ThriveCart Vs Samcart: Which Is The Best Shopping Cart Builder In 2021?

Are you in search of the best shopping cart builder hence the ThriveCart vs SamCart comparison?

I guess you want to boost the conversion of your online store, improve the ranking of your store on SERPs, and overall create the best user experience for your customers.

Since you’re already considering either ThriveCart or SamCart as the new software to build your shopping cart, I’m here to help you make the best decision.

In this Samcart Vs ThriveCart comparison, We’ll take a detailed look and compare their features, integrations,  customer support, pricing plans, and other key factors you should look out for in a shopping cart builder.

Want to jump straight to the better option between the two? ThriveCart has a strong edge over SamCart. It’s suitable for merchants who want to build a checkout page that drives more conversion. 

SamCart might be the choice for a beginner who wants to use the free trial it offers to experiment how customers will react to a product.

Plus to see how his business strategy will work in the first few weeks.

Let’s get started

ThriveCart vs SamCart: Overview

ThriveCart is one of the leading cart software with high converting carts and upsells to increase your conversion.

To prove how reliable it can be when it comes to building a shopping cart, it boasts of the following marketing statistics: 6.4M+ Orders, $871M transacted, Sold 154K+Products, Has 121K+ Affiliates/Vendors.

It allows you to create and design one-click upsell funnels and cart pages that convert.

In order to optimize your cart pages and upsell funnels, it has features that can boost your profit while allowing you to add trials, bump offers, and recurring payments to funnels and cart pages.

One interesting thing about ThriveCart is that your cart whether a pop-up or embeddable can be added to any kind of website – Ecommerce, landing page, blogs, etc.

This is to enable you to convert your traffic into paying customers. When it comes to integration, it connects with 40+ apps. Most of which you use in your Ecommerce business.

Features of ThriveCart

ThriveCart offers a bunch of features that any robust cart builder should have.

Below are some of them.

• It’s GDPR compliant.
• Supports Zapier integration which makes it easy for you to connect with hundreds of third-party apps.
• You can sell physical products.
• Supports modal and embeddable carts.
• Generate receipts automatically.
• You can track your links.
• Manage your subscription to drive down churn.
• Supports A/B testing to split test which of your pages are performing better.
• Retarget your potential customers to convert them to sales.
• Checkout pages are unlimited.
• Handles sales tax calculation base on the location of your customer.
• Supports mobile payment.
• Support you to build your sales funnel.

SamCart is another cart builder designed to help you boost the sale of your products. It targets course creators, product inventors, sellers on Etsy and Amazon, influencers, and authors.

Whether you sell a digital or physical product, SamCart helps to boost sales. Just like ThirveCart, it boasts of statistics that can convince someone who is already considering it.

Here they go: 43% Average Conversion, 9.5M products sold so far, $1.7Billion processed, and has 14,000 businesses who use the platform.

SamCart has some cool features which you can use to get your products in front of your target audience.

It offers you a robust content builder that you can blend with its responsive themes to create an awesome product page that will drive sales.

One of the reasons you need either of these software is to boost your sale.

And SamCart has a 1 – page system – its latest technology that helps to turn visitors into paying customers, smart pixel tracking that helps you monitor and track sales, plus other features meant to increase your sales.

  With that being said, let’s head into its features properly.

Some Features of SamCart

• Customize and display your products on awesome pages with a drag and drop builder.
• Sell any kind of product you want without restrictions.
• You don’t have to border about building templates. Pick any of the pre-designed templates, customize and plug your product into it.
• Take your branding to the next level through a custom domain which you can add to any of your sales pages.
• Go international by selling your products in any language or currency you want.
• Speed up the purchase process for your customers with digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay.
• Supports A/B testing.
• Identify where your sales come from with the Smart Pixel Tracking.
• Work with affiliates to promote your products.
• PCI, GDPR, and SCA compliant.
• Follow up with customers to recover lost sales. ( Card Abandonment)

Let’s start comparing

ThriveCart vs SamCart: Comparison Breakdown

• Checkout Set Up
• Integration
• Uptime & Availability
• Transaction Fees
• A/B Testing
• Affiliate Management
• Tax Calculation
• Payment Processor
• Design, Templates & Optimization
• Upsells & Funnels
• Automation and Email Marketing
• Pricing Plan
• Customer Support

 1.Check Out Set-Up

Checkout pages are meant to create the best user experience for your customers who make purchases in your store.

In fact, it’s one of the ways to earn the loyalty of your customers.  Put yourself in the shoes of a customer who had a difficult time making a purchase from your online store.

Do you think such a customer will return to your store? You already know the answer. Now compare it to a customer who was able to buy a lot of products from your store in minutes.

Such a customer will gladly return to patronize you when he has the need for the products you deal on.

Both ThriveCart and Samcart offer different kinds of shopping carts which include: Subscriptions, Coupons, Upsells, Order bump, Free and paid trials.

With ThriveCart you can build a two-step embeddable or modal shopping cart while SamCart doesn’t offer such.

All the key metrics in their dashboard are easy to access. E.g Active subscription, Refund rate, Orders, Total customer, Conversion rate, Net revenue.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

Both ThriveCart and SamCart have awesome features to set up your shopping cart but ThriveCart has an edge.

It supports a two-step embeddable and modal shopping cart while SamCart doesn’t.

 2. Integration

You can integrate your favorite tools into any of these shopping cart builders. This gives you the flexibility to do more in your business.

ThriveCart integrates with major autoresponders, some membership platforms, and software.

Also, it integrates with Zapier which makes it easy to connect with other third-party apps you may like to use.

Some of them are PayPal, Stripe, Aweber, GetResponse, Google Pay, Teachable, Slack, Hubspot, ShipStation, etc.

SamCart also integrates with a lot of apps. It has many in common with ThriveCart. Some of them are GetResponse, PayPal, Infusionsoft, Hubspot, ConvertKit, Thinkific, Shipstation, etc.

It also integrates with Zapier which helps you connect with hundreds of third-party apps. In addition, SamCart has a custom Integration (Webhooks).

But it is a feature available to those on its highest pricing plan – Scale.

Verdict: No Winner

Both shopping cart builders integrate with numerous third-party apps. Also, they have them in common.

3. Uptime & Availability

This is one aspect you should pay attention to. Not just in this ThriveCart vs  SamCart comparison but every other ecommerce software.

Customers want to make purchases as fast as possible and you must respond to that. A shopping cart that frequently experiences downtime creates a bad user experience and is a big turn off for your customers.

That’s why we need to look at the uptime and availability rate of shopping carts built on SamCart and ThriveCart.

ThriveCart claims 99% Uptime with fast loading pages. On the other hand, SamCart boasts of 99.98% Uptime.

I don’t expect them to hit 100% because it’s not possible.

Both shopping cart platforms have pretty good uptime that you will ensure that your checkout pages are always available and that you don’t lose sales on account of that.

Verdict: SamCart Wins

From what they claim, SamCart has a bid higher uptime. Although this won’t make much difference, it can be a factor if uptime is one of your priorities.

4.Transaction fees

Online entrepreneurs frown so much at transaction fees because it takes a cut of their sales. Of course, they should.

Nobody wants to lose their sale to anyone especially after you have paid to be on a platform. Shopify is good at this.

Fortunately, SamCart doesn’t charge you any transaction fee. All the sales you make are yours.

Also, ThriveCart doesn’t charge you any transaction fee. So on both platforms, you are free from deductions from any sale you make.

However, don’t forget that you may be charged a fee for processing your payment. This has nothing to with these platforms but your credit card company.

Verdict: No Winner

Both don’t charge transaction fees. So you keep the money you make from sales to yourself and don’t have to bother about losing some percentage to them.

5. A/B Testing

This feature helps you to know which of your shopping carts and funnels are performing better. The aim is to identify the need for improvement.

ThriveCart is powerful when it comes to A/B testing. You can split-test almost all your page designs.

Examples are:

• Payment methods – PayPal & Stripe compared to only PayPal.
• Countdown timer compared to No Countdown timer.
• 2 step compared to 1 step Checkout design.
• Green Payment button compared to Black payment button.
• What difference did testimonials make compared to when testimonials were not added.

And many others.

Also, SamCart has an A/B testing feature but it is only available on its Scale plan. You can split-test upsell funnels and pages.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

ThriveCart’s split test can be done on almost all your page designs.

But SamCart’s split test can only be done on upsell funnels and some pages. Plus it’s only available on its Scale plan.

6. Affiliate Management

To boost your revenue, you need to work with affiliates who will promote your products and in turn earn a commission.

ThriveCart and SamCart have this feature which is inbuilt.

On ThriveCart, you decide the product which you want affiliates to promote.

Invite them and also set your commission rate which could be a fixed fee or a percentage. However, the affiliate feature is only available on ThriveCart Pro account.

SamCart also supports promoting your products through affiliates. You can decide to make your affiliate program a private one.

This means that only affiliates you want can access the affiliate link. Unfortunately, the affiliate feature is only available on the Scale plan.

Verdict: No Winner

Both have their affiliate center on their advanced plans.

7.Tax Calculation

As a merchant, it’s compulsory that you collect taxes on any of the products you sell and remit them to the appropriate government agency of your country.

This is legal and worth doing. The problem with taxes in ecommerce is that many merchants find them difficult to calculate.

The numbers sometimes confuse them. Hence the need to have software that does that which you need to purchase.

ThriveCart has an inbuilt tax calculation that relieves you the stress of doing the numbers and also saves you money.

It accurately calculates the sales tax that applies to the customer’s location, type of product, and other key variables. It doesn’t charge you any fee for this.

SamCart allows you to collect every required tax for a sale while making sure you are always in compliance.

However, it lacks the inbuilt tax calculation feature which ThriveCart offers. This means that you have to purchase and install a separate software that will do this for you.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

ThriveCart has an inbuilt tool that handles the tax calculation for free.

While on SamCart, it only ensures that you comply to tax laws but you have to purchase and install the software that will do the calculations for you.

8. Payment Processors

Receiving payment for products sold requires that you offer your customers multiple payment options from which they can choose any that’s convenient for them.

This is where some merchants who attract global customers lose sales.

Payment options on your shopping cart may not be available in your customer’s location. That’s why you need to work out different payment options.

ThriveCart integrates with Stripe, Authorize.net, and PayPal.

You can integrate different numbers of accounts on any of them. In addition, it also supports Google and Apple Pay.

SamCart supports Google and Apple Pay for its three pricing plans.

It also has options for multiple payments which means that you can add other payment processors. But this feature is only available on its Grow and Scale plan.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

It offers more payment options than SamCart. You can only access those payment options if you subscribe to SamCart’s Scale plan

9. Design, Templates & Customization

The design, template, and customization options of these shopping cart builders decide the outlook of your checkout pages and upsell funnels. It also helps to create a better user experience.

When it comes to design ThriveCart is nowhere close to SamCart. ThriveCart has a builder but it doesn’t look modern when compared to SamCart.

However, it comes with guarantee seal templates which you can choose to customize your checkout pages.

Also, carts built on the platform respond perfectly to any device which your customer might use to make a purchase.

SamCart has a drag and drop builder that you can use to customize your product pages. Its templates are pre-designed.

Yours is to choose and customize any that suit your need. Its pages don’t only respond on mobile devices but you can also optimize them to drive more conversion.

Verdict: SamCart Wins

ThriveCart’s designs, templates, and customization aren’t advanced and robust like SamCart which allows you to make a lot of changes on your pages with its drag and drop builder.

10. Upsell & Funnels

To be able to sell more of your products and earn more revenue, you must have an aggressive upsell strategy tied to funnels.

ThriveCart offers you features to create upsell funnels that will convert. When customized, your upsell funnel can be added to your page as a button.

Content on ThriveCart funnels can be copied and used to create other funnels. The same is true of page setups. This is to minimize the time spent on creating funnels.

Creating funnels on SamCart is similar to that of ThriveCart.

The only difference is that the same upsell can’t be used for different funnels.

This means that anytime you want to create a new funnel on SamCart, you create it from scratch using the templates SamCart offer. Then add your new content.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

Creating funnels on ThriveCart can be done in minutes since you can copy upsell content and page setups. This is not so with SamCart.

11. Automation and Email Marketing

Automation and email marketing are important features in marketing. You use them to build an email list, relationships with your customers and set up a marketing workflow that is on autopilot.

It saves you time and same time helps generate quality leads that are interested in your products. But unfortunately, SamCart and ThriveCart don’t support inbuilt automation and email marketing.

But you can connect with third-party apps that integrate with them to trigger automation and launch email campaigns.

Email marketing software like GetResponse, Convertkit, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Aweber, etc integrates with both ThriveCart and SamCart.

Verdict: No winner

Both lack inbuilt automation features. You can get this done through third-party integration.

12. Pricing Plans

Before you can create a shopping cart on any of these shopping cart builders, you need to know what their pricing plans look like.

How much you will pay per month, a year, or even a lifetime. This aim is for you to make budgetary provision for them.

ThriveCart has a one-time life payment of $495. This means that you can never be charged again for using this platform.

ThriveCart always updates to provide you with new and amazing features that will help improve and boost your sales. Also, it doesn’t charge you a dime for newly added features.

You can make payments through PayPal, Mastercard, American Express, and Visa. A 30-day money-back is guaranteed in case you weren’t satisfied with the software.

ThriveCart’s life plan comes with cool features. Let’s see them below.

Features of ThriveCart’a Lifetime plan

• You can customize your business dashboard and insight.
• Superb customer support.
• A free inbuilt tool that handles tax calculations.
• Create checkout pages as you like. No restrictions.
• Affiliate and JV functionality.
• Awesome templates that convert.
• Customer behavior rules.

SamCart has three different pricing plans:

Launch – $49/month

Some of its features are:

• Support Google and Apple pay.
• You can create a custom thank you page.
• Offer coupons and discounts.
• Emails can be fully customized.
• Drag and drop template builder.
• Create unlimited products and pages.
• Supports sales and VAT taxes.
• Charges no additional processing fee.
• Only 1 admin user is supported.
• You have a sales and reporting dashboard.
• Supports Zapier, Email, and Membership integration.
• 99.98% uptime.

Grow – $99/month

Some of its features are:

• You can create custom field checkout.
• No additional processing fee.
• Advanced subscription.
• Offer discounts and coupons.
• Supports Google and Apple Pay.
• Access to full template library.
• Drag and drop template builder.
• Supports VAT and sales tax.
• You can customize your emails.
• Free SSL certificate.
• Receive payment through different options.
• Create thank-you pages.
• You can have 3 admin users.
• Trigger a subscription charge reminder.
• Advanced subscription cancellation.
• Membership, Zapier, and Email integration.

Scale – $199/month

Here are some of its features:

• Google and Apple pay.
• You can have up to 10 admin users.
• You can offer coupons and discounts.
• Emails can be fully customized.
• Supports sales  & VAT tax.
• Custom domains.
• Order Bump collections.
• Post-purchase upsell to boost your sales.
• UTM tracking and marketing report.
• Customers can cancel subscriptions on their own.
• Admin user role.
• Subscription charge reminder.
• Inbuilt A/B testing to split test your shopping carts.
• Affiliate center to manage your affiliates.
• Recovery of abandoned carts.
• CRM integration.
• Integration with Webhooks.
• Email, Zapier, and Membership integration.
• Email support.
• 99.98% uptime.

You can easily notice from above that the features of each of the pricing plans vary. The higher the plan, the more features you have access to.

SamCart offers you a 20% discount when you pay annually.

Below is the pricing plan per annum.

Launch: $470/year @ $39/month.

Grow: $950/year @ $79/month.

Scale: $1,910/year @ $159/month.

Verdict: ThriveCart Wins

It’s obvious. Nobody will want to pay a monthly or yearly subscription when it’s possible to get a lifetime plan and save cost.

However, SamCart’s monthly subscription might be a choice for someone who doesn’t have the budget for ThriveCart’s lifetime plan.

13. Customer Support

No matter how tech-savvy you are, there are some issues you may encounter while using this software which you can’t handle.

This is where the customer support comes in. You need to understand the kind of customer support SamCart and ThriveCart offer.

ThriveCart has different methods of assisting its customers. It has 200 articles organized in categories that you can read to solve problems yourself.

Also, you can submit a ticket by filling its forms where you state the kind of problem you want them to help you resolve.

In addition, you can send them an email. You can also join their Facebook group where you get updates.

SamCart can help you resolve issues through LiveChat. You can also send them an email and get a response with 24 hours of business days.

It has a contact form through which you can send in your complaint. For those that live in Maryland and Austin in the US, SamCart has offices in these cities.

Verdict: SamCart

Many people prefer to resolve issues through Live Chat which is easy and fast. Also, SamCart has offices in two cities in the US that one can visit.

That’s it with the detailed comparison of ThriveCart vs SamCart.

Going further, it will make sense to provide additional information by answering a few questions people ask about these shopping cart builders.

FAQs on ThriveCart Vs SamCart

Let’s take them below.

Is there a free version of ThriveCart?

ThriveCart has no free version or free plan. It has the lifetime plan and the ThriveCart pro account which are paid.

What marketing tools does SamCart offer?

SamCart lacks advanced marketing features. For example, it doesn’t support inbuilt automation and email marketing. But you can integrate third-party marketing apps into it to make headway.

Final Thoughts

I trust you have acquired the basic knowledge and information you need to make an informed decision.

We have discussed the features of this software, the pricing plan, and customer support. Plus other key factors that matter when deciding which shopping cart to make use of.

It’s up to you to compare the points made above side by side against your needs then make a final decision.

If I’m to suggest, ThriveCart offers all you need in a shopping cart builder. Its shopping cart features are advanced.

It handles your tax calculation for free, supports A/B split test almost in all your pages to enhance performance.

Plus its pricing plan is cost-effective. Although SamCart has an edge when it comes to designs and customer support, ThriveCart still doesn’t fare badly in these areas.