SamCart vs ThriveCart
ThriveCart or SamCart? Both are checkout-first platforms for creators. SamCart sells monthly plans with AI and courses. ThriveCart sells monthly, yearly or a one-time lifetime licence.
- For paid traffic, ElasticFunnels. The checkout plus the pages before it: presells and split tests under one URL, bumps and one-click upsells, and orders split across your NMI merchant accounts. Start a 14-day free trial.
- SamCart if you want AI page and copy tools and processors assigned per product.
- ThriveCart if you want to pay once for a cart, with a longer trial.
| At a glance | SamCart | ThriveCart |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $79 a month (Core), $59 billed yearly. | $47 a month (Standard), or $495 once for lifetime. |
| Free trial | 7 days, full access. | 30 days. |
| Transaction fee | None on SamPay or Stripe. Small added fees on other processors. | 0% on Stripe Connect+. From 8 October 2026, 0.5% on legacy Stripe integrations. Processor fees pass through. |
| Built for | Digital product creators who want checkout, courses and AI in one place. | Course makers and community builders who want a cart with a lifetime option. |
| Verdict | Pick it for AI tools and processor routing per product. | Pick it for the lifetime price and a longer trial. |
SamCart vs ThriveCart side by side
With ElasticFunnels as a third column. Where a vendor does not publicly state a capability, we say so.
| SamCart | ThriveCart |  ElasticFunnels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order bumps and one-click upsells | YesOrder bumps and one-click upsells on Pro only. | YesOne-click upsells and downsells. One bump on Standard, several on Pro+. | YesOrder bumps, one-click upsells and downsells on every plan. |
| Payment gateways | SamPay, Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net and Easy Pay Direct. | Stripe Connect+, PayPal, Authorize.net and ThrivePay installments. | YesStripe, NMI, PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.net. |
| Routing across merchant accounts | PartialAssign products to processors and rotate merchant accounts. Decline fallback not publicly stated. | PartialSeveral accounts per processor, assigned per product. Routing not publicly stated. | YesWeighted routing across your NMI MIDs, filtered by card brand, product and amount, with a daily cap per MID. |
| Subscriptions and failed-payment recovery | YesSubscriptions. Subscription Saver retries on Pro. | YesSubscriptions, split-pay and trials. Failed-payment dunning on Pro+. | YesSubscriptions and installment plans, with retry ladders and retention offers on cancel. |
| A/B split testing | PartialCheckout pages on Pro, winner picked by hand. Their help says prices cannot be split tested. | YesHosted checkouts only, from one A/B URL, with an automatic winner. | YesServer-side under one URL, on every plan and any step. Sales, revenue and EPC per variant side by side, with a significance check on conversion rate. You mark the winner, or turn on auto-winner. |
| Multi-step funnel builder | PartialPages, sites and post-purchase upsell flows. No general funnel canvas described. | PartialCheckouts with funnel sequencing. Their page builder is on the roadmap, not confirmed live. | YesMulti-step funnels, an AI builder that builds any page you describe, and import of any page from its URL. |
| AI page builder | YesAI page, copy and document designers. Usage limited on Core. | PartialThriveAI page builder is on the roadmap. | YesDescribe any page, from a VSL to a quiz, or paste a URL. The AI builder writes it or clones it. |
| CRM and pipelines | PartialCustomer records with order history, tags and notes. | PartialCustomer hub and self-service portal. No CRM pipelines yet. | YesCustom entities, pipelines and a built-in call center, on every plan. |
| Email and SMS | PartialCart-abandonment emails. Marketing email through integrations. No native SMS. | NoNo native email or SMS yet. Autoresponder integrations. | YesAutomations with email, SMS and webhook actions; SMS and calls go through Twilio. Built-in email templates on every plan. Email people when they enter or leave a saved audience. |
| Courses and memberships | YesCourses app and members area on both plans. | YesThriveCart Academy courses and communities. | YesA members area with course delivery, on every plan. |
| Affiliate program for your products | YesAffiliate Center on Pro. | YesOn Pro+, with second-tier support and automated payouts. | YesAffiliate portal, postbacks with a delivery log, commission groups. You send the payouts. |
| Sales tax and VAT | YesSales tax, VAT and GST, for a small per-transaction fee. | YesVAT, GST and sales tax, for a per-transaction fee. | YesNative, including EU VAT validation and reverse charge. |
| Analytics | YesRevenue reporting. LTV and UTM reports on Pro. | YesRevenue, churn and LTV. Funnel and UTM analytics on Pro+. | YesDashboards from 80+ card types. Every sale tied to its ad, campaign and variant. |
| API and webhooks | YesAPI, webhooks and Zapier on Pro. | YesAPI and webhooks. | YesREST API, webhooks and the ef CLI. |
| AI coding agents and CLI | Not publicly statedAPI for orders and customers, not pages. | Not publicly statedAn official MCP server is on its roadmap. | YesClaude Code or Codex builds pages, runs split tests and reads results via the ef CLI. |
| Starting price | $79 a month (Core), $59 billed yearly. | $47 a month (Standard), or $495 once for lifetime. | From $97 a month on Starter. Split testing and checkout on every plan. |
| Free trial | 7 days, full access. | 30 days. | 14 days. |
| Transaction fee | None on SamPay or Stripe. Small added fees on other processors. | 0% on Stripe Connect+. From 8 October 2026, 0.5% on legacy Stripe integrations. Processor fees pass through. | 0.5% on ElasticFunnels-hosted checkouts only. |
How we source this. Every SamCart and ThriveCart cell comes from their own pricing pages and help centres, last checked on 25 September 2026. Where they do not publicly state a capability, we say so rather than claim they lack it. Prices are in US dollars and change often, so check both vendors before you buy. If anything here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it. SamCart is a trademark of SamCart, LLC. ThriveCart is a trademark of its owner. ElasticFunnels is not affiliated with either.
SamCart pricing vs ThriveCart pricing
SamCart is a monthly or yearly subscription. ThriveCart also sells a one-time lifetime licence.
SamCart
Billed by plan, monthly or yearly
- Core$79 a month, $59 yearly
- Pro$199 a month, $149 yearly
- EnterpriseCustom
- Tax collection0.5% on Core, 0.35% on Pro
- Free trial7 days
ThriveCart
Monthly, yearly or lifetime
- Standard$47 a month, $444 a year
- Pro+$87 a month, $804 a year
- Standard lifetime$495 one time
- Pro+ on a lifetime account$790 up front, then $295 a year
- EnterpriseCustom
- Tax calculation0.5% on Standard, 0.35% on Pro+
- Free trial30 days
Why paid-traffic teams pick ElasticFunnels
A cart takes the order. Paid traffic also needs the pages before it, tests that don't reset the ad, and a way to spread orders across your merchant accounts.
- Pages, presells and split tests on any step, server-side under one URL, so the ad keeps its learning
- A checkout on Stripe, NMI, PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.net, with order bumps, and one-click upsells and downsells on Stripe, NMI and PayPal
- Orders split across your NMI merchant accounts by weight, with a daily cap per MID
- Failed payments and abandoned checkouts in a recovery queue for the built-in call center
- Every sale tied to the ad, campaign and variant that brought it
- An affiliate portal with postbacks and commission groups
- Plans from $97 a month, every feature on every plan, and a 14-day free trial
Which to pick for paid traffic
Two carts, split mostly by pricing model, or the whole funnel around the checkout.
Pick ElasticFunnels if
You pay for traffic and need more than a cart: presells and tests under one URL, bumps and one-click upsells, and orders spread across your MIDs. Start with the 14-day free trial.
Pick SamCart if
You want AI page and copy tools, several processors assigned per product, and bumps, upsells and testing on the Pro plan.
Pick ThriveCart if
You want to pay once, split test hosted checkouts with an automatic winner, and run affiliates with second-tier commissions on Pro+.
What SamCart and ThriveCart sellers complain about
Both carts have loyal users. When sellers outgrow them, three complaints come up again and again. Here is what changes on ElasticFunnels for each.
SamCart puts the selling tools on Pro
Order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B tests, Subscription Saver, affiliates and the API all wait for Pro at $199 a month, and Reddit users call SamCart expensive once they need them.
Every one of those is on each ElasticFunnels plan, Starter included. What you pay instead: a 0.5% fee on orders through an ElasticFunnels checkout, and plans that grow with page views.
Source: SamCart's help center (updated 16 Jun 2026) and 4 user posts on Reddit, Dec 2023 to Sep 2025ThriveCart's lifetime deal now has a yearly fee
Since April 2025, affiliates, dunning, sales tax, extra bumps and custom domains sit in Pro+, which costs $790 up front and then $295 a year on a lifetime account. Reviewers call it a paywall on tools they thought they owned.
ElasticFunnels has no lifetime licence; it bills monthly or yearly. In return, the affiliate portal, failed-payment recovery, sales tax through TaxJar, Avalara or TaxCloud, order bumps and custom domains are part of every plan.
Source: ThriveCart's Pro+ checkout page (checked 29 Sep 2026) and 3 user reviews on Trustpilot, Mar to Aug 2026ThriveCart integrations lean on Zapier
Users report a Zapier abandoned-cart flow that broke, a Stripe connection that forced a new account, and promoted integrations that did not work as described.
Abandoned cart is a built-in trigger in ElasticFunnels Automations, followed by an email, an SMS through Twilio or a postback, with no Zapier in between. The catalog holds 50+ integrations.
Source: 3 user posts on Reddit, Sep 2024 to Dec 2025SamCart vs ThriveCart FAQ
Is ThriveCart really a one-time payment?
ThriveCart sells a Standard lifetime licence for $495 once, next to monthly and yearly plans. Its own comparison page states the one-time price. SamCart is monthly or yearly only.
Which has order bumps and one-click upsells?
Both. SamCart puts bumps and one-click upsells on Pro. ThriveCart includes one-click upsells and downsells on both plans, with one bump on Standard and several on Pro+.
Which one split tests checkouts?
Both, on hosted checkouts. SamCart tests on Pro and you pick the winner. ThriveCart alternates two checkouts from one A/B URL and picks the winner automatically at the end date.
Can either fall back to another merchant account on a decline?
Neither publicly states it. SamCart assigns products to processors and rotates merchant accounts. ThriveCart connects several accounts per processor, assigned per product. ElasticFunnels routes orders by weight across your NMI MIDs.
Which is cheaper, SamCart or ThriveCart?
ThriveCart. Standard is $47 a month, or $495 once for a lifetime licence, with a 30-day trial. SamCart Core is $79 a month, or $59 billed yearly, and bumps, one-click upsells and testing need Pro at $199 a month.
What are some good alternatives to SamCart?
For paid traffic, ElasticFunnels: the checkout with bumps and one-click upsells on every plan, the pages and split tests before it, and orders split across your NMI merchant accounts. ThriveCart suits a one-time price. See our ranked list of SamCart alternatives.
What are some good alternatives to ThriveCart?
ElasticFunnels, if ads pay for your traffic: presells and split tests under one URL, a checkout on Stripe, NMI, PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.net, and every sale tied to the ad that brought it. SamCart suits AI page and copy tools. See the best ThriveCart alternatives, compared.
What's better than a cart for paid traffic?
A funnel with the cart inside it. ElasticFunnels adds what a cart does not do: presell pages and split tests under one URL, orders split across your MIDs with caps, recovery calls from the built-in call center and an affiliate portal.
What are the downsides of SamCart and ThriveCart?
With SamCart, bumps, one-click upsells, A/B tests, failed-payment recovery, affiliates and the API need Pro at $199 a month. With ThriveCart, affiliates, dunning, sales tax and extra bumps moved into Pro+, a yearly fee even on a lifetime licence, and users report integrations that need Zapier workarounds. ElasticFunnels includes all of these on every plan and charges 0.5% on orders through its checkout.
What does ThriveCart Pro+ add?
Affiliates with second-tier commissions, failed-payment dunning, sales tax, several order bumps per checkout and custom domains. It is $87 a month on a monthly account, or $790 up front and then $295 a year on a lifetime licence. ElasticFunnels has no lifetime licence; its affiliate portal, dunning, sales tax, order bumps and custom domains come with every plan.
Can I recover abandoned carts without Zapier?
In ElasticFunnels, yes. Automations has an abandoned-cart trigger, and the next step can send an email, an SMS through Twilio or a postback. Abandoned checkouts also wait in the call center's recovery queue for a call.
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