Paddle vs SamCart Comparison 2026
Paddle acts as merchant of record: it sells your product, handles cross-border sales tax and pays you, for one rate, 5 percent plus 50 cents per transaction, with no monthly fee. SamCart is a checkout page built to be tested, one-page carts, order bumps, upsells taken after the card clears, at a flat $79 a month, with payment processing handled separately through SamPay or another processor. Paddle bundles payment, billing and tax into its percentage; SamCart charges a flat software fee for conversion tooling and expects tax and processing sorted elsewhere. Selling internationally points toward Paddle; optimizing a checkout with the tax side already sorted points toward SamCart.
At a glance
- Only Paddle has a free tier.
Side by side
Paddle | SamCart | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | From $79 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free | Paid subscription |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Usage-based | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Paddle
Merchant of record for digital products
Paddle acts as the merchant of record, meaning it sells your product to the customer and then pays you, taking sales tax registration and remittance off your desk entirely. That is the whole difference between it and a plain card processor, and it is why software sellers outside the United States end up here. One rate covers payments, billing and tax. Products under ten dollars are quoted separately.
Our note
The extra two points over Stripe buys you out of tax registration, which is worth it the moment you sell across borders. Lemon Squeezy is the same company at the same headline rate with a lighter setup, so pick that one unless you need Paddle's billing depth.
SamCart
Checkout pages built for testing offers
SamCart is a checkout designed to be tested: one-page carts, order bumps, upsells taken after the card has cleared, and recovery mail for the ones who left. It sits beside whatever hosts your product rather than replacing it, which is why people run it alongside a course platform. Courses are on the entry plan now, and used to be an upgrade.
Why people weigh these two
- SamCart instead of Paddle
- SamCart at $79 builds checkout pages made for testing offers, optimising the sale where Paddle handles the tax behind it.
- Paddle instead of SamCart
- Paddle acts as the merchant of record and handles the tax filing that comes with that, a different problem than testing order bumps and upsells on a checkout page.
Which one should you pick
Pick Paddle if customers are spread across countries, especially the EU and UK, where VAT rules bite first: the 5 percent plus 50 cents covers tax registration and remittance that would otherwise sit on your desk. It is the wrong tool for a $79-a-month conversion-optimization job, since that is not what the rate buys.
Pick SamCart if revenue turns on checkout conversion and you will actually run tests on order bumps and upsells: Core is $79 a month with unlimited pages and products, plus a courses app to host what you sell. At that price it is poor value for somebody selling a handful of items a month, who should start with a percentage-based storefront instead, Paddle included.
Common questions
- Do Paddle and SamCart solve the same problem?
- No. Paddle is a merchant of record handling payment, billing and cross-border tax for one percentage-based rate. SamCart is a flat-fee checkout page tool for testing order bumps and upsells, with tax and processing left to you or a separate processor.
- Does SamCart handle sales tax like Paddle does?
- That is not described among SamCart's features; its job is the checkout page and the upsell flow. Paddle's entire pitch is taking tax registration and remittance off your desk as part of its rate.
- Which is cheaper for someone selling only a few items a month?
- Neither is a great fit, but Paddle's percentage-only rate with no monthly fee costs nothing when there are no sales, while SamCart's flat $79 a month is charged regardless of volume. SamCart's own listing points low-volume sellers toward a percentage-based storefront instead.
- Can I use SamCart and still need Paddle for tax?
- Potentially: SamCart's checkout and upsell tools do not include cross-border tax handling, so international sellers might still need a merchant-of-record layer like Paddle underneath for the tax side, since the two solve different parts of the sale.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.