ThriveCart vs SamCart: which should you use?
·Founder, Stakk
·
22 October 2026
·
7 min read
Use ThriveCart if you want order bumps and one-click upsells for the least money: its $47 Standard plan includes one bump and 1-click upsells, while SamCart only adds them on Pro at $199. Use SamCart if you want its AI assistant to build your product and pages and you are happy to pay more for the same checkout tools. Neither takes a cut of sales, so on both you pay card processing, which each lists at 2.9% + $0.30 on a US card. ThriveCart gives a 30-day free trial and SamCart a 7-day one. Checked 18 October 2026.
Both are checkout platforms that sit behind your sales pages, and both take payments for courses, downloads and subscriptions. The real gap is what each one puts on its cheapest plan.
What is the difference between ThriveCart and SamCart?
ThriveCart puts more selling tools and a course and community platform on its cheapest plan. SamCart puts an AI assistant on its cheapest plan, and keeps most selling tools for Pro.
ThriveCart calls itself a creator stack for coursemakers and community builders. Every subscription plan includes a ThriveCart Academy plan, but lifetime plans do not. On Standard, that means unlimited courses and students, up to 2,000 community members across up to 10 communities, and 100 GB of video storage. Standard also lists unlimited products and funnels, one order bump, 1-click upsells and downsells, A/B split testing, abandoned cart recovery, sales tax automation and checkout in 100+ countries. Pro+ adds multiple order bumps, an affiliate center with automated payouts, custom branding and domains, and multi-user permissions.
SamCart's Core plan has unlimited pages, products and checkouts, a Courses app with a members area, cart abandonment emails and one team seat. It also has an AI assistant called Sam that can draft an ebook or course outline, write sales copy and design pages. ThriveCart's pricing block does not list an AI tool like that. SamCart's Pro plan adds order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B testing, an affiliate center, third-party processors and ten team seats.
So A/B testing sits on ThriveCart's cheapest plan and on SamCart's top public plan.
How much do ThriveCart and SamCart cost?
ThriveCart is $47 or $87 a month. SamCart is $79 or $199 a month. Both have a custom-priced top tier, and neither has a free plan, only a free trial.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | Order bump and upsell |
|---|---|---|---|
| ThriveCart Standard | $47 | $444 a year | 1 bump, plus 1-click upsells |
| ThriveCart Pro+ | $87 | $804 a year | Multiple bumps, plus 1-click upsells |
| SamCart Core | $79 | $711 a year | Neither |
| SamCart Pro | $199 | $1,791 a year | Both |
| Stakk | $0 | No plan | Both, on every account |
ThriveCart's prices are in the pricing block on ThriveCart's home page, and SamCart's are on SamCart's pricing page. ThriveCart gives a 30-day free trial on Standard and Pro+, and also sells a lifetime account as a one-time payment of $495, which does not include ThriveCart Academy. Its Enterprise plan is priced on request. SamCart gives a 7-day free trial, and its Done For You plan is priced on a call. By our sums, paying yearly saves 21% on ThriveCart Standard and 23% on Pro+. SamCart takes 25% off either plan. There is more on one side in this breakdown of SamCart's pricing.
What does each one take from every sale?
Neither takes a cut for itself. On both, what a sale costs is card processing, plus a small charge if you use their sales tax tool.
ThriveCart's fees page says it "charges 0% fees" and that the fees listed come from Stripe, PayPal and Authorize.net. It lists Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 on a domestic card, plus 1.5% on international cards and 1% more when currency is converted. Accounts not on its Stripe Connect+ setup pay 0.5% more. Its tax calculation and collection tool costs 0.5% per eligible sale on Standard and 0.35% on Pro+.
SamCart's pricing page lists SamPay, its own processor, at 2.9% + 30c on both plans, with "no added fees on SamPay". Its table lists tax collection at 50 basis points on Core and 35 on Pro, which is 0.5% and 0.35%. SamCart does not say what that is charged on, so ask before you count it.
On a $50 sale by US card, both come to $1.75 in processing. Per sale they are even, so the monthly fee is the real price gap. Stakk works the other way round: no monthly fee, and 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included, which is $5.50 on that same $50 sale.
Which one has order bumps and one-click upsells on the cheaper plan?
ThriveCart. Its $47 Standard plan lists "1 Bump Offer" and "1-Click Upsells & Downsells". SamCart has neither on Core and puts "1-Click Upsells + Order Bumps" on Pro at $199.
Our own arithmetic on both vendors' published monthly prices. Billed yearly, ThriveCart Standard is $444 a year and SamCart Pro is $1,791 a year.
There are two limits on ThriveCart's cheaper plan. Standard allows one bump in total, and ThriveCart's fees page says that one can be a normal bump or a subscription bump, not both. Pro+ allows multiple bumps of each kind. The fees page also lists a 0.10% charge on subscription bumps on Standard, and 0% on Pro+.
SamCart describes its upsell as a one-click upgrade after checkout, and its bump as an extra product added at checkout with a single checkbox. Holding both back for the top plan is common. Stan Store does the same with its $99 plan, which our SamCart vs Stan Store comparison covers.
Who holds your money on ThriveCart and SamCart?
ThriveCart says your money goes straight to you through the processor you connect. SamCart's pricing page does not say where SamPay money sits before your bank.
ThriveCart's FAQ says you connect a processor such as Stripe Connect+, PayPal, ThrivePay Installments or Authorize.net, and that revenue flows to you with "no middlemen, no holding periods". Its fees page lists a standard bank transfer that typically takes 2 business days and is free, and an instant payout for 1.5%. The same page lists bringing your own Stripe account as coming soon.
SamCart's FAQ says you do not need your own merchant account: SamCart can set one up for you inside the app, or you can connect Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net or Easy Pay Direct. Its plan table lists third-party processors on Pro. I could not find a SamCart page that says how SamPay pays out, so I am not going to guess.
On Stakk, the charge goes straight into your own Stripe account, and Stripe pays your bank on the schedule you choose. We never hold it.
Should you pick ThriveCart or SamCart?
Pick ThriveCart if you want the most selling tools for the least money. At $47, Standard has one order bump, one-click upsells, A/B testing, cart recovery and a course and community platform. That is more of the checkout than SamCart gives at $79, and the 30-day trial gives you longer to test it. It suits a course creator or community builder who already has a sales page.
Pick SamCart if you want help building the product itself. Its AI assistant drafts ebooks, course outlines and sales copy, and designs pages, and SamCart hosts download files of up to 1 GB. Its Pro plan lists ten team seats and its Done For You plan comes with an account manager. You pay more for the bump and the upsell, so it makes sense when the rest of the platform saves you hiring a writer or a designer.
When is Stakk the wrong choice instead of either?
If you need courses, a community, subscriptions, affiliates or A/B testing, Stakk is the wrong choice and either of these will serve you better. Stakk has none of those, sells in US dollars only and caps prices at $999. And if cost per sale is the whole decision, use Systeme.io or Whop instead. Systeme.io's free plan charges no transaction fees and includes one order bump and one one-click upsell, and Whop charges 2.7% + $0.30 on a domestic card with no monthly cost. Both take less per sale than our 10% + $0.50. There are more options in our list of SamCart alternatives.
What Stakk does differently is the checkout. The order bump rides the same charge as the product, so it carries one fee rather than two. The upsell after payment is one tap against the card the buyer just used. It is a second charge, so our fee applies to it again. Both are on every account, with no plan to upgrade to, which fewer platforms do than you might expect. The layout came out of funnels that ran for agency clients before Stakk existed.
Want an order bump and an upsell with no monthly plan at all?
Stakk is 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included, and no monthly fee. You connect your own Stripe account, add a bump and an upsell to any product, and a month with no sales costs you nothing. When a sale comes in, the money is in your Stripe account, not in a balance we hold.