Walmart+ vs. Amazon Prime: Which one is right for you?

Shopping is becoming an increasingly digital experience, and many people turn to Amazon for their everyday spending needs.

One other major retailer is going the extra mile to offer a convenient online shopping experience – Walmart.

A few years ago, Walmart launched Walmart+, a membership program similar to Amazon Prime. While both subscriptions offer free same-day shipping on eligible orders, their similarities end there.

Read on to learn how these two programs are different and how to choose which one works best for you.

Walmart+ vs. Amazon Prime at a glance

As you can see, while both Amazon Prime and Walmart+ offer a convenient solution for fast shipping, these are two very different memberships.

With Walmart+, you get several ways to enhance your Walmart shopping: free fast delivery on more than 180,000 items, fuel and prescription discounts and a way to avoid checkout lines with mobile scan & go – a Walmart app feature that allows you to scan items as you shop in the store and check out using Walmart Pay.

With Amazon Prime, you can also get your order within a day for free, but the membership offers much more than that. You also gain access to video, gaming and music subscriptions, e-books and magazines and several other perks.

Prime covers multiple consumer needs with one membership. But its annual cost is also quite high – and $41 higher than that of Walmart+ – to the point that some may wonder if Prime membership is worth it or not.

So how do you choose which membership is right for you? This depends on which benefits are important to you.

When you should choose Walmart+

Walmart+ can be an excellent choice for frequent Walmart shoppers who’d like the added convenience of free and fast delivery. The program advertises delivery as early as the same day and one-hour delivery windows.

If you prefer to have your groceries delivered and want to avoid a per-delivery fee, Walmart+ can be a great option for you. Plus, the retailer is known for its low grocery prices, which can’t be said about Whole Foods Market. As far as other benefits go, Walmart doesn’t have much to offer besides fuel and prescription discounts and mobile scan & go.

Credit cards to pair with your Walmart+ membership

If saving on groceries is your priority, you can save even more shopping at Walmart with the Capital One Walmart Rewards® Mastercard®, which offers 5% cash back on Walmart.com purchases, including grocery pickup and delivery orders. The card also earns 2% cash back on in-store Walmart purchases and fuel stations, 2% cash back on restaurant and travel purchases and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Additionally, for the first 12 months as a cardholder, you earn 5% cash back on in-store purchases using the card with Walmart Pay.

If you travel frequently and appreciate premium travel perks, The Platinum Card® from American Express is another option to consider. Though it lacks any Walmart-specific benefits, numerous annual credits cover the full cost of a Walmart+ monthly membership.

Another card to look into is the Chase Freedom Flex®. The Freedom Flex offered 5% cash back on Walmart purchases (up to $1,500 in purchases, then 1%) in Q4 of 2021, so there’s good reason to believe it’ll show up again sometime in 2022. Besides that, the card earns 5% cash back on travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, 3% on dining and drugstore purchases and 1% on everything else.

When you should choose Amazon Prime

Like Walmart+, Amazon Prime offers free same-day grocery delivery if you meet the minimum spend of $35. However, Prime also provides you with many other options for free and quick shipping on millions of items with no purchase minimum.

The membership also provides access to a large Prime Video catalog, and you can enjoy movies and TV shows, including Prime originals, some of which have become quite popular. You can also listen to music for free with Prime Music. You can borrow books and magazines for your e-reader or app with Prime Reading and get a free new book download each month with Amazon First Reads. You can even try on some clothes on the site before buying them or use Personal Shopper to have a stylist pick outfits for you at $4.99 per styling.

Prime comes with so many features and deals, it can easily make your head spin. There are currently over 20 perks included with the membership, and Amazon never stops evolving.

Still, the price of membership is rather high, especially if you’re not much of an online shopper or not interested in adding more content subscriptions to your list.

Credit cards to pair with your Prime membership

If you’re a Prime member, the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card* can help you maximize your membership’s value. It offers 5% back on Amazon.com and Whole Foods purchases, 2% back on restaurant, gas station and drugstore purchases and 1% back on other purchases, making it the best choice for Prime enthusiasts.

Alternatively, you can consider the Amazon Store card, which also offers 5% cash back on Amazon but can’t be used outside of Amazon purchases. As a retail credit card, it can be an option to consider if you have a less-than-perfect credit score.

The Discover it Cash Back is also an amazing card to have for online shopping lovers. Discover announces the bonus categories featured in its 5 percent cash back calendar quarterly, and Amazon.com is often included as a bonus category one quarter in the year. Just remember to enroll at the beginning of the quarter to start earning rewards.

Bottom line

Walmart+ and Amazon Prime may be competitors, but they serve two different kinds of shoppers. The former may be a great choice for those who want groceries delivered regularly and appreciate low-cost options. The latter is for frequent Amazon shoppers who know they’ll make the most of the many benefits that come with the membership.

If you’re not sure which membership to pick, don’t hesitate to take advantage of a free trial before you commit. Both Walmart+ and Amazon Prime give you 30 days to see if their membership fits your spending habits.

*All information about the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card has been collected independently by CreditCards.com and has not been reviewed by the issuer.