E-commerce platforms are constantly evolving to meet the needs of businesses. Two of the most popular platforms are podia and Samcart.
Both are geared towards selling digital products and have their own unique features, but the question remains:
Which one is better? At least, for you!
In this article, I will compare podia and Samcart to help you decide which platform is better worth your buck.
Let’s jump into this Podia vs Samcart comparison review.
Podia Vs Samcart: Which One is Better for You?
What is Podia?
Podia is a digital products marketplace that allows you to sell:
- Online courses
- Memberships
- Digital Downloads
- And, more
You can create and upload your own products, or use Podia’s built-in tools to create and sell products.
Podia has no transaction fees when you’re on one of its paid plans.
The only fee you’ll have to pay is your payment processor’s (PayPal, Stripe) transaction fee.
This means you can keep all of the revenue from your sales.
Podia even offers a free account where you get a free website, email marketing features, draft courses, and more.
What is Samcart?
Samcart is a tool that allows businesses to sell their products and services online with converting check-out pages.
Samcart is a great option for businesses that want to sell their products and services online but don’t have the time or resources to create their own checkout pages.
With Samcart, you can create beautiful, professional-looking checkout pages in minutes.
Additionally, Samcart makes it easy for you to manage their customers’ orders and payments.
Podia Vs Samcart: The Differences
Here’s how Podia’s official website presents the differences between Podia and Samcart:
Free Plan
One of the most prominent benefits of Podia over Samcart is that it has a free account.
You can even start selling with the free Podia account, but it does take an 8% transaction fee.
Whereas, on the paid plans, you don’t have to pay anything other than the obvious subscription fee.
Free Migrations
Another difference is that Podia offers free migrations while Samcart doesn’t.
So, if you’re migrating from another service, Podia’s team will take care of everything for you, for free.
Live Chat Support
On all paid plans of Podia, you get live chat support, 7 days a week.
Whereas you don’t get that feature on Samcart.
Email Marketing
As for email marketing, you get that feature built-in with Podia.
So, there’d be no need to integrate a third-party email service provider.
On the flip side, you need third-party software to leverage email marketing on Samcart.
So, clearly, there are a few prominent differences that make Podia a better and more cost-effective option.
Podia Vs Samcart: Pricing Comparison
Samcart Pricing
Overall, Samcart tends to be more expensive than Podia.
The basic (Launch) plan costs $49/month, offers all core features, and supports 1 admin user.
The “Grow” plan costs $99/month, offers all core features, and 3 admin users.
The last “Scala” plan offers everything in addition to 10 admin users.
And, here are the core features:
Podia Pricing
The cool thing is you can get a free Podia account and start selling your stuff online.
Let’s briefly take a look at some prominent Podia features to understand it better.
Podia Vs Samcart: Podia Features
Online Courses
Podia is one of the best platforms for hosting and selling online courses.
With Podia, you can:
- Drip your course content (Schedule it piece by piece)
- Offer different payment plans
- Pre-sell your courses
- Use quizzes to gauge students’ performance
- Offer upsells
- Offer coupons
- Offer bundles
- Host videos
Digital Downloads
Podia also lets you sell one-off downloads like:
- E-books
- Audiobooks
- Checklists
- Graphic design templates
- And, more
Digital downloads can also be a perfect lead magnet to build your email list…
…if you can afford to give them for free.
Community
The community feature of Podia lets you:
- Create engaging content and share it with your audience/prospects
- Encourage your audience to like, comment, and share your posts
- Take full control over topics, members, and plans
- Have your customers’ information like name, email, and products
Host Webinars
Podia offers:
- One-on-one coaching features
- One-to-many live webinars
And you can do that by using Podia’s integrations with:
- YouTube
- Zoom
Your customers/prospects can even access recordings at any later stage.
Try Podia for Free
Coaching
One-to-one coaching is great for people who want more personalized content.
Podia makes launching your one-to-one coaching super easy.
Plus, you can even add coaching modules to your Podia courses.
And again, there’s no transaction fee when you’re on a paid plan.
Email Marketing
This is where Podia stands out from competitors like Samcart.
WIth Podia’s in-built email marketing software, you don’t have to rely on any third-party email marketing solution.
The good thing? You get everything you need to grow your email list from scratch.
Podia’s email marketing tool lets you:
- Send broadcast emails
- Run automated campaigns
- Segment your audiences
- And analyze your revenue metrics to improve your strategy
On-Page Chat Widget
Marketers use live chat tools to engage and convert their website/store visitors.
Podia offers its own build-in chat bat or live chat plugin.
The most attractive benefits of having a chat plugin on your website are:
- You can turn strangers into leads and leads into customers
- You can engage and interact with your existing customers
- You can help prospects get answers when you’re not there (With automated messages)
- You can make it easier for the visitors to get in touch with you
All those benefits are tied to the one primary benefit: More conversions!
Try Podia for Free
Custom Website
Podia also lets you create unlimited websites and sales pages on all its plans.
The cool thing is you don’t need any technical knowledge to create a converting sales page with Podia.
And importantly, it lets you build mobile-friendly pages.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a powerful strategy to generate more sales.
It lets you turn your existing customers into sales representatives.
Podia lets you set up your own affiliate program with ease.
The nice part? You can set any terms you like in your affiliate program.
Embeds
You can even embed Podia’s checkout experience on any web page you want on the internet.
For instance, have a site on WordPress? You just have to insert a code to make the feature work.
Now, most of Samcart’s features are similar to Podia’s.
I’ve discussed the prominent differences between the two you need to know.
So, here’s a quick look at the features of Samcart.
Get Podia for Free
Podia Vs Samcart: Samcart Features
- Drag-and-drop page builder (With pre-designed templates)
- A variety of integrations
- A/B testing
- One-click Upsells
- Advanced Reporting
- Affiliate Program
- Around 99.9% uptime
- Built-in SSL and security
- And, more
If you want, you can explore Samcart’s all the features on their official website.
Podia Vs Samcart: FAQs
Who’s Samcart Best For?
Samcart is a digital product e-commerce platform. It’s best for people who don’t want to manage a huge online store. You can create simple checkout pages for your digital products with Samcart. It’s an easy-to-use shopping cart software that lets you use payment models, discounts, coupons, and bump offers, helping you sell more.
Who’s Podia Best For?
Podia is best for creators, instructors, and digital product sellers who want an all-in-one platform to grow their online business. You can even sell coaching, consultations, webinars, and workshops with Podia. The software also lets you create unlimited websites and offers in-built email marketing software.
Conclusion: Podia Vs Samcart
Podia is an all-in-one digital product delivery platform, which includes everything you need to sell products online
Podia offers a free account with limited perks, whereas SamCart has a 7-day free trial
All in all, Podia might be a slightly better choice for anyone looking to set up a digital product business.
The ease of use and flexibility make it the perfect platform to grow with.
Plus, the built-in features save time and money. So if you’re ready to start selling digital products, sign up for Podia today.
Try Podia for Free
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