I wouldn't recomend any free affiliate tracking script, becauseyou will lose trust with your affiliates. If you don't have money for script, how will you pay them? So here are some scrits that are ok and affordable: idevdirect.com (idevaffiliate) 99.99$+ osiaffiliate.com 97$ softservice.org/products_affiliatepro.html 49$
You may want to use clickbank. They take care of the tracking and they will also pay the affiliates for you. I think it is a great option for people who are looking for a free affiliate software. Are you promoting a digital product or a physical product?
I'm sorry, I forgot that clickbank does charge money to get started. It has been so long since I signed up that I forgot. I'm pretty sure that it only costs a one time fee of $49.
I didn't have to and I don't think that you will have to. I guess the best thing to do is just go sign up and find out. If they do want to charge you more than $49 than let me know. Good luck.
The first site I put on clickbank picked up a couple affiliates right away. I've found that you have to recruit affiliates. I don't think you'll get very many affiliates who just randomly start promoting your site UNTIL you get the site pushed to the front page of the marketplace.
What did you end up getting? Btw Clickbank doesn't require you to deposit anything. You don't pay the affiliates - Clickbank does and they might hold back a small % to cover fraud. Yes there's a small setup fee per product on CB and they take a %. It's explained on their site.