The best SamCart alternatives in 2026, tested and ranked

Most people searching for a SamCart alternative have hit the same wall I did. SamCart Core is $79 a month, but order bumps, one-click upsells and the affiliate program only come with Pro at $199, and there's no free plan. I set up a full test store on SamCart Pro for my SamCart review, and I've built funnels and checkouts in Systeme.io, ClickFunnels, GoHighLevel, Kajabi and Kartra. This list is what I'd tell a friend who wanted to leave SamCart, with every price checked on the official pricing page.

*Kajabi adds a fee only if you use another payment provider instead of Kajabi Payments. Card processing is extra on every platform.

Why people look for a SamCart alternative

SamCart is a good product. I gave it 7.7 out of 10, and the checkout is still one of the best I've used. The problem is what you pay to get the parts that make it worth having.

What SamCart costs in 2026

There are two self-serve plans. Core is $79 a month and Pro is $199, and paying yearly takes 25% off. There's also a custom "Done for you" tier you book through a call. SamCart doesn't take a percentage of your sales, but SamPay card processing is 2.9% plus 30 cents, and tax collection adds 0.5% on Core or 0.35% on Pro. The full breakdown is in my SamCart pricing guide.

What you lose if you leave

Before you switch, it helps to know which SamCart features you actually use, because the alternatives below don't all match them. Here's what I'd check:

• Order bumps and one-click upsells (Pro). Most alternatives have these, some only on higher plans.
• Subscription Saver (Pro), which retries failed card payments and nudges the customer to update their card. Few tools here have a direct match.
• The Affiliate Center (Pro). Note that SamCart tracks commissions but you pay affiliates yourself.
• The Courses App, which comes on every plan with drip content and quizzes.
• SamPay extras like Buy Now Pay Later, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

If you mostly use the checkout and an upsell, almost anything on this list will do. If you rely on Subscription Saver or the Courses App, you need to pick more carefully.

How I tested and ranked these

I've used six of these platforms in real accounts: SamCart, Systeme.io, ClickFunnels, GoHighLevel, Kajabi and Kartra. For those, what I say about the setup and the checkout comes from building in them. The others, ThriveCart, Payhip, Gumroad, Stan Store, Whop, Shopify and Podia, I haven't used myself, so for those I've stuck to what their pricing pages and help docs say and I've labelled them that way.

I ranked them on four things: what you'd pay each month at a normal sales level, how many of SamCart's checkout features they match, what else you get in the same account, and how quickly a new seller can get a product live. My general approach is on the how I test page. Some links on this page are partner links, and that didn't decide the order. ClickFunnels and GoHighLevel are partners, and one of them is ninth.

The 10 best SamCart alternatives

1. ThriveCart: the closest swap for SamCart's checkout

Best for: sellers who want SamCart's checkout tools without SamCart's Pro price. Price: Standard $47 a month ($37 billed yearly), Pro+ $87 ($67 yearly), with a 30 day free trial. ThriveCart says a lifetime option for Standard is still sold, but its pricing page doesn't show the price. Reviewed from ThriveCart's pricing plans and help docs.

ThriveCart does the same core job as SamCart: checkout pages, order bumps, one-click upsells and downsells, subscriptions and payment plans. The big difference is where those tools sit. On ThriveCart they're on the $47 plan. On SamCart they need $199. ThriveCart moved to monthly plans in July 2026, so a lot of older lists only mention the lifetime deal, and that's now the side option. Both monthly plans include a ThriveCart Academy plan for courses and communities.

The catch is that the affiliate tools, multiple order bumps and the more advanced subscription features are on Pro+, and I'd check the checkout templates in the trial, because SamCart's are more polished. I compare the two plan by plan, including fees and the lifetime deal, in SamCart vs ThriveCart.

See ThriveCart pricing

2. Systeme.io: the best free SamCart alternative

Best for: new sellers and anyone on a tight budget who wants checkout, email and courses in one place. Price: Free, then Startup $17 a month, Webinar $47 and Unlimited $97. 0% transaction fees on every plan. Tested in my own account.

Systeme.io is the only tool here with a real free plan that covers what most SamCart users need. On the free plan I could build a sales funnel with a checkout, add an order bump and a one-click upsell, send emails to up to 2,000 contacts, host a course and run an affiliate program. On SamCart that list would cost $199 a month, and you'd still need an email tool on top.

Where it falls behind SamCart is the checkout itself. The pages are plainer, the payment options are narrower (mainly Stripe and PayPal), and the reporting is basic. The free plan also has a $10,000 lifetime sales cap, after which you have to upgrade. Even then, Startup at $17 is a fraction of SamCart Core. I went through all of this in my Systeme.io review, and if you're weighing it against an agency tool, see Systeme.io vs GoHighLevel.

Start Systeme.io for free

3. ClickFunnels: best for full funnels with email and a CRM

Best for: sellers who want landing pages, email, checkout and upsells built as one funnel. Price: Launch $97 a month ($81 yearly), Scale $197 ($164), Optimize $297 ($248), plus a $5,997 a year Dominate plan. 14 day free trial and a 30 day money-back guarantee. Tested in my own account.

ClickFunnels isn't cheaper than SamCart Core, but it's cheaper than SamCart Pro for the features most people actually want. Order bumps and one-click upsells come with Launch at $97, and so do email marketing to your list, 3 courses and a CRM pipeline. SamCart doesn't send marketing emails at all, so if you're paying for an email tool next to SamCart, ClickFunnels can replace both.

The downsides: automated email sequences need Scale at $197, and the Affiliate Center starts on Optimize at $297, where SamCart has it at $199. It also takes longer to learn, because there's more of it. I compared the two side by side in SamCart vs ClickFunnels, and if you're also looking at an agency platform, GoHighLevel vs ClickFunnels covers that.

4. Kajabi: best when the course is the business

Best for: coaches and course creators who want a website, courses, community and email together. Price: Basic $179 a month ($143 yearly), Growth $249 ($199), Pro $499 ($399). Every plan has a 30 day money-back guarantee. Tested in my own account.

SamCart's Courses App is fine for a course that sits next to a product. Kajabi is built the other way round: the course, the community and the website come first, and the checkout is one part of it. Basic includes unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails, and Kajabi takes no revenue share. Kajabi Payments costs 2.9% plus 30 cents per card sale on Basic.

The limits are worth knowing. Basic allows 5 products and 2,500 contacts, and the checkout is simpler than SamCart's, with fewer conversion tools. It's also the most expensive option on this list at entry level. If you're already on Kajabi and thinking of moving, I covered that in moving from Kajabi to GoHighLevel.

See Kajabi pricing

5. Payhip: best if you don't want a monthly bill

Best for: selling ebooks, templates and small courses while sales are still low. Price: Free with a 5% transaction fee, Plus $29 a month with 2%, Pro $99 with no fee. Reviewed from Payhip's pricing page.

Payhip gives you every feature on every plan, including the free one, so the only thing you're choosing is how you pay. That makes it the cheapest way to test whether a product sells at all. It also collects and pays EU and UK VAT for you, which saves a real headache if you sell to Europe.

The 5% fee grows with your sales, though. Once you're selling a few thousand dollars a month, Plus or Pro makes more sense, and at that point a dedicated checkout like ThriveCart is worth a look.

See Payhip pricing

6. Gumroad: best for your first product

Best for: beginners testing one digital product. Price: No monthly fee. 10% plus 50 cents per sale through your profile or a direct link, and 30% when the buyer finds you through Gumroad's Discover marketplace. Reviewed from Gumroad's pricing page and help centre.

Gumroad is the quickest way to put a product online and take money for it. Since January 2025 it acts as the merchant of record, which means it handles sales tax collection and payment worldwide for you. For someone who just wants to sell a PDF without thinking about tax, that's the main reason to pick it.

It's also the most expensive per sale. At $2,000 a month in sales, Gumroad's fee is more than SamCart Pro costs. Gumroad does have checkout upsells and cross-sells: after the buyer clicks Pay, a pop-up offers an upgrade or an extra product, with an optional discount. What it doesn't have is a ticked order bump on the checkout page or a multi-step funnel. Treat it as a starting point, not a long-term SamCart replacement.

See Gumroad pricing

7. Stan Store: best for selling from your link in bio

Best for: creators who sell from Instagram or TikTok. Price: Creator $29 a month ($300 a year), Creator Pro $99 ($948 a year). Stan takes no transaction fee, and there's a 14 day free trial but no free plan. Reviewed from Stan's help centre.

Stan turns your link-in-bio page into a small mobile store with digital products, bookings, courses and lead magnets. If your buyers come from social media on their phones, that's a better fit than a SamCart checkout page. Discount codes, order bumps, payment plans, affiliate tools and email flows are on Creator Pro, though, so the cheap plan isn't really comparable with SamCart Pro. I compare the two plan by plan in SamCart vs Stan Store.

See Stan Store plans

8. Whop: best for paid communities and memberships

Best for: memberships, paid Discord or Telegram groups and digital access products. Price: No monthly fee. Card processing is 2.7% plus 30 cents for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% when currency conversion applies. Optional extras add 0.8% for payment routing, 0.5% for billing and 2% for tax handling. Reviewed from Whop's fee docs and its upsell guide.

Whop makes sense if what you sell is access: a community, a group chat, signals or software. You don't pay anything until you make a sale. Before you sign up, check the fee page for the apps you plan to use, because some access apps carry their own fee. Whop does support upsells. You can lock an app and sell it as a paid add-on on the checkout page, which works like an order bump, or offer it on an upsell page after checkout. For a classic sales page and course funnel, though, it's not the natural fit.

See Whop fees

9. GoHighLevel: best for agencies and service businesses

Best for: agencies, coaches and local service businesses that need a CRM as well as a checkout. Price: Starter $97 a month ($970 a year), Unlimited $297, Agency Pro $497, with a 14 day free trial. Tested in my own account.

GoHighLevel can do what SamCart does: funnels, order forms with bumps and upsells, payments, courses and memberships. It also adds a full CRM, calendars, email and SMS, pipelines and client sub-accounts. If you run a business that books calls and follows up leads, that's one bill instead of four.

I've ranked it ninth on purpose. For a creator who only needs a checkout and a course, it's far more than you'll use, and it takes a while to learn. Texts and some add-ons cost extra on top of the plan. My GoHighLevel review and GoHighLevel pricing guide cover it properly.

Try GoHighLevel free

10. Shopify: best for physical products

Best for: stores that ship physical products. Price: Basic $39 a month ($29 yearly), Grow $105 ($79), Advanced $399 ($299). Shopify Payments starts at 2.9% plus 30 cents online on Basic, and using an outside payment provider adds a 2% fee on Basic. Reviewed from Shopify's pricing page.

If you sell things that ship, Shopify is better than SamCart at almost everything that matters: inventory, shipping labels, taxes, and selling in person and on marketplaces. For digital products it's the wrong tool. Courses, memberships and one-click upsells all need extra apps, and each one adds to the monthly bill.

See Shopify pricing

Also worth a look

Kartra combines pages, email, checkout and a CRM, from $59 a month. I tested it for my Kartra review. Podia covers courses, downloads and email from $42 a month billed yearly with a 5% fee, or $84 with no fee (Podia pricing). If you only need a payment link, Stripe Payment Links is the bare-bones option.

What each one really costs at $2,000 a month

Here's a worked example of my own: 41 sales of a $49 product, which is about $2,009 a month. The table shows only what each platform charges, meaning the plan plus any cut of the sale. I left card processing out, because you pay roughly the same 2.7% to 2.9% plus 30 cents nearly everywhere. Gumroad's 10% is its own fee, and Whop's figure is its card processing fee, since Whop has no plan fee.

Two things jump out. First, the fee-per-sale tools look free but get expensive quickly. Gumroad costs more than SamCart Pro at this level. Second, if you want order bumps and upsells, ThriveCart, Systeme.io and ClickFunnels all get you there for less than SamCart Pro. Systeme.io's free plan only works until you pass $10,000 in total sales, so at this pace you'd be on Startup within about five months.

Which SamCart alternative should you pick?

When staying on SamCart makes more sense

I wouldn't tell everyone to leave. SamCart is still the better choice if your business runs on subscriptions and failed payments are costing you money, because Subscription Saver and the customer portal are hard to match. It also makes sense if you want to connect more than one payment processor, which Pro allows with Braintree, Authorize.net and Easy Pay Direct, or if checkout conversion on paid traffic is the thing you're trying to improve.

It's also good for affiliate-driven launches. SamCart includes the Affiliate Center at $199, while ClickFunnels only has it from $297.

The Courses App is another reason to stay. It comes on every plan, with drip content and quizzes, so a course and a checkout live in one place without a second subscription.

If those points describe you, my full SamCart review walks through each feature, and the pricing guide shows how to save 25% by paying yearly.

Common questions