Compared
Cartless vs SureCart
SureCart and Cartless both run on WordPress without WooCommerce, and that is where the resemblance ends. SureCart is a full store — catalogue, cart, subscriptions, customer portal — with a free plan that takes a 2.9% transaction fee. Cartless is a checkout for one product at a time, with an order bump, and takes no fee at all. If you sell a range, SureCart. If you sell one thing through a funnel, Cartless.
1 The Launch plan at $0 with a 2.9% transaction fee, and paid plans from $199 a year with no transaction fee, on the SureCart pricing page, checked 2026-09-17. 2 80,000+ active installations, 4.8 stars from 282 reviews, and the statement that SureCart is standalone and does not require WooCommerce, checked 2026-09-17. Every competitor figure on this page carries a source and a date; the page does not build without them.
What each one is
SureCart is a standalone e-commerce plugin for WordPress: products, a cart, subscriptions, a customer portal, invoices and a checkout, with a free plan funded by a transaction fee and paid plans that remove it. It is the light-cart answer for a store that does not want WooCommerce.
Cartless is narrower on purpose. One product per funnel, a one-page checkout with an order bump, a one-click upsell after payment, and reporting by mechanic. No cart, because a buyer choosing one thing never needed one.
Where Cartless is better
No fee, on any tier. The free plugin charges nothing per sale. Pro is a flat licence.
The bump and the upsell are the product. SureCart has bumps and upsells as features of a store; Cartless is built around them, and Reports shows what each one earned by margin.
Nothing to configure before the first sale. A funnel is a product and five pages. There is no catalogue, cart page or account area to set up, and none to hide.
Where SureCart is better
- It is a whole store. Catalogue, cart, product pages, customer accounts, subscriptions, invoices, a checkout you can drop anywhere. If you sell more than one thing at a time, you want it.
- A free plan with everything switched on. The cost is a 2.9% transaction fee rather than a licence, which suits a store that is not yet sure it will sell.
- 80,000+ installs and an owner — Brainstorm Force — who also owns CartFlows, Astra and Spectra. It is not going anywhere.
Questions
Do SureCart and Cartless compete?
Only at the edge. SureCart is a store; Cartless is a single-product funnel checkout. A merchant who needs a cart needs SureCart. A merchant who sells one course, one kit or one subscription through a funnel needs a checkout, a bump and an upsell, and no cart page for the buyer to get through.
Does Cartless take a transaction fee?
No. Stripe's or PayPal's processing fee applies, as it does with every tool. Cartless charges nothing per sale on any tier, including the free one.
Can I use both?
Yes. Nothing in either plugin depends on the other, and a site can run a SureCart store and a Cartless funnel for a single hero product side by side.