Creator and checkout platform

ViralPayouts vs SamCart

ViralPayouts has no monthly fee, pays your affiliates for you and pays recruiters on every program. You pay 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3%, and nothing in a month when nobody sells. With SamCart, you pay your affiliates yourself and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $79 to $199 a month.

Every figure for SamCart comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over SamCart

Best fit: Brands that want partner payouts handled, recruiters as a built-in second level and exposure in a partner directory without buying a cart platform.

$0 a month
No plan and no setup fee. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Payouts done for you
One invoice per program. ViralPayouts sends every partner and recruiter their money and collects tax forms.
Recruiters built in
Customer links and recruit links on every program, with the override set your way and reversed on refunds.

Start a program free

Side by side

	SamCart	ViralPayouts
Price	$79 to $199 a month	$0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Setup fee	Not stated	None
Fee for paying affiliates	None: SamCart does not pay affiliates; it exports a CSV for the seller to pay (e.g. PayPal MassPay). 'No added fees on SamPay'; SamPay processing rate not published.	Included in the fee above: no charge to the brand for sending payoutsPartners pay Whop's own fee when they withdraw to their bank
Pays your affiliates for you	No	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Higher plansEnterprise	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	No	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	affiliate links/media links to any destination URL; private links for selected affiliates; UTM parameters on affiliate links; Checkout Anywhere embeds (with workaround for third-party pages)	First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon tracking	Not stated	Yes A code per partner, per program
Mobile app tracking	Not stated	App installs, sign-ups and purchases reported from your server through the signed event API, with bounties on them. No SDK to ship in your app.
API, webhooks, MCP	API, webhooks, MCP server	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Post Affiliate Pro, Zapier/Integration Engine, Kajabi, Thinkific, MemberPress	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

SamCart plans in full

Core: $79 a month. Unlimited products/checkouts, courses app, cart abandonment, 1 seat. NO Affiliate Center. $710/yr.
Pro: $199 a month. Adds Affiliate Center, upsells/bumps, A/B testing, API, 3rd-party processors, 10 seats. $1,790/yr.
Enterprise / Done For You: price not published. Contact sales; Affiliate Center '(multi-tier)', multiple marketplaces, best processing rates

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of SamCart

What SamCart offers

Creators and digital-product businesses (courses, coaching, info products) wanting high-converting checkouts with upsells and an in-house affiliate centre.

Creator and checkout platform · G2 4.3 (101 reviews) · Trustpilot 3.7 (353 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

ViralPayouts actually pays partners for the brand; SamCart only exports a CSV for the seller to pay.
Two levels on every program at no extra plan cost vs multi-tier only on SamCart Enterprise.
Public directory of live programs for partners; SamCart has none.
No $199/month subscription; signed S2S API and Stripe Checkout webhook work with any checkout.

What SamCart users say

Paraphrased from public reviews. Follow each link to read the original.

Praise

G2 reviewers praise quick, easy setup even for non-technical teams and an intuitive interface. g2.com
Trustpilot reviewer (May 2026) found support patient while launching a first digital product. trustpilot.com

Complaints

Charges continued for months after cancelling; support didn't resolve (Trustpilot, Jun 2026). trustpilot.com
'Cool in theory but basic in execution' - broken ebook downloads and weeks of unresolved support (Trustpilot, Apr 2026). trustpilot.com
G2 cons: support needs improvement, expensive pricing, weak reporting/analytics. g2.com
Affiliate payouts are entirely manual: 'All SamCart provides is the CSV'. help.samcart.com

About SamCart

In their words:: "SamCart | Sell Digital Products. Make Every Sale Worth More." (title); H1 "3X Your Conversions Stop Losing Revenue at Checkout"
Company:: Founded 2014 (beta launched Aug 2014; founders Brian and Scott, per About page timeline) · SamCart Inc.
Funding:: $3M (Nov 2019), $10M Series A (Dec 2020), $82M Series B (Nov 2021) per About page
Team:: 100 employees as of Apr 2022 (About page timeline); current figure not stated
Website:: samcart.com

Try ViralPayouts on test money

Set your commission and recruiter override, see what each sale costs you, and run it on the test network before a real partner joins. No monthly fee.

Start a program See pricing

More comparisons

All comparisons

Sources for SamCart (15), checked 12 October 2026

SamCart is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with SamCart. Prices and features change: check samcart.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.