E-Commerce · head to head
Magento vs SamCart
Magento
E-Commerce
Open core commerce platform, free as Magento Open Source and licensed by revenue as Adobe Commerce
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Magento has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Magento it is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.; SamCart no feature differentiation between CORE and PRO tiers, pricing tier based on expected transaction volume only
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Magento and SamCart actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Magento
- Two editions
- Complex catalogue handling
- Multi-store and multi-website
- Native B2B in the paid edition
- Multi-currency and multi-region
- Composer module system
- GraphQL and REST APIs
- Hyva and Mage-OS ecosystem
Only in SamCart
Nothing recorded that Magento does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Magento
- A retailer with tens of thousands of SKUs and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that SaaS platforms restrictnot SamCart
- A multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back officenot SamCart
- A B2B seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefrontnot SamCart
- An enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned softwarenot SamCart
SamCart
- Increasing average order value through automated order bumps and upsellsnot Magento
- Recovering failed subscription payments with retry logic and dunning managementnot Magento
- Generating sales pages, emails, and ads with AI from product descriptionsnot Magento
- Sending cart abandonment recovery emails without customer re-entrynot Magento
- Migrating existing customer bases from competing platforms without data lossnot Magento
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Magento
- It is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.
- The Adobe Commerce licence is priced on bands of gross merchandise value, so the platform bill increases as the store succeeds and is largely unrelated to the infrastructure or support you consume.
- A production installation needs a search engine, a cache, a reverse proxy, a message queue and a database tuned together, so hosting is a DevOps engagement rather than a plan, and the first serious traffic event is where under-sizing becomes visible.
- Minor version upgrades regularly break third party modules, so staying current means a regression testing and remediation project several times a year, and merchants who skip upgrades to avoid that end up running software with unpatched vulnerabilities.
- The specialist developer market is small and expensive relative to other platforms, so an agency retainer becomes a permanent operating cost and losing that agency is a genuine business continuity problem rather than a procurement inconvenience.
SamCart
- No feature differentiation between CORE and PRO tiers, pricing tier based on expected transaction volume only
- Transaction fees of 2.9% plus $0.30 apply to all plans
Pricing, plan by plan
Magento
Free- Magento Open SourceFree
- Unlimited products
- Multiple storefronts
- Advanced marketing
- Adobe Commerce$20000/year
- All Open Source features
- 24/7 enterprise support
- Managed cloud hosting
SamCart
$79/month- CORE$79/month
- All features included
- PRO$199/month
- All features included
Which should you pick?
Choose Magento if
- You need two editions.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want complex catalogue handling.
Choose SamCart if
Nothing in the data separates SamCart from Magento on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Questions people ask
- Is Magento or SamCart better?
- Neither clearly leads. Magento starts at Free and SamCart at $79/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Magento or SamCart?
- Magento has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Magento and $79/month for SamCart.
- Does Magento or SamCart run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use Magento for free?
- Yes. Magento has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. SamCart starts at $79/month.
- What is Magento best used for?
- Magento is most often used for a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict, a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office, a b2b seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefront, an enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned software. Of those, a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict and a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office are not what SamCart is typically brought in for.
- What can Magento do that SamCart cannot?
- Magento covers Two editions, Complex catalogue handling, Multi-store and multi-website, Native B2B in the paid edition.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Magento: Is Magento free?
Magento Open Source is. Adobe Commerce is not, and it holds back B2B, segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation layer. Establish which edition a requirement needs before you commit.
SamCart: How much does SamCart cost?
SamCart offers two subscription tiers: CORE at $79/month and PRO at $199/month. Both plans include all features with no restrictions between tiers.
SourceMagento: How is Adobe Commerce priced?
On bands of gross merchandise value, so the licence grows with revenue rather than with usage. Model it against your three year forecast, not this year's turnover.
SamCart: What are SamCart's transaction fees?
SamCart charges a transaction fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction on all payments processed through the platform.
SourceMagento: What does it really cost to run?
Licence if applicable, plus tuned infrastructure, plus a specialist agency or in-house team. For most deployments the people and hosting exceed the licence.
SamCart: Does SamCart offer a free trial?
Yes, SamCart offers a 7-day free trial available for both the CORE and PRO plans, allowing customers to test the platform before committing to a subscription.
SourceMagento: Why do agencies keep mentioning Hyva?
The stock front end stack is slow to develop against, so Hyva, a commercially licensed replacement front end, has become a common default. It is another licence to budget for.
SamCart: Does SamCart offer migration services from other platforms?
Yes, SamCart offers done-for-you migration services for customers switching from Kajabi, ThriveCart, ClickFunnels, Shopify, and Teachable. Specific pricing for migration services is not listed on the main page.
SourceMagento: What happened with Magento 1?
It reached end of life and left merchants on unsupported, unpatched software facing a full replatform. It is the reference point for how long to assume support for any edition you adopt.
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