrals by making a $200 donation to the Clean
Water Fund. Upserve’s program is focused on the altruistic motivations
of their customer base so they can get new restaurant referrals. The
Upserve marketing team partnered with Referral SaaSquatch due to our
platform flexibility around these types of charitable rewards.
Gaming
15. World of Warcraft

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World of Warcraft, the most successful video game of all time, has an
active user base with millions of players. Though the MMORPG
(Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) is more than 10 years
old, it still attracts new gamers through their ‘Recruit a Friend’ program.
Their program uses special in-game rewards to motivate players to
make referrals. The WoW marketing team recently updated their
program rewards, and launched their new recruit a friend campaign with
a website landing page, an in-app recruit a friend section and a viral
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marketing video with over 460K views on YouTube.
Mobile E-Commerce
16. Uber

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Uber continues to dominate the transportation app scene with their solid
mobile experience and customer referral rewards. Constantly looking to
gain an edge, Uber’s referral campaigns have recently expanded into
targeted push notifications and chatbot functionality.
17. Lyft

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Lyft is the biggest Uber competitor in North America—and my personal
favorite. Lyft gives customers $10 to $50 referral rewards across
different cities so they can aggressively drive customer acquisition in
new markets.
18. GetAround
GetAround is another North American ride-sharing startup making a
name for themselves in select cities. The single-sign-on offer to sign in
to Facebook helps with the onboarding experience. They offer
customers a $20 referral reward but also offer $200 to recruit drivers.
GetAround could benefit from building out separate creative for their

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refer a driver campaign—messaging complexity could be avoided if
their two campaigns were distinct.
19. Airbnb
The international travel marketplace Airbnb uses a lovely in-app referral
offer design to drive steady growth across their cities. Similar to the
Uber referral program, Airbnb gives out different size rewards

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depending on which city users live in. This is a popular approach for
global brands looking to expand their customer acquisition region by
region. We love this approach so much, in fact, we featured it in our UX
ebook! Check it out here.
Digital Retailers:
20. EventBrite
This popular event hosting platform runs a $10 single-sided referral

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program. Eventbrite customers are given affiliate-style offers to sign up
their friends and earn money. These types of referral programs perform
don’t typically perform as well as their double-sided counterparts. The
customer experience of sharing is changed when one friend profits off
of the other—not many consumers are interested in making money off
of their friends.
21. HomeSuite
HomeSuite, a leading vacation rental marketplace, uses a double-sided
refer-a-friend program structure. HomeSuite offers a $100 discount to
the newly referred friends and offers a $100 gift card for the referring

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user. When the HomeSuite team partnered with Referral SaaSquatch,
we put our API to work and integrated our program inside their
Marketo landing page.
22. Zulily

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Zulily’s referral program has a modern design with bright email CTAs for
popular email clients Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo. Zulily’s refer-a-friend
program reward users in their local currency—which means they can
experiment with program performance across their different regions.
23. Gilt
Digital retailer Gilt gives out a $25 single-sided referral reward for
customers. This is the first program to experiment with a large QR code
CTA. Gilt’s website has smaller buttons users can click to share referral
invites directly via email, Facebook or Twitter.

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24. BusBud
This leading bus travel marketplace uses a multichannel refer-a-friend
program to reward customers for their loyalty and positive word of
mouth. BusBud’s refer-a-friend program is integrated across their web
and mobile apps. Their mobile app takes advantage of Referral
SaaSquatch’s deep-linking feature to personalize the onboarding flow
for newly referred users.
25. ThredUp

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E-Commerce company ThredUp’s refer-a-friend program has a clean
design and bold CTA ‘Give $10, Get $10’ to entice customers to engage
with the program. The $10 double-sided reward is smaller than the
rewards we’ve seen used by other digital retailers. ThredUp also uses
large colorful CTAs for both email and Facebook referral invites.
26. JackThreads

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Mens fashion retailer JackThreads’ refer-a-friend program uses a
beautiful image with long-form copy to entice customers to engage
with their program. JackThreads is experimenting with tiered rewards,
they offer $10 for signups and $20 for conversions. We recommend
they invest in security measures so the referral rewards are only going
out to actual prospects.

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27. Wayfair
This program follows referral best practices with a double-sided reward
of $10. Wayfair’s marketing team designed a beautiful page with clear
copy to engage customers with a financial reward for inviting their
friends.
The main CTA requires users to upload their friend’s email addresses.
This creates unnecessary friction and could be negatively impacting
referral rates and conversions. Implementing single-sign-on buttons to
popular email and messaging apps would help the customer make a

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referral more easily and quickly.
28. Tile
Tile is a leader in the bluetooth wearables market. They partnered with Referral SaaSquatch to
run a multichannel refer-a-friend program.
Their refer-a-friend program is integrated across their web and mobile experiences. They use a
single-sided referral rewards structure where customers earn points towards a free Tile for every
friend they refer.

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29. Indochino
Digital retailer Indochino runs a multichannel refer-a-friend program with
a double-sided reward of $100 and $50. Integrated across their digital

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customer touch points including website, email and mobile, Indochino’s
refer-a-friend program uses beautiful branded photos to show off the
value of their products and a direct email a friend CTA.
30. Frank & Oak
Digital retailer Frank & Oak – also in the menswear space –

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experiments with referral marketing campaigns and runs a double-sided
credit reward of $25. The main CTA is to invite friends via email, copy
and pasting the unique link, or via Facebook. Their refer-a-friend
program uses the simple 1-2-3 method to explain how the program
works and how customers get their rewards.
31. GrubHub
GrubHub, one of the leaders in online food delivery, uses a refer-a-
friend campaign to reward their customer’s loyalty. GrubHub customers
can earn $12 for every friend that signs up. The refer-a-friend interstitial

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uses on-brand language in the heading and email message to engage
their customer base.
32. Snapwire
This beautiful stock photography marketplace is gaining traction with
their community-driven approach. On average, 15,000 people sign up
for Snapwire every single month. The community has grown to
285,000 photographers in 180 countries. It was a natural marketing
initiative to build out a refer-a-friend campaign to reward the positive
word of mouth already happening in their social channels. We worked
with the Snapwire marketing team to design a double-sided $20 credit

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referral program that integrates into their web shopping experience.
33. Chipolo
Chipolo is also in the bluetooth wearables industry and they use a
mobile referral program to encourage their app users to make friend

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invites. The Chipolo refer-a-friend program offers a double-sided reward.
Referees get a 20% discount, while the referring customer gets points
which they can use towards a free Chipolo.
34. PillPack
PillPack is a leading pharmacy subscription provider and their team runs
a similar refer-a-friend campaign to Upserve. Their referral reward is a
$100 charitable donation to RxArt which appeals to the altruistic side of
their customer base. The PillPack marketing team chose a charity with a
similar medicine and health focus—RxArt is a children’s hospital initiative
to redecorate hospital wings as visually pleasing environments.

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35. Julep
Julep, a leading beauty subscription box company, runs a referral
campaign that rewards customers with a $15 credit. Their refer-a-friend
pop-up matches the look and feel of the Julep brand and uses playful
copy to make the campaign seem like a natural conversation between
friends. The primary CTA is an email with a pre-filled text that helps the
customer explain the value of Julep’s beauty subscription box to their
friend.

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Telecom and Media:
36. Hulu Plus
Hulu, a strong competitor in the content streaming industry, uses a
refer-a-friend program to drive Hulu Plus sign-ups. Their refer-a-friend
program reward is a free two-week trial to Hulu Plus. Implementing an
email invite CTA would improve their referral rate and conversions.
37. Netflix

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Everyone’s favorite streaming content company, Netflix, ran a refer-a-
friend campaign way back when they were transitioning from their DVD
rental service into online video streaming. They shut down the Netflix
refer-a-friend program in 2011, but we heard the program was well-
received by their customers and was a key part of their North America
growth engine.

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38. Dish
Dish, a leading North American provider of satellite television, has a
different refer-a-friend program structure than we’ve seen used. It’s a
main website CTA that wants prospective customers to find their friends
with Dish subscriptions and get their referral code. Interesting
approach!

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39. DirecTV
DirecTV uses the same refer-a-friend program structure as Dish’s ‘get
referred by a friend’ campaign. They offer a higher reward of $100 to
their prospective customers, but still require the high friction process of
getting a friend’s DirecTV account code.
40. AT&T

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Telecom giant AT&T runs a refer-a-friend program with a minimalist
design and bright symbols to highlight the value of their 5 core
offerings. Bolding the part people really care about ($575 a year!)
grabs the customer’s attention. AT&T could improve the program by
reducing the amount of friction in the sign-up flow. Applying for a
referral program creates an unnecessary step for customers already
interested in making a referral.
41. T-Mobile

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T-Mobile targets younger demographics with their loud colors, hip
branding and playful copy. The T-Mobile refer-a-friend program plays
within that theme, employing a branded landing page highlighting all the
fun associated with their brand. Though T-Mobile referral page doesn’t
highlight the referral reward, it certainly captures your attention.
42. Sprint

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Sprint, another nationwide telecom giant, runs a referral program that
uses a double-sided reward (a $50 American Express reward card) for
every successful referral. The Sprint refer-a-friend program uses a
modern theme with bold CTAs that emphasize the cash-cash-money.
It’s too bad that customers must register in order to make a referral –
program engagement is higher when this requirement is not in place.
43. Rogers

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Rogers, one of Canada’s largest telecom providers, runs a single-sided
customer referral program. The Rogers refer-a-friend program rewards
customers with a $25 credit for every successful referral. Rogers uses a
templated design with content blocks to describe the core areas of the
referral program.
44. Virgin Mobile

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Virgin Mobile approaches their referral program using bold colors and
playful copy to deliver the details. The Virgin refer-a-friend program
offers a double-sided $25 reward for successful referrals. Virgin
Mobile’s referral page highlights the referral reward and main value
proposition of their company with lines like ‘Unlimited Plans’ ‘Packed
With More Data’ and ‘Limitless Music’ (although they made a typo on
that last one – Teachable Moment: always proofread your deals before
they go live!).
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Financial Services:
45. PayPal
source: paypal.com
The PayPal refer-a-friend program was one of the growth engines for
the early-stage company. It’s one of the more notable examples of
customer referral programs and was originally pitched by their co-
founder Elon Musk as a viral marketing campaign. A double-sided $10
reward for new users and active promotion through their customer
touchpoints were major contributors behind the campaign’s success.
46. Tangerine

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Modern banking institution Tangerine offers a double-sided refer-a-
friend program for their customers to sign up new accounts. The
Tangerine refer-a-friend program offers $50 for both customers and
newly referred customers for taking part in their program. The referral
page is well-designed and has a bold CTA that appeals to the financial
motivation of their buyer persona.
47. American Express

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American Express runs a streamlined referral program for card
members, encouraging them to invite their friends to try different card
offerings. The American Express refer-a-friend program has different
rewards available for customers depending on the type of card. The
American Express referral page highlights the steps needed to earn
referrals with a clean 1-2-3 step graphic.
48. Chase Bank

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Chase Bank runs a double-sided referral program that rewards

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customers with $50 for each successful referral. The Chase Bank refer-
a-friend program uses different channels to tell their customers about
their referral rewards and promote sharing. The above email uses the
recommended 1-2-3 graphic to simply explain the offer and large green
CTAs to promote referral invites.
49. Questrade
Questrade, a leading stock trading platform, uses a double-sided referral
program to encourage customers to invite their friends and start trading

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with their platform. The Questrade refer-a-friend program uses a tiered
reward program with $25 for the first two, and a $50 bonus for the third
successful referral. Third time’s the charm, right?
50. Robinhood
Robinhood, also in the stock trading software industry, uses a refer-a-friend
program to help customers gain early access to their platform. This type of referral
reward structure uses the power of scarcity and instant gratification to increase
sign-ups. This referral waiting list tactic

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can catapult the growth of your pre-launch brand (as we’ve seen with
the Harry’s refer a friend case study). A word of caution for incentivizing
non-paid actions: you’ll need to build in some fraud protection as users
may try to game your system.
51. Wealthfront
Wealthfront, an automated stock trading platform, uses a personalized

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referral program to reward customers for their loyalty. The Wealthfront
refer-a-friend program offers a double-sided reward that waives the
management fees on a $5,000 investment. The newly referred
customer gets a whopping $15,000 managed for free. Nice deal! For
easy sharing, the Wealthfront referral page pre-fills a personalized note
explaining their product’s value and referral reward.
Conclusion
So…did you read the whole thing?
Really?! Kudos, that’s stamina!
You’re now 51 times more informed on the best referral marketing
examples we could find. Got some to add to our list? Get in touch!
We’d love to know more.