Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate Compared — and Why ShareASale Is Now Part of Awin

Short answer

Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate are two of the oldest global affiliate networks — CJ (founded 1998 as Commission Junction) and Rakuten Advertising (founded 1996 as LinkShare, acquired by Rakuten in 2005) — but neither publishes an advertiser pricing page: both require a custom sales quote, unlike Awin, Impact.com and Refersion, already compared in choosing an affiliate tracking network. A third name that still shows up in searches — ShareASale — is no longer a live, separate choice: Awin acquired it in 2017 and shut down the last standalone platform on 6 October 2025.

What Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate actually are

CJ Affiliate (still commonly called Commission Junction, its name for 16 years) was founded in 1998, acquired by ValueClick in 2003, rebranded CJ Affiliate when ValueClick itself became Conversant in 2014, sold to Alliance Data for $2.3 billion the same year, and has been owned by Publicis Groupe — one of the world's largest advertising-agency holding companies — since 2019. Today the company refers to itself simply as "CJ".

Rakuten Advertising started as LinkShare in New York in 1996, was acquired by Japan's Rakuten Group in 2005 for $425 million, and has since been renamed from Rakuten LinkShare to Rakuten Affiliate Network (2014), then Rakuten Marketing, and finally Rakuten Advertising (2020). The network is today a division of Rakuten Group — the same parent company that runs Rakuten's own online marketplace and the consumer-facing cashback product Rakuten Rewards.

Correction: ShareASale is no longer a live, third choice

ShareASale still gets listed alongside Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate as one of "the three classic US networks" — that picture is outdated. Per Awin's own announcement, Awin acquired ShareASale back in 2017, and through 2025 fully migrated every active customer onto Awin's platform: more than 9,500 advertisers and 250,000 publishers brought together in one place. The standalone ShareASale platform closed for good on 6 October 2025, with access to historical reports and data ending the same date. Treating ShareASale as a fourth, live alternative alongside Awin, Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate is therefore wrong in 2026 — it is now part of Awin.

Pricing: the one thing neither company publishes

Neither Rakuten Advertising's nor CJ Affiliate's own website states an advertiser pricing page — both require contacting sales for a custom quote, confirmed by checking both companies' own sites directly. That sets them apart from three of the four networks in the sibling article (Awin, Impact.com and Refersion each have a public pricing page), but matches Everflow, which also has no public self-serve price point. Third-party sources frequently claim CJ takes a cut — commonly reported at 20-30% — of what the advertiser pays its affiliates, but that figure is not confirmed on CJ's own site and should be treated as an industry-reported estimate, not a fact.

Comparison: six networks, the same questions

Who owns the network — a real consideration for advertisers

Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion are all independent technology companies with no competing business sitting alongside the network itself. Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate are both part of larger groups with their own, separate interests: CJ's owner, Publicis Groupe, simultaneously runs several of the world's largest advertising agencies, which in practice can compete with your own agency or in-house team. Rakuten Advertising is part of the same group that runs the consumer-facing cashback product Rakuten Rewards (the "the Button" browser extension) — Rakuten Rewards itself appears as a top publisher inside Rakuten Advertising's own network, meaning an advertiser on Rakuten Advertising can end up paying commission to a cashback product owned by the exact same parent company as the network itself. That is structurally a different situation from the Honey browser extension, an external third party with no formal place inside a network — see the PayPal Honey lawsuit for that comparison.

Attribution window: what's reported for the two?

Per Rakuten Advertising's own help documentation (partially confirmed — parts of the page were not directly accessible during this research), each advertiser sets its own "return days" window per program or per offer; third-party sources typically cite 7-30 days as the common range. For CJ Affiliate, multiple independent sources consistently report a 30-90 day range, also set by the individual advertiser rather than fixed by CJ as a single default. Neither figure was read directly on a primary-source page available at the time of this research — treat both as industry indications, and confirm the actual number directly with the network before building a budget on it.

Decision framework

IF you already know your volume and want to compare the real cost upfront → pick from the three networks with a public pricing page (Awin, Impact.com, Refersion) in the sibling article, not Rakuten Advertising or CJ Affiliate, where you only learn the total price after a sales call.

IF your brand already has an established US market and a significant affiliate portfolio there → Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate are both well-known, mature networks with a long track record in exactly that market, and may be worth requesting a quote from even though the price can't be looked up in advance.

IF you want to avoid any possible conflict of interest between the network and an outside business the same parent company runs → pick one of the four independent networks (Awin, Impact.com, Everflow, Refersion) over Rakuten Advertising or CJ Affiliate.

What does "quote-only" actually mean for your comparison?

The sibling article's worked example showed the total cost at $10,000/month in tracked sales and a 15% commission for the four networks with public pricing: Awin Access landed at $399/month, Impact.com Starter at $280/month, Refersion Launch at $339/month and Refersion Growth at $399/month — while Everflow couldn't be added to that calculation at all without a quote. Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate belong in the same category as Everflow here: at that exact same hypothetical volume, neither can be plugged into the calculation, because there is no public number to calculate with. The practical result: of the six networks now covered across the two articles, half (Everflow, Rakuten Advertising, CJ Affiliate) require a sales call before you can even compare total cost — and that's not only the most expensive or complex programs, but two of the three oldest, most established networks in the industry.

Are Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate confirmed to work in Denmark?

No, not based on what's available on their own sites. Unlike Awin, which per the research in affiliate influencer marketing in Denmark has run a Danish-language platform since 2019, and Adtraction, which per the Nordic affiliate networks article has offices in 13 European markets including Denmark, neither Rakuten Advertising's nor CJ Affiliate's own site confirms a Danish market, Danish-language support, or DKK as a supported currency. That doesn't rule out use by a Danish brand — it just needs confirming directly with the network, not assumed.

Common mistakes

• Assuming ShareASale is still a live, standalone third option alongside Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate — it hasn't been since 6 October 2025.
• Expecting a pricing page just because the network is large and well-known — neither Rakuten Advertising nor CJ Affiliate has one.
• Taking the commonly reported 20-30% figure for CJ at face value as a confirmed, official number — it isn't stated on CJ's own site.
• Assuming a US-established network automatically covers Denmark — see the section above.
• Overlooking ownership when choosing a network — see the section on who actually owns Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate.

Make Influence's perspective

Make Influence doesn't run an open program through Rakuten Advertising or CJ Affiliate ourselves — our model is curated, as described in the sibling article on Awin, Impact.com, Everflow and Refersion. But precisely because these two networks require a sales call before you know the total price, our general advice is especially relevant here: don't go into that conversation without already knowing your expected volume and the commission rate you're prepared to offer — that way you can use the quote for a real comparison instead of negotiating blind.

FAQ

Is ShareASale still a standalone network?

No. Awin acquired ShareASale in 2017, and the migration completed in 2025 — the standalone platform closed on 6 October 2025. Anyone still treating ShareASale as a separate third option alongside Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate is working from an outdated assumption.

Why is CJ Affiliate still often called Commission Junction?

Because that was the company's name from 1998 to 2014, and the name has stuck in the industry even though the company officially just calls itself CJ today.

Can you get a concrete price from Rakuten Advertising or CJ Affiliate without contacting sales?

No, not based on their own, publicly available sites at the time of this research. Both require a custom quote.

Does the same group own Rakuten Advertising and a consumer-facing cashback product?

Yes. Rakuten Rewards (the "the Button" cashback browser extension) is part of the same Rakuten Group as Rakuten Advertising and itself appears as a publisher inside the network.

Are Rakuten Advertising and CJ Affiliate confirmed to support Denmark?

No, not based on their own sites. See the Denmark section above for how that differs from Awin and Adtraction.

Do CJ Affiliate and Rakuten Advertising cost the same as Awin, Impact.com and Refersion?

There's nothing to compare on price — neither Rakuten Advertising nor CJ Affiliate publishes a figure, while Awin, Impact.com and Refersion each have a public pricing page. See the comparison table above.

Is it normal for large, established networks not to publish pricing?

Yes, it's not unusual — Everflow, covered in the sibling article, follows the same pattern. A mature, established network isn't automatically more transparent on price than a newer one.