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Home
Design Examples
Referral Program Design: Real Examples
Design Examples

Referral Program Design: Real Examples

See how companies like Wise, Duolingo and Monzo design referral programmes, including personalised invite pages, earnings calculators and giftable subscription perks.

Real world examples:

Updated: 23/09/2026, view all 1,482 examples

Examples on Built for Mars include
  • Wise names the referrer on its landing page

  • Duolingo pays referrals in XP, not cash

  • Monzo turns unused perks into referral gifts

UX Bite:
Spoil Me logoSpoil Me

Referral calculator

When inviting friends, you'll have an interactive calculator to estimate how much you'll earn as a reward.

Referral calculator

More context:

Importantly, this also frames the benefit, and anchors your expectations.

#765
View UX Bite
UX Bite:
Wise logoWise

Personalised referral links

If you share a Wise referral link, your name will be used on the landing page.

Personalised referral links

More context:

This makes the referral feel more personal, more real, and likely increases the conversion rate of this landing page.

#1233
View UX Bite
UX Bite:
Refind logoRefind

Refind's coin buy back

Refind incentivizes user referrals by giving coins and offering to buy them back later at a mystery value.

Refind's coin buy back

More context:

They've since stopped doing this—perhaps it was too complicated.

But, conceptually it's an interesting idea to use variable rewards to encourage referrals.

#68
View UX Bite
UX Bite:
Washington Post logoWashington Post

Personalised referrals

When opening links from inside Reddit, Washington Post will show personalised offers.

Personalised referrals

More context:

This kind of personalisation might make the referral stickier.

#411
View UX Bite
UX Bite:
Headspace logoHeadspace

That was kind of you

After referring a friend and giving them a free trial, Headspace will frame your action positively, and remind you of the benefits of the service.

That was kind of you

More context:

i.e., this does two things, frames "being kind", but more importantly it reminds you about the benefits of Headspace.

It'd be like inviting someone to BFM, and seeing a message "Well done, now they'll be great at UX too".

It makes you think "oh yeah, I'm getting better at UX myself".

#570
View UX Bite
UX Bite:
Breethe logoBreethe

Dynamic sign-up offers

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Plans start from £8 per month
Subscribe to unlock#859
Preview
UX Bite:
Duolingo logoDuolingo

Double XP boosts

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Plans start from £8 per month
Subscribe to unlock#519
Preview
The UI displays a large white "S" centered on a solid purple-blue background, with no additional text, logos, or interface elements visible.The UI shows a stylized "M" logo with teal, cream, and red color blocks on a dark blue background. No text or markings are highlighted or underlined.The UI shows the text "Spoil Me" in large, black, serif font centered on a light gray background, with no additional graphics or interface elements.

There are more than 1400 UX Bites like this

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"An exceptional resource for learning how to build habit-forming products that people love."

The UI contains the yellow book cover "HOOKED" by Nir Eyal in the bottom right, with black text in a white box with blue borders stating "COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED."
Nir EyalAuthor of Hooked

"I’d never met anybody who looks at usability and UX the way I do until I met Peter. Only he’s smarter."

Photo: site-map sketches with pen annotations, yellow sticky notes and folder of labeled cards, black phone cord, red book cover reading "DON'T MAKE ME THINK".
Steve KrugAuthor of Don't Make Me Think

"The completest view of the psychological underpinnings of human behaviour that I’ve ever seen."

Circular avatar: smiling man, navy jacket, blue‑checked shirt, blurred green bg. Overlays: red EA badge lower-right; black square with white up‑left arrow.
Bing GordonKleiner Perkins & EA

"What a nice idea! Christopher Alexander would be proud to see patterns collected like this."

Profile picture of a man with medium-length hair and stubble wearing a grey hoodie and dark jacket. Two app icons overlay bottom right: yellow Asana and blue Miro.
DHHHey! & Basecamp

FAQs

Do referral rewards need to be financial?

No. Non-cash rewards work well when they push people further into the product. For example, Duolingo gives a 15-minute Double XP boost for adding a friend, and having friends on the app improves the learning experience itself. Refind tried a variable reward, i.e., coins bought back later at a mystery value, but has since dropped it, perhaps because it was too complicated.

What makes a referral landing page convert better?

An invite that feels personal is more believable than a generic signup page. This is what Wise does by showing the referrer's name on the page their friend lands on. Matching the offer to where the visitor came from works on the same principle; for instance, Washington Post shows Reddit visitors a dedicated offer of 7 free stories.

Why show an earnings estimate in a referral flow?

A total figure frames the benefit in concrete terms and anchors what people expect to earn. For example, Spoil Me's interactive calculator shows that inviting 10 friends could earn $230, which feels more tangible than a per-invite reward.

How can a subscription perk work as a referral flow?

Gifting an unused perk gives the paying user more value, because nothing goes to waste, while the recipient gets a taste of the product backed by social proof from a friend who already pays. As an example, Monzo prompts users to gift an unredeemed weekly Greggs treat and tells the friend they could get one every week with Monzo Perks.

What should the confirmation say after someone sends a referral?

The confirmation is a chance to remind the referrer why they value the product. Headspace, for instance, says "That was kind of you" after a guest pass is shared, which frames the act as generous and points back to the benefits the user already gets.