No matter if you’re an established business thinking about a switch or a newcomer navigating the world of digital product sales for the very first time, choosing your cart and checkout platform is a big decision.
Which one you choose not only affects sales right now, but also in the future – after all, it would be ideal if you didn’t have to switch down the line, which is why it’s so important to choose a platform that grows with you.
When choosing a cart and checkout platform you need to take into account your specific needs, budget constraints, and level of expertise. For example, if you offer digital products or online courses, you’ll need a flexible and scalable solution that can handle these things that might be different from a platform that specializes in physical product sales.
The market for shopping cart platforms right now is huge, and it can be complicated trying to figure out which one is best for you. That’s why in our handy-dandy guide, we’re evaluating the following solutions:
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- ThriveCart
- Samcart
Join us as we explore their features, pricing models, advantages and drawbacks, so you can approach the decision in front of you with all the knowledge you need. Let’s get started!
| TL:DR – we may be biased, but we think ThriveCart is the best solution for selling products online. Read more to find out why! |
Wait – Why Do I Need A Checkout Platform?
Checkout platforms and shopping cart solutions are the engines behind online businesses: they help them function at the most basic level, by processing payments and making the transaction smooth and pleasant for the customer. By offering security and ease of use, they help you build trust and loyalty in your customers, which keeps them coming back for more.
Your shopping cart and checkout should at least let you easily upload and sell digital products such as ebooks, graphic assets or online courses, which are some of the best ways to start in online selling because of the lack of inventory and shipping complications. Selling physical products online is harder, but if you want to do it, this functionality should be your primary concern when looking for a checkout platform.
Additionally, features like global payment integrations, good-looking designs, affiliate programs and tax capabilities help you take your business to the next level. Consider how you want to scale when looking for a shopping cart.
Things To Look For in an Online Checkout:
- Payment Processing: Easy and secure payment processing is the number one thing to look for in an online cart system. The system should support multiple payment gateways and ensure a smooth checkout experience for customers.
- Customization Options: The ability to customize the checkout process and design is really important for branding, as well as enhancing user experience and accessibility.
- Integrations and Third-Party Services: Integration with your existing marketing tech stack, including email marketing services and any physical or digital fulfillment systems, is essential for marketing and customer management.
- Affiliate Tools: If your platform comes with the ability to recruit and manage affiliates, with commission control and flexible payment options, you can enable others to promote your products and improve your marketing exponentially.
- Security: Given the sensitive nature of digital products, comprehensive data security is crucial to safeguard you as well as your buyers.
With all that in mind, let’s review our shopping cart platforms.
Top Shopping Cart Solutions of 2024
Shopify
Shopify is one of the most well-known names in the e-commerce sector, loved by its users for its robust features and user-friendly interface. While traditionally tailored for physical products, Shopify also provides a platform for selling digital goods, offering a sturdy delivery system that helps easily deliver products online.
This platform supports a wide array of payment gateways, ensuring flexibility for sellers. However, it’s not very easy to get set up for beginners: it needs extensive customization and the options may be overwhelming for newcomers or those who need a quick store setup. While customization of individual product checkout pages might not be as straightforward compared to some competitors, Shopify enables meticulous tailoring of overall store design, down to the tiniest detail.
A notable feature of Shopify is its focus on providing a compelling storefront experience, which is an advantage for smaller impulse purchases. However, for larger high-ticket items, an effective sales funnel strategy, incorporating upsells and downsells, is proven to yield higher conversion rates.
One drawback is that Shopify lacks built-in sales funnel functionality within the app itself. If you need that kind of in-depth complex funnel, achieving this will require delving into the extensive integration library, comprising hundreds of apps, each with its learning curve. Consequently, setting up even a basic funnel will take a lot longer compared to alternative platforms.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that supercharges your WordPress site with e-commerce capabilities. Because WordPress is so flexible, you have endless customization options to create unique product pages and checkout experiences to suit your needs.
However, in its greatest strength lies one major drawback: it’s simply too customizable for a lot of people. Because WordPress is self-hosted, this means you will need to purchase your own domain name and hosting plan, as well as researching, installing and maintaining all necessary plugins to achieve your desired level of functionality. This means WooCommerce is a lot more complicated to get started with than, say, ThriveCart, and you’ll also have to devote more time to updates, security and admin.
WooCommerce works with some affiliate management plugins, but again this is extra functionality which requires yet another tool to manage: so if you want to recruit affiliates with the promise of commission payouts, this could be a much more complicated endeavor than you want to take on.
WooCommerce is a solid product which doesn’t offer the same out-of-the-box security features as specialized platforms. But if you’re an advanced user who has a specific set of needs and don’t mind putting in a bit more elbow grease, it may be the solution for you.
ThriveCart
Okay, we’re biased, but we’ll dive in: ThriveCart has thousands of happy customers, have processed over a billion dollars in payments all over the globe, and offers a user-friendly interface and feature-rich platform, which lets you set up and deliver digital products in a few simple steps.
One of our biggest strengths is our in-house course builder, Learn (and the advanced version, Learn+). With ThriveCart Learn, you can create your own online courses complete with modules and lessons full of text and video content, add downloadable lesson resources, and even drip-feed access using a student tagging system. Even if you don’t offer courses yet, they’re a fantastic add-on product to increase revenue and build your business empire, whether you’re teaching people about a subject you have expertise in or just how to get more value from your other products.
ThriveCart offers a range of features in-house such as upsells, downsells and bump sales which let you create your own sales funnels with no external plugins required. There’s a library of customizable drag and drop page and cart templates, and a wide range of payment gateways provided by major players PayPal and Stripe. You can set up subscriptions and split payments, as well as free trials.
One thing ThriveCart does not offer is a storefront: so, if you have multiple smaller products for sale, you may find it easier to go with Shopify. But if you have one high-ticket offer and need a sales funnel to coax buyers into converting, ThriveCart is the perfect choice for you.
Samcart
Samcart, renowned for its minimalist approach and sleek interface, is preferred by a lot of different sellers. It has intuitive digital product delivery features, which sellers can use to effortlessly upload files and distribute them to customers post-purchase.
Supporting the majority of major payment gateways, Samcart facilitates both one-time payments and subscriptions. However, its capabilities in terms of tax and shipping options are somewhat limited, especially if you intend to expand into physical products in the future.
While boasting a user-friendly interface for customizing checkout pages, Samcart falls slightly short in terms of flexibility compared to its counterparts. Sellers may need to compromise on certain design and branding aspects – which for some, may be a dealbreaker.
And let’s talk about the elephant in the room… pricing. Samcart is exorbitantly expensive compared to other options, as well as lacking in advanced functionality some users may need. In short, unless you can find a specific reason to go with Samcart, it may not be for you.
Go with ThriveCart
Choosing between these shopping cart solutions will ultimately boil down to what you have to sell, and how you want to sell it. Got a lot of smaller, low-cost digital or physical impulse buys? WooCommerce is probably the best solution for you, although it is difficult to set up how you want and requires a lot of extra plugins.
Have one, high-value product or course you’re proud of? Samcart offers a very basic (and expensive) way of promoting it to buyers, but you may outgrow it quickly. With ThriveCart, you’ll get extra functionality for a one-off lifetime license.
All in all, we recommend ThriveCart for everything you need:
- Ease of use and a user-friendly interface
- Library of page templates and customization options
- Subscriptions, free trials and global payments
- In-app course builder and affiliate management platform
In the end, all these platforms have their pros and cons: you just need to find the right solution you need.
But if what you need is a robust, secure payments system, great-looking pages, in-house course management and opportunities for maximizing your sales, ThriveCart is definitely the best one to go for. Find out more by clicking below.
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