DotMoose pays 20% recurring on hosting, VPS, storage and managed apps

What DotMoose is

DotMoose is a Canadian hosting company that opened in August 2026. It sells shared hosting, WordPress hosting, VPS, dedicated servers, Canadian backup storage, S3 compatible object storage and managed application hosting, billed in Canadian dollars on month to month terms with no mandatory long contract.

The affiliate side is a referral program attached to your ordinary DotMoose client account rather than a separate network signup. You activate it inside the client area, get one referral link, and track visits, referrals, pending commission and withdrawals in the same portal you use to manage services.

The program at a glance

The same 20%, across a catalogue that runs 22 to 1

This is the part that changed, and it changes what the program is for. Commission is a flat 20% whether the customer buys the cheapest shared plan or the largest storage tier, and DotMoose publishes every price, so the whole thing can be worked out exactly.

One Object Storage customer is worth about 22 times what one Starter Shared customer is worth, every month, for the same referral. That single ratio should decide what you write. A budget hosting article that converts on the C$5.99 plan produces C$1.20 a month and needs 21 months on one customer to release a payout. A backup or storage article that converts on a 4 TB plan produces C$17.80 a month and clears the threshold on the second invoice.

Nothing about the rate rewards you for aiming higher. The percentage is identical. The price is what moves, so the audience you write for is the entire lever.

The promotion clause, which is the trap we fell into

Commission is calculated from the amount actually paid, not the list price. DotMoose says this plainly, and it cuts both ways.

In your favour: a coupon does not void the referral. The terms state that when a coupon reduces eligible revenue the affiliate still earns the standard percentage on the discounted amount actually paid. Plenty of programs cancel commission entirely on a coupon order, and this one does not.

Against you: while a promotion runs, your commission falls with the price. DotMoose is currently running 80% off Shared Hosting for the first three months on a public code. A Starter customer who uses it pays about C$1.20 a month for three months, so your commission on them is roughly C$0.24 a month until the fourth invoice, when the regular C$5.99 price resumes and your commission returns to about C$1.20.

That is not a criticism of the program, it is how a percentage of paid revenue has to work. It is worth stating loudly because a public discount code is exactly what a hosting article tends to feature, and featuring it quietly cuts your own first three months by 80%.

What is excluded, and why it matters less than it used to

Software and licence costs, domains and domain fees, Product Addons, taxes, usage billing, reseller-priced services and charity benefits earn nothing. Service level upgrades billed as part of an otherwise qualifying service stay commissionable, so extra VPS storage still counts.

Under the old shared hosting only scope, the exclusions removed most of what a growing customer would go on to buy. Now that VPS, storage and managed apps are all inside the program, the exclusion list is mostly licences and domains, which are low margin pass-through items anyway. The one that still stings is domains, because a domain is often the first thing a new customer buys.

Quote-led dedicated and custom servers are eligible on the verified service portion. Where the billing system cannot generate the commission automatically because the invoice was created by hand, DotMoose says it records the equivalent commission manually after the same 30 day validation and review. That is an unusual thing to commit to in writing and it favours anyone whose audience buys bigger iron.

What is still not published

The attribution window. We checked the affiliate page and the full referral terms again on 5 September and neither states how long a referral stays attributed after the click. Every mention of the word cookie on those pages is either the site's consent banner or cookie stuffing in the prohibited list.

For an in house program with its own dashboard this is the one real gap left, because attribution length decides whether slow converting content can earn at all. Hosting is a considered purchase and people rarely buy on the first visit. Ask before you build anything that depends on a long window.

How it compares inside hosting

Hosting is one of the better paid categories in this directory and almost all of it pays flat bounties: Bluehost at $65 per sale, SiteGround and GreenGeeks at $50 to $100, WPX at $70 to $100, InMotion and DreamHost up to $200, WP Engine from $200, Liquid Web up to $1,500.

Only 4 of the 16 hosting programs here pay recurring commission at all, and DotMoose now pays the highest straight recurring percentage of them: DigitalOcean is 10%, WHMCS is 15% for life, Cloudways offers $30 plus 7% lifetime as an alternative to its bounty, and DotMoose is 20%.

The trade is time. A single Bluehost referral pays about $65 once. Matching that from DotMoose takes roughly 54 months on a Starter customer, about 4 months on a VPS 16, and about 3 months on a 10 TB Object Storage customer. Beyond that point the recurring program keeps paying and the bounty does not, which is the whole argument for recurring in a category where customers stay for years.

Who should promote it

Canadian audiences first. Pricing is in Canadian dollars, the servers and storage are in Canada, and data residency is a genuine buying reason for Canadian businesses, agencies and anyone handling regulated data.

Then, specifically, write for the upper half of the catalogue. Backup and off-site storage content, Canadian data residency guides, VPS and self-managed server content, agency and developer audiences who buy managed apps. Those readers convert into C$6 to C$26 a month of commission instead of C$1.20, and they are exactly the readers the old shared hosting only program could not pay you for.

It is a weaker fit for first website and cheapest hosting content. That traffic converts on Starter, which is honest work for C$1.20 a month and a 21 month wait to be paid for a single customer. It is also a poor fit for domain-led content, since domains earn nothing.

The honest read

Ungraded. Our Program Score follows cleared payments observed over time and this company opened in August 2026, so nobody has a payout history with it yet, ourselves included.

Three things to weigh against it. The attribution window is still unpublished, which is the last real gap in an otherwise well documented program. Commission tracks the amount paid, so an active promotion cuts your earnings on new referrals for as long as the discount runs. And the company is about a month old, which matters more than usual for a host, because the product being sold is continuity.

In its favour, and this is a genuinely improved program: the commissionable catalogue now covers most of what a hosting customer actually buys instead of the cheapest slice of it, the top of that catalogue pays real money per month, 20% is the highest straight recurring rate in this category, the exclusions and holds are published rather than sprung, coupons reduce commission instead of voiding it, and the terms commit in writing to recording manual commission on quote-led work. The owner also read our listing, found two factual errors, and asked us to fix them with the correct figures attached. That is a program run by someone paying attention.

Common questions

How much does the DotMoose affiliate program pay? 20% recurring on qualifying paid services, including Shared Hosting, Backup Storage, VPS, Object Storage and Managed App Hosting. On published prices that is about C$1.20 a month on the C$5.99 Starter plan and about C$26.00 a month on 10 TB of Object Storage.

What does DotMoose not pay commission on? Software and licence costs, domains and domain fees, Product Addons, taxes, usage billing, reseller-priced services and charity benefits. Service level upgrades billed inside an otherwise qualifying service do still count.

How long is the DotMoose cookie? Not published. Neither the referral page nor the referral terms states an attribution window, so confirm it in writing before relying on one.

What happens to my commission if the customer uses a discount code? You still earn 20%, but of the discounted amount actually paid. During the current 80% off first three months promotion on shared hosting, a Starter referral pays you about C$0.24 a month until the regular price resumes on the fourth invoice.

When can I withdraw? Once your available balance reaches C$25, by requesting a withdrawal in the DotMoose client area. New commission sits pending for 30 days first so refunds, cancellations and invalid referrals can be resolved.

Does DotMoose pay on VPS and storage now? Yes. The program was shared hosting only when it launched and now covers Shared Hosting, Backup Storage, VPS, Object Storage and Managed App Hosting at the same 20%, with quote-led dedicated work eligible on the service portion.

Is DotMoose worth promoting? It suits Canadian audiences and content aimed at backup, storage, VPS and managed hosting buyers, where one customer produces C$6 to C$26 a month. It suits cheapest-hosting and domain content poorly, because Starter pays C$1.20 a month and domains pay nothing.