SamCart or Stan Store for affiliates you recruit

You already have people who will promote the offer. You want a bump on the order form, an upsell after the buyer pays, and a record of which partner sent them. SamCart and Stan Store both sell that kind of checkout. On each site, the subscription that includes a program for partners you recruit is the higher plan.

You bring those partners. The program is separate from either company's own offer that pays people for referring new software customers.

The plan that includes affiliates

SamCart's pricing page includes the Affiliate Center on the Pro plan, along with one-click upsells, order bumps and A/B testing. The Core plan is the lower subscription, and the Affiliate Center is not on that card. The trial length and the SamPay rate are the ones in the table.

Stan's plan article describes two subscriptions. The Affiliate Share FAQ says that feature is only on Creator Pro. Stan's homepage advertises a 14-day trial and 0% transaction fees. Yearly billing for the two Stan plans is in the section on a full year.

If the monthly cost is the worry, each company sells a lower subscription, and neither of those lower subscriptions includes the partner tools. You would have the checkout, or the store, and you would pay commissions some other way.

Stan Store vs SamCart

SamCart's Affiliate Center article says that when you click Payout, SamCart produces a CSV with a line for each affiliate and the total owed. You are the one who pays them. The article names PayPal MassPay as one way to pay them. Affiliates earn 0% on every product until you set a rate. When two partners refer the same customer, SamCart credits the partner who referred them last. The cookie follows that visitor around the web for 30 days by default, and you can extend it, up to 999 days.

Stan's payout article says the original creator and the affiliate can both cash out after a 7-business-day holding period. The same FAQ says Stan pays the commissions automatically, and that manual payouts are not available.

On the Pro plan, you keep the records and you send the payments. On Creator Pro, Stan sends the commission after that wait, and you cannot pay the partner by hand.

Bumps and upsells partners can earn on

On SamCart, order bumps and one-click upsells are part of the Pro plan, in the same subscription as the Affiliate Center. You choose the commission on each product, and the payout file adds up what that rate produced.

On Stan, order bumps require Creator Pro, and the funnel, including upsell and downsell paths, requires Creator Pro as well. The setup article says Affiliate Share is not available for order bumps or funnels. A partner can be paid on an ordinary product. An extra offer at checkout, and a funnel step after the purchase, are excluded. The funnel can still show an upsell to the buyer. Partners do not earn a commission on that step.

How the buyer pays

The Affiliate Share FAQ says customers cannot buy an affiliate product with PayPal. Those purchases have to go through Stripe. A buyer who can only pay with PayPal cannot purchase that product. After the Stripe charge, the creator and the partner wait out that hold before they can cash out.

What else each subscription includes

SamCart Pro is a hosted checkout. The pricing page puts the conversion tools on the same plan as the Affiliate Center. For a vendor who already has partners, that is the reason to pay for Pro: the bumps, the one-click upsells and the program are one subscription.

Stan's homepage presents courses, digital products and bookings on a link-in-bio page. Creator Pro is where Affiliate Share, bumps and funnels are listed together. The share does not pay a partner on a bump or a funnel. You can still build those paths for buyers you send yourself.

Choose Pro when partners need a commission on the bump and the one-click upsell, and you will pay them from the exported CSV. Take Creator Pro when Stan should send the commission and the offer is a single product the buyer pays for with Stripe, at the lower monthly price in the table.

Payouts from a CSV, or a hold before cash-out

On SamCart, the payout starts when you click Payout and then send the amounts in that CSV. You pick the day you generate that export. A bookkeeper can match each line to a transfer the business already makes.

On Stan, the balance can be withdrawn once the hold ends. Stan handles the commission, so you are not paying affiliates yourself. The partner does not receive the money on the day of the sale.

A year of the plan that tracks partners

A year of SamCart Pro, at the monthly price in the table, comes to $2,388. A year of Creator Pro, counted the same way, comes to $1,188. The gap over that year is $1,200, before SamPay on each SamCart sale.

The lower subscriptions do not add the partner tools. A year of Core is twelve times the Core price in the table, and the Affiliate Center stays on Pro. A year of Stan's lower plan is twelve times its monthly price. The plan article also lists yearly billing at $300 for Creator and $948 for Creator Pro. Affiliate Share stays on Creator Pro whether you pay month by month or once a year.

My take

I would buy SamCart Pro when partners need to earn inside a checkout that also runs order bumps, one-click upsells and A/B tests, and paying them from the CSV is acceptable. The monthly bill is higher, and that plan is the one that keeps those tools together.

Creator Pro fits a link-in-bio store, Stripe checkout on the affiliate product, and commissions that Stan sends after that hold. Bumps and funnels can remain in the account for traffic you send yourself. The partner's commission does not include them.