Which shopping cart is best for online courses?

Here’s a question that is often asked…

Which shopping cart is best for online courses?

My answer is it depends.

There isn’t one go-to tool that fits in all situations.

My clients have used or currently use:

• 1Shoppingcart
• Woocommerce
• Shopify
• Clickfunnels
• Kajabi
• Clickbank
• Samcart
• Thrivecart
• Custom Programmed Solution

1Shoppingcart was the standard for a long-time, but it’s missing newer and more advanced features. It is easy to use, but it’s not the choice I’d recommend for those starting out today.

Woocommerce and Shopify are best for ecommerce stores where your customers add multiple physical products to their orders.

Clickfunnels and Kajabi are all-in-one-solutions that have page builders, digital product delivery options, and order forms all rolled into one. They’re good if you want everything in one platform, but I personally find them a little too restrictive if you want to plug-in outside elements.

Clickbank isn’t a shopping cart but more of a digital product retailer combined with an affiliate marketplace. They charge 7.5% + $1 on all sales, but several International clients use them specifically to access the affiliate network and because it reduces paperwork for them dealing in US and Europe.

And this is not anywhere near a complete listing of options. These are just the ones clients are using that come to mind.

A couple of high-volume clients have their own programmed solution that integrates in with their custom software and databases. This is not what I recommend for those getting started.

This brings us to Samcart and Thrivecart. They’re both great solutions with a lot of similarities and they have dozens of other tools you can connect as built-in integrations (payment processors, autoresponders, membership software, and fulfillment services).

Multiple clients use these two and they’re the options I’d most often recommend for online courses.

You can use multiple payment options in either cart with no additional processing fees.

Plus, they both allow you to add immediate bumps on your order form.

You can create upsell and downsell sequences after the first-sale.

They provide detailed stats on your sales, rebills, and cart abandonments. You can split test your order forms on either to maximize your sales and revenue.

They both have affiliate centers so you can recruit affiliates and track their sales, although Samcart only offers this in their highest priced option.

Samcart has a more user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop predesigned templates and customization available. It is easier to use overall.

Click here to try out their 14-day trial…
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Thrivecart has one major advantage over Samcart.

At the moment they’re still offering lifetime subscriptions.

That means you pay for it one time and can use all the features for life.

Find out more about Thrivecart’s lifetime option here…
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More clients are currently using Samcart or Thrivecart than all the other options.

Either one is a great choice, although any of the options I shared here will give you what you need to get your online business started.

* This article was originally published here