# Tools for managing brand codes, compared

Canonical: https://usecode.sh/compare/best-tools-for-managing-brand-codes
Last reviewed: 2026-08-13

Managing brand codes is three separate jobs, and no single creator tool does all three well. Displaying codes so followers can use them, keeping the deal record of rates, dates and invoices, and reporting engagement back to the brand. Beacons is the only product here that carries the deal record, Campsite.bio is the only one with documented start-and-end scheduling on links, Stan Store is the only one that can take a payment, and none of them, including usecode.sh, can tell you whether a code was redeemed. Most creators running many partnerships end up using two tools plus a spreadsheet, and that is a reasonable answer rather than a failure.

## First, which side of the deal are you on

If you are a brand issuing codes to creators and reconciling redemptions against payouts, this page is the wrong category. You need a code-issuing and affiliate-reconciliation platform that sits on your commerce stack, and none of the six creator tools below does that job. Everything here is creator-side: you have been given codes by other people and you have to run them.

## Five criteria, before any product names

1. **Can a code be retired on a schedule?** Campaign end dates are the recurring admin cost of this work. A tool that can time a code to appear and disappear removes a standing task; a tool that cannot means every expiry is a manual edit you have to remember.
2. **Where does the deal record live?** Rate, contact, start and end date, invoice status. If the tool does not hold this, something else has to, and that something is usually a spreadsheet.
3. **What can you hand the brand afterwards?** Look for an export or a shareable format, and check which tier it is on. Reports assembled by hand from screenshots do not get read twice.
4. **What does it take from commission on deals you already have?** Several of these charge a percentage on commissions earned through their own catalog. Read that against the deals you bring rather than the ones they offer.
5. **Does its own catalog compete with your deals?** A built-in brand marketplace is genuinely useful when it carries brands you want, and dead weight when it does not. Neither outcome is a flaw, but it changes which tool fits.

## The six against the criteria

| Tool | Retiring codes | Deal record | What you can hand over | Cut of your commission |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Linktree | No link-scheduling feature documented; codes are edited by hand | None; Insights only | CSV export of Insights, on Premium ($30/mo billed annually) | A percentage of commission on Shops, Sponsored Links and Affiliate Opportunities on Free, Starter and Pro; none on Premium |
| Beacons | Scheduling and automation for link updates is documented; per-tier availability is shown as icons rather than stated | Media kit (published as free), plus rate card, invoices, past projects and a pricing calculator on paid plans. Beacons' comparison table marks those four with icons only and never states which tier they belong to, so free-tier availability is unconfirmed | Media kit by link, email or PDF, with media-kit view analytics | 9% on affiliate-link commissions on Free and Creator; 0% on Creator Plus and Max |
| Stan Store | Discount codes and limited-quantity offers, both Creator Pro ($99/mo) | Contacts, email flows and affiliate management, all Creator Pro | Store, product and course analytics with custom date ranges | None; Stan charges no transaction fee on sales |
| Later Link in Bio | No code feature to retire; the page updates with your scheduled posts | None for deals; UGC collection from Growth up | Link in Bio analytics, up to 1 year on Starter and 2 years on Scale | Not published for its Mavely affiliate-link integration |
| Campsite.bio | Link scheduling with appear and disappear times, plus bulk management, on paid plans; archive and restore on all plans | None | CSV export of analytics, on Pro+ ($24/mo) | None; it has no catalog of its own |
| usecode.sh | Cards are edited in one place and the page address never changes; no scheduled expiry | None | Views, shop taps and code copies per card per day, full history, assembled by you | None; there is no catalog and no checkout to take one from |

## Where each one is the right answer

- **Beacons** if the admin is the painful part. It is the only tool on this page that holds rates, invoices, past projects and a media kit you can send. The media kit is published as free; the rest sit in icon-only cells in their comparison table with no tier named, so verify what your plan includes before you rely on it. If you are chasing deals as much as running them, that is still the strongest offer here.
- **Campsite.bio** if expiries are the painful part. Timed appear-and-disappear links plus bulk editing, from $7/mo, is the cheapest way to stop hand-retiring dead codes, and it works even though Campsite has no dedicated code type.
- **Stan Store** if you also sell your own products and want discount codes at your own checkout, with affiliate management for people reselling you. Both live on Creator Pro at $99/mo, so this is an answer for a business, not a side income.
- **Linktree** if you want Premium's lifetime history and CSV export, which is the cleanest hand-over artifact in the group, and if its own Shops catalog carries brands you would promote anyway.
- **Later** if the codes are downstream of a posting schedule you already run there, and you want the page and the calendar in one product.
- **usecode.sh** for the display and counting half only: one address, every code on it, and copies counted per card so the code path is not invisible. It holds no deal record and schedules nothing, so it is one half of a setup, not the setup.

## What none of these tools can do

None of them can tell you a code was redeemed, and none of them can attribute a sale. Redemption happens inside the brand's checkout, on the brand's systems, and it reaches you only when the brand reports it. That is not a gap in one product, it is the shape of the whole category.

- What you can own is engagement: views, taps, and copies where a tool counts them. Label those as engagement when you send them, because [a report that respects the line is more credible](/guides/report-code-engagement-to-brands) than one that blurs it.
- What the brand owns is redemptions and revenue. Ask for that number as part of the deal, in writing, at the start.
- The two lined up against each other is the only honest performance picture, and it is [what code interest can and cannot prove](/guides/promo-code-tracking).

## Limits of this comparison

- Beacons' plan table marks many features with icons rather than text, so per-tier availability of its scheduling and store discount codes is treated here as unpublished rather than confirmed either way.
- The absence of link scheduling on Linktree is an absence finding against its published pricing and Insights documentation on the verification date, not a statement from Linktree that it does not exist.
- Later's affiliate integration runs through Mavely, a separate company with its own terms; what either party takes is not published on Later's pricing page and is not asserted here.
- Linktree's Shops and Sponsored Links are documented as available to creators in the United States, subject to eligibility, so its commission mechanics do not apply everywhere.
- Prices are the US-dollar figures published on the verification date and change often. All names are trademarks of their owners; this is an independent comparison and the sources below are the authority.

## Related guides

- [Promo-code tracking for creators: what you can and cannot know](https://usecode.sh/guides/promo-code-tracking)
  What a creator can actually measure about their promo codes without the brand's sales data: views, taps, copies, and what each one means.
- [How to organize multiple brand partnerships](https://usecode.sh/guides/organize-multiple-brand-partnerships)
  Past three simultaneous deals, memory stops working: the minimum operations layer for codes, rates, deadlines, deliverables, and payouts across brands.
- [How to manage expired creator codes](https://usecode.sh/guides/manage-expired-creator-codes)
  A dead code at checkout costs more than the sale. The lifecycle system for expiring, pausing, and replacing creator codes across old content.
- [How to report promo-code engagement to brands](https://usecode.sh/guides/report-code-engagement-to-brands)
  A reporting format that makes brands trust your numbers: views, taps, and copies clearly labeled as engagement, lined up against their redemptions.
- [Creator promo-code tracker template](https://usecode.sh/templates/promo-code-tracker)
  A free CSV deal sheet for creators running multiple codes: terms, rates, expiries, deliverables, and payment status, importable to Sheets or Excel.
- [usecode.sh vs Beacons for promo codes](https://usecode.sh/compare/beacons)
  Beacons bundles a store, email, and a media kit; its discount codes are checkout coupons for your own products. Where a code-first page differs, sourced and dated.

## Sources

- [Campsite.bio pricing and feature comparison (link scheduling, exports, analytics windows)](https://campsite.bio/pricing) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Beacons pricing and full plan comparison (media kit, invoices, affiliate fees)](https://beacons.ai/i/pricing) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Linktree Help: Insights date ranges, CSV export and metric definitions](https://help.linktr.ee/en/articles/5434178-understanding-your-insights) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Linktree Help: transaction fees on partner and direct earnings](https://linktr.ee/help/en/articles/11410206-understanding-transaction-and-processing-fees-on-linktree) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Stan Store pricing (official blog): Creator Pro feature list](https://stan.store/blog/stan-store-pricing/) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Stan Store Help: discount codes are a Creator Pro feature](https://help.stan.store/article/197-how-to-create-a-discount-code) (verified 2026-08-13)
- [Later pricing and plan comparison (Link in Bio analytics, Mavely affiliate links)](https://later.com/pricing/) (verified 2026-08-13)