9 Best SamCart Alternatives for 2026 (Pricing, Pros and Cons)

SamCart is a popular checkout platform for selling digital products, courses, subscriptions, and other offers online. However, some of its most valuable features including order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B testing, and affiliate management, are locked behind the $199/month Pro plan. 

At that price, it's worth asking whether a checkout-focused platform is really the best fit for your business. If you still need separate tools for your website, landing pages, funnels, and email marketing, or you'd prefer to sell directly from a website you control, there are compelling alternatives to consider.

In this guide, we compare nine SamCart alternatives to help you find the right platform for your business. We'll look at what each one does well, where it has limitations, how much it costs, and which types of businesses it's best suited to.

We'll also take a closer look at SamCart vs. OptimizePress, including how the two approaches differ from other funnel builders such as ClickFunnels.

Here's a quick summary before we go into detail. "Starting price" is the lowest paid plan, billed annually where that option exists.

Before comparing SamCart competitors, it helps to be clear about what you'd be replacing. SamCart has broadened beyond checkout pages, and the right alternative depends on which parts you use.

SamCart is a hosted ecommerce platform built around high-converting checkout pages for digital products, courses, coaching, and physical goods. 

It now includes:

• Checkout pages: unlimited products and checkouts, with Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, cards, and buy now, pay later options
• Pages and sites: sales pages, microsites, link-in-bio pages, and lead magnet pages
• Courses app: courses with a built-in members area
• Cart abandonment: automatic recovery emails
• AI assistant: limited on Core, unlimited on Pro
• Pro-only growth tools: order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B testing, Subscription Saver for failed payments, and an Affiliate Center

SamCart's strength is the checkout itself. Its pages are built to sell, and the payment options are broad.

SamCart has two published plans and a custom service tier. The annual option saves 25%.

A few costs are worth knowing about:

• Tax collection fee: SamCart charges 50 basis points (0.5%) on Core and 35 basis points (0.35%) on Pro for its tax collection feature.
• Payment processing: SamPay processes payments at 2.9% + 30¢.
• Live support: listed as an add-on.
• Trial: there's a 7-day free trial. We didn't find a money-back guarantee on the pricing page.

SamCart works well for businesses that want a polished, hosted checkout. But as your requirements grow, you may find that another platform fits your business better.

• You want more than a checkout. If you need landing pages, sales pages, and other marketing tools, choosing a platform that covers more of the funnel can simplify your setup.
  

• You want more control over your website. Businesses already using WordPress may prefer to keep their sales pages, checkout and customer journey on their own website and domain.
  

• You want more flexibility without moving to a higher tier. Key SamCart features like order bumps, one-click upsells and A/B testing require the Pro plan, so it’s worth comparing the total cost with alternatives.
  

• You want your marketing tools to work together. If your website, landing pages, funnels, checkout and courses are spread across different platforms, consolidating them can make your setup simpler.
  

This is where OptimizePress stands out for WordPress users, giving you the tools to build and sell online without giving up the flexibility and control of your own website.

A SamCart alternative doesn't need every feature. It needs to fit the way you sell and make financial sense as your business grows. Consider these questions before comparing platforms:

1. What do you sell? Digital products, courses, coaching, memberships, and physical products all have different needs. Make sure the platform supports what you sell.
2. Which sales tools do you need? List the essentials, such as order bumps, upsells, downsells, payment plans, subscriptions, coupons, and buy now, pay later. Then check which plan includes them.
3. What will it really cost? Add the subscription, transaction fees, payment processing, and any tax or merchant-of-record fees. Compare the cost at your current revenue and as your business grows.
4. Do you need funnels and pages? If you create opt-in pages, sales pages, or funnels, a platform that includes these tools can reduce the number of platforms you need.
5. What about email and courses? Decide whether you want these bundled or prefer to keep specialist tools you already use.
6. Where should your checkout live? Hosted platforms manage hosting, security, and updates. A WordPress checkout gives you more control over your site, but you manage the hosting yourself.
7. Which payment are supported? Confirm Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, or local gateways if your customers rely on them.
8. Do you need an affiliate program? Some platforms include one; others require a separate tool.
9. How hard is the move? Moving one-time products is quick. Moving active subscriptions takes planning, so check what migration help each platform offers.

OptimizePress is our top SamCart alternative for businesses using WordPress that want more than a checkout.

It combines landing pages, sales pages, marketing funnels, checkout, order bumps, upsells, courses and marketing automation in one WordPress-based platform.

This lets you build the entire customer journey—from the first page someone visits to checkout and product delivery—without relying on multiple platforms.

The main difference from SamCart is how they work. SamCart is a hosted checkout platform that has expanded into pages and courses. OptimizePress is a WordPress marketing and funnel platform with checkout built in

For a business already using WordPress, that distinction can be significant. Your website, SEO content, landing pages, sales funnels and checkout can all live on the same domain and be managed from the same WordPress installation.

All plans are billed annually, renew at the same price, and include a 30-day money-back guarantee. See OptimizePress pricing for current offers.

• Launch: $129/year, 1 site, OptimizeBuilder, and 600+ templates
• Scale: $199/year, 5 sites, 600+ templates, and the full suite: OptimizeBuilder, OptimizeFunnels, OptimizeCheckouts, OptimizeMentor, OptimizeUrgency, OptimizeFlow, and ThemeBuilder
• Elevate: $249/year, 25 sites including client sites, pro themes and premium template collections, and the full suite

Best for: WordPress users who want sales pages, funnels, checkouts with bumps and upsells, and courses on their own site for a flat annual fee.

ThriveCart is a hosted checkout and cart platform, and the alternative most often compared with SamCart. It covers the same core job (checkout pages for digital products, courses, and services) and includes its course product, ThriveCart Academy, with every plan.

• Standard: $47/month (30-day free trial), or $495 one-time lifetime
• Pro+: $87/month (30-day free trial)
• Enterprise: custom pricing for high-volume sellers

Best for: SamCart users who want the closest like-for-like checkout swap, with upsells included below the top tier.

ClickFunnels is a hosted funnel builder that also includes email marketing, courses, and contact management. "SamCart vs ClickFunnels" is one of the most common comparisons, and the answer usually comes down to scope: SamCart is checkout-first, ClickFunnels is funnel-first.

• Launch: $97/month, or $81/month billed annually ($972/year)
• Scale: $197/month, or $164/month billed annually ($1,968/year)
• Optimize: $297/month, or $248/month billed annually ($2,976/year)
• Dominate: $5,997/year, annual only

For a closer look, see our ClickFunnels alternative comparison.

Best for: marketers who want hosted funnels, checkout, and email in one place and are happy to pay more for that.

Systeme.io is a hosted all-in-one platform covering funnels, checkouts, email, courses, and webinars. Its free plan makes it the go-to recommendation for people who want to stop paying for SamCart while their business is small.

• Free: $0, 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course
• Startup: $17/month or $170/year, 5,000 contacts
• Webinar: $47/month or $470/year, 10,000 contacts
• Unlimited: $97/month or $970/year, unlimited contacts

Best for: beginners and budget-conscious sellers who want funnels, checkout, and email without a large monthly bill.

Stan Store is a link-in-bio storefront for creators. It lets you sell digital products, courses, coaching calls, and memberships from a single mobile-friendly page, which overlaps with the link-in-bio and creator side of SamCart.

• Creator: $29/month or $300/year
• Creator Pro: $99/month or $948/year

Both plans include a 14-day free trial.

Best for: creators who sell mainly from Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube and want a simple storefront rather than a full checkout platform.

Kajabi is a hosted platform for courses, coaching, communities, and memberships, with a website builder, email marketing, funnels, and checkout included. If you mainly use SamCart's Courses app, Kajabi is the more complete course business platform.

• Basic: $179/month, or $143/month billed annually ($1,716/year)
• Growth: $249/month, or $199/month billed annually ($2,388/year)
• Pro: $499/month, or $399/month billed annually ($4,788/year)

See our Kajabi alternative comparison for more detail.

Best for: course, coaching, and membership businesses that want everything hosted in one place.

Podia is a hosted storefront for online courses, digital downloads, webinars, and communities, with email marketing and a website builder included. It's often recommended to creators who find SamCart's pricing hard to justify for a small catalogue.

• Mover: $49/month, or $42/month billed annually ($504/year), 5% transaction fee
• Shaker: $99/month, or $84/month billed annually ($1,008/year), 0% transaction fee
• Earthquaker: $179/month, or $150/month billed annually ($1,800/year), 0% transaction fee

Read our Podia alternative comparison for more.

Best for: creators who want a straightforward storefront with email included.

Payhip is a hosted platform for selling digital downloads, courses, memberships, and coaching. Every plan includes every feature; you choose between a higher transaction fee and a monthly subscription.

• Free: $0/month + 5% transaction fee
• Plus: $29/month + 2% transaction fee
• Pro: $99/month, no transaction fee

PayPal and Stripe processing fees apply on top.

Best for: digital product sellers with modest or irregular sales who prefer to pay as they go.

SureCart is a checkout and ecommerce plugin for WordPress. Like OptimizePress, it runs on your own site, but it focuses on the store and checkout rather than page building, funnels, or courses.

• Launch: free + 2.9% transaction fee
• Pro: $199/year (1 store), $249 first year then $299/year (5 stores), or $399 first year then $499/year (unlimited stores)
• Lifetime: $699, $1,199, or $1,999

Best for: WordPress users who want a lightweight checkout plugin and already have a page builder they like.

A few more platforms come up in SamCart comparisons. They're narrower or suit more specific situations:

• Kourses: a hosted course, community, and digital product platform from the team behind OptimizePress. It includes order bumps and one-click upsells on every plan, with 0% transaction fees (Stripe only). Plans run from $108/year (100 members, 1 product) to $948/year (unlimited). A good fit if SamCart's Courses app is the part you use most and you'd rather not manage WordPress.
• Teachable: a course-first platform with coupons, upsells, and order bumps on every plan. Starter has a 7.5% transaction fee; Builder ($69/month billed annually) and above have none.
• Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad: merchants of record that handle sales tax and VAT for you in exchange for a higher percentage per sale (Lemon Squeezy from 5% + 50¢; Gumroad 10% + 50¢ on direct sales). Useful if global tax compliance is your main headache.
• WooCommerce with FunnelKit: the long-standing WordPress ecommerce route. WooCommerce is free; FunnelKit adds checkout pages, bumps, upsells, and A/B testing from its Plus plan.
• Spiffy: a hosted checkout platform with 0% Spiffy fees and upsells, subscriptions, payment plans, and affiliates on every plan, from $74/month billed annually.

SamCart and OptimizePress overlap on checkout, but they're built on different models. SamCart is a hosted checkout platform. OptimizePress is a WordPress suite where checkout is one part of a larger system for pages, funnels, and courses.

Take a seller who needs order bumps and upsells, so the fair comparison is SamCart Pro against OptimizePress Scale.

• SamCart Pro, billed annually: $1,791/year. If you also use SamCart's tax collection on $10,000 of monthly sales, the 0.35% fee adds about $35 a month, or $420 a year.
• OptimizePress Scale: $199/year, plus WordPress hosting, which you pay for separately and which varies by host.

Payment processing applies to both, so it doesn't change the comparison. For most sellers the subscription gap is well over $1,000 a year, and it doesn't grow as your sales do. The trade-off is that you take on hosting and WordPress upkeep, and you'll need separate tools for affiliates and email.

SamCart may still be the right choice if:

• You don't want to manage a website. A hosted checkout means no hosting, plugin updates, or backups.
• You rely on its payment options. Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and several buy now, pay later providers are built in.
• Your affiliate program runs on SamCart. The Pro Affiliate Center is a genuine advantage if affiliates drive your sales.
• You need hands-on help. The Done For You tier offers account management and white-glove service.

If none of those apply, and especially if your website already runs on WordPress, OptimizePress lets you build the sales page, checkout, upsells, and course delivery in one place, with upsell strategies available from the moment you launch.

There's no single best SamCart alternative. The right choice depends on what you sell and how you want to run your business:

• You run your business on WordPress: choose OptimizePress if you want sales pages, funnels, checkouts, and courses in one suite. Choose SureCart if you only need a checkout and already have a builder you like.
• You want a like-for-like checkout swap: choose ThriveCart. It's the closest match to SamCart, with upsells on the Standard plan.
• You want hosted funnels with email built in: choose ClickFunnels, or Systeme.io if budget matters more than design flexibility.
• You're just starting out: choose Systeme.io for its free plan, or Payhip if you'd rather pay a percentage than a monthly fee.
• You sell from social media: choose Stan Store for a link-in-bio storefront.
• Courses and coaching are your main product: choose Kajabi for an all-in-one hosted platform, or Kourses for a lower-cost course and community platform with 0% transaction fees.
• You want a simple creator storefront with email: choose Podia.

If you're still unsure, list the three SamCart features you'd miss most. The platform that handles all three, at a cost that still works at double your current revenue, is usually the right place to start.

Moving a checkout means moving the part of your business that takes money, so plan the switch carefully. This order keeps sales flowing while you move:

1. Export your customer and order data. Download your customer list, products, and order history from SamCart before you change anything.
2. List every active offer. Note each product's price, order bumps, upsells, coupons, and payment plans so you can rebuild them exactly.
3. Rebuild your best-selling offer first. Recreate the sales page, checkout, and upsell flow for the product that brings in the most revenue. With OptimizePress, sales page templates give you a starting layout.
4. Reconnect email and tags. Make sure new buyers reach the right list or tag in your email platform.
5. Plan subscription migration carefully. Active subscriptions are the hardest part. Check whether your Stripe customer data can move with you, ask your new platform about migration help, and test with a small group before moving everyone.
6. Test the full purchase path. Make a real test purchase, accept an upsell, and confirm the receipt, product delivery, and course access all work.
7. Update links, then keep SamCart running for a while. Point your buttons, emails, and ads to the new checkout, but keep your SamCart account active until existing subscriptions and refunds are handled.

SamCart is a focused, well-built checkout platform, but its best revenue tools sit on the $199/month Pro plan, and it leaves funnels and email to other tools. The SamCart alternatives available in 2026 cover every common need:

• OptimizePress for WordPress users who want pages, funnels, checkouts, and courses on their own site for a flat annual fee
• ThriveCart for the closest like-for-like checkout replacement
• ClickFunnels and Systeme.io for hosted funnels with email included
• Stan Store for creators selling from a link-in-bio page
• Kajabi and Podia for course and creator businesses
• Payhip and SureCart for pay-as-you-go or lightweight WordPress checkouts

Start by listing the features you use in SamCart today, then compare the total cost of each option at your current revenue and at double it. That exercise usually makes the right choice clear.

If WordPress is part of your plan, see OptimizePress plans and features. Checkouts, funnels, and courses are included from $199/year, and every plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can build and test your first funnel on your own site before committing.

It depends on how you sell. For WordPress users who want pages, funnels, checkouts, and courses on their own site, OptimizePress is a strong fit. ThriveCart is the closest like-for-like checkout, ClickFunnels and Systeme.io suit hosted funnels with email, Stan Store suits social media creators, and Kajabi suits course businesses.

SamCart Core costs $79/month or $711/year, and Pro costs $199/month or $1,791/year. A custom-priced Done For You tier is also available. SamCart also charges 0.5% (Core) or 0.35% (Pro) for its tax collection feature, and SamPay processing is 2.9% + 30¢.

Yes. SamCart offers a 7-day free trial. We didn't find a money-back guarantee on its pricing page, so test the features you need during the trial.

Yes. Systeme.io has a free plan and paid plans from $17/month, Payhip is free to start with a 5% fee, and OptimizePress includes checkouts with order bumps and upsells from $199/year. ThriveCart also offers a $495 lifetime option.

SamCart can be worth it if you want a polished hosted checkout, use its payment options, and rely on Pro features like the Affiliate Center. If you mainly need order bumps and upsells, or want your checkout on your own website, there are lower-cost alternatives.

SamCart is checkout-first: it focuses on the checkout page, with pages and courses added. ClickFunnels is funnel-first, with multi-step funnels, email marketing, and courses in one account. ClickFunnels starts at $81/month billed annually; SamCart Core starts at about $59/month billed annually.

SamCart is ThriveCart's closest competitor. Other options include OptimizePress and SureCart for WordPress users, Systeme.io for a low-cost all-in-one, and ClickFunnels for hosted funnels.

Yes. OptimizePress is a WordPress suite covering landing pages, sales pages, funnels, checkouts with order bumps and upsells, and courses. SureCart and WooCommerce with FunnelKit are other WordPress checkout options.

Usually, but it takes planning. Export your customer data, check whether your Stripe customers can move with you, and ask your new platform about migration support. Test with a small group first and keep SamCart active until every subscription has moved.