Migrate from YITH Affiliates to Asteris Affiliates

What the YITH-to-Asteris migration looks like

YITH WooCommerce Affiliates is part of YITH's broad WordPress plugin catalogue — solid for stores already invested in the YITH ecosystem, intentionally minimal in scope. Stores moving to Asteris typically aren't unhappy with YITH; they're just outgrowing it. Common triggers: wanting MLM (YITH doesn't ship two-tier referrals), wanting a real fraud-detection layer (YITH has basic IP throttling only), wanting Stripe Connect direct payouts (YITH has none — payouts are manual marking-as-paid), or wanting EDD or Surecart support (YITH Affiliates is WooCommerce-only).

The data migration itself is straightforward. YITH stores affiliate data in standard WordPress tables (wp_yith_aff_*) and exposes a CSV export via Tools. The WP-CLI importer wp asteris-aff import --source=yith --csv=/path/to/yith-export.csv reads it and maps:

• Affiliates: WP user ID (preserved), email, name, custom commission rate, status. Status maps: YITH "active" → Asteris "active", YITH "disabled" → Asteris "inactive", YITH "pending" → Asteris "pending".
• Commissions: affiliate ID, order ID, amount, currency, status (paid / pending / cancelled). All preserved with status mapped directly.
• Coupon attributions: YITH's coupon-as-affiliate-link feature maps cleanly to Asteris's coupon attribution. Re-link each coupon to its affiliate after import via Settings → Coupons (the importer flags any coupons that need manual review).

The cutover sequence

1. Install Asteris alongside YITH Affiliates. No conflicts — separate tables, separate settings namespace.
2. Export from YITH via YITH → Affiliates → Tools.
3. Run the import via WP-CLI.
4. Verify 5–10 affiliates in Asteris admin — confirm balances match YITH.
5. Switch tracking: disable YITH's tracking (YITH settings → Tracking → off), leave plugin installed for 30 days as a safety net.
6. Email affiliates their new /go/{handle} vanity URL and new dashboard location. YITH's legacy referral parameter (?yith_aff=...) keeps working via the compatibility redirect.
7. After 30 days clean, deactivate YITH and drop its tables.

What you gain on day one

The features Asteris ships that YITH Affiliates doesn't: two-tier (MLM) referrals, AI swipe-copy generator, cloud-assist fraud detection, Stripe Connect direct payouts at 0.25%, PayPal API auto-batch with scheduling, EDD adapter, Surecart adapter, vanity /go/{handle} landing pages with cookie + view tracking, A/B email testing on transactional emails, real-time stats REST API, and the full WP-CLI suite. Best WooCommerce affiliate plugin comparison →

YITH bundle considerations

If you're running multiple YITH plugins (and most YITH Affiliates customers are), you can keep using the rest of the YITH suite after migrating just the affiliate component to Asteris. YITH WooCommerce Wishlist, YITH Quick View, YITH Stripe Connect (for store-level payment processing, separate from affiliate payouts), and YITH's other modules don't interact with the affiliate plugin's database tables, so removing YITH Affiliates leaves the rest of your YITH stack untouched.

One thing to double-check during the migration: if you're running YITH Stripe Connect for the storefront, confirm that customer-facing payouts (your business's WC settlement) continue working correctly while you set up Asteris's Stripe Connect for affiliate payouts. They're independent integrations against the same Stripe account but use different Stripe Connect product flows, so they don't conflict.

Migration assistance

Pro and Agency licences include migration support. Email [email protected] with your YITH licence info and we'll run the import for you. Most YITH migrations finish in under 30 minutes.