SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay: Which Is Best?

Do you want to sell products or services on WordPress and wonder which plugin is best for you?

There are many solutions available that enable online sellers to accept payments on WordPress. The right one depends on your specific needs and goals.

In this article, we’ll compare SureCart and WP Simple Pay to help you decide which better suits your needs.

In This Guide

How I Tested SureCart & WP Simple Pay

I thoroughly reviewed SureCart and WP Simple Pay to help you decide which one is right for you.

I tried out their features, compared pricing, and tested them out to rate their user-friendliness.

Here’s what I primarily focused on:

• Pricing: Are they free to use? How much do paid plans cost? What extra features do they include?
• Setup: How easy are they to set up? Do they offer helpful instructions?
• Products: Can I easily sell downloads, subscriptions, and memberships?
• Payment Method Options: Can customers pay through popular options like PayPal and Stripe?
• Customization: Can I customize my shop’s design? Do they offer themes specifically for digital products?

After experiencing both solutions, I was able to come up with the pros and cons of both SureCart and WP Simple Pay.

Let’s see how they compare.

Feature	SureCart	WP Simple Pay
Pricing	Free plugin, premium addons	Free and Paid plans
Ease of Use	More features, steeper learning curve	Much simpler setup; user-friendly interface
Payment Gateways	A few gateways	Stripe only
Customization	Much simpler setup user-friendly interface	Good customization, distraction-free payment pages, email confirmations, etc.
Products & Services	Physical products, digital products, services, donations	Built-in physical products, digital products, services, donations

Overview of SureCart & WP Simple Pay

Let’s start by taking a look at each plugin, beginning with SureCart.

What is SureCart?

SureCart was developed by the same team behind the WooCommerce plugin, CartFlows.

They set out to develop a solution that would streamline the eCommerce process, improve conversion rates, and provide users with more control over their sales funnels.

Here’s what SureCart aims to deliver:

• Shopping Cart: Fully customize the shopping cart and create the customer experience exactly how you imagine it. Buyers can change quantities and add or remove products at checkout.
• Customized Forms: Easily add custom fields with a drag-and-drop builder.
• Customer Dashboard: Let buyers access their own administrative panel.
• Invoices and Receipts: SureCart takes care of everything regarding invoices and receipts.
• Digital Downloads: Sell digital products with secure expiring links.
• Order Management: Collect customer information during checkout.
• Multiple Payment Method Options: Accept 10+ payment methods.
• Multiple Payment Processors: Along with Stripe, you can connect your site to PayPal and Mollie.

While SureCart offers several features, it can seem overwhelming to some who are looking for a simpler way to accept payments on WordPress.

What is WP Simple Pay?

WP Simple Pay is the #1 Stripe payments plugin for WordPress. It lets you easily create optimized payment forms without coding and begin accepting payments in minutes.

It was created by the makers of popular WordPress plugins, like AIOSEO, SeedProd, and WPForms.

WP Simple Pay is an excellent alternative to SureCart because it doesn’t require building a shopping cart. It’s a standalone plugin, meaning it doesn’t require any addons or design skills.

Here’s what makes WP Simple Pay great:

• Advanced Drag-and-Drop Form Builder: Create payment forms in minutes from scratch or using pre-built templates.
• Subscription or One-time Payments: Easily let customers choose between a one-time and subscription payment.
• Dedicated Payment Pages: Reduce checkout abandonment with distraction-free payment pages that host your forms.
• On-Site Payment Forms: Easily embed payment forms to any page or post only on your website.
• User-managed Subscriptions: Reduce churn by letting subscribers update their details directly from your website.
• Free Trials & Coupons: Boost sales and signups by offering free trials and custom coupon codes.
• 10+ Payment Methods: Broaden your reach by accepting debit and credit cards, digital wallets, Buy Now, Pay Later, ACH Direct Debit, Bacs Direct, and more.
• Automation: Automate tasks to help save time, like adding new customers to your mailing list.
• Customized Payment Confirmation Emails: Send customers custom email confirmation messages.
• Receipts: Send automated receipts.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay

Now that we’ve covered the essentials of SureCart and WP Simple Pay, let’s examine each one in more detail so you can decide which is best.

What is SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Best for?

SureCart and WP Simple Pay are excellent options for selling physical and digital products. However, each plugin has its own unique strengths.

SureCart is a great platform for selling digital files. It offers robust features specifically designed for digital product sales, including eBooks, PDFs, photos, and more.

It allows buyers to download their files instantly upon checkout and access them via a customer dashboard.

Furthermore, it provides easy file storage and upload methods. The plugin allows you to easily choose between a physical and a digital product.

SureCart lets you create a store and integrate a shopping cart onto your WordPress site. You can use the plugin’s dashboard to set up your store, create invoices, manage team members, connect payment processors, and more.

While all of these features are great if you want a full-fledged shopping cart and eCommerce store, you might not need such a complicated platform to sell products on your WordPress website.

WP Simple Pay is a simple yet powerful solution for easily accepting Stripe payments on your WordPress site without creating a shopping cart or installing pricey addons.

It’s perfect for selling one-time or subscription-based products and services. The plugin is designed to make the checkout process as smooth as possible without requiring a lot of time and energy, which is why small online businesses and nonprofit organizations love it.

SureCart is a comprehensive eCommerce solution that provides a full-featured online store experience, complete with advanced shopping cart functionality, product management, and robust checkout processes.

In contrast, WP Simple Pay is a streamlined payment integration tool designed for businesses seeking a minimalist approach to accepting payments without the complexity of a traditional online store.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Setup Process

From my experience with setting up both plugins, I found the process to be quite straightforward for each.

You can access both directly from the WordPress admin dashboard, which is super convenient. However, as mentioned before, SureCart also offers a separate dashboard where you can customize your store.

SureCart offers a simple setup process for getting your store up and running on your website once you’ve installed and activated it. You simply need to enter a few details to create your account.

Then, the plugin walks you through creating a store.

It will ask you to configure a few settings, including your currency and customizations.

Once you’ve finished, you can begin adding products, connecting your payment processors, and accepting orders.

Here’s what the dashboard looks like on WordPress.

Here is the dashboard on SureCart.

Both SureCart and WP Simple Pay offer quick setup guides following installation. With that being said, I found WP Simple Pay’s process much more user-friendly, especially for a beginner.

It was much easier to get started because it’s a standalone plugin that uses Stripe to simplify the payment acceptance process.

It even allows you to connect your Stripe account during the setup process without having to manually enter API keys.

SureCart is a lightweight plugin as far as eCommerce platforms go, but WP Simple Pay is even more beginner-friendly and straightforward.

You can configure your email and notification settings directly from the setup wizard.

As soon as you’ve finished the setup process, you’re ready to create your first payment form.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Payment Gateways

SureCart and WP Simple Pay both make it easy to connect a payment gateway to your website.

While SureCart offers a few gateways for you to choose from, WP Simple Pay supports Stripe alone.

SureCart allows you to connect to the gateways from the dashboard. In addition to Stripe and PayPal, you can offer Mollie and Paystack as a checkout option.

Mollie is Europe’s most popular payment processor, while Paystack is a Nigerian financial technology company that offers payment processing and is owned by Stripe.

With WP Simple Pay, you can configure your Stripe settings and switch between Test mode and Live mode from the dashboard.

You shouldn’t be concerned about not having more than one payment gateway option. Stripe is the best one out there and lets you accept 10+ payment methods, including credit and debit cards, ACH Direct Debit, Apple Pay / Google Pay / Microsoft Pay, CashApp Pay, Buy Now, Pay Later, and more.

WP Simple Pay lets you easily select your payment methods from the payment form builder.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Templates

SureCart makes creating payment forms easy. However, instead of providing pre-built templates, it lets you choose your design.

Then, you can select the product from the dropdown menu.

Once you’ve created your form, you can save it.

As a first-time user of the plugin, I found it a bit confusing. However, once I tested the checkout form from my website’s front end, I was able to complete the entire process.

I wasn’t extremely impressed with the initial look of the actual checkout form.

You’d have to go back to the block editor to make adjustments to your form to get it to look just right on the page.

WP Simple Pay, in contrast, provides many pre-built templates designed to help you start accepting payments quickly.

Once you’ve chosen your template, you can use the drag-and-drop payment form builder to create your entire form.

You can add, remove, and edit custom fields, choose your payment method options, set up payment schedules, create a distraction-free landing page, and more, all from right here.

WP Simple Pay also lets you sell multiple quantities in a single transaction by toggling on Purchase Mode.

When you’ve finished, you can preview your form and then publish it to any page or post on your website by simply copying and pasting the URL in the Copy Block field.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Automation

SureCart and WP Simple Pay both offer automation capabilities to help you streamline workflows related to purchases and customers.

For example, SureCart integrates with several apps, such as Uncanny Automator and SureTriggers, allowing you to set up automated post-purchase workflows.

The biggest difference is that WP Simple Pay offers built-in integration with each of your payment forms, letting you create recipes directly from the payment form builder.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay Pricing

Now, let’s get down to the pricing of both plugins.

First, it’s important to mention that SureCart and WP Simple Pay offer a free version, allowing you to try out the plugin before upgrading to a paid plan.

SureCart Pricing

SureCart offers two premium plans. For one store, you can purchase a yearly plan for $179. A lifetime plan costs $499 or $49/mo.

Neither of the SureCart Pro plans has any transaction fees. This applies to all Pro plans, whether for a single store or unlimited stores.

With that being said, if you use the free Launch plan, the transaction fee is 1.9%. It’s also important to note that there are a few optional pay-as-you-go extras for specific features, even on the Pro plans:

• 0.5% fee for subscriptions
• 1.9% fee for cart abandonment recovery, order bumps, one-click upsells, and affiliate platform sales
• 0.5% fee for the licensing platform

These extra fees only apply if you use these specific features, and they are separate from the standard transaction fees.

WP Simple Pay Pricing

WP Simple Pay’s pricing model is much simpler because there are no required or optional addons.

Depending on your specific needs, you can choose from four Pro plans. The Professional Plan is the best deal because it includes all of the advanced features and allows you to use your license for up to 10 websites.

You can also remove the additional Stripe processing fee with any Pro plan.

SureCart vs. WP Simple Pay: What’s Best?

After looking at several details, you’re probably wondering which plugin is best for you.

The answer is that both plugins offer lightweight solutions for accepting online payments. If you need a user-friendly tool to easily add payment forms to your WordPress website and collect payments, WP Simple Pay is hands-down the best option.

It lets you get optimized payment forms for products, services, donations, and registrations up and running on your site in minutes. There is no need to build a complete online store or shopping cart with WP Simple Pay.

If you want to integrate a store and a shopping cart on your website, SureCart is the right plugin for you.

It is a good option for selling digital products because it offers instant downloadable links.

There you have it! We hope this article provided a thorough enough comparison between SureCart and WP Simple Pay to help you decide which one is right for you.

If you liked this article, you might also want to check out our detailed review: Is WP Simple Pay Worth it? It breaks down each one of the plugin’s features.

What are you waiting for? Get started with WP Simple Pay today!

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