Sellers leave SamCart when bumps and upsells sit on the Pro plan, or when the monthly price is the reason to switch. Keep SamCart if you want the checkout on SamPay, Stripe, or PayPal, and you want it live quickly.
By Marcus Reyes, Editor. Updated 23 October 2026.
Quick answer
ElasticFunnels is our top pick for most people. ElasticFunnels is the pick if you run paid ads and need to test whole checkouts under one URL while sending sales across several merchant accounts.
SamCart is a hosted checkout for digital products, courses, coaching and subscriptions. The page that takes the card is the product. If the Pro plan or the monthly bill is why you would switch, start with the SamCart alternatives page. It lines up the competitors at each catalog starting price.
Pages, a courses app and an AI assistant sit around the checkout, and Checkout Anywhere can embed it on a site you already run. Core is how you launch: unlimited pages and products, courses, cart abandonment, and a choice of SamPay, Stripe or PayPal. Bumps and one-click upsells are part of the Pro plan. The line-by-line version of that split is on the SamCart pricing page.
SamCart builds the checkout, and a processor charges the card. SamCart's processor guide (revised 4 June 2026) and the connecting article name six options. The guide calls the top tier Enterprise. The pricing page calls that offer Done for you, and it is quoted on a call. Which processors you can attach depends on the plan.
| Processor | Plans | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| SamPay | Every plan | SamCart's own processor, built on Stripe. It opens a new Stripe account, so an existing Stripe account stays separate. Buy now, pay later (Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay), Apple Pay, Google Pay, instant payouts and a payouts dashboard come with SamPay. |
| Stripe | Every plan | Connect the Stripe account you already use. Upsells, subscriptions, Subscription Saver, buy now pay later, Apple Pay and Google Pay are supported. Payouts and payment support stay with Stripe. |
| PayPal | Every plan | Add it beside a card processor. Subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps and one-click upsells work. The pricing page also lists Venmo through this connection. |
| Braintree | Pro, Enterprise | PayPal's card platform. Upsells and subscriptions work here. Wallets and buy now pay later stay on SamPay and Stripe. |
| Authorize.net | Pro, Enterprise | Use it as gateway plus processing, or as a gateway in front of a merchant account you already have. The checkout has to collect a billing address. SamCart says this gateway can also reach processors that connect to Authorize.net, and it names NMI as one example. |
| Easy Pay Direct | Pro, Enterprise | Merchant accounts aimed at high-volume sellers and at high-risk categories. Rates are quoted after you apply. Among wallets, Google Pay is the one listed. |
PayPal can sit next to whichever card processor you choose. On Pro and Enterprise you can connect more than one card processor and send each product to the processor you pick. Every other product uses your default. That assignment is per product. Spreading one charge across several merchant accounts is a different job.
The same guide says Core pays no extra platform fee on SamPay, Stripe or PayPal. It also says Pro and Enterprise can use Braintree, Authorize.net and Easy Pay Direct with no extra platform fee for now, and that SamCart will give notice if that changes. Each processor still charges its own rate.
Two prices are published. A third offer is quoted on a call. Yearly billing takes 25% off, and both published plans open with a 7-day trial. Optional live support inside the app is $19 a month.
| Plan | Monthly | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Core | $79 | Unlimited pages, products and checkouts, the AI assistant with limited usage, courses, cart abandonment, the integration engine, one team seat. |
| Pro | $199 | Everything on Core, plus one-click upsells, order bumps, A/B testing, Subscription Saver, the affiliate center, advanced analytics, the API, third-party processors, payment routing and 10 team seats. |
| Done for you | Custom | Everything on Pro, plus white-glove setup, a dedicated account manager, priority support, multiple marketplaces and unlimited seats. |
SamPay is 2.9% + 30¢ on both published plans, and SamCart adds no platform fee on top of that rate. Tax collection is 50 basis points on Core and 35 on Pro. The pricing page walks through annual billing. To compare the plan with card fees at a revenue figure you choose, use the checkout cost calculator.
SamCart's own pricing page says one upsell raises order value by 68% and an order bump by 31%. Those are vendor figures from its transaction data, with no independent benchmark on file here. Pro includes both, on any processor you connect. SamPay and Stripe are the two that also offer buy now, pay later, and that option is off for subscription products and free-trial offers.
The full set of SamCart competitors, with each starting price, is the alternatives page. The pairs below turn on a single limit.
SamCart vs ThriveCart covers a monthly plan and a lifetime license. ThriveCart includes bumps and upsells on Standard. The ThriveCart review covers both.
SamCart vs PayKickstart matters when the affiliate center is doing real work. PayKickstart tracks commissions and runs subscription recovery beside the checkout. Details are on the PayKickstart review.
Gumroad's price is a cut of each sale, with no monthly plan, and it acts as merchant of record. That trade is SamCart vs Gumroad.
Konnektive is the direct-response CRM, in market since 2010, and the price comes after a demo. SamCart vs Konnektive is the write-up, with the Konnektive review beside it.
Sticky.io publishes a base license for subscription sellers who route volume across many gateways. Read SamCart vs Sticky.io.
ClickFunnels is the comparison when the page builder is the product you are buying. The ClickFunnels review covers that stack.
ElasticFunnels is a funnel platform for teams running paid traffic: pages, same-URL split testing, checkout, CRM and attribution on one record. The checkout charges through Stripe, NMI, PayPal, Klarna or Authorize.net. Routing across more than one merchant account is NMI only, a weighted split of each first sale, and the upsell stays on the account that took the sale. Work on ElasticFunnels started in 2023, and independent reviews are still thin, which is what you would expect of a platform this new. The pages, the checkout and that NMI routing are there to judge on a 14-day trial with no card. The ElasticFunnels review has the rest.
The ranked list for paid traffic is the best-of roundup.
I would start a seller on Core when the job is a checkout on SamPay or on a Stripe account they already have, and move them to Pro the week they want a bump, an upsell, or Braintree, Authorize.net or Easy Pay Direct. Product-level routing on Pro is enough when each offer can live on its own processor. When one sale has to be split across NMI accounts, I would send them to the ElasticFunnels review or the Konnektive comparison instead of stretching this feature.
People comparing the two carts describe the checkout features as similar. They split on price, on how fast support replies, and on which plan includes an affiliate program.
“aside from pricing and support, the core features still seem quite similar.”
“ThriveCart and SamCart are pretty direct competitors feature-wise.”
Public comments still treat the entry price as a premium monthly charge, while the bump sits on the higher plan.
“monthly recurring charges (starting at a fairly premium $79/month)”
“Sam Cart just introduced order upgrades with pro rata billing but it's crazy expensive.”
One commenter said the subscription stops making sense at $300 or more a month for each business.
“doesn't make sense at $300+ per month per business”
A 2025 comparison said SamCart support answers faster than ThriveCart support, and an older Shopify thread called the team helpful. Older Capterra posts still describe slow email-only support, and a Trustpilot post describes a renewal charge.
“appears to be more responsive to support questions”
“customer support team was really helpful”
“I purchased $7 course March 2025. Had access to the course for whole year. Now in March 2026 big surprise! They tried to take out of my card $239.”
“support is email-only with significant delay”
One thread said the newer order-upgrade feature, with pro-rata billing, costs too much.
“Sam Cart just introduced order upgrades with pro rata billing but it's crazy expensive.”
A comment on the order-upgrades thread calls the checkout no frills but fine.
“no frills but fine”
G2's comparison page lists a 4.3 out of 5 from 94 reviews.
“SamCart is rated 4.3/5 from 94 reviews”
11 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context.
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Last checked 2026-10-23
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