Affiliate Lab vs. Authority Hacker: Which is Better? (2024)

Welcome to the Affiliate Lab vs. Authority Hacker SMACKDOWN. 

In one corner of the ring, we have Matt Diggity, SEO extraordinaire and founder of The Affiliate Lab.

In the other corner, we have Gael Breton and Mark Webster, the dynamic duo in charge of Authority Hacker.

Today’s ref will be ME — a handsome fella (according to mom) who has tested both courses and used their strategies to earn lots of moolah from affiliate sites.

DING-DING-DING.

Let the games begin.

The Affiliate Lab vs. Authority Hacker: Head-to-head comparison

Let’s compare Authority Hacker’s The Authority Site System (TASS) course with The Affiliate Lab (TAL) on 5 different factors. 

1. Beginner-friendliness (Winner: Authority Hacker)

When I say “beginner-friendliness”, I’m referring to how well the course explains the basics of how to buy your domain, hosting, set up WordPress for the first time, install a theme, how to use the basics of WordPress, etc.

TAL has a bonus mini-course called The Beginner’s Lab. But in all honestly, it’s taught by a geeky tech guy. And he’s not the best at dumbing it down for the noobs in the house.

TASS, on the other hand, has a recently-recorded module showing you how to set up your site, step by step. If you are brand new to the world of websites, TASS’s tutorial is easier to follow.

That said, this type of website setup info is all over the web. So if you’re ever stuck, just do a Google search.

The value in these courses isn’t the website set-up lessons. It’s all the other stuff.

2. Community (Winner: Affiliate Lab)

Both courses come with access to a private Facebook group. 

After spending significant time in both groups, Affiliate Lab is the clear winner here.

Don’t get me wrong — they are both great groups with tons of activity. Both have about the same amount of activity despite TAL having about half the members as TASS.

If you’re just getting started, they’ll both be a powerful resource to ask questions when you get stuck. 

That said, TAL seems to have higher-level conversations and strategies going on. 

Matt and other members regularly run SEO experiments and share their findings, so it’s a super helpful place to stay up to date with the most cutting-edge strategies. 

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

It’s the only SEO community (apart from this one) that I check in on almost daily, even after years of running affiliate sites. 

3. Production value (Winner: Authority Hacker)

Authority Hacker is slick. Like, really slick.

I’ve taken a crapton of online courses, and TASS is up there near the top in terms of production quality and user interface. 

Heck, I even received a personalized video message (with my name and everything) from a pretty lady welcoming me to the course.

You can tell the guys at Authority Hackers have invested a good amount of time and money in their course platform and video lessons. 

The Affiliate Lab, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. 

It’s hosted on the Teachable platform, which is a perfectly good platform. But it doesn’t feel as special as TASS’s sleek look.

TAL has a mix of lessons, many taught by Matt, but some taught by other experts with varying levels of recording and audio quality. 

Several TAL lessons are updated by simply tacking on new recordings to the beginning of an older video.

TASS takes a bit more pride in aesthetics and usually re-records entire lessons when they add updates. I also like the overall organization and flow of the material better. To see what I mean, check out my full Authority Hacker review.

That said, in the end, it’s not about how pretty a course looks, it’s about the actual content it teaches.

4. Advanced techniques (Winner: Affiliate Lab)

Both courses cover all the basics — enough to get you up and running and earning enough to replace your day job with passive income. 

But Mark and Gael hold back their most valuable advanced tactics for their premium course, Authority Hacker Pro, which costs several thousand dollars extra. 

Here’s a summary of TASS and Authority Hacker Pro, directly from their website:

In my testing, I found that Matt includes more advanced tactics in TAL, making it a better “all-in-one” training program, from beginner to advanced.

He even includes a bonus mini-course on how to sell your site.

This might not feel relevant to you right now. But if you fail to do certain things correctly from the beginning, it’ll make your site extremely hard to sell in the future (speaking from experience here).

Also, while both courses teach white hat SEO (Google-approved strategies) and grey hat SEO techniques (“gray area” strategies), Matt takes it further and includes some black hat strategies as well (i.e. PBNs). 

These black hat methods are completely optional. And while I don’t personally use them, I appreciate that he included them in the course. 

It’s important stuff to know because your competitors may be using these strategies. 

That said, there were a couple tactics in TAL that I felt fell into a gray area ethics-wise, and you can read about them in my full Affiliate Lab review or check out my video:

Again, you can skip these questionable bits if you want. They aren’t a critical part of the strategy. 

5. Cost (Winner: Tie)

The regular price for TAL is $997 and TASS is normally $1,499. That said, both offer discounts through these affiliate links:

• Get 60% off TASS
• Get $200 off TAL

With the discount links, that brings TASS down to $599 and TAL down to $797.

But if TASS costs $198 less than TAL, why is it a tie?

Well, because with TASS, you may eventually want to upgrade to Authority Hacker Pro, which will run you a few extra grand (although this isn’t required).

But with TAL, you have enough advanced tactics to help you scale, and eventually sell. You theoretically wouldn’t need another course (although it’s wise to continually invest in your education and learn other strategies). 

So, while Affiliate Lab costs a little more, I believe it will also get you farther. Hence the tie.

Authority Hacker vs Affiliate Lab: Which should you choose?

So that puts us at a score of 2 to 2.

To be honest, you can’t go wrong with either. They’re two of the best affiliate marketing courses that’ll teach you how to build sites that earn passive income. 

That said, to break the tie, you need to decide what’s most important to you. 

Is it pretty-looking videos, easy-to-follow flow, hand-holding, and noob-friendliness? 

Or is it an all-in-one course and epic community that takes you from beginner to advanced?

If I had to choose only one of the two, I’d choose The Affiliate Lab. 

Sure, TASS has slick-looking videos and may offer a smoother learning curve for tech-challenged beginners. 

But I prefer an SEO affiliate marketing course that I won’t outgrow in 6 months. 

With The Authority Site System, you need to pay thousands of dollars extra to get their advanced content in Authority Hacker Pro. 

The Affiliate Lab, on the other hand, includes enough advanced strategies to keep you optimizing and growing forever. 

Plus, the TAL Facebook group — a group I still check regularly to this day — is a level above the TASS group in terms of new strategies, insightful experiments, and successful site owners sharing their tips.

So there you have it. 

You won’t be disappointed with either option. I’m not trying to poop on Authority Hacker here as it’s truly one of the best courses I’ve taken.

But if I had limited dollars to invest, I’d go with the option that gives more bang for my buck — TAL.

In the end, it comes down to which of the factors we covered that are most important to you.

I hope you found this little comparison useful. It took a good chunk of time to put together, so if you found it helpful and want to say, “Thanks, Mitch!”— I’d be thrilled if you purchased using my affiliate link buttons above (at no extra charge to you). I’ll even send you an extra bonus (see below).