Why we’re sunsetting the Referral Program

News & Announcements
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We launched the Referral Program in March 2025.

Word of mouth has always been one of our strongest acquisition channels and something we’re genuinely proud of. Many of you discovered Fibery because a friend, colleague, or stranger on the internet shared it. So the idea behind the referral program was simple: let existing users invite others and get rewarded with credits (instead of throwing ad money into corporate black holes). A win-win, in theory.

But over the past 6 months (and after two iterations), we saw… not much. Fewer than 100 users invited anyone. No significant customers came from referred sign-ups. It just never became something people [regularly] used.

Cold-start problem? Misaligned incentives? Maybe. Either way, we’re letting it go. :pleading_face:

You can no longer access referral settings or generate new links. However, if you’ve already shared a link, it will continue to work until January 31, 2026. If someone you invited signs up and upgrades before then, you’ll still get credits. Any existing credits can also be redeemed before that date.

After that, all referral-related rewards and credits will be permanently discontinued.

The credit system itself stays — and we might reuse it in more targeted, interesting ways: onboarding bonuses, template-building rewards, maybe something we haven’t thought of yet.

Thanks to everyone who participated and gave it a try. :heart_hands: If you have any questions, check out the user guide FAQ or drop a comment below.

September 25, 2025 / Disable public sharing in a workspace, Rename "Name" field
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That’s sad. Did you interview people to understand any reasons they did not use the referral program? I wonder what were the responses?

P.S.: I personally found it occasionally and planned to use it.

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Good question, and the honest answer is no. Given how little traction it had, we focused on running tests (tweaking the offer and improving its visibility in the product).

Appreciate that you were planning to use it! If you have any thoughts on what might’ve made it more appealing or useful, I’d love to hear — we may bring back credits in a different format later on.

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Fibery as an “OS for your Company” means you deploy this tool in a company’s context. Whereas the referral system seems more like “end-consumer” based - 1 private guy inviting a friend or freelance subcontractor to collaborate (but then usually not disposed to pay for this…)- a chain of relations which I don’t see being your target customers tbh. My 2 cents.

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Unless you are the owner of the company, you don’t have any incentive to use the program; the credits would be used by the company you work for, which doesn’t have any impact on you. If I’m not mistaken, ClickUp pays you for referrals, so they have freelancers trying to bring clients to ClickUp so they can earn some money.

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Are you talking about ClickUp’s affiliate program?

You mentioned freelancers, but aren’t they the usually owner of their workspace.

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Are you talking about ClickUp’s affiliate program?

Yes, their affiliate program.

You mentioned freelancers, but aren’t they the usually owner of their workspace.

Yes, but the cost is minimal, so credits are not so important. They help companies to improve their internal processes and onboard them to Clickup (or other tools with affiliate programs). They also create content on YouTube, help people on Reddit, newsletters, and other platforms to find clients.

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OK, right.
It’s probably worth mentioning, that an affiliate program (or any program which compensates people with direct payments) is more costly/bureaucratic to operate, since payments to people need to follow specific accounting processes.
We decided not to go that route, which is why the rewards had to be credits tied to the workspace, but it’s a fair point that the benefit might not be immediately seen/felt by the referrer themself.

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