Ecommerce platforms have become extremely popular in recent years, allowing businesses to sell products and services online. Two of the most well-known ecommerce platforms are Samcart and Kartra. Both platforms aim to help businesses maximize online sales through beautiful checkout pages, marketing automation, and other powerful features.
But which one is better for your business? In this comprehensive Samcart vs Kartra comparison, we’ll look at the key features, pricing, ease of use, integrations, customer support, pros and cons of each platform. By the end, you’ll know which solution is the best fit for your ecommerce needs.
What is Samcart?
Samcart is an ecommerce platform designed specifically for maximizing checkout conversions. It allows you to create high-converting checkout pages, order bumps, upsells, downsells, subscriptions, and more to boost revenue from each customer.
With Samcart, you can sell both digital and physical products by integrating with payment processors like PayPal and Stripe. It offers features like abandoned cart recovery to capture lost sales. The platform is focused purely on checkout optimization rather than the entirety of managing an online business.
Samcart is well known for its beautiful templates that convert. It takes care of the technical side so you can focus on sales. Overall, Samcart aims to help users maximize revenue from each customer with optimized funnels.
What is Kartra?
Kartra is an all-in-one sales and marketing platform. It provides a complete suite of tools to run your entire online business from one dashboard. Kartra offers options for checkout pages, email marketing, membership sites, marketing automation, landing pages, webinars, and more.
With Kartra, you can create complete sales funnels to attract leads, convert them into customers, and retain them for repeat sales. The workflows and automation help streamline your sales process. Kartra also has an affiliate center, course hosting, and appointment scheduling built-in.
While Samcart focuses purely on maximizing checkout conversions, Kartra is a more complete platform covering your entire customer lifecycle. It provides all the tools you need not just to sell your offerings, but also to market them effectively.
Samcart vs Kartra Comparison of Features
Now that we’ve covered the basics of each platform let’s compare their key features side by side:
Samcart Features
- Checkout pages and shopping carts
- Order bumps and upsells
- Subscription payment options
- Coupon codes and discounts
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Integrations with payments, email, etc.
- Pre-built conversion optimized templates
- Drag and drop editor
- Sales analytics and reporting
Kartra Features
- Checkout pages and shopping carts
- Email marketing and automation
- Landing pages and squeeze pages
- Sales funnels and campaigns
- Membership site platform
- Affiliate management center
- Helpdesk ticketing system
- Webinars and online courses
- Marketing calendar and tasks
- Lead generation capabilities
- All-in-one sales and marketing platform
As you can see, Kartra provides significantly more features across the entire sales and marketing workflow. Samcart is focused on just the checkout process.
Samcart and Kartra Pricing
Now let’s look at the pricing and plans offered by each platform:
Samcart Pricing
Samcart has three pricing tiers:
- Launch – $79/mo
- Grow – $159/mo
- Scale – $319/mo
The Launch plan allows you to sell up to 50 products and access many core features. Grow increases that to 250 products per month while adding more advanced options like follow up funnels.
The Scale plan allows unlimited products and customers, along with priority support. All plans have a free 14-day trial.
Kartra Pricing
Kartra has four main plans:
- Starter – $119/mo
- Grow – $229/mo
- Professional – $549/mo
The Starter plan includes up to 2,500 leads, 10,000 monthly emails, and core features. Grow doubles both lead allowance and emails. Gold increases to 30,000 leads and 100,000 emails.
Professional provides unlimited everything and adds a dedicated account manager. Kartra also offers an Enterprise plan for custom pricing. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee on all paid plans.
For simple checkout optimization, Samcart provides better value. But Kartra offers far more advanced functionality and integrations that justify the higher pricing.
Ease of Use
An important consideration for any platform is how easy it is to use. Let’s examine the user experience and learning curve of both Samcart and Kartra:
Samcart User Interface
Samcart prioritizes simplicity in its interface. The dashboard is clean and leads you through creating your first product listing step-by-step.
The editor uses a very intuitive drag-and-drop builder. Images, videos, and elements can be added with a click rather than coding. Samcart is designed for beginners.
The platform includes various templates, but customization is somewhat limited compared to other tools. The options focus only on maximizing checkout conversion.
Kartra User Interface
Kartra provides a comprehensive interface to manage your business in one place. The left sidebar includes all areas, from sales funnels to email campaigns and affiliate tools.
The interface is more complex due to the wide range of features offered. Creating sales funnels, campaigns, and other assets takes more steps compared to Samcart.
However, customization options are extremely robust, especially with the Kartra Page Builder. The builder offers greater flexibility for modifying templates to your brand.
There is more of a learning curve with Kartra. But the platform does offer a wealth of training resources and documentation to help you master it.
Integrations
Integrating other apps and services with your ecommerce platform improves functionality. Here are some of the top integrations offered:
Samcart Integrations
- Payment processors: Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay
- Webinar software: GoToWebinar, Zoom, EverWebinar
- Email services: Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact
- CRM systems: Ontraport, Infusionsoft, Keap
- Cloud storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive
- Live chat: Facebook Messenger, ClickDesk
Samcart focuses its integrations on platforms that directly maximize checkout optimization and conversions.
Kartra Integrations
- Payment processors: Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal
- Email services: Mailchimp, GetResponse, AWeber
- Webinar software: GoToWebinar, EverWebinar
- CRM systems: Ontraport, Infusionsoft, Drip
- Helpdesk services: Zendesk, Freshdesk
- Cloud storage: Google Drive, Dropbox
- Calendar: Google Calendar, Office 365
- Analytics: Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel
Kartra offers a much wider range of integrations to connect every part of your sales and marketing process. This allows customization to your existing tools and systems.
Customer Support
Getting timely support when issues arise is crucial for any business platform. Here is an overview of the customer service provided:
Samcart Support
Samcart provides email support and an online knowledge base with articles. But there is no live chat or phone support.
The team aims to respond to all emails within 24-48 hours. However, the lack of instant live chat is inconvenient when you need answers quickly. Phone assistance is only available with higher-tier plans.
Kartra Support
Kartra offers email support, community forums, an extensive help center, and live chat for all paid plans. Direct phone support is also available for higher-tier plans or complex issues.
The Kartra support team is known to be very responsive across their various channels. Live chat allows for real-time assistance when you’re stuck or have time-sensitive questions.
For support accessibility, Kartra far outshines Samcart, especially with live chat available on all paid plans.
Pros and Cons
To summarize the key advantages and downsides of each platform:
Samcart Pros
- Extremely easy to use checkout builder
- High-converting templates focused on sales optimization
- Affordable pricing starts under $50/month
- Simplified sales reporting and analytics
- Abandoned cart recovery features
- 14-day free trial
Samcart Cons
- Very limited non-checkout features
- Less customization flexibility
- No live chat support on base plans
- Can’t build full sales funnels inside platform
Kartra Pros
- All-in-one sales and marketing platform
- Powerful page builder with endless customization
- Automated sales funnels and email sequencers
- Fantastic support with live chat
- Robust affiliate and membership management
- 30-day money back guarantee
Kartra Cons
- Steeper learning curve
- Much more expensive, starting at $99/month
- Easy to get overwhelmed by vast feature set
- No ability to sell physical products
As you can see, both platforms have their own unique strengths and weaknesses depending on your business needs.
Conclusion
So which is better, Samcart or Kartra?
For purely maximizing conversions on your checkout process, Samcart is the winner. It provides an easy-to-use platform optimized for high conversion rates right out of the box. The affordable pricing is also appealing.
However, Kartra is the superior choice for running your entire ecommerce business in one place. The extensive features, automation, and integrations provide tremendous value, albeit at a higher cost. Kartra also offers far better customer support.
Here are some final recommendations based on your business:
- If you just want to sell online courses or digital products, use Samcart for its checkout focus.
- Need an all-in-one solution to sell products, market your brand, and manage customers? Choose Kartra.
- Already have a checkout system and mainly need marketing tools? Pick Kartra.
- Want the best bang for your buck? Go with Samcart.
- Need to sell physical/tangible products? Use alternative platforms.
Both Samcart and Kartra are excellent ecommerce platforms in their own right. Assess your specific needs and follow the solution that best matches your business goals. The important thing is using a high-quality platform to help you sell online and reach your full potential.
FAQ
What is the main difference between Samcart and Kartra?
The core difference is that Samcart specializes in checkout optimization while Kartra is an all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Samcart focuses solely on maximizing revenue from checkout pages. Kartra provides the entire ecosystem to attract leads, convert them, and retain customers.
Which platform has better templates?
Samcart offers slightly better optimized templates out of the box, especially for improving checkout conversions. But Kartra’s page builder allows for greater customization flexibility if you’re willing to put in the design work.
What businesses should use Kartra over Samcart?
If you need marketing automation, landing pages, email campaigns, membership sites, webinars, and other tools beyond a shopping cart, Kartra is the better fit. The all-in-one model works for most ecommerce businesses.
Does Samcart offer funnel building or automation?
No. For anything beyond maximizing your checkout page, you’ll need to integrate other software with Samcart. It doesn’t provide native features for building sales funnels or automation.
Can Kartra integrate with my payment processor or email provider?
Yes, Kartra offers deep integrations with all major payment processors, email services, webinar software, helpdesk tools, and more. It aims to provide an all-in-one ecosystem that still integrates your other platforms.
Is the Kartra learning curve really steep?
Kartra is more complex due to its vast feature set. But with the help documentation and Kartra University, you can quickly get up to speed on using the platform effectively. Many users find it is worth mastering Kartra given the immense value it provides.
Which plan provides the best value?
It depends on your needs. For basic checkout optimization, Samcart Launch is the most affordable starting point. If you want an integrated platform, Kartra Silver provides tremendous value at $199/month. Kartra’s higher-tier plans offer more advanced features for additional cost.
Can I switch between platforms easily?
Switching is not extremely difficult, but will require reconfiguring your checkout pages and shopping carts at minimum. Kartra may have a steeper learning curve if you’re used to Samcart’s simplicity. Migrating email lists and funnels also takes planning.