SamCart alternatives in 2026: 8 cheaper checkouts compared
SamCart costs $79 or $199 a month, and upsells, order bumps, and affiliates are on the $199 plan. Here are 8 SamCart alternatives compared on price and features.
SamCart costs $79 a month on Core or $199 a month on Pro, and the tools most sellers pick it for (one-click upsells, order bumps, A/B testing, and the affiliate center) are on Pro. The closest SamCart alternative is ThriveCart, which has a bump, upsells, A/B testing, and split pay on its $47 plan. Stan and Eden are cheaper link-in-bio stores. Eden puts a bump on its $29 plan and up to 3 upsells and an affiliate program on its $79 plan, and payment plans on every selling plan. Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, and Payhip cost nothing a month and handle tax for you.
This guide is for sellers on SamCart now, or choosing a checkout for a course, coaching offer, or digital product. Full disclosure: we make Eden, which is on this list. Every price and feature below was checked on each company's own site or help center in September 2026. Card processing (usually 2.9% + 30¢ per US sale) applies everywhere unless we say otherwise.
What SamCart costs now
From SamCart's pricing page:
| Plan | Monthly | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Core | $79 | Unlimited pages, products, and checkouts, AI assistant, courses app, cart abandonment, 1 seat |
| Pro | $199 | 1-click upsells and order bumps, A/B testing, Subscription Saver, Affiliate Center, 10 seats |
| Done For You | Custom | A managed service with an account manager |
- Yearly billing takes 25% off.
- Free trial: 7 days.
- Processing on SamPay: 2.9% + 30¢ on both plans, with no added SamCart fee.
- Tax collection: SamCart lists a 0.5% rate on Core and 0.35% on Pro for collecting tax.
- Payment options: one-time prices, payment plans (like 4 payments of $25), subscriptions, and pay what you want. Buyers can also pay with Klarna, Afterpay, or Affirm.
The catch is the plan split. On Core you get a checkout and a course app, but not the tools that raise your order size. If you want an order bump or an upsell, you're paying $199 a month.
Where SamCart is strong
It's worth being clear about what you'd give up:
- Checkout testing. A/B testing on checkout pages, so you can test a price, headline, or layout against another.
- Payment plans. Split a $400 course into 4 payments of $100, plus buy-now-pay-later options.
- Subscription recovery. Subscription Saver retries failed payments and reaches out to customers.
- A focused checkout. It's built around getting people through checkout fast.
If you run paid ads to high-priced offers and test your checkout often, SamCart Pro can earn its price. If you sell a few products to your own audience, you may be paying for tools you don't use.
The short version
| Platform | Monthly | Platform fee | Bumps and upsells | Payment plans | Affiliates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SamCart | $79 or $199 | 0% | Pro only | Yes | Pro only |
| ThriveCart | $47 or $87 | 0% | 1 bump plus upsells on $47, more bumps on $87 | Yes | $87 plan |
| Stan Store | $29 or $99 | 0% | $99 plan only | $99 plan only | $99 plan only |
| Kajabi | $179, $249, or $499 | 0% | Yes | Yes | $249 and up |
| Gumroad | Free | 10% + 50¢ | Upsells after Pay, no checkbox bump listed | Yes | Yes |
| Lemon Squeezy | Free | 5% + 50¢ | Not listed | Not listed | Yes |
| Payhip | Free, $29, or $99 | 5%, 2%, or 0% | Discount cross-sells and upsells | Yes | Yes |
| Eden | Page free, selling $29 | 5% | 1 bump on $29, up to 3 upsells on $79 | Yes | Yes, on $79 |
| Stripe Payment Links | Free | Processing only | Up to 10 optional items at checkout | No | No |
"Not listed" means we didn't find it on the company's own pages, not that it's impossible. Check before you switch.
1. ThriveCart
ThriveCart is the closest match to SamCart: checkout pages, funnels, bumps, upsells, and a course platform.
- Standard ($47/mo): one bump offer, one-click upsells and downsells, A/B split testing, abandoned cart recovery, sales tax automation, and buy now pay later, split pay, pay-as-you-like, and subscriptions.
- Pro+ ($87/mo): multiple order bumps, the affiliate center with automated payouts, subscription dunning, and custom domains.
- 0% fees on sales, a 30-day free trial, and a lifetime option.
Where it falls short: affiliates, multiple bumps, and dunning need Pro+. Courses and community come through ThriveCart Academy, bundled with the monthly plans. More in ThriveCart alternatives.
Best for: SamCart users who want the same kind of checkout, with testing and payment plans, for less.
2. Stan Store
Stan turns your link in bio into a store for downloads, courses, coaching, and memberships, with 0% transaction fees.
Where it falls short: order bumps, upsells, payment plans, discount codes, and the affiliate system are all on Creator Pro at $99 a month. See Stan Store fees.
Price: Creator $29/mo, Creator Pro $99/mo. 14-day free trial.
Best for: creators who sell from social media and want a simple store.
3. Kajabi
Kajabi is a full suite: website, funnels, unlimited marketing emails, courses, community, and checkout pages.
It has order bumps, upsells after checkout, and payment plans. One offer can show a one-time price, a payment plan, and a subscription side by side. Kajabi takes no revenue share on Kajabi Payments.
Where it falls short: it's the priciest here. Basic ($179/mo) has 5 products and 2,500 contacts, and the affiliate program starts on Growth. If you use another payment provider instead of Kajabi Payments, Kajabi adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, or 0.5% on Pro. See Kajabi alternatives.
Price: Basic $179, Growth $249, Pro $499 a month, less billed yearly.
Best for: course businesses that want email, site, and checkout in one place.
4. Gumroad
Gumroad costs nothing a month and is the merchant of record, so it collects and pays sales tax and VAT for you.
It has upsells shown after the buyer clicks Pay, installment plans, and a built-in affiliate program.
Where it falls short: the fee. 10% + 50¢ per direct sale plus processing, and 30% on sales through its Discover marketplace. There's no checkbox order bump listed. See Gumroad fees.
Price: free, 10% + 50¢ per sale.
Best for: sellers who want tax handled and no monthly bill.
5. Lemon Squeezy
Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record built for software and digital products, with subscriptions and license keys, and processing included in the fee.
It has an affiliate program, though sales through an affiliate cost you an extra 3%.
Where it falls short: Stripe owns it, and in January 2026 Lemon Squeezy said its team is building Stripe Managed Payments, with slower support and fewer updates meanwhile. We didn't find order bumps or payment plans on its pricing or fee pages. See Lemon Squeezy alternatives.
Price: 5% + 50¢ per sale, with extra fees for buyers outside the US, PayPal, and subscriptions.
Best for: software sellers who want tax handled.
6. Payhip
Payhip sells downloads, courses, coaching, memberships, and physical products. It collects and pays EU and UK VAT and US and Canadian sales tax for you, and every plan gets every feature.
It has coupons, affiliates, referrals, payment plans with a set number of payments, and cross-sells that offer buyers a discount on another product.
Where it falls short: its upsells are discount-based cross-sells, not one-click offers after checkout. See Payhip alternatives.
Price: Free with a 5% fee, Plus $29/mo with 2%, Pro $99/mo with 0%.
Best for: sellers who want tax handled and simple selling tools on a free plan.
7. Eden
Eden is a creator workspace with a store and a free link-in-bio page. It sells digital downloads, courses, cohorts, coaching, memberships, bundles, and Custom AI products: an AI trained on your material that buyers chat with.
What it does well against SamCart:
- Bumps and upsells for less than SamCart Pro. One order bump per product on the $29 Starter plan, and up to 3 chained one-click upsells after checkout on the $79 Pro plan. You pick where each yes and no leads, so an offer can be a cheaper downsell. See upsells and order bumps.
- Payment plans on every selling plan. Split a one-time price into 2 to 12 monthly payments. Buyers get full access after the first payment, and a failed payment pauses access until it's paid. See offer a payment plan.
- An affiliate program on Pro. Eden tracks links and pays affiliates for you. See how to start an affiliate program.
- More selling tools. Discount codes and share links, timed sales, testimonials, bundles, and UTM sale tracking. Pro adds Meta Pixel and Conversions API.
- Products that teach. A course or template can come with an AI that answers buyers' questions and walks them through the work.
- Keep SamCart as your checkout if you like. SamCart is on Eden's list of supported checkouts. Buyers pay on SamCart (payment plans and all), and a Zapier or Make step gives them access in Eden. Eden takes no cut on those sales, but Eden's bumps and upsells only work on Eden's own checkout. See use your own checkout.
Where it falls short: payment plans are monthly only, and a plan sale doesn't pay your affiliates a cut yet. There's no A/B testing of checkout pages. Eden takes 5% per sale where SamCart takes 0%. Eden isn't a merchant of record, so sales tax through Stripe is yours to handle. There's no custom domain; your page lives at handle.eden.so. Prices can be in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, or AUD.
The fee math: Eden Starter ($29 + 5%) costs less than SamCart Core ($79) until you sell about $1,000 a month. Against SamCart Pro ($199), the plan with bumps and upsells, Eden Pro ($79 + 5%) costs less until about $2,400 a month. Processing is extra on both.
Price: page free. Selling from $29/mo, 5% per sale. Upsells and affiliates need Pro at $79/mo.
Best for: creators who sell courses, coaching, or downloads to their own audience and want bumps, upsells, and affiliates without a $199 plan.
8. Stripe Payment Links
If all you need is a way to take money, Stripe Payment Links make a hosted checkout page with no code and no monthly fee.
You can add promotion codes, up to 10 optional items buyers can add before paying, and a subscription upsell (like monthly to yearly). Stripe Tax can be turned on.
Where it falls short: Stripe's docs list no payment plans for Payment Links, and there's no course or download hosting, no post-purchase upsell, and no affiliate program. You'll need other tools to deliver what you sold.
Price: US cards cost 2.9% + 30¢ per sale, plus 1.5% for international cards.
Best for: coaches and service sellers who send a link and deliver by hand.
Which one should you pick?
- Choose ThriveCart if you want SamCart's checkout, A/B testing, and payment plans at a lower monthly price.
- Choose Kajabi if you want checkout, email, website, and courses in one suite and the price fits.
- Choose Eden if you sell to your own audience and want bumps, upsells, and affiliates on a $79 plan, plus products that come with an AI.
- Choose Stan if you want a simple link-in-bio store with 0% fees.
- Choose Gumroad, Payhip, or Lemon Squeezy if you want tax handled and no monthly bill.
- Choose Stripe Payment Links if you only need to take a payment.
- Stay on SamCart if payment plans and checkout A/B tests make you more than $199 a month.
Frequently asked questions
How much does SamCart cost?
Core is $79 a month and Pro is $199 a month, with 25% off billed yearly and a 7-day free trial. Processing on SamPay is 2.9% + 30¢ with no added SamCart fee.
Does SamCart Core have order bumps and upsells?
No. SamCart lists 1-click upsells and order bumps as Pro features, along with A/B testing and the Affiliate Center.
What is the cheapest SamCart alternative?
For a monthly plan with bumps and upsells, ThriveCart's $47 Standard plan (0% fees) and Eden's $79 Pro plan (plus 5% per sale). Eden's $29 Starter plan has bumps but no upsells. With no monthly fee, Payhip's free plan takes 5% and handles tax.
Which SamCart alternatives have payment plans?
ThriveCart, Kajabi, Gumroad, Payhip, and Eden all offer them, and Stan has them on its $99 plan. On Eden, a one-time product can be split into 2 to 12 monthly payments on the $29 Starter plan.
Want bumps, upsells, and affiliates without the $199 plan? Start Eden free and build your first product.