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SamCart vs ThriveCart

By Marcus Reeve, reviewed by the Lander Report editors. Updated 2026-10-17. How we research

Quick answer

ThriveCart is our top pick for most people. Pick ThriveCart if you want order bumps, upsells and checkout A/B testing on Standard, with a 0% cart fee. Pick SamCart if you want AI-built pages and courses on Core, and you plan to upgrade to Pro for order bumps, upsells, affiliate management and Subscription Saver.

  • SamCart. Best for a digital product when the order bump requires Pro. From $79/mo.
  • ThriveCart. Best for your own digital product, with a bump on Standard. From $37/mo.

See ThriveCart plan prices

Side by side

Feature comparison across 2 tools
Tool Split testing Checkout Free trial From
1. SamCart Checkout A/B on Pro Yes, hosted 7 days, card $79/mo
2. ThriveCart Checkout A/B on Standard Yes, hosted 30 days, card $37/mo

Where each one wins

SamCart

What works

  • Checkout Anywhere places the hosted form on a page you already run, and the vendor describes that embed as one line of code.
  • SamPay is listed at 2.9% + 30¢, and the pricing page treats that as the processor fee with no extra platform cut on SamPay.
  • The homepage puts checkout, pages, courses and AI tools on one platform.
  • A seven-day trial is advertised, and the terms say you must cancel before it ends or the first subscription charge goes through.

What to watch

  • Order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B testing, Subscription Saver, the Affiliate Center and third-party processors are listed on Pro only.
  • A/B testing is on Pro. If the ad must keep one destination URL, use a landing page builder.
  • Commenters call the upgrade price high. One says a stack past $300 a month per business does not make sense.
  • Cancel at least five days before the next bill. Monthly subscriptions cannot be refunded, and each active subscription has to be cancelled separately.

ThriveCart

What works

  • The homepage lists support as available 24/7.
  • Standard includes unlimited products and funnels, one bump, one-click upsells and downsells, and cart recovery.
  • Monthly plans start with a trial, and that checkout requires a card. The lifetime licence is optional.
  • Pro+ adds the affiliate center, automated payouts, extra bumps, subscription dunning, and custom branding and domains.

What to watch

  • A new Standard account does not include affiliate management. The help center explains the upgrade to Pro+.
  • Refund complaints cover the software subscription and a customer refund that posted a second time.
  • A seller comparing carts said outages had stopped customers from paying.
  • A Capterra reviewer dislikes the sales page builder and says clients struggle to find the coupon field.
Two stacks of white cards with teal outlines. The left stack has three cards and a dark block beside the middle card. The right stack has four cards and a dark block beside the second card.
The left stack is three cards, with a dark block beside the middle card. The right stack is four cards, with a dark block beside the second card.

You already have the product

The choice left is the hosted checkout: the form that takes the card, a bump on that form, and an upsell after the buyer pays. ThriveCart's homepage includes one bump, upsells and downsells that charge in one click, and an A/B test of that checkout on Standard. SamCart's pricing page puts one-click upsells and order bumps on Pro, in the list of features added on top of Core.

Choose Standard if you need the bump on your first ThriveCart bill. Core will still charge the card. On SamCart, the bump, the upsell and the A/B test are Pro features.

SamCart homepage with the logo, a black navigation bar, the headline 3X Your Conversions, and a phone mockup of a checkout form.
SamCart's homepage shows a checkout form inside a phone, under the headline 3X Your Conversions.
ThriveCart blog header for the post that introduces the monthly pricing model, with the cart logo in the site header and Sign up and Login on the right.
This is the ThriveCart post that lists the monthly plans, with Sign up and Login in the header.

Compare Standard with Core, and Pro+ with Pro

Use Standard and Core when you only need the order form. Use Pro+ and Pro when you need affiliates, or a retry after a subscription charge fails. ThriveCart lists these prices in its monthly pricing post. SamCart lists Core and Pro on the pricing page linked above.

Plan Month to month Paid annually
ThriveCart Standard $47 $37
SamCart Core $79 25% off
ThriveCart Pro+ $87 $67
SamCart Pro $199 25% off
Lifetime Standard $495 once One payment

Lifetime Standard is a single ThriveCart payment, at the amount in that row. The rows above it are subscriptions. For SamCart, the annual column shows the yearly discount. The month-to-month column shows the monthly list price.

ThriveCart vs SamCart on bumps and upsells

The bump is an extra product on the checkout form, added before the buyer pays. The upsell runs after that payment and uses the card already on file. The A/B test shows two versions of the order page.

A wide checkout card, a small card beside it, and a second card after a thin arrow.
The wide card is the checkout form. The small card beside it is the bump. The card after the arrow is the upsell.

If ads are already sending people to the offer, the bump has to be included on a plan you can start now. Sales that go through before that upgrade will not carry the extra product. ThriveCart Standard includes one bump, those upsells and downsells, and the A/B test, plus unlimited products and funnels. A second bump is a Pro+ feature.

On SamCart, the bump, the upsell and the A/B test are on Pro. Core still includes the hosted checkout, cart abandonment, AI page tools and courses. AI usage is limited on Core and unlimited on Pro.

Capability Standard Core Pro+ Pro
Bump 1 offer On Pro More than one Included
Upsells Included On Pro Included Included
Checkout test Included On Pro Included Included
Affiliates On Pro+ On Pro Included Included
Failed-charge recovery On Pro+ On Pro Dunning Subscription Saver
Share of each sale None None on SamPay None None on SamPay

Affiliates and failed subscription payments

SamCart's Affiliate Center is on Pro, along with advanced analytics, an API and third-party processors. ThriveCart's Affiliate Center and automated payouts are on Pro+, on the homepage pricing grid.

SamCart names its failed-payment tool Subscription Saver, and that tool is on Pro. ThriveCart names its version subscription dunning, and that version is on Pro+.

Choose the tier before the products are loaded, because the orders and the subscriber list stay in the cart you set up. Sellers leave SamCart Core when the extra product on the form matters. Sellers leave ThriveCart Standard when they need affiliates or a second bump.

In 2025 a buyer wrote that affiliate tools were pitched as part of Standard, and the feature was on Pro+ at $295 a year. Use the monthly post for the current Pro+ rate. That $295 figure is an older yearly quote.

Processor fees and sales tax

ThriveCart's processor-fees page says ThriveCart takes nothing from the sale. Stripe, PayPal, or a buy-now-pay-later option still charges its own rate, where that option is offered.

SamCart's pricing page lists SamPay with no added SamCart fee on the SamPay rate. When SamPay collects tax, Core and Pro add different amounts. Both figures are in the fee table.

Fee Amount
SamPay rate 2.9% + 30¢
Tax on SamPay, Core 50 basis points
Tax on SamPay, Pro 35 basis points
ThriveCart cut None

What long-term users report

Sellers who use SamCart for a basic checkout describe it as reliable. In the same threads, they call Pro expensive when the upgrade was only for the bump and the upsell. ThriveCart is praised for the bump and the upsell, and it is criticized for downtime that kept a customer from paying. Comments about support in one martech thread favor SamCart.

Each comment is one seller's account. The plan rules are on the two pricing pages linked above.

Which plan I would choose

I would start on ThriveCart Standard if I need that extra product and the upsell on the first bill, and affiliates can wait.

I would start on SamCart if the same account should also hold the pages and the course, and the budget covers Pro for the bump, the Affiliate Center and Subscription Saver. Core is the SamCart plan for the checkout and those page tools while the offer has no bump yet.

See ThriveCart plan prices before the trial asks for a card.

Cold ads still need a landing page

Send a cold click to a landing page first, then into one of these checkouts. The sales funnel roundup compares tools for that front page. If the store is on WordPress, CartFlows vs FunnelKit, ClickFunnels vs CartFlows and Checkout Champ vs CartFlows compare checkouts that run inside the store.

An A/B test on this page changes the order form. Keeping one ad URL while two headlines rotate is covered in the guide to split-testing a lander. Read the SamCart review or the ThriveCart review for a single product. All head-to-head comparisons and the reviews hub list the rest. Our research page explains how this comparison was put together, from vendor pricing pages and from public threads by long-term users.

17 Oct 2026: first published from the ThriveCart monthly post, the SamCart pricing grid, the processor-fees page, and public operator threads.

Our pick

ThriveCart

ThriveCart fits if you sell your own digital products and want a hosted checkout with an order bump and one-click upsells, without the platform taking a percentage of each sale. Choose Standard unless you need affiliate management or more than one order bump. Both of those are on Pro+. Skip it if you need a landing page test that keeps one ad URL, or a checkout that lives inside WooCommerce.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a bump on SamCart Core?
No. That grid keeps the bump on the higher plan. Core still runs the hosted form and the page tools.
Does ThriveCart charge a fee on each sale?
Its processor-fees page sets the cart's own cut at zero. The card processor still bills its rate.
Which trial runs longer?
ThriveCart's. The trial row near the top of this page is the one to read.
Do I still need a landing page for cold ads?
Yes. These two take the order. The page the ad clicks is a separate tool, lined up in the sales-funnel roundup.

SamCart official sources

From SamCart

ThriveCart official sources

From ThriveCart

Other sources

22 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context.

  1. [r1] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  2. [r2] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  3. [r3] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  4. [r4] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  5. [r5] Order Upgrades (Thrivecart Alternative?) Reddit
  6. [r6] Is there better software than Thrivecart? Reddit
  7. [r7] Samcart anyone? Reddit
  8. [r8] SamCart Trustpilot reviews Trustpilot
  9. [r9] Good Idea with slow customer support Capterra
  10. [r10] Order Upgrades (Thrivecart Alternative?) Reddit
  11. [r11] SamCart vs ThriveCart on G2 G2
  12. [r1] Thoughts on ThriveCart Reddit
  13. [r2] Thoughts on ThriveCart Reddit
  14. [r3] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  15. [r4] Thrivecart vs Samcart decisions Reddit
  16. [r5] ThriveCart reviews on Capterra Capterra
  17. [r6] ThriveCart reviews on Capterra, page 2 Capterra
  18. [r7] Thoughts on ThriveCart Reddit
  19. [r8] Do any of you really use thrivecart? Reddit
  20. [r9] Do any of you really use thrivecart? Reddit
  21. [r10] ThriveCart alternatives Reddit
  22. [r11] Kartra vs ThriveCart Reddit

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