SamCart vs ThriveCart: My Honest Review After 10+ Years in Ecommerce

SamCart and ThriveCart are two of the most popular checkout platforms online — but which one actually delivers better results for online sellers?

I’ve spent the last decade building ecommerce businesses, testing sales funnels, and optimising checkout flows. I’ve personally used both platforms across live launches, course sales, and client campaigns.

Now I’m breaking down the differences for you — feature by feature, with verdicts based on real-world use.

SamCart vs ThriveCart: Quick Verdict

ThriveCart – Best overall for scaling, affiliate sales, and long-term ROI

SamCart – Best for creators who want a fast, modern funnel builder

In this review, I’ll walk you through every key area: pricing, sales features, ease of use, support, integrations, and more — all backed by experience using both platforms in real campaigns.

Who Should Use SamCart vs ThriveCart?

SamCart is best for:

• Coaches and course creators who want beautiful templates
• Businesses focused on simplicity and subscription billing
• Sellers needing a visual funnel builder

ThriveCart is best for:

• Marketers who rely on upsells and affiliate sales
• Ecommerce stores selling digital or physical goods
• Agencies and creators looking for a one-time cost

Quick Comparison: SamCart vs ThriveCart

Best for Pricing: ThriveCart

If you’re comparing on value alone, ThriveCart wins by a mile. It’s one of the only checkout platforms still offering a lifetime deal, which means you pay once — and never again.

No recurring subscriptions, no feature gating, and no price increases as your business grows.

Here’s how the pricing breaks down:

🛒 ThriveCart Pricing (one-time):

• Standard: $495
• Pro Upgrade: +$195 (adds affiliate center, subscription dunning, advanced reporting, and JV contracts)

Once you’ve paid, that’s it. You can create unlimited products, funnels, upsells, and users — all without a monthly bill stacking up in the background.

In contrast, SamCart runs on a monthly subscription, and key features are locked behind higher-tier plans:

💳 SamCart Pricing (monthly):

• Launch: $79/month – basic checkouts, no upsells or dunning
• Grow: $159/month – adds upsells, subscriptions, cart recovery
• Scale: $199/month – unlocks affiliate center, advanced integrations, CRM tagging

If you’re planning to use SamCart long-term and need features like affiliate tracking, dunning, or deep CRM integration, you’ll be paying $2,388 per year — every year.

Even if you stick with the mid-tier Grow plan, that’s still $1,908 per year, compared to ThriveCart’s one-time $690 total (Pro included).

Extra costs to consider:

• SamCart’s templates are included, but course hosting and analytics tools require higher-tier plans
• ThriveCart includes its native Learn course platform and tax/VAT features at no extra charge

The Winner:

ThriveCart offers the best long-term value by far. You get a complete sales funnel and affiliate platform for a single upfront cost — no recurring fees, no upsells later. Ideal for sellers who want to invest once and grow without getting nickeled and dimed every month.

Best for Funnels: SamCart

SamCart makes funnel building simple — and fast. Its drag-and-drop builder gives you a visual overview of the entire sales process, making it easy to connect your main product with upsells, downsells, and thank-you pages in just a few clicks.

You can launch a complete funnel in under 30 minutes, even if you’ve never built one before.

🧱 SamCart Funnels:

• Drag-and-drop interface makes funnel steps easy to arrange
• Upsells and downsells appear as page thumbnails
• Preview and test each step before going live
• Great for quick campaigns or course launches

🛠 ThriveCart Funnels:

• No visual builder — you configure each step manually
• Offers logic-based upsell control (e.g. only show if bump selected)
• Can route users dynamically based on choices or cart content
• More powerful, but takes longer to master

SamCart clearly prioritises speed and usability. ThriveCart gives you more flexibility once you know the system — but if you want to move quickly and build beautiful, functional funnels without digging into settings, SamCart is the easier choice.

The Winner: SamCart — especially for creators and solopreneurs who want a fast, visual funnel builder that just works.

Best for Affiliate Marketing: ThriveCart

If affiliates are part of your growth strategy, ThriveCart Pro is built for it. It includes a full-featured affiliate center with no extra monthly cost, letting you track sales, manage payouts, and customise commission structures.

🎯 ThriveCart Affiliate System (Pro):

• Fully integrated affiliate dashboard
• Set custom commissions by product or partner
• Auto-approve, manual approval, or selective offers
• Built-in fraud prevention (IP address, payment method checks)
• Pay affiliates via PayPal automation

⚠ SamCart Affiliate System:

• Available only on $199/month Scale plan
• Basic link tracking and payout management
• No advanced approval rules or cookie settings
• Fewer tools for scaling or managing large affiliate teams

If you need a robust affiliate program that you can run without third-party tools, ThriveCart Pro gives you everything from day one — and you only pay once.

The Winner: ThriveCart. It’s purpose-built for affiliate scaling, with better tools and no recurring cost.

Further reading:

Samcart vs Shopify

Shopify vs BigCommerce

Best for Email & Marketing Integrations: ThriveCart

Both platforms integrate with popular email tools — but ThriveCart’s rule engine gives you more depth and flexibility when building automations and behaviour-based campaigns.

📩 SamCart Marketing Tools:

• Native integrations with ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Klaviyo, Mailchimp
• Tagging and automations available on Grow and Scale plans
• Zapier support for custom actions
• Basic CRM logic, works well for simple sequences

⚙ ThriveCart Marketing Tools:

• Supports all major CRMs, plus Infusionsoft, Ontraport, and more
• Includes webhooks and rules-based logic
• Trigger actions based on product, bump, upsell, payment type, etc.
• Powerful tagging for email segmentation

With ThriveCart, you can build conditional marketing flows that change based on how a user interacts with your funnel — without relying on outside automation tools.

The Winner: ThriveCart — for deeper integrations, smarter automation, and advanced email workflows.

Best for Templates and Design: SamCart

If your checkout page needs to look as polished as your brand, SamCart’s design tools are the clear winner. Everything is built around visual appeal and mobile optimisation.

🖼 SamCart Design Features:

• Sleek, mobile-optimised templates
• Drag-and-drop page editor
• Customise logos, fonts, colours, layout
• Ideal for creators, coaches, and product brands

🧱 ThriveCart Design Features:

• Simple, fast-loading pages
• Limited styling without CSS knowledge
• No visual editor — changes made through fields and settings
• Focused more on speed and function than appearance

While ThriveCart pages are fast and clean, they don’t give you the same level of creative control. If branding and customer-facing design matter to your business, SamCart has the edge.

The Winner: SamCart — with more modern templates and intuitive design tools out of the box.

Best for Support: SamCart

Good support isn’t just about having someone to email — it’s about how fast they respond and how much help you get when something breaks mid-campaign. SamCart is more structured and reliable in this area.

✅ SamCart Support:

• Email support on all plans
• Live chat available on Scale plan
• Solid Help Center with videos, tutorials, and how-to guides
• Weekly webinars and onboarding sessions

📬 ThriveCart Support:

• Email only, no live chat or phone support
• Active Facebook group with peer help
• Help Desk is useful but feels dated
• No dedicated onboarding experience

ThriveCart’s community is helpful, but when you’re mid-launch and need an answer fast, SamCart’s structured support and live chat make a big difference.

The Winner: SamCart — more accessible support and faster responses for businesses that need hands-on help.

Easiest to Use: SamCart

When it comes to ease of use, SamCart was clearly designed for solo creators and small teams. Everything from the dashboard to the product setup process is fast, clean, and intuitive.

🟢 SamCart Experience:

• Clean dashboard with helpful checklists
• Visual funnel builder to organise offers
• Onboarding flows guide you through key steps
• No need for dev skills or third-party tools

🔧 ThriveCart Experience:

• More powerful — but also more technical
• Interface feels older and less intuitive
• Funnel setup is manual and not visual
• Takes time to learn and master

If you want to launch quickly, manage your offers in one place, and skip the learning curve, SamCart delivers a smoother user experience — especially for creators, coaches, and beginners.

The Winner: SamCart — designed for ease of use, fast onboarding, and less tech stress.

Final Verdict: Which Platform Should You Choose?

If you want a platform that’s easy to use, has great design templates, and is perfect for digital offers or coaching — go with SamCart.

But if you want more control, lifetime access, and tools to scale with affiliates, funnels, and advanced automations — ThriveCart Pro is the better investment.

SamCart vs ThriveCart: Feature Comparison Table