Wealthy Affiliate Complaints: 12 Complaints You Must Know In 2025 Before You Jump In

Before you jump into any platform or buy any product online, common sense would dictate you gather more information, weigh the pros and cons of the product/platform before you make your final decision.

If you are looking for Wealthy Affiliate complaints in order to know in which area they are not doing great, you are in the right place.

In this post, I will show you most complaints people have against Wealthy Affiliate and my own complaints against this platform too.

I have been in this platform for 3 + years as a premium as of this writing and have come across many Wealthy Affiliate complaints I will share with you in this post.

But before we get into the point, let’s clear a point

Wealthy Affiliate is a company like any and what matters how good their product and service is, they will always have unsatisfied customers.

And to be honest there is no company that is 100% perfect because it is impossible to get everything right 100% of the time.

No matter what you do, you can’t satisfy everyone.

And that can’t be missed in a company like Wealthy Affiliate, which has more than 15 years in business and 2 + million members.

That being said, let’s get into the point.

You can check out my Wealthy Affiliate unbiased review to learn more about this platform.

12 Wealthy Affiliate complaints you must know (before you sign up)

During my journey in the Wealthy Affiliate platform, here below are complaints I always hear from members (some of my readers & referrals).

1. Wealthy Affiliate membership subscription plan is expensive

This complaint about Wealthy tops the list and I hear it frequently from many people.

Here is how the Wealthy Affiliate membership plan is structured:

• Starter – free for lifetime

• Premium – $49 per month with a discounted yearly price at $495 (1 domain name included)
• Premium Plus – $99 per month or $795 if you choose the yearly membership.

I understand everyone cannot afford the $49 per month or the $ 495 up front yearly fee to run his business.

But that doesn’t mean Wealthy Affiliate is expensive. You cannot afford it.

Truth be told, for the value, you get inside the WEALTHY AFFILIATE platform, it worth it.

Just to remain you in case you didn’t check my unbiased Wealthy Affiliate review for 2025, here is what you get for your premium membership:

• Access to the online education portal (120 lessons and 100s of valuable live training class),

• Managed web hosting service (up to 10 websites) (some companies like Kinda charge hundreds of dollars for the same service).

• Keyword research tool ($19 value for free),

• Weekly webinars (52 live classes per year),
• A supportive online entrepreneurs community, and more.

So instead of complaining it is expensive, start saving money so that you can get started with Wealthy Affiliate.

Do your research, you will find companies that charge more for the same service.

2. No refund policy

One of the complaints about Wealthy Affiliate is not offering a refund for their premium membership subscriptions. That is true and WA clearly documented it in their term and condition here.

I know most companies offer a refund policy and this is important and a way for customers who are not happy with the service or products they bought to get their money back.

Unfortunately, WA doesn’t offer refunds even for the yearly membership subscription.

Personally, I don’t have an issue with that since they offer free membership which allows people to test the platform before they make a commitment.

In fact, you can sign up to Wealthy Affiliate for free without giving your credit card number.

You can also test all the WA features and tools for free for your first 7 days.

That gives you the time to test it for free get a full picture of what you’re signing up for before you decide to invest your money in it.

My advice since there is no refund (if you sign up for the starter membership and want to upgrade) is to pay for one month. That will give you a full picture of what is inside the premium membership.

If after your first month you found that the offering meet your needs, you can go for a yearly subscription to save more money.

I bought the yearly membership without paying monthly.

And the reason I did that is that I tested it for a whole year I found there is not better elsewhere. But that is me, not you.

3. No much information in the free membership plan

I have seen people complaining that Wealthy Free membership doesn’t offer more information.

This is one of the Wealthy Affiliate complaints I don’t agree with.

I admit for someone who has been in the affiliate marketing industry for a while and knows how to make money with affiliate marketing throughout a niche website or affiliate marketing site can see the WA free training lessons not providing value. This is because he or she is an experienced affiliate marketer.

But truth be told, for a full newbie who is just starting out in the online world, this is something they will found valuable for what was taught inside those free lessons.

And to be honest, there are many free affiliate marketing courses out there on the Internet but I didn’t found a course that teaches you, step-by-step how to make money online with affiliate marketing as WA does.

As you can see in the image above, it covers topics such as:

• niche choice,

• website set up & design,

• keywords choice,

• content creation, etc. On top of that, you have access to 2 classrooms. That is packed with useful information for your business building.

And the best part, it shows you how money can be made in the online world. Plus it offers you the opportunity to create your first free website and learn how to blog.

Complaining you didn’t get more for free with WA is not knowing the value you get for your free membership.

For instance, with your free site, you can build an entire niche website by creating valuable content and then move it to a premium website with a domain name you own using the the “WA move” feature.

So if you take 4 months to create 2 posts per week. That is 4x2x4=32 posts. If you upgrade to premium after that and move it to a premium website, you have 32 posts ready, and ahead from someone you just signed up as a premium member the same day. That is just an example.

4. Most people fail to make money with the system

I totally agree with this complaint about Wealthy Affiliate. Most people fail to make money with Wealthy Affiliate. That is true and the problem is not WA or their training though. Plus, it is not only with WA most people fail to be successful or not making money online. Right?

The problem if we will be honest is the members themselves.

In fact, 95% of people who buy training didn’t go through it. Most pass by or didn’t apply what was taught.

Another fact the most people fail is because they are not patient. Not to say some are lazy.

And we know it! Most people want quick results with a little effort. They want results but don’t want to put themselves to work. Tell me who succeeded in this way (online or offline).

No one! Right?

I referred many premium members to the WA platform and have seen most of them not working on their website.

How can you create a website, and want quick results by just publishing 1 article a month in this competitive world?

In the real world, new businesses usually lose money in the first year and go bankrupt. And we all know that.

Why do you think that starting an online business should be paying you a huge revenue within a couple of months without hard work and/or no investment?

It seems to me that the people who are slating Wealthy Affiliate are those who don’t want to put any work in, expect to set up a fully functional successful business without paying a penny, and expect riches within a few months.

Any person who is successful in business has had to work hard at it. Anyone who tells you differently is lying to you or scamming you.

Truth is, people who put themselves to work and are patient are successful. No matter how good a training or/and tools is, without any action on your part, you won’t see results.

Truth is there are thousands of successful internet marketers in Wealthy Affiliate.

I have gone from zero to 4 figures online thanks to this platform. Not to brag but just to say that if you put the work in, you will see results.

5. Wealthy Affiliate encourages its members to recruit other paying members to the platform

This is another complaint about Wealthy Affiliate I don’t agree with.

You know, people who say WA push members to promote the platform are also in the MMO niche. They are direct competitors of the guys like me who promote WA.

And they just say that to just sell their offer. And if you are new in the online world, you can be overwhelmed because you won’t know who to trust.

I always say the best way to discover the truth about any platform is to take a look inside by yourself (unless it is a real scam) – that is no brainer if it free or low barrier entry you can afford.

The truth is, Wealthy Affiliate didn’t push people to recruit other paying members to the platform.

The WA Bootcamp is what alleged guru use to argue their claim. I admit this training teaches how to build an affiliate marketing website and promote an affiliate offer to make a commission. And WA has been used in the training as an illustration or example.

Which platform would you use to illustrate such training if it is you the owner? Put yourself in the owner’s shoes.

In any way, Kyle didn’t push members to promote his company. That is a choice and I think everyone can use the skills acquired in the Bootcamp to promote any affiliate offer he or she found valuable for his/her audience.

Truth is, many WA members are not promoting WA. And most of them are successful in their career. For example, this guy is a 4 figure earner with his niche site. Here is another member making $3.75k a month with Amazon.

6. Some plugins are not allowed

One of the Wealthy Affiliate complaints I have seen so far is not allowing customers to use certains plugins like JetPack.

That is true and WA is not the only one hosting provider that banned this plugin.

And they did that for a good reasons. In fact, this plugin is resource heavy. This is why most hosting provider didn’t allow it – that help them save their servers space and help manage websites.

Keep in mind, this plugin is an all in one plugin and do most thing at once. But most of the useful features can be obtained with other plugins.

7. No email marketing training provided

This is one of my biggest Wealthy Affiliate complaints so far. The money is on the list.

So this is something WA must take into account by working to add such training in their core training.

I know there are training about email marketing out there in the platform and it is enough to learn the ropes of email marketing.

But truth be told, most members didn’t know that and will not be able to find them without someone walking them through.

Here below are training on email marketing WA’s members can access.

8. No free domain name included

This complaint is founded and true. WA didn’t include a free domain name to its premium membership subscription. That leads people to spend an extra $8 to $14 a year to buy a domain name for their websites.

Web host companies like Bluehost offer a free domain (but they charge $14 for domain privacy – what you spent on WA to get your domain name with add-ons included) for your first year and then start charging you after that.

While that is a true complaint about Wealthy, I think WA offers more value inside. And even their domain name price is relatively low compared to how other domain name registrar companies charge for.

In fact, it only costs $13.99 per year and comes with some add-ons most domain registrars companies charge for.

So, while I understand the complaint, I think the extra cost is relatively low.

And the great news is if you buy the yearly membership you get a free domain name.

9. The most successful WA members earn their money by referring other people to Wealthy Affiliate

Another complaints about WA is that most successful members earn their money promoting WA itself.

This is not a legit complaint about Wealthy Affiliate because that is not true at all.

In fact, we have many success stories of people making money with their niche sites promoting companies like Amazon.

Just check out this income report for full proof.

And you can read this income report from a member making $5000 + with ClickBank alone.

I can’t list all those members who are making money online and not promoting WA here.

Truth is WA has over 1 + million active members. People you see reporting their income online are those in the MMO niche though.

And as I said, earlier people who are slating Wealthy Affiliate are those in the MMO niche and they have a reason for having this complaint.

In fact, people who are promoting WA are their competitors. Make sense?

10. The free website is on a subdomain and starters can’t make money from it

Another complaint I heard from people online is about the free website WA allows starter members to create.

I don’t know why people complained about this.

Everyone knows a free website is still built under a subdomain. What do you want?

A professional website? That requires a domain name while you are not ready to get a dime out of your pocket to build your business?

Don’t get me wrong! We are talking about business and any business you start required a start-up cost.

So this complaint is not founded. I even think you get more value by creating your free website with WA Siterubix than with WordPress.com or blogger.

Let me explain. With both mentioned above, you don’t have control over your content because both will display ads on your website to make money from your hard work.

That is not the case with WA.

As for the monetization option, you can do affiliate marketing with your free site. But let be honest with ourselves.

We are in a world where competition is tough. That means ranking a free website is not an easy task. Even premium website are not easy to rank without good SEO training courses.

Plus, as a starter, you didn’t have the skill to develop your website. Why would you want to make money from it that way?

Theoretically, it is possible because if you can drive people to your free site, maybe someone will buy something from it.

But practically that is something that will not happen. Why will someone do it while there are professional and stunning websites out there on the web?

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Would you buy a product or service on a free website? That is a question you must answer before expecting making money from your free website.

While I understand the complaint, I think it is a great way to introduce beginners to building a website.

11. Impossible to downgrade t the free membership once you go premium

This is also one of my biggest Wealthy Affiliate complaints.

Many platforms have upgrade and downgrade options and when you downgrade your membership plan you still have access to the features of that plan.

Unfortunately, WA didn’t offer downgrade option’s and people who don’t have money or time to continue the journey are required to cancel their subscription.

It is WA’s policy and we have to comply with that. They allow you to cancel and come back when you are ready to continue, but I would like to get the features offered in the starter membership before my upgrade.

So what I advise is to sign up for the free membership and don’t upgrade to the premium membership unless you are ready (financially and timely).

12. There is no cPanel access

cPanel is a control panel that provides users with a dashboard that allows them to manage a range of elements on their website. You can use cPanel to edit files, create email addresses, add new domains, and manage other stuff.

It is a feature most web hosting providers like Bluehost offers.

Experienced webmasters would need to access cPanel to manage files such as eBooks, Courses, etc.

If you are a starter, that is not a necessary feature for your business instead you are planning to run your own course, sell stuff online, etc.

Please understand my point here because I am not saying you cannot run an online course using the Wealthy Affiliate hosting.

That is handled by a technical support team. And I think that not having access to the cPanel help you avoid headaches and technical issue.

Keep in mind, you can contact Wealthy Affiliate Site Support anytime 24/7 and they will access cPanel for you.

While I understand the complaint, I think it is a great way to help beginners focus on their business.

Final thoughts…

I have come up with my top 12 Wealthy Affiliate complaints I come across since I have joined this platorm.

While some complaints are founded, some are not legit complaints.

And despite these complaints I myself have against Wealthy Affiliate I still recommend it to my audience for a couple of reasons:

WA is free to join and it offers valuable information even in the free membership,

This is an affordable all in one affiliate marketing platform that offers everything someone needs to build a real, sustainable online business.

That being said, I hope you found this article helpful.

Tell me in the comment section what is your biggest Wealthy Affiliate complaint.

Be an ACTION taker, SOW YOUR SEED TODAY!

To your success!

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