SamCart vs ThriveCart [2023] – 5 Things I Hate About SamCart!

In this shopping cart platform comparison, we will break down :

There is not a more vital part of your business than a shopping cart platform.

Choosing the appropriate one is critical to the growth and profitability of your business.

In this side-by-side analysis, we compare SamCart vs ThriveCart, two of the most popular shopping cart solutions, that help drive the e-commerce world.

We look at the important similarities and differences between the two, such as template features, payment integration, analytics, ease of use price, etc.

After extensive testing and research, we believe that no stones were left unturned with our only goal in mind, which is that you will be able to make a sound and wise decision for yourself.

So, which of the two is for you?

Just before we start, despite the fact that SamCart is an excellent contender, there are however, 5 things we personally found very irritating about SamCarts:

What are Thrivecart and Samcart used for?

Shopify and WooCommerce are two popular e-commerce platforms, and although they work well in many situations, they could do better at selling digital products.

You will want to choose a shopping cart platform that is specialized in selling online courses, memberships, subscriptions, and software as a service.

SamCart and ThriveCart are two of the well-known choices for this purpose.

ThriveCart and SmartCart are shopping carts, applications that let you make a shopping cart, and a sales checkout page that gets more sales.

SamCart and ThriveCart are vital to the success of any online business, due to the following:

SamCart

Samcart is a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform that lets its customers sell physical and digital products like eBooks, consulting services, coaching, courses, and membership subscriptions.

The conversion process used by SamCart is based on a single-page design created to serve one fundamental purpose, i.e., reducing the number of distractions that consumers face to maximize their ability to concentrate on making purchases.

ThriveCart

ThriveCart is another shopping cart software and affiliate platform that allows you to sell digital and physical products. The ThriveCart platform is designed to help businesses save time and money whilst maximizing profits.

This is achieved by making a highly effective and efficient sales funnel, that includes simple cart pages, promotions, and deals. Learn more: ThriveCart Review

Will ThriveCart or Samcart help scale my business?

Yes! both have proven track records of success in boosting revenue for thousands of online affiliate center merchants.

New upgrades to both platforms' support apps are constantly being added.

Both have a wealth of marketing tools that you can use to reach out to a specific audience and increase sales strategically. 

ThriveCart and Samcart will provide the tools to create an eye-catching product and checkout page.

You may include enticing offers, one-click upgrades, discounts, and other incentives that make it hard for the prospect to abandon the purchase.

Thrivecart and Samcart:  What are the main similarities and differences?

SamCart and ThriveCart are both good at increasing the number of upsells and optimizing the conversion rate, so you will see that there are many similarities and differences between the two.

Similarities

• Bump offers, upsells, and down sells are all the features available on both platforms, allowing you to enhance your average order value.
•  Various flexible payment options are available to customers, such as coupons and multiple payment options.
• Landing Page Builder allows users to create single and multi-page landing pages from which they may make sales.
• Offer your product or service for purchase regularly via a subscription model to generate recurring income.
• With an in-house affiliate center, you can recruit affiliates, analyze sales, and pay affiliates for their work.
• Recursively improve your sales channel by doing split tests on your website's layout and text.
• Monitoring clicks, orders, conversion rates, refunds, and other sales data is part of the reporting process.
• Use split testing for design and text to improve your funnel's performance continuously.
• Keep track of all sales data, including clicks, orders, conversion rates, and refunds.
• Both provide an API via which you can access your clients and orders.
• Instead of using a third-party provider or building your WordPress membership website, like other popular software out there, you can simply host everything with SamCart or ThriveCart.
• Both platforms have a robust affiliate program.

Differences

Here are some of the most notable distinctions between the two systems.

By comparing and contrasting the two options, you'll have a clearer idea of the best match for your business.

Pricing

• ThriveCart has a one-time payment of $495 for life which is quite rare (no-brainer).
• SamCart requires a monthly fee of anywhere from $49 to $399.

Integration of Payment Methods

• ThriveCart enables users to accept payments through Google Pay, Apple Pay, and other methods.
• SamCart is more limited and does not offer any of these or any other mobile payment options.

Shopping Cart Design

• Compared to other shopping cart software on the market right now, thrivecart's shopping cart designs are less modern. 
• SamCart offers a shopping cart design that is more sophisticated, and up-to-date, compared to its competitor.

Memberships

• One of the most significant differences between the two systems is that ThriveCart needs a membership option that includes everything (Can easily be integrated with third-party software such as-)
• SamCart focuses more on membership sites for anyone who wants to sell memberships. 

Feature comparison:

Let's examine the many features that SamCart and ThriveCart provide to online store owners.

We will go through the most critical aspects of each service and propose the one we think you should choose.

Integrations: Who does it the best?

When deciding between ThriveCart and SamCart, integrations are an essential factor to keep in mind.

Even though you may create stand-alone sales funnels, there are a variety of methods by which you can integrate SamCart and ThriveCart with your storefront and other e-commerce software.

Now, let's compare the platforms by exploring their available integrations.

Samcart

The shopping cart software from SamCart is fairly competetive in this area.

It has quite a few integrations, including:

• Payment Options: Stripe & PayPal are accepted as payment methods

• Membership Platforms: Platforms for managing memberships include MemberMouse, OptimizeMember, Thinkific, and Kajabi.

• Email Marketing Platforms: Drip, iContact, HubSpot, Ontraport, MaroPost, and MailChimp are all email marketing services.

• Webinar Platforms: Kajabi and Zapier are two popular webinar platforms that integrate with various other services.

• Fulfillment Services: ShipStation and other Zapier connections for fulfillment services.

Thrivecart

Because it works with so many different platforms, ThriveCart is an excellent addition to any marketing platform. Examples of integrations are:

• Payment Options: PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and Apple Pay work as different payment processors.  
• Membership Platforms: WishList Member, MemberMouse, Teachable, and Thinkific are examples of membership platforms.
• Fulfillment Services: Google Sheets, Disk.com, Kunaki, ShipStation, and many more are among the numerous fulfillment services you may integrate with Zapier.
• Email Marketing Providers: Email marketing providers include Drip, MailChimp, Aweber, ActiveCampaign, and Sendy.

Which one has the best sales funnels?

Both SamCart and ThriveCart are good platforms for building sales funnels, but they differ in certain ways that may affect your choice.

SamCart allows you to create five separate upsells and downsells that you can utilize across several items.

You may organize your upsells and downsells in any order you choose, and you have more control over how they appear to customers.

The upsell features, however, are not included in the standard membership.

In contrast, ThriveCart allows you to incorporate a maximum of five upsells and five downsells on each checkout page.

With a few clicks, you can design the page that shows the upsell or the downsell, toggle the sales funnel on and off for each checkout, and utilize the same upsell for five different goods.

Furthermore, any sales funnel you create can be used on an infinite number of products.

Template designs and customization: Which one does the best?

If you produce a "crappy" design for your shopping cart, a potential buyer might lose confidence and leave your site while trying to make a purchase.

If customers have a poor shopping experience, they may never return. In this scenario, you not only lose consumers but also revenue.

Let's compare how each system handles customization for the users maximum experience

Samcart

• Drag and drop icons, headers, spaces, and many other things into your product page to make it look stylish and appealing. 
• SamCart's pre-designed templates are unique and aesthetic. You can start from scratch to build your page. Just choose a template from SamCart's collection, pick a theme for your page, and drag and drop the product and its details to add them.
• You can put as many products as you want on one page, and the page will still look great. Even if you put hundreds of products on one page, the page won't load slowly.

Thrivecart

• ThriveCart also has the Drag and Drop functions. The difference is in how easy the platform is to use. When you compare ThriveCart to SamCart, ThriveCart is easier to use.
• You can use any device with the ThriveCart templates. This is an essential feature because most people shop on their phones rather than computers.
• If you use ThriveCart templates, you don't have to worry about whether or not your website is mobile devices-friendly.
• When we compare how long it takes to make a page with ThriveCart and SamCart, we see that ThriveCart takes less time because the interface is better and the page design elements load faster.

SamCart vs ThriveCart: Which has the best support?

You could have the finest software or service in the world, but if the support has slow response times and bad advice, you are in for some severe problems.

Let's evaluate the two concerning their support.

Samcart

SamCart offers more support options than ThriveCart, including live chat, email, virtual onboarding webinars, weekly webinars, 1:1 launch support calls, dedicated SamCart expert support, a knowledge base, and a blog.

Not all options are available with every pricing plan.

Thrivecart

ThriveCart has a Helpdesk center with well organized articles , and a ticketing system for email support on weekdays from 9am-6pm NZST.

Response time is typically under 24 hours. 

ThriveCart also has a blog and Facebook community with a youtube channel, with over 40 videos, but Samcart has over 400 videos on their youtube channel and is better.

SamCart vs ThriveCart: Pricing plan comparisons

For many customers, this could be a "deal breaker". When other qualities and features are otherwise equivalent, this may be the deciding factor.

Most of the time, recurring costs for any company's operations can quickly reduce company profits.

Below is a breakdown of the pricing for both platforms, giving online business owners the information they will need to select the one that best suits their needs.

Samcart

Samcart provides customers with the following multiple pricing options:

1. Launch plan
2. Grow plan
3. Scale plan

The following are included in the Launch Plan ($59/month):

• All key features
• Billing choice
• Weekly webinars
• Standard integrations
• One-user license 
• Sales reports

The Grow plan costs $119 per month and comes with all of the essential features from the Launch plan, plus the following:

• 3-administrator licenses
• Improves integrations
• After-sale upsells
• Marketing reports
• Custom checkout
• On-demand reports

The Scale plan, which costs $299 per month, incorporates all of the features included in the Launch and Grow plans. In addition to all of the fundamental characteristics, it has the following:

• Ten admin logins
• Expert support for annual payments
• Webinars
• Abandoned cart conversion alert
• Affiliate program management
• Funnel testing
• Automated report
• Affiliate center ( affiliate management system, like thrivecart but way more expensive, and not as developed)
• Built In A/B Testing feature

Thrivecart

Unlike the more common, complicated upsell plans and monthly subscription models used by Samcart, Thrivecart only requires a simple one-time payment.

ThriveCart offers a lifetime membership standard plan for only $495 and $690 for the Pro plan - they both include excellent customer support, for life.

Included in the one-time standard lifetime plan:

• Unlimited capacity for developing checkout pages.
• Unlimited sales funnels and high-converting shopping carts are included.
• Personalized business services
• Comprehensive customer behavior rules.
• Custom domain name.
• Full team support
• Analytics of the Market
• Automatic sales tax calculation.
• Traffic in real-time as well as conversion rates.
• Built in A/B testing
• Urgency timer features and much more

The Pro membership offers you in addition seven upgrade enhancements for your account :
1. An influential affiliate hub
2. Joint venture agreement and profit sharing
3. Potent business forecasting
4. Authorization for multiple users and client access
5. Automated sales tax computation and reporting
6. Integrated dunning and subscription protection features
7. Personalized domain name capability

Is there a free trial for SamCart & Thrivecart?

Samcart

SamCart offers a free trial period for potential customers. There's a free 14-day trial to try out all the available features.

Thrivecart

While SamCart offers a free trial, ThriveCart does not at the moment. However, it provides special lifetime access for $495 which gives you lifetime access to ThriveCart.

Do they both provide a money-back guarantee?

Samcart

Samcart does provide a 30-day money-back guarantee if you opt for the yearly plan. You must however request a refund within that time frame.

Thrivecart

During the first 30 days after purchase, you can return it for a full refund if it doesn't meet your needs.

ThriveCart/SamCart Coupon Discounts

ThriveCart Discounts and Coupons are not available at this present time ($ 495-lifetime use). 

SamCart discounts and coupons are not available at present, but if you pay yearly you can get A 33% discount on the Launch and Grow plans and 47% off the Scale plan.

The Showdown: Which one should you go for?

You will not be disappointed with either of these excellent products.

At the end of the day, It really is all down to personal preference and needs.

At first sight, Samcart may be best for beginners and have some better themes and customization, however, the cost can mount up quickly, especially if you need certain features, that are present only on a higher price plan!

Although Thrivecarts is suitable for selling eCommerce products, the Samcart platform may just have a slight edge for selling physical eCommerce products.

In contrast at only $495, Thrivecart'ts pricing provides the highest value for a lifetime subscription.

You could be thinking that for only a one-time lifetime payment of $495, the updates and innovations as well as the support might be lacking due to a one-time payment.

Rest assured, this could not be further from the truth.

The main limitation of Samcart, apart from its cost is that it has fewer integration options, especially mobile checkouts, like Apple and Google pay!

For us, that was unfortunately a bit of a deal breaker.

The only hick is that thrivecart does not come with a built-in membership site, but should you need it at a later date, you can easily integrate a third-party software, such as-paid membership pro, or teachable

For us personally, like many others, Thrivecart is probably the best overall, and has in addition an indispensable sales tax calculation feature, alongside a powerful, affiliate management platform, for those who sell their own products.

NOTE that SamCart has recently also brought out their affiliate management platform, called "the affiliate center" only available on the highest plan SCALE at $299 per month, and which is not nearly as developed as ThriveCart!

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