Samcart is definitely one of the leading platforms to create and host online stores, build landing pages, shopping carts, and much more. The platform is currently serving more than 30,000 users selling millions of physical and digital products, subscriptions, etc.
However, the platform has its limitations and may not be suitable for businesses of every scale. Also, it lacks some key features like A/B split testing, subscription-based website creation, etc.
But Samcart is not the only fish in the pond as there are well over 20 shopping cart builder platforms in the market at the moment. In this article, I am going to talk about the top 11 of them. So stay tuned.
Top 12 Samcart Alternatives In 2024
No doubt Samcart is one of the leading shopping cart builder platforms and is currently being used by hundreds of thousands of e-sellers. However, there are certain limitations that may prompt you to look for an alternative. Here are a few of them:
- The Limited number of payment processors and payment gateways
- Limited access to A/B testing (Only for higher plans)
- No cart sharing/funnel sharing facility
- No option to create a membership-based website
- No provision of IDs sub-tracking
- The sales calculation tool is missing
Also, in terms of the overall package, Samcart is slightly more expensive than some of its close competitors. Now, not every tool may provide all of these features which I mentioned above, however, if you are considering a budget option and any of these features matter to you in particular, you should definitely look for an alternative platform.
Before we begin, here is a quick overview of the best Samcart alternatives, their price as well as the top feature.
Sr. No. | PLATFORM | STARTING PRICE | TOP FEATURE |
1. | Thrivecart | $495 (Lifetime) | Best overall |
2. | BigCommerce | $29.95/month | All-in-One |
3. | Sellfy | $29/month | In-built marketing tools |
4. | SendOwl | $19/month | Best for digital products |
5. | PayKickstart | $99/month | Best affiliate program |
6. | Kartra | $99/month | E-commerce solutions |
7. | Podia | $33/month | Online course hosting |
8. | Shift4Shop | $29/month | Affordable and Powerful |
9. | ClickFunnels | $80.84/month | Advanced Funnels |
10. | CartFlows | $239/Year | WordPress Funnels |
11. | GumRoad | $10/month | Affordable Paid Plan |
12. | SureCart | $199/year | Free forever plan |
1. Thrivecart
The first one on my list is Thrivecart which is probably the best and closest competitor to Samcart. Currently, the lifetime subscription of Thrivecart is available at $495 which makes it a lucrative deal you can’t back off from.
In terms of features, the platform has a lot to offer. Whether you are running an e-commerce business or a membership website for digital products and services, Thrivecart has everything you would need, and that too at an exciting price point. The company has an easy-to-use website builder and numerous pre-designed templates that you can use to create a stunning website for your business.
You can add multiple checkout options, enable embedded/popup cart pages, add one-click bump offers, and much more.
Key Features
- One-time payment for the lifetime subscription
- Multiple payment gateways and processors including Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Stripe, and Paypal
- Integrated VAT calculation with multi-currency support
- A/B testing
- Ability to choose between pop-up and embedded cart options
- Drag-drop website builder with pre-designed templates
Drawbacks
- Limited support channels (no live chat, telephone support)
- No cryptocurrency payments as of now
Pricing
You can purchase a lifetime subscription to Thrivecart at $495 which seems to be a great deal if you are in the business for a long haul. With an additional $195, you can buy Thrivecart Pro which gives you some advanced features such as an advanced user management system, business projections, sales tax estimation, and much more.
2. BigCommerce
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is an American e-commerce platform that provides multiple services to its customers such as website building, hosting, e-store marketing, and SEO. Compared to the other alternatives listed in this article, BigCommerce is a better all-in-one platform for organizations of any size and capacity.
With an easy site builder tool, you can create a stunning yet professional-looking website for your business. The platform is focused on helping users with no coding language and there are decent enough tools for you to design and set up your online store without any programming skills whatsoever. Not only that, but the company also provides various SEO and marketing tools to increase traffic volume and sales.
BigCommerce allows users to accept payments through major international gateways including PayPal, Adyen, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and much more. The biggest highlight of BigCommerce is its ability to integrate with numerous third-party platforms which gives you more flexibility. However, the platform is self-sufficient in itself, meaning you won’t need many outside apps to function on a high level.
Key Features
- Allows you to sell through several social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, etc
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Third-party apps integrations for more functionality
- Affordable starting price, perfect for beginners and small enterprises
- Intuitive design tools and templates
- Zero transaction fee
Drawbacks
- The editor is not well-optimized to create quality content
- Auto-upgradation if you cross the annual sales limit.
Pricing Detail
BigCommerce premium access comes at a starting price of $29.95/month. You can also purchase the Plus and Pro plans at $79.95 and $299.95 per month respectively.
If you want to scale your business, you can contact BigCommerce to know more about their Enterprise plan which comes with all the advanced features and accesses.
3. Sellfy
Since its inception in 2001, Sellfy has been one of the most consistent Saas platforms in the market. It’s similar to BigCommerce and Shopify where you can create and host your online store, sell through social media channels, or even connect your store to an existing website.
Agreed, Sellfy is not as popular as some other platforms but if you are looking for something where you can start from scratch and sell physical as well as digital products, Sellfy is the one for you.
Sellfy is a cloud-based program that you can access from anywhere and manage your store. As far as tools are concerned, you get an extremely user-friendly builder tool to create exceptional website designs without worrying about writing thousands of lines of code. Also, to promote your business, you get tonnes of marketing tools including automated emails to keep your customers updated, send automatic promotional emails, and much more.
There are additional features such as reporting and analysis to keep your progress in check, 1-click bump offers/upsells, and so on.
Features
- The email marketing feature comes bundled with the program
- Ability to connect your store to an old website
- Free plan
- No transaction fee
- Sell physical and digital products through social channels
- Facebook/Twitter tracking
- Single-click discounts and bump offers
Drawbacks
- The number of payment processors and gateways is less
- Lack of Affiliate management dashboard
Pricing Detail
Sellfy has a free plan where you can sell up top 10 POD products/physical products. For premium features, you can choose between the Starter, Business, and Premium plans at a monthly price of $29, $79, and $159 respectively.
The company provides discounts up to $489 if you commit to yearly plans. The yearly subscription costs of the three plans are $264, $708, and $1428 respectively.
4. SendOwl
The next one on the list is SendOwl, a British affordable Samcart alternative. The program functions similarly to any other e-commerce platform where you can sell digital products and memberships online. The platform collaborates with payment services and automatically delivers the products to your customers once the payment has been received.
With SendOwl, you can sell through your social media channels, e-commerce website, or your own website. It integrates with several site builder platforms such as Squarespace, and WordPress and you can migrate your whole product information right into SendOwl.
For payments, SendOwl supports major global payment gateways including PayPal, Apple Pay, Stripe, BitPay, Shopify, SOFORT, iDEAL, Giropay, and Bancontact. SendOwl also offers tools to promote your business and increase sales without needing to download tens of third-party applications.
Furthermore, it comes with an integrated affiliate program where you can hire marketers to promote your products in exchange for some commissions.
Features
- Built-in email marketing functionality
- Advanced reporting and analysis
- Drip function where you can plan launch strategies to keep your customers hooked
- On-site checkout system
- Add 1-click upsells
- Extremely affordable, 1 month free trial period
- Shopping cart abandonment feature
Drawbacks
- Not suitable for large-scale business
- Lacks customization features
- A/B testing is missing
Pricing Detail
SendOwl comes in 2 basic plans – Free and Growth.
With the free plan, you get access to standard templates, marketing, and checkout features. The growth plan comes at a price of $19/month along with a month of a free trial. The plan lets you sell unlimited subscriptions and access premium customization features.
If you are dealing with a number of products and want customized services, you can contact SendOwl to prepare an exclusive plan for you, based on your requirements.
5. PayKickstart
PayKickstart is one of the most feature-rich shopping cart platforms which, apart from A/B testing, offered everything that is missing from Samcart. The two areas where PayKickstart really has an edge over Samcart are the payment gateway support and affiliate management program.
Also, the platform offers a bunch of advanced marketing and functionality enhancement features such as integrated email service, webinars, CPA tracker, custom payment providers, JV contracts, Uptime monitoring, and much more.
Probably the best thing about PayKickstart is its sort-out structure where you can find useful features for merchants, affiliate marketers, mobile website features, etc. Additionally, you get custom APIs, custom sale notifications, and Usage-based billing services.
Features
- Wider Payment processors/gateway integration
- Powerful affiliate management program
- Support through 24/7 live chat, exclusive Facebook community support
- Zero transaction charges
- Order bumps, upsells, coupon codes, and discounts on the checkout page
- Customizable templates and designs
Drawbacks
- A complicated user interface may be a bit tricky to navigate through
- Still no A/B testing
- Higher starting price, no free trial
Pricing Detail
PayKickstart offers 3 premium plans for its users – Starter Growth, and Scale.
The starter plan costs $99/month ($79 when billed yearly) and offers basic functionalities including payment integrations, sales conversion tools, numerous checkout templates, reporting, analysis, and much more.
If you want more advanced features such as dunning management, Apple Pay support, and CR tools, you can go with the Growth plan for $199/month ($159 when billed yearly). With the Growth plan, you also get access to the affiliate center.
The scale plan is customized for big-scale enterprises and comes at a price of $299/month ($239 when billed yearly). You get all basic and premium features along with priority support, advanced customer insight, CRM integrations, and the ability to add infinite users to your account.
6. Kartra
Kartra can be seen as a one-stop solution for all your e-commerce needs. Whether you want to sell physical/digital products through your website, create landing pages, sell subscriptions, host your website under your domain, or host videos, Kartra does it all.
With Kartra, you can build highly engaging customized checkout pages matching with style and brand identity. Of course, you can sell unlimited products at custom prices and use bump offers, upsells, downsells, to increase the chances of conversion and make better sales overall.
From a global point of view as well, Kartra is a great platform to host your business as it supports major currency conversion and over 40 language translations.
Apart from a great page builder, you also get CRP solutions, automated email/SMS service for better customer engagements, the customer database, leads, and affiliate management where you can hire and track all your business affiliates easily. Kartra is not an exclusive checkout software like Samcart but if you are looking to cover a wider audience with decent enough checkout functionality, it will do the job for you.
Features
- Video hosting facility
- Multi-page funnel flow for higher conversions
- Built-in automated email feature
- In-house affiliate program
- Customizable templates for landing pages, shopping carts, etc
- Integrated CRM tool
- Bump offers, Upsells, and downsells
- Free appointment management and calendar application
- Third-party integration for greater functionality
Drawbacks
- Beginners may be overwhelmed with the interface and the number of things to get started with
- Pricing is on the expensive side
Pricing Detail
Kartra offers 4 premium plans to its customers – Starter, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
The starter plan comes at $99/month and allows you to host 1 custom domain, send 15k monthly emails, and host up to 100 pages and 50 videos. You get 2 user licenses, 1 helpdesk, and the ability to create 2 membership sites and sell up to 20 products.
Silver and Gold plans will cost you $199/month and $299/month respectively. Both plans allow you to host unlimited videos, sell unlimited products, and build unlimited membership sites. You can add as many additional users as you want as well. However, with a Silver plan, you get up to 12500 leads and 3 custom domains while the Gold plan provides double the leads and up to 5 custom domains.
With the Kartra Platinum plan, you get up to 50k leads, 10 custom domains, and all the premium features including unlimited users and helpdesk support. The platinum plan will cost you $499/month.
If you subscribe to a yearly plan, instead of monthly, you can get up to a 25% flat discount on all plans.
7. Podia
Podia is an e-commerce platform where entrepreneurs can sell memberships, digital products, courses, and webinars. So if you are in a creative field and need a platform to start making money from your passion, Podia is the place, to begin with.
The user interface is beginner friendly and you don’t have to have tonnes of technical knowledge in order to create your store and sell your digital items. Apart from an easy store builder, you also get integrated marketing features to increase your conversion rate. You can send automated promotional emails to your customers, informing them about the latest releases, upcoming offers, and much more.
You also get the feature where you can upload all your content on Podia at once but it will be released to the audience at a preferred time. Also, you can set membership restrictions to access your content so the customers will be forced to buy more expensive plans.
Podia is not an exact replica of Samcart, however, it does enough to be categorized as a worthy opponent, especially for the merchants who want to sell digital products and memberships primarily.
With Podia, you can:
- Sell downloadable items such as e-books, audio files, and PDFs
- Engage with customers through automated emails
- Build an affiliate program and hire marketers to promote your products
- Integrate with Youtube and Zoom
- Add coupons, offers, and upsells
- Manage digital goods tax (EU)
- Easily migrate from a different platform
- Host online courses with unlimited files, images, and content
Drawbacks
- Doesn’t provide exclusive cart builder, funnels, etc
- Customization options are limited and not suitable for high-scale companies
Pricing Detail
Podia has 4 plans – Free, Mover, Shaker, and Earthquaker
With the Free plan, you can build a full-fledged website and host 1 course. You also get access to email marketing tools, community support, 24/7 live chat, ability to draft courses and webinars. The transaction fee for each sale is 8%.
The mover plan comes at $33/month (billed annually) where you can host unlimited courses and there is no transaction fee to be paid. The Shaker plan will cost you $75/month (billed annually) with added affiliate management service.
For big-scale websites, there is an Earthquaker plan where you get priority assistance, monthly creator calls, and onboarding calls along with all the premium features from lower plans. The price of the Earthquaker plan is $166/month (billed annually).
8. Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop, formally known as 3Dcart, is a Florida-based company that provides e-commerce solutions for small and medium enterprises. It’s a good Samcart alternative to consider if you are planning to start your online business or point-of-sale service.
The platform manages to merge all the necessary tools that you require to get your online business up and running without integrating into multiple third-party applications. To design your store, you get an easy site builder along with pre-designed templates which can be customized further as per your preference.
Shift4Shop also allows you to promote and sell through multiple social media channels right from the tour dashboard with smooth integration. The company partners with Square Inc to provide a credit card payment facility for its users.
Features
- Integrated Customer Relation management tool
- Built-in email marketing for automated emails
- Advanced analysis and reporting feature
- Multiple ship-to checkouts
- The free plan is loaded with a lot of premium features
- Beginners’ friendly
Drawbacks
- Below-average customer care service
- There is a limit on revenue on premium plans
Pricing Detail
Apart from a lifetime free plan, Shift4Shop 3 premium plans for its users – Basic, Plus, and Pro. To use the free plan, you need to use Shift4Shop as your official payment partner and you can get access to all the features of premium plans.
The basic plan comes at $29/month where you get access to all the essential features and marketing tools that you need to get your store ready to sell along with 1 additional user account facility.
Plus plan comes at $79/month and allows you to add up to 5 secondary users and can access all the marketing and promotional tools available at Shift4Shop.
You can grab the Pro plan at $299/month if you are operating on a large scale and needs to add more user accounts. With Pro, you get to add up to 15 user accounts along with access to marketing automation and advanced design features.
9. ClickFunnels
As I mentioned in the beginning, Samcart has a weak funneling feature so if that’s what concerns you, you can go with ClickFunnels which allows you to create high-converting and professional sales funnels.
The platform identifies itself as an all-in-one e-commerce solution where you can create and host websites, squeeze pages, landing pages, webinars, subscription sites, and a lot more. Additionally, there are numerous pre-designed funnel templates available that you can further customize based on your preference.
You can create lead funnels, Launch funnels, follow-up funnels, sales funnels, and much more to have a higher chance of making a bigger sale. Compared to Samcart, ClickFunnels seems more refined in features that allow merchants to automate their business and control each and every step of sales.
Features
- Robust website builder with nearly full e-commerce features
- Professional-looking sales funnels
- Flexible third-party integration including MailChimp, FreshSales, MindBody, etc
- In-built CRM features
- Email automation, A/B testing, CRM management, and much more
- Free marketing material and courses
Drawback
- The starter plan could be better. It doesn’t offer much functionality compared to others
- The pricing is on rather an expensive side, not suitable for beginners
- A steep learning curve with funnels
Pricing Detail
ClickFunners has 2 premium plans – Basic and Platinum which are priced at $80.84/month and $247.50/month respectively.
With the Basic plan, you get Up to 200 funnels, 100 pages, up to 20k monthly visits, a single user license, up to 3 payment gateways, 3 custom domains, and standard email support.
With the Platinum plan, you get unlimited funnels, pages, monthly visits, and priority support. You can add 2 more additional users, up to 9 custom domains, and the same amount of payment gateways.
Unfortunately, there is no free plan but the company also offers a 14-day free trial on both plans.
10. CartFlows
CartFlows is not a self-hosting platform like Samcart but it offers a great funnel builder for WordPress websites that can transform your business. Currently, It has been used but more than 220k people and offers over 82 features in total.
Apart from the hosting platform, there is nothing that CartFlows lacks in comparison to Samcart. There are pre-designed templates for checkout pages, landing pages, sales funnels, website pages, and much more. These templates are compatible with many page builders and the customization is fairly simple and doesn’t require technical proficiency whatsoever. You can use a simple drag-drop tool to create highly professional and engaging funnels and cart pages.
CartFlows advanced sales funnels provide a great opportunity to turn a visitor into a buyer. Whether you are running an e-commerce store, online course creation platform, or agency to help your clients get more sales, CartFlows leads generation and sales funnels work for all and increase your revenue in a very short period.
Features
- Add as many bump offers, upsells, and downsells with a single click
- Lifetime plan with the facility to pay in 4 easy installments and a 30-day money-back guarantee
- A/B split testing
- Huge library of templates to choose from
- Works well with WooCommerce
- Shopping cart abandonment and dynamic offers
Drawback
- Not suitable for short-term investments since it only has a yearly plan
- Limited to WordPress websites only
- Not beginner-friendly
Pricing Detail
CartFlows doesn’t offer monthly plans. There is an Annual license available at $239 and a Lifetime license at $999.
With CarfFlows premium you get:
- Support for up to 30 websites
- Order bumps, upsells, and dynamic offers
- Checkout page builder
- Pre-designed templates for everything
- Support for WooCommerce
- Unlimited sales funnels
- Modern checkout feature
- Priority Support and Community support
- Shopping cart abandonment
11. GumRoad
The last one on my list is GumRoad, a less popular but extremely easy-to-use shopping cart builder platform. It doesn’t offer tonnes of features such as Thrivecart or CartFlows, but if you are willing to try your hand in the e-commerce business you can start with GumRoad for free. Even the premium plan costs only $10 which provides you the opportunity to spread your wings a bit more, but don’t expect premium features from this.
If we talk about the features, there is just enough for you to get started. You get standard checkout features in the free plan and some advanced features in the premium plan such as themes and styling, GumRoad brand removal, adding customized CSS, and pwn domain for checkout pages.
As far as payments are concerned, GumRoad offers enough for you to accept payments from any major location around the world. As of now, there is PayPal and Credit Cards support, with much more payment options in the pipeline.
You can sell physical as well as digital products and even accept subscription payments from your customers.
Features
- Easy to get started with
- Beginner-friendly interface
- Extremely affordable premium plan along with a free lifetime option
- PayPal and Credit Card Payment Support
- Unlimited physical and digital products
- Basic checkout page customization
- Coupon codes
Drawbacks
- A very Basic interface is not suitable for professionals
- No A/B testing
- No Bump order, upsells, or downsells
- Limited customization features
- Average customer support
Pricing Detail
GumRoad offers 2 plans – Free and Paid.
Paid plan costs $10/month and comes with enough features to host your business online. Considering the price, the features are decent. With the Free plan, you will have to pay a 5% transaction fee while for a Paid plan, it’s 3.5%.
12. SureCart
SureCart is a completely similar solution to SamCart, making it the perfect alternative for it. The tool helps anyone directly sell any product they want from their WordPress website. Most of the features of SureCart and SamCart are similar, which is why it is on this list. You can easily set up SureCart on your website using the plugin, and it is an all-in-one eCommerce solution, so it offers something for everyone.
Most people haven’t heard about this eCommerce solution because it is relatively new to the eCommerce scene. It does not rely on your hosting’s resources; it manages everything on its own server. Once you integrate the plugin on your website, you can add products and manage everything like you would on an online store.
SureCart gives you everything that you will need from a fully-fledged eCommerce platform, minus the expensive part. It also does not impact the performance or speed of your website. It can also easily manage recurring subscriptions, invoicing, donations, one-time payments, etc., for your store.
Features
- Manages installment payment plans
- Create your own price
- Highly customizable checkout forms
- Easy to integrate and automate
- Auto-scaling reliability
- Enterprise-grade security
Pricing Detail
SureCart comes with a free forever plan that gives you all the basic features you need to start selling from your WordPress website. You can also add up to 100 products on your website with the free version. Except for the free version, SureCart also offers three pricing options.
The startup plan costs $199/year, but you can get it at $99/year with their special 50% discount offer. This plan gives you all the basic free plan features and advanced features like unlimited products, auto payment recovery, cart abandonment – 25 recoveries every month, and more.
The business plan costs $399/year, but you can get it at $199/year right now. This plan gives you all the features of the startup plan plus other features like order bumps, multi-currency, physical products, up to 5 team members, 200 cart abandonment recovers every month, and more.
The pro plan costs $799/year, but with the discount offer, you can get it at $399/year. This plan includes all the features from the business plan plus features like front-of-line email support, ten endpoints for webhooks, purchasing power parity, and more.
Final Word: Samcart Alternatives (2024)
To increase the functionality of your online store, it’s important to have a shopping cart platform that provides all the necessary features you need while not hurting your budget since there are other expenses to take care of as well. Here are a few key factors you should consider while choosing the cart builder platform:
- A lower transaction fee (if applicable)
- Payment gateways and processors support
- Third-party integrations
- Templates and website building capabilities
- Trial period and monthly cost
- Marketing features such as in-built email marketing, CRM features, bump offers, Upsells, and downsells
- The quality of customer service
To sum things up, if you are looking for the best Samcart alternative, go with Thrivecart. For a single payment for a lifetime subscription, it’s worth considering.
Here are some quick suggestions:
- CartFlows is the best WordPress shopping cart builder Plug-in.
- If you want a pop-up cart feature with all the marketing features to increase your sales, SendOwl is a good platform, to begin with.
- ClickFunnels is the best all-in-one e-commerce solution platform with an advanced funnel builder. If you are selling digital products and subscriptions, consider ClickFunnels.