Tracking accuracy
Most affiliate platforms quietly lose 20–40% of conversions to privacy-first browsers because they rely on third-party cookies. LinkQuill is built first-party-first — here is exactly what survives where.
Browser-by-browser breakdown
"Third-party" column = how the browser treats cookies set on a different eTLD+1 from the page being viewed. "LinkQuill impact" = expected conversion attribution coverage.
| Browser | Share | 3rd-party cookies | 1st-party cookies | LinkQuill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iOS Safari (ITP) | ~24% mobile | block | limit | ≥95% |
| macOS Safari (ITP) | ~9% desktop | block | limit | ≥95% |
| Brave | ~2% desktop | block | partition | ≥95% |
| Firefox (ETP) | ~3% desktop | partition | allow | Full |
| Chrome | ~65% all platforms | partition | allow | Full |
| Edge / Opera | ~5% combined | partition | allow | Full |
iOS Safari (ITP) — details
Intelligent Tracking Prevention blocks third-party cookies and caps script-set first-party cookies at 7 days. LinkQuill's 1-year visitor cookie set via the `/r/[code]` redirect (Set-Cookie HTTP header) survives the cap.
macOS Safari (ITP) — details
Same ITP rules as iOS. Cookie set via HTTP redirect persists 1 year.
Brave — details
Brave Shields partitions cookies by top-level site. With custom-domain mode (`go.yourbrand.com`), the tracker and the merchant site share a first-party context — no partition penalty.
Firefox (ETP) — details
Total Cookie Protection partitions third-party cookies by top-level site. LinkQuill's first-party cookies are unaffected. Full conversion attribution.
Chrome — details
Chrome's third-party cookie deprecation completed in 2025. CHIPS (Cookies Having Independent Partitioned State) is the new model — LinkQuill's first-party tracking is unaffected.
Edge / Opera — details
Chromium-based — same behavior as Chrome.
Custom-domain mode — the 100% answer
Every paid plan can point a subdomain of your storefront — for example, go.yourbrand.com — at LinkQuill. Affiliate redirect links become go.yourbrand.com/r/CODE instead of linkquill.net/r/CODE.
Because the redirect domain shares the same eTLD+1 as your storefront (yourbrand.com), every browser treats the visitor cookie as a first-party cookie. ITP, ETP, Brave Shields, and Chrome's partitioning rules don't apply. Attribution is full.
Setup is a one-time DNS change. We'll walk you through it during onboarding, or you can configure it later from Dashboard → Settings → Tracking.
The honest caveat
No affiliate platform can promise 100% accuracy without custom-domain mode. The difference is what happens to the missed conversions:
- Other platforms: conversion is dropped, affiliate gets no credit, brand has no record of the click that drove it.
- LinkQuill: click is still recorded server-side at the redirect, multi-touch attribution (V3) credits any prior visitor-id touch even when the final cookie is missing, and the post-checkout webhook from your storefront can recover the conversion via order metadata.
Read the multi-touch attribution architecture at /docs#conversions.