ThriveCart vs SamCart (2024): Unbiased Comparison! 

ThriveCart vs SamCart – which one is the best shopping cart solution for businesses and marketers?

Both ThriveCart and SamCart are immensely popular solutions for thousands of eCommerce businesses. Apart from the shopping cart features, these platforms have a lot of similarities and differences.

That’s why both platforms cater to different groups of audiences. 

In this article, I am going to compare ThriveCart and SamCart, reviewing core features such as sales funnel, affiliate management, design templates, pricing, etc.

By the end of the article, you will know which tool is the right choice for your online business needs.

So, let’s dive into the details!

ThriveCart vs SamCart: In a Nutshell 

Before you read the complete review, here’s a quick comparison of ThriveCart and SamCart for busy readers.

Features	ThriveCart	SamCart
Sales Funnels	Robust sales funnel features	Comprehensive sale funnels through A/B testing
Listing Products	Need to go through multiple steps to list products	Simple product listing process
Design Customization	Sleek designs but slightly old-fashioned	Supports modern designs and templates
Affiliate Program	Dedicated affiliate management dashboard, custom commissions	The program relies on UTM parameters for sales tracking
Integrations	Offers 50+ necessary integrations	Offers on 26 integrations
Marketing Capabilities	One-click transactions, upsells, bump offers and downsells	Depends on the paid integrations
Reporting	Easy-to-read and detailed analytics reports	In-depth reporting platform
Pricing	$495 one-time	Starts at $79/month

ThriveCart vs SamCart: Key Differences

Here are the key differences between ThriveCart and SamCart.

• There is a lifetime deal available on ThriveCart, which is much more affordable than SamCart’s monthly/annual subscription plans.
• With SamCart, you can create memberships and sell them accordingly, whereas there is no membership feature available on ThriveCart.
• ThriveCart offers some unique features like link tracking, digital sales tax collection, mobile payment options, and sales prediction. These features are not available on SamCart.
• The interface of SamCart is a bit smoother and easier to navigate than ThriveCart’s.
• A 7-day free trial on SamCart allows you to try all its features before buying any of its subscriptions, whereas there is no trial available on ThriveCart.

Similarities Between ThriveCart and SamCart

Both ThriveCart and SamCart offer solutions for better conversions and upsells. So, they share plenty of similarities. 

• Payment Gateways: Both platforms offer dozens of flexible payment options for their customers. Additionally, they let their users offer pay-later, trial periods, and coupons to their customers. 
• Upsells and Downsells: You can use any of the platforms to create upsells and downsells to increase ARPU. 
• Landing Page Builder: Both platforms offer drag-and-drop editors and pre-designed templates to create highly optimized checkout pages and landing pages. 
• A/B Testing: You can design multiple versions of sales funnels and compare them to find the best-performing funnel for your business. 
• Abandoned Cart: Integrate email marketing providers to send emails to your fellow visitors to reduce abandoned cart rates.
• Affiliate Management: Recruit affiliates to promote your products and increase sales. 
• Sales Taxes: Both offer automatic VAT and sales tax. 
• Courses: You can create and sell courses/subscriptions online without needing any third-party services. 

Thrivecart vs Samcart: Pros & Cons

Here are the benefits & drawbacks of using Thrivecart and Samcart.

What Is ThriveCart?

Thrivecart is a shopping cart builder that allows you to create attractive and high-converting checkout pages. Founded in 2016 by Josh Bartlett, the company has seen exponential expansion both in terms of the number of users and the overall sales it has generated for them. 

The prime goal of Thrivecart is to convert online visitors into potential buyers. The platform is most suited for e-commerce agencies handling the campaigns for its clients. 

Here are some key features of Thrivecart:

1. Bump Offers

It allows you to strategically place offers, additional product upgrades, discounts, etc, on the checkout page. 

2. Custom Page Building

An easy drag-drop function allows you to design appealing product pages, as well as sales, and funnel pages. 

3. Split Testing

It allows you to test the different variations of product and checkout pages and compare the performance of each to figure out which one is working for you. 

4. Integration 

Thrivecart integrates smoothly with multiple payment gateways, email marketers, fulfillment services, membership platforms, and much more. 

Who Can use it?

• Individual online sellers
  
• E-commerce businesses that require the shipping of physical items
  
• Online training platforms, music websites, ebook sellers, etc
  
• Large-scale business consultants with a lot of clients
  
• Businesses that offer membership 

Check out our detailed ThriveCart review to explore its exceptional functionalities in detail!

What Is SamCart?

Brian Moran designed Samcart as his own shopping cart solution for his other ventures – Get 10000 Fans and Train Baseball. The platform is very similar to Thrivecart, with a few tweaks, such as advanced sales funnel pages and a beginner-friendly page builder. 

Samcart is one of the best, if not the best, e-commerce assistants, with more than 30000 customers having sold nearly 10 million products. It allows you to create an intuitive sales page with the help of customizable templates without needing any coding skills whatsoever. 

Apart from page building, Samcart also provides deep market analysis, order management service, tax assistance, and much more. 

Here are our top Samcart features:

1. Sales Funnels

Samcart allows you to create intelligent sales funnels, converting prospects into buyers in a few simple steps. 

2. Perfect for Beginners

It has an extremely easy-to-use interface. Whether it’s designing the page or creating bump offers on the checkout page, Samcart provides easy tools to navigate through the platform. 

3. Pre-designed Templates

There is a huge collection of pre-designed templates which you can later customize to your own preference. All the designs on Samcart are compatible with smartphones. 

4. Subscription-based Platforms

Samcart is the perfect option for membership-based businesses with automatic membership recovery, recurring subscriptions, and much more, 

Who Can use it?

• Coaching institutes
  
• Independent e-commerce enthusiasts
  
• e-learning g businesses
  
• Online Consultants
  
• Digital service providers such as ebooks, audio, podcasts, etc

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Who Offers Better Design and Customization?

Tip: When you are selling products and services online, it’s very important to keep the process simple and engaging. Remember, you are competing with thousands of other businesses, and a customer is no short of options. The more detailed your product page is, the higher the chance you have to convert a click into a sale. 

When it comes to designing the pages, both Thrivecart and Samcart come with easy drag-drop editors. You are not required to have any programming, and your designs depend solely on your creativity. 

With Thrivecart, you can sell physical as well as digital products, online services, membership-based services, and much more. The software comes with hundreds of pre-designed templates that can be further customized according to your business type and personal voice. 

When you add a new product with Thrivecart, You can:

• Add the product URL along with its name and description
  
• Add pricing information (monthly, recurring, one-time)
  
• Provide multiple payment processing options.
  
• Include bump offers, upsell offers, and funnels on the checkout page
  
• Put a pop-up cart anywhere on the website to increase the chance of a potential sale.

Thrivecart also allows you to create a 2-step cart, modal shopping cart, video carts, and embeddable carts. You can put one-click offers, additional product suggestions, and coupon links on the cart page using simple editing tools. 

Samcart provides very similar customization features that include a GUI-based design tool where you can simply choose what you want from hundreds of ready-to-use templates. You don’t need to be a coding expert to design your product or landing page.  

With Samcart, you can sell almost anything, including subscription-based music, ebooks, online training services, e-learning courses, billing services, and much more.

Similar to Thrivecart, you can create an offer zone on the checkout page with a one-click product upgrade option, order bumps, and upsells.

Thanks to an ultra-friendly interface, it’s slightly easier to add products and design pages with Samcart. There are templates exclusively for different product categories that will give your store a professional look. 

With Samcart, You can:

• Add new products along with their pricing, description, and so on.
  
• Specify billing cycle fixed, one-time or recurring)
  
• Add sales funnels to boost the chances of sales
  
• Put one-click bump offers, upsells, discounts, and product upgrades/suggestions on the checkout page.
  
• Add an automated membership recovery option
  
• Add a Faqs section, progress bar, Countdown timer, etc to give your store a professional touch

In a straight competition,  Samcart comes out on top with its easy-to-use and more refined design tools.

Affiliate Management Options

A flexible affiliate management/program helps businesses grow their brand awareness and reach a wider audience. Compared to SamCart, ThriveCart’s affiliate program is slightly better. 

ThriveCart offers an easy-to-use affiliate dashboard where you can manage and monitor your affiliates, sales, cookie duration, and commission rates. 

SamCart also offers a management center by including these features, but it relies on UTM parameters to track everything from the dashboard. You will know how to use this advanced system if you are a skilled affiliate marketer. Otherwise, beginners will find difficulty using these features.

Marketing & Analytics Features

Both platforms are packed with marketing features you can use to bump your sales and target potential buyers in a tactical way. 

Thrivecart Allows you to communicate with customers through behavior-based emails. These emails are based on pre-defined triggers that send an automated email/alert/notification to the customer. You can track abandoned carts, overdue payments, and so on. 

Also, when it comes to analytics, Thrivecart allows you to see checkout clicks, real-time traffic, project revenue, average daily revenue, and much more.

Additonally, there is an automatic sales tax estimation feature that calculates the tax based on your geographical location, product type, and several other parameters. You don’t need a third-party application for that, as it’s a part of the Thrivecart suite. 

With Samcart, you can go back to any sales report using the product, date of sale, traffic, and subscription. Then, there are other advanced filters to retrieve the exact reports you are looking for. 

Samcart also features an order management system that allows you to track and fulfill orders with detailed reporting. Similar to Thrivecart, there is an option to calculate VAT and sales tax without any third-party integration. 

Advanced analytics highlights each and every step of your business, and you can download the report as a CSV file for further analysis and modification of the strategy. Samcart analytics are easy to go through, and you will find them relatively straightforward compared to Thrivecart.

Overall, Thrivecart clearly offers more marketing and analytics features; however, the data can be a bit cluttered and complicated for a casual user to understand. 

ThriveCart vs SamCart: Payment Options

Having different payment options gives customers the freedom to complete the checkout, and businesses face fewer abandoned carts. 

Fortunately, both platforms offer multiple options for payments, so customers are likely to find their preferred payment gateways. 

Both ThriveCart and SamCart also include:

• One-time payments
• Free trials
• Pay-later options
• Installment and split payments (EMI)

With ThriveCart and SamCart, users can also create coupon codes and discounts for their customers. They can also make these coupons applicable for specific plans with or without shipping costs.

Thrivecart vs Samcart: App Integrations

Both tools provide solid third-party app integrations, covering a wide range of websites and services (approximately 700). Both platforms keep expanding their support applications with new updates. 

Thrivacart provides multiple app integrations in various categories, allowing you to make your website compatible with a number of services.  Let’s have a look at them:

• Notification services (Zapier)
• Auto response service (HubSpot, GetResponse, etc)
• Payment gateways/processing companies (G Pay, Apple Pay, Paypal, etc)
• Fulfillment (Kunaki, ShipStation, Google Sheets, etc)
• Subscription platforms (MemberMouse, Thinkific)
• Email marketing services (Mailchimp, Sendy, Drip)
• Webinar platforms (Demio)

Samcart, however, falls short in this category. Compared to Thrivecart, it offers limited third-party integration. The biggest drawback is the lack of support for Apple and Google Pay services. 

• Product/landing Page-builders (WordPress)
• Membership services (Thinkific, Wishlist, Kajabi, etc)
• Email services (Mailchimp, Maropost, iContact, GetResponse, and much more)
• Payment gateways (Braintree, Stripe, Paypal, and Authorize.net) 
• Marketing intelligence (Ontraport, Drip, ActiveCampaign, etc)

Thrivecart vs Samcart: Sales Funnels

Sales funnels highlight the customer journey, from product search to making a purchase. Based on the customer behavior on the website, you can add sales funnels to convert an internet surfer into a sure-shot buyer. 

With Thrivecart, you can create sales funnels to highlight your services and encourage visitors to purchase one of your products/services. Not only that, you can test multiple funnels to figure out the best strategy for your business. 

Simply click on New Funnel and create a strategy for any of your products. Based on the customers’ activities and clicks, you can smartly place upsells, bump offers, product suggestions, and upgrades on the landing page.

=Thrivecart also allows you to use a sale funnel for multiple products, so it’s a good timesaver if you are dealing with hundreds of products. 

Samcart has a comparatively weaker funneling feature. You can find it under the Upsells tab and enable it right from there for any product. The process of funneling includes creating awareness and interest in the prospect and eventually making him purchase the product. 

You can write a description, add upsells/downsells, offers and suggestions, order bumps, and much more. Samcart also allows you to test individual funnels and components on your landing page, giving you slightly more control than you would have with Thrivecart.  

Pricing Comparison

One of the biggest differences between the two platforms is their pricing. While Samcart offers traditional monthly subscriptions, Thrivecart is a one-time purchase software. 

You can purchase a lifetime subscription to Thrivecart for a sum of $495. This includes:

• Customer support service
• Unlimited checkout page building
• Unlimited funnels and high-converting carts
• Business services tailored for you
• Comprehensive customer behavior rules
• Custom domain name
• Market Analytics 
• Tax estimation
• Real-time Traffic and conversion rates

Check out ThriveCart lifetime offer and get the maximum discount on your plan!

Samcart, on the other hand, offers 3 premium plans – 

• Launch – $79/month
• Grow – $159/month
• Scale – Done-for-you

All plans come with unlimited product and page building, a template library, unlimited video uploads, unlimited memberships, and much more. You can also save a few bucks with our exclusive Samcart discount code here.

Launch plan includes:

• All core features
• Customer billing option
• Weekly webinars 
• Standard third-party integrations
• 1 user license
• Sales reports

Grow plan comes with all core features, Launch plan features plus:

• 3 admin licenses
• Enhances third-party integrations
• Order bump collection
• After-sale upsells
• Tracking and marketing reports
• Custom checkout 
• On-demand reports

The Scale plan is tailored according to users’ specific needs. Most of the setup and onboarding processes are done for you. The plan includes:

• All the features of Launch and Grow plan
• Split testing
• Access to SamCart API
• CRM integrations
• Affiliate Center

DemandSage Bonus: Do you know e-commerce sales are predicted to be over $6 trillion in 2024? Check out jaw-dropping eCommerce statistics. 

Related reads: 

• Best Products To Sell Online In 2024

ThriveCart vs SamCart: Which One Should You Choose?

Now that we have reached the end of the comparison, it’s time to choose between ThriveCart vs Samcart.

SamCart is an advanced option suitable for entrepreneurs and large businesses. It does offer an expensive monthly and yearly subscription but also includes new updates and done-for-you services for businesses with a budget.

• Choose ThriveCart if you own a small business or a full-time marketer who wants a fully-fledged shopping cart with a lifetime billing option. 
• Go for SamCart if you want to launch your first product (physical or digital) with a modern and optimized shopping cart solution. 

If you are ready to take your business to the next level, consider giving both tools a try. 

SamCart offers a 7-day free trial on all its plans, while ThriveCart offers a 14-day money-back guarantee to its users.

So, you can try both tools and find out which is more suitable for your business.