PartnerStack vs Cello

by Gralio Mar 28, 2025

PartnerStack and Cello offer distinct approaches to partnership management. PartnerStack provides a wider range of tools and caters to various partnership types, while Cello focuses on simplifying referral programs for existing customers. The best choice depends on your specific partnership goals and technical capabilities.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 701 reviews and 60 websites, saving 4 hours, 23 minutes of reading.

Logo of PartnerStack
Logo of Cello

About

PartnerStack is a leading software platform designed to help businesses grow through partnerships. It provides tools to find, recruit, and manage affiliates, influencers, and other business partners. With PartnerStack, you can automate partner payments, track performance, and gain insights to optimize your partner program. PartnerStack is best known for its focus on B2B software companies and boasts a large network of potential partners.
Cello is a software platform designed to help businesses, especially software companies, grow by encouraging their existing users to refer new customers. It does this by making it easy for users to share about the product and by providing rewards for successful referrals. Cello handles the technical side of running a referral program, including tracking referrals, managing rewards, and ensuring secure payments. This allows businesses to focus on their product and customers while building a referral program as a growth strategy.

Summary

Main difference
PartnerStack is a comprehensive partnership management platform catering to diverse partnership types, including affiliates, resellers, and influencers, ideal for businesses seeking a broad partner ecosystem. Cello specializes in referral programs, simplifying the process of leveraging existing customers to acquire new ones, making it suitable for companies prioritizing word-of-mouth marketing.

Relative strengths of PartnerStack (compared to Cello)

  • Wider range of partnership types (affiliates, resellers, influencers).

  • Partner discovery tools to find and recruit new partners.

  • More robust performance tracking and reporting capabilities.

Relative weaknesses of PartnerStack (compared to Cello)

  • More complex setup and management compared to Cello.

  • Pricing is custom, potentially less transparent than Cello’s tiered pricing.

  • User interface can be overwhelming for some users.

What companies are using PartnerStack and Cello?

CallRail is a customer
CallRail
monday.com is a customer
monday.com
PandaDoc is a customer
PandaDoc
ApOllo is a customer
ApOllo
No data

Who is using PartnerStack and Cello?

Nate Matherson
Head of Growth at Numeral | YC Alum
No data

Who should use PartnerStack VS. Cello

PartnerStack is a robust partner management platform ideal for medium to large B2B SaaS companies seeking growth through partnerships. Users praise its intuitive interface, transparent commissions, and efficient payouts via PayPal and Stripe. However, some have noted slow account approvals and limited payout options. Its comprehensive features empower businesses to effectively recruit, onboard, and manage affiliates, driving revenue growth through strategic partnerships.

Cello is a referral program software designed for B2B SaaS companies looking to leverage word-of-mouth marketing for growth. Users praise its easy setup, user-friendly interface, and helpful customer support. Some users mention limitations in reward options and customization. Cello's success-based pricing makes it a low-risk investment for businesses of all sizes.

  • Ideal for medium to large businesses (101+ employees), offering excellent scalability.

  • Best fit for B2B SaaS companies, particularly in software, IT, telecommunications, marketing, advertising, and professional services.

  • Best for medium-sized businesses (101-1000 employees), suitable for larger enterprises with limitations.

  • Ideal for B2B SaaS companies in various industries, especially those focused on growth.

PartnerStack and Cello features

Supported
Partially supported
Not supported
Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

  • Partner Recruitment
    Supported

    PartnerStack offers tools to find and manage partners.

    Supported

    Cello supports partner recruitment through its robust referral program and affiliate management capabilities.

  • Partner Activation
    Supported

    PartnerStack supports partner activation with resources, automation, and performance tracking.

    Not supported

    Cello supports partner and affiliate management with features like automated invoicing and activity tracking, but not a dedicated "Partner Activation" process.

  • Partner Tracking
    Supported

    PartnerStack tracks leads, opportunities, and deals, measuring partner contributions with detailed reports.

    Partially supported

    Cello offers a partner portal with tracking, but detailed lead, opportunity, and deal tracking is not explicitly mentioned.

  • Affiliate portal access
    Supported

    PartnerStack provides a dedicated portal for affiliates to access resources and track their performance.

    Partially supported

    Cello provides an affiliate portal for tracking performance and managing rewards, but access to marketing materials and account management details are unclear.

  • Affiliate performance reporting
    Supported

    PartnerStack offers robust affiliate performance reporting, including customizable reports and data visualization.

    Supported

    Cello supports affiliate performance reporting with dedicated dashboards and analytics.

  • Partner recruitment tool
    Supported

    PartnerStack provides a tool to recruit new partners called Partner Discovery Tool.

    Not supported

    Cello focuses on managing existing partner programs, not recruiting new partners.

Qualities

  • Value and Pricing Transparency
    +0.14
    Neutral sentiment
    No data
  • Customer Service
    +1
    Strongly positive sentiment
    +1
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Ease of Use
    +0.86
    Strongly positive sentiment
    +1
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Reliability and Performance
    +0.36
    Rather positive sentiment
    +1
    Strongly positive sentiment
  • Ease of Implementation
    +0.73
    Strongly positive sentiment
    +1
    Strongly positive sentiment

PartnerStack and Cello Pricing

PartnerStack's pricing is custom and based on individual business needs. Interested users must fill out a form to get a personalized plan and pricing. All plans include access to B2B-focused partners, automated partner payments, partner journey automation, and partner analytics.

User sentiment

Neutral
+0.14

See full Pricing page

Referral ARR from existing referral programs will be migrated at no additional cost. One-time setup support available from €500.
Plans

User sentiment

Strongly positive
+1

See full Pricing page

PartnerStack and Cello review insights

662 reviews analysed from and

Users love

  • PartnerStack boasts a wide variety of partners across various niches and industries.
  • User-friendly interface praised for its ease of use and intuitive design.
  • Highly transparent platform with clear commission structures and detailed tracking information.
  • Efficient and reliable payout system with fast processing times via PayPal and Stripe.
  • Easy setup and integration, with some users going live within hours.
  • User-friendly interface praised by both administrators and referral program participants.
  • Positive customer support experiences, characterized by responsiveness and helpfulness.
  • Success-based pricing model makes it a low-risk investment for businesses.
  • Effective in driving word-of-mouth marketing and lowering customer acquisition costs.

Users dislike

  • Account approval can be slow, with some users reporting delays even after providing detailed business information.
  • Limited payment withdrawal options - currently only PayPal and Stripe.
  • Some users find it difficult to navigate the platform and experience frequent UI refreshes.
  • Occasional slow loading times and system glitches have been reported.
  • Limited reward payout options, with many users desiring alternatives to PayPal/Venmo.
  • Lack of email notifications for new rewards; users rely solely on in-widget notifications.
  • Manual processes for tasks like adding promotions and generating payment reports.
  • Limited customization for the referral widget, impacting its integration with certain products.
  • Some desired features, such as individual referral percentages and mobile app access, are not yet available.

PartnerStack and Cello Ratings

  • G2
    4.7/5
    (610)
  • Glassdoor
    3.3/5
    (89)
  • G2
    4.9/5
    (32)
  • Capterra
    4.9/5
    (20)

Company health

Employee growth

18% increase in the last year
No data

Web traffic

9% increase in the last quarter
14% increase in the last quarter

Financing

February 2021 - $36M
April 2023 - $8M

How important is access to a large, pre-existing partner network?

For PartnerStack, access to a large, pre-existing partner network is extremely important as its core function is to connect businesses with potential partners. For Cello, it's less critical. Cello focuses on referral programs leveraging a company's existing customer base, not a vast external network.

Which product better facilitates incentivizing existing customers for referrals?

Both products facilitate incentivizing existing customers for referrals, but Cello focuses specifically on referral programs, making it potentially better suited for this purpose. While PartnerStack offers broader partnership management including affiliates and influencers, Cello's concentrated feature set and success-based pricing might be more appealing for businesses primarily interested in leveraging existing customer relationships for growth.

What are the advantages of PartnerStack?

PartnerStack's advantages include its focus on B2B SaaS partnerships, a large network of potential partners, automated partner payments, and robust performance tracking. It offers a dedicated partner discovery tool and provides detailed reporting for optimizing partner programs. Users praise the platform's user-friendly interface and transparent commission structures.

What are the disadvantages of PartnerStack?

PartnerStack's disadvantages include slow account approvals, limited payment withdrawal options (PayPal and Stripe only), occasional slow loading times and system glitches, and some users finding the platform difficult to navigate with frequent UI refreshes. While it offers a large partner network, some users have reported difficulty activating those partners.

Alternatives to PartnerStack and Cello

Logo of Reveal
partnerstack vs Reveal
Find, track, and close deals faster with powerful partnership insights.
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Logo of Reditus
partnerstack vs Reditus
SaaS affiliate management: Track, pay, and grow partnerships.
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Logo of Partnero
Partnero
Effortless partner program management for growth.
Read more
Logo of Crossbeam
partnerstack vs Crossbeam
Find overlapping customers and prospects with partners, securely.
Read more
Logo of Partnerize
Partnerize
Partnership automation: track, manage, and optimize for growth.
Read more
Logo of Ambassador Software
Ambassador Software
Grow your business with referrals, affiliates, and loyal customers.
Read more
Page co-authored by
MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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