SamCart vs Shopify 2025: Which One Is The Best ?

Features Comparison: SamCart Vs Shopify

1. Ease of Use

SamCart 

SamCart was created to be a better option for the very bland checkout page you can see on PayPal. The checkout page was straightforward. However, despite the evolution, the old simple approach has been retained in online selling.  

SamCart has become an established shopping cart app for those not good at coding. An account can be set up easily and you do not need technical assistance to sell your products. SamCart’s interface is neat and intuitive, not flashy and confusing.

The various functions have been laid out so that novices can navigate around quite easily.  In case you require assistance, SamCart has a lot of guides as well as tutorials, in addition to a great customer support team.

The checkout page can be created quickly and integrated with the Stripe or PayPal account. SamCart not only caters to the novices but also takes care of advanced online businesses with millions of annual sales.

If you want to set up an affiliate program, SamCart can help you launch it simply. It also grants you complete unrestricted control of the affiliate programs you create without complication. 

SamCart is also flexible regarding the compensation structure – you can specify your commission system for each product. If you want to fix different rules for a few members, you can create a “VIP Affiliate” payment framework.  

However, SamCart is not a fully developed e-commerce platform like its counterpart, Shopify. So, you might not have a similar level of functionality.  But, if your priority is to be simple and aim at fast-selling, SamCart is worth it.

Shopify

There are a lot of mixed reactions about Shopify when the discussion is about ease of use. Though many consider it a user-friendly platform, a few have also found it quite cumbersome. Yes. Shopify is simple yet complex, depending on how the user wishes to use the platform.

If you aim at an online store that is fully functional, then Shopify appears to be amongst the simplest and easiest platforms in e-commerce.

Also, there is no necessity to possess technical skills. Shopify also helps avoid the entire process of creating a website by giving you many appealing predesigned templates.  You only have to tweak it up and create your own website.

The templates are responsive and compatible with PCs or mobile devices. It also offers a default payment solution. So, you need not hunt for some third-party payment gateway, although including many payment options on an online store is recommended. Shopify Payments also handle most of the debt as well as credit cards. 

When the site goes live, Shopify has some straightforward store management processes wherein you can switch between orders, products, analytics, customers, etc., easily. Irrespective of the business, this interface gives you a seamless experience.  

However, an issue is that the entire process of creating and managing the sales funnels on Shopify is not direct like in SamCart.  You can use the “Pages” section to create your landing page. However, there aren’t many default functionalities for sales funnels. 

Though Shopify has a very user-friendly system, it falls back in its ease of use. Overall, it is easy for SamCart to use various sales funnels. On the contrary, Shopify is a great platform for bonafide online shops.  

2. SamCart vs Shopify Templates and Web Design

SamCart 

SamCart has about 18 templates that are professionally designed and quite attractive in its funnel builder, which will help in setting up your sales funnel in no time. You can choose any template at no extra cost.

Many marketers have tested every template on their pages to evaluate the results. So, the templates of SamCart are not just optimized for conversion. They are practical as well.

SamCart Templates

If you wish to modify any of the templates or layout elements, SamCart has a simple customization process. Once you select the template, the layout colors can be adjusted, the text can be edited, and various buttons can be tweaked. The templates are mobile-ready and respond to both PCs and mobile devices.  

Shopify

Shopify also offers some pre-designed templates that are beautiful, modern, and professional.  However, there are no templates for the checkout pages. Instead, it has online store themes with its own webpage set.  There are about 74 themes, of which just 10 are free. The rest are available for $140-$180 as premium e-commerce themes. 

This platform has an excellent in-house team of designers and developers who can design a new theme for the site, in case the price doesn’t bother you. The editing options are better than SamCart, and if you excel at web development, you can check out the codes of Shopify and tweak the templates.

SamCart and Shopify have many templates for merchants. However, the main difference here is that SamCart focuses on checkout pages, whereas Shopify focuses the themes on online stores that are fully developed. SamCart’s templates are free, whereas Shopify charges a good sum for most of its themes.

3. E-commerce Features

SamCart 

SamCart, though a very simple application for sales funnels, has many fantastic e-commerce features.  It can accommodate physical as well as digital or subscription-based goods.

So, in SamCart, you can sell anything! You must use the split testing tool of SamCart before you roll out your campaign. It helps in assessing the conversion potential of the checkout pages. What it does is it compares the results from two versions of the same page.  

Another great feature of SamCart is its affiliate system, where you can leverage other marketers through strategic affiliate programs.  There are a lot of valuable features, such as one-click up-sell, which can boost your potential earnings at checkout.

It tempts customers to buy more goods by using just a single click to add them to the cart. There are two gateways to process the transactions – PayPal and Stripe. SamCart helps in minimizing the rate of cart abandonment by ensuring the buyers are on the page. Subsequently, they end up making payments through the popup. 

In SamCart, the shipping charges are applied automatically to the orders of your customers depending on the rate you have fixed for different geographical locations. However, you can also fix a flat rate for every order. 

In subscription-based packages, the subscription Saver is amongst the best features that can be used. You can remind subscription customers automatically to update their payment details on the expiry of their credit cards.  

Shopify

Since Shopify is among the established e-commerce platforms, they are expected to offer all the core functionalities of online selling. And, yes, Shopify does not disappoint in this aspect! On Shopify, product management is quite comprehensive. Numerous products, as well as categories, can be added as there aren’t restrictions. You can select what you wish to sell – digital or physical goods.

However, you could incur additional costs if you wish to build a subscription-based business. Shopify does not have this feature on the default system. Hence, you either pay the developer or integrate a compatible app that supports the recurrent packages.

Irrespective of the products chosen, you must be able to sell those on your site, third-party websites, social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon.

Shopify has plenty of tools that are available to boost your sales. For example, you can set some automatic discount codes for your customers or even develop a loyalty program. Though it is possible to cross-sell and up-sell, you will have to embed the relevant apps from the App Store of Shopify.  

Even when you customize the payment systems, you must check out the options on its App Store. However, extra transaction processing fees will be charged if you opt for other options than Shopify Payments. But by using alternative gateways, you can accept payments from many customers.  

Shopify applies a dynamic approach to its order fulfillment and customer management processes. You can define the parameters of automation for the shipping process. You can also fix the rates based on location or even opt for a flat or free shipping charge.

Though Shopify is a top-rated e-commerce platform, Shopify does not limit itself to only online selling and even facilitates brick-and-mortar stores via the Shopify POS system.  

By this, I would like to say that SamCart has the tools to enable quick and easy selling through checkout pages. Other than the A/B conversion tests, different product types can be introduced, affiliate programs can be used, you can even up-sell or cross-sell, etc.

However, this is not quite great when you compare it with the e-commerce features of Shopify. Shopify has been designed to give you all the necessary features of e-commerce. It is not limited to the tools for checkout pages. Shopify gives you many third-party solid integrations.  Overall, Shopify is way better in terms of e-commerce than SamCart.  

SamCart Pros

• It has a user-friendly platform wherein digital or physical goods can be sold online.
• SamCart has Sales funnel capabilities like order bumps or one-click up-sells that increase the order value.
• It offers advanced statistics reports such as Lifetime Value
• You can easily create Coupon codes (% or $)
• It has different payment models: subscriptions, one-time payments, trials, and payment plans
• You can use A/B split testing on the landing page
• It has a good Knowledgebase
• SamCart has cart abandonment capabilities on the checkout page
• It comes with an in-built Dunning System
• Checkout pages have the Drag-Drop Editor

SamCart Cons

• It supports only Stripe and PayPal
• The Monthly pricing begins at $49 a month
• There are no in-built calculations for digital sales tax
• The Affiliate system does not come with tracking IDs that can be used by affiliates

Shopify Pros:

• It helps the creation of a fast website and reduces the loading time.
• Shopify ensures your site is secure regarding sensitive data and processing payments.
• It has a great design and offers many free and paid templates for your site.
• It has many add-ons and features that can be expanded as required

Shopify Cons:

• Shopify is quite expensive, and you must consider transaction processing fees if you do not opt for the default Shopify Payments.
• In case you wish to explore Shopify’s back end, you have to be good at coding or hire someone who is an expert. This could increase costs.