On this page
We run the HOL Guard affiliate program, so we spend a lot of time reading other programs' terms pages. This post is the list we would hand to a writer who covers security tools and wants to know which programs are open, what they pay, and where the gaps are.
Every figure below comes from the company's own program page, checked in November 2026. Where a company does not publish a number, we say so. Plenty of roundups repeat rates that the company itself never states, and a few of the programs below would look better if we had used those numbers. Programs also change terms quietly, so open the program page before you build a post around any of this.
The programs
HOL Guard
Guard is a free, open source security tool for any AI agent. It sits between the agent and the tools it can call, and it checks actions before they run. The tool itself costs nothing; the paid side is Guard Cloud, and that is what the affiliate program pays on.
The program pays 25% of net subscription revenue for the first 12 months of a customer's subscription, with a 120 day attribution window. Payouts go through Stripe Connect, monthly or quarterly, after a 30 day hold and a compliance review. Applications are reviewed by a person, and approval is not automatic. It suits writers and newsletter publishers who cover AI agents and developer security. That is a smaller audience than consumer antivirus, and the earnings will reflect it.
NordVPN
NordVPN is the consumer VPN from Nord Security, and it runs its affiliate program in house. It pays 100% of a new one month plan, 40% of a new one or two year plan, and 30% on renewals. The cookie lasts 30 days. Applications go through NordVPN's own site, and you do not need a website: a YouTube channel or a social account counts. It suits privacy and consumer security writers with a general audience.
Bitdefender
Bitdefender sells antivirus and endpoint protection for home users and businesses. Its affiliate page puts the base deal at a 20% revenue share on new consumer customers and 50% on business products, with custom deals for strong performers that can go higher. The page does not state a cookie window, so ask before you plan a long review cycle around it. It suits antivirus reviewers who compare suites head to head.
Proton
Proton is the Swiss company behind Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Pass and Proton Drive. One partner program covers all of them. Under its published commission plan, a new paid account pays 30% for Mail, Pass, Drive and the Unlimited bundle, and 40% to 100% for VPN depending on the plan length. Renewals pay as well. Proton pays by bank transfer once a balance passes $100. The company does not publish a cookie window. It suits writers whose readers care about privacy as a reason to switch providers, not just price.
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is known for malware cleanup: people usually meet it after something has already gone wrong on their machine. Its affiliate page offers up to 30% per sale and a 45 day referral window, and the program runs through Partnerize. The commission is per sale, not recurring. It suits writers who publish cleanup guides, ransomware explainers and help content for non-technical readers.
1Password
1Password is a password manager for individuals, families and businesses. Its program pays $2 for each completed signup, plus 25% of the customer's first payment: a full year's fee on annual billing, or one month's fee on monthly billing. Nothing is paid on later renewals. You join through CJ Affiliate, and 1Password's own page does not state a cookie window. It suits password manager reviewers and writers who cover family or small business security.
Keeper
Keeper is another password manager, with plans for consumers and for businesses. Its partnerships page promises a minimum of 10% on all sales, with tiers and bonuses tied to performance, and affiliates get a free Keeper Unlimited subscription. Consumer affiliates join through Rakuten Advertising; business affiliates join through PartnerStack. Keeper does not publish a cookie window on its page. It suits writers who cover business password policy as much as consumer tools.
Sucuri
Sucuri protects websites rather than devices: malware removal, a website firewall and monitoring, aimed at site owners and agencies. Its referral program pays 25% of the first purchase on most plans and a flat $100 for an agency signup, with a 30 day cookie, through CJ Affiliate. Commissions are one-time, and a referred customer has to stay subscribed for 65 days before a commission is payable. It suits writers whose audience runs WordPress sites or small agency portfolios.
Places that list and cover these programs
Programs are only half the job. The other half is finding them, comparing terms without opening forty tabs, and checking whether a program still exists. These are the directories and publishers we use or that cover this niche, including our own program.
AffReborn
AffReborn is a directory of affiliate programs, affiliate networks and ad networks, run as a working tool rather than a blog. Each entry carries the practical fields: commission, cookie period, payout details and the platform the program runs on. It also publishes guides that group programs by niche, including a guide to AI affiliate programs, which is how a lot of smaller programs get found by publishers who would never see them otherwise. If you run a program and want it in front of affiliate marketers, or you publish and want one place to scan what is open, it is a sensible first stop.
PayoutDeals
PayoutDeals lists affiliate programs by category and reviews submissions before they go live. Our own program sat in its review queue after we submitted it in October, and the listing went live in November, at number 21 in its Cybersecurity and VPN category. That review step makes the catalogue slower to join, and more useful to browse.
AffiliateRoll
AffiliateRoll is a program database with side-by-side comparisons: pick two programs and it lines up commission, cookie length and payout terms. HOL Guard sits at number 23 in its listings, shown at 25% recurring. The comparison pages are the part we use most, because they put two programs' terms next to each other and weak terms are easy to spot.
AffiliateLandscape
AffiliateLandscape is a smaller directory that lists programs with their headline terms and whether the program is direct or runs on a network. HOL Guard is listed there at 25% recurring, as a direct program. We checked its terms page again this month and the figures matched ours.
AffiliateProgramTerms
AffiliateProgramTerms takes a different approach: it reads a program's own page, publishes the commission, cookie and payout figures it found, and dates the reading. Our entry has been there since October 17, and it notes, correctly, that its links are nofollow. When a figure on this page mattered, that dated read is the kind of source we trusted.
The AI Loadout
The AI Loadout is a newsletter and site covering AI tools for working professionals. In November it published a piece on securing AI agents that includes HOL Guard, with the affiliate relationship disclosed on the page and a reader code attached. We include it because it shows the pattern that works in this niche: a publisher writing about a problem its readers have, with the disclosure where readers can see it.
AI Miracle and the Best Vibe Coding Tools collection
AI Miracle publishes collections of tools for people who build software with AI assistants. Its Best Vibe Coding Tools collection added HOL Guard in November, with the affiliate disclosure on the page. Collections like this are where a lot of tool discovery happens now, and they are run by small publishers, not networks.
Closing
Two things hold across all of these programs. The first is that the headline rate is the least interesting number: whether a program pays on renewals, how long its window is, and whether it publishes its terms at all will decide what you earn. The second is that disclosure is not optional decoration. Every publisher mentioned above that covers our program shows the relationship on the page, and any program worth joining expects the same from you.
If we missed a security tool program with published terms, tell us and we will check it against its own page.
