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Sometimes an affiliate needs to come out of your program — maybe they’ve gone quiet and you want to pause them, or maybe they’ve broken your rules and need to be removed for good. Referly gives you two tools for this, and the difference between them matters.

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Deactivate, ban, or delete — which to use

The rule of thumb: deactivate when you might want them back, ban when they’ve done something serious and you want a record of why, and delete only when you genuinely want every trace of them gone. Both ban and delete can’t be undone, so reach for deactivate whenever you’re unsure.

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Deactivate an affiliate

Deactivating is the gentle option — it pauses someone without losing anything.
1

Open the affiliate

From your affiliates list, select the affiliate to open their detail page.
2

Choose Deactivate Affiliate

Open the three-dots actions menu and select Deactivate Affiliate.
3

Confirm

The dialog explains that this disables all their active links while their commissions and payouts remain intact. Select Deactivate affiliate to confirm.
Once deactivated, the affiliate’s links stop working and they can’t log in or earn on new sales, but everything they’ve already earned stays exactly as it was. Their status changes to Deactivated.

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Reactivate an affiliate

Changed your mind, or the affiliate is ready to come back? Open their detail page, choose Reactivate Affiliate from the actions menu, and confirm. Their referral links start working again and they can access their portal and earn commissions on new sales. Their status returns to Active.

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Ban an affiliate

Banning is for affiliates who’ve broken your rules — fraud, spam, brand abuse, and the like. It’s permanent, so Referly asks you to confirm carefully.
1

Open the affiliate and choose Ban Affiliate

On the affiliate’s detail page, open the actions menu and select Ban Affiliate.
2

Choose a ban reason

Pick a Ban reason from the list — Terms of Service Violation, Inappropriate or Offensive Content, Artificial Traffic, Fraudulent Activity, Spam, or Brand Abuse. The reason is saved and shows on their banned badge later, so you always know why they were removed.
3

Type the confirmation

Because a ban can’t be undone, you’ll be asked to type confirm ban affiliate in the confirmation field. This stops an accidental ban.
4

Ban

Select Ban affiliate. Their links are disabled, their pending payouts are cancelled, and their status changes to Banned.
Banning cancels the affiliate’s pending payouts and can’t be reversed. If you only want to stop them temporarily, or you still owe them for work already done, deactivate them instead.

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Do it for many affiliates at once

All three actions are available in bulk. Select affiliates in your list with their checkboxes, then choose Deactivate, Reactivate, Ban, or Delete from the selection bar. A bulk ban asks for a single reason that applies to everyone selected. See Bulk actions.

Affiliate statuses

What Deactivated and Banned mean for an affiliate.

Bulk actions

Deactivate, ban, or delete many affiliates at once.

Fraud prevention

Catch bad actors before they cost you.

The affiliate detail view

Where the deactivate and ban actions live.
Last modified on July 21, 2026