Comparison

simplereferral vs GrowSurf, for developers

GrowSurf focuses on referral programs and viral loops configured through a dashboard and a drop-in widget. simplereferral is a referral API for developers and AI coding agents.

Short version: GrowSurf is a good fit if you want a configurable referral widget and campaign tooling managed by a growth team. simplereferral is for developers who want the underlying primitive as a clean, idempotent API.

Side by side

simplereferral compared with GrowSurf, capability by capability.
Capability	GrowSurf	simplereferral
Built for	Growth teams, referral campaigns	Developers and their coding agents
Primary surface	Dashboard + embeddable widget	REST API + SDK; MCP server on the way
Integration	Drop-in widget, plus a REST API and JS SDK	One API key, two idempotent calls
Agent-friendly docs	Standard product docs	OpenAPI + llms.txt + copy-paste quickstarts
Control	Widget UI out of the box; API if you build your own	You own the UI; we own the attribution

Which one to pick

Pick GrowSurf if

You want a configurable referral widget out of the box.
A growth team will run campaigns from a dashboard.
You are fine with the widget owning the referral UI.

Pick simplereferral if

You are a developer adding referrals inside your own app.
You want an API designed so a coding agent integrates it correctly on the first try.
You want to own the reward logic and just get clean, idempotent attribution.

Questions

Is simplereferral a GrowSurf alternative?

For developers, yes, and it is the closest comparison here: GrowSurf also has an API. The difference is center of gravity. GrowSurf centers on hosted campaigns and an embeddable widget; simplereferral is API-only, built so you keep your own UI and get clean, idempotent attribution.

Do I have to use your UI?

No. simplereferral is an API, so you build the referral UI you want. GrowSurf ships an embeddable widget that owns the UI.

An API designed so a coding agent integrates it correctly on the first try.

One API key, two calls, idempotent and deliverable. Get an early-access key.

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