ThriveCart Review: Pros, Cons, Pricing And Best Alternatives

Are you tired of juggling multiple tools and platforms to manage your online business?

Are you looking for a more streamlined and efficient solution?

ThriveCart might just be the tool you’ve been looking for. But does it live up to the hype?

In this in-depth ThriveCart review, I’ll explore its features, benefits, and drawbacks to help you determine if it’s the right solution to your limited resources.

After reading, if you’re still not sure whether ThriveCart is the right choice, take our Perfect Funnel Match quiz at the end. It’ll ask about your business and goals, then recommend the best platform for you, with a runner-up. No email, no sign-up, just a quick recommendation.

Let’s dive in and see if ThriveCart can help your business grow.

ThriveCart Review: What is ThriveCart?

ThriveCart is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform that gives you the ability create and manage checkout pages, sales funnels, and shopping carts, online courses, coaching packages, and affiliate marketing programs for both digital products and physical products.

With ThriveCart, you can easily create professional and customizable funnels and high-converting checkout pages and host them for free on the ThriveCart platform. However, if you’ve already got a blog or website set up, for example a WordPress website, then you can even integrate your ThriveCart pages via a tool like Zapier.

When it comes to sales funnels, ThriveCart offers a user-friendly builder that allows you to create upsells, downsells, and bump offers to increase your average order value. In fact, adding your custom upsell pages is incredibly straightforward.

One of the standout features of ThriveCart is its ability to accept multiple payment options, including credit cards and PayPal. This is great because it ensures that you don’t miss out on potential customers who prefer using different payment methods.

ThriveCart also provides a built-in affiliate platform. The affiliate option makes it easy for you to recruit and manage affiliates who can promote your products and drive more affiliate sales.

From personal experience working with the ThriveCart advanced affiliate management platform, it is one of the best I’ve used.

What I particularly like about using this feature is that it gives your affiliates a streamlined and automated way for them to be able to deliver bonuses to their customers once they purchase your product through their affiliate link.

This feature solves a big headache for both merchants and affiliates, and is a great incentive to help you recruit more affiliates to promote your products.

ThriveCart is subscription-first now, with Standard at $47 a month or $444 a year and Pro+ at $87 a month or $804 a year. Both come with a 30-day free trial and 0% ThriveCart fees on sales. A lifetime option is still there as a secondary choice if you’d rather pay once, and that’s still something I like about ThriveCart, but it’s no longer the only way in.

Benefits of using ThriveCart Over Other Tools

ThriveCart offers quite a few benefits that set it apart from other sales funnel and shopping cart software options.

One major advantage is that it’s an all-in-one platform. This means it comes with all the main features you’re gonna need to run your online business.

And, if there’s a feature it doesn’t have, then no worries because it integrates easily with loads of other tools out there.

ThriveCart Learn stands out as a noteworthy feature, serving as both an excellent online course and membership platform. ThriveCart Learn allows you to create and sell online courses directly from the platform, establishing itself as a versatile online course platform. I’ll get into this feature in a bit more detail in a few moments.

But just to whet your appetite on this feature, with ThriveCart Academy, you can create and customize your course content, set pricing options, track student progress, and run a community, all without the need for a separate course management platform, which is pretty niche.

The checkout page builder in ThriveCart is incredibly user-friendly and customizable. You can easily create great-looking and high-converting checkout pages in just a few minutes, well, depending on the complexity of your funnel, of course!

Additionally, ThriveCart offers powerful analytics and reporting features. I love this because it allows you to track your sales, revenue, and customer data in real-time. This valuable data can help you make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing and sales strategies.

The Drawbacks of Using ThriveCart

While ThriveCart offers a plethora of impressive features, it’s important to know that there are also some drawbacks.

One potential drawback is the limited customization options for the checkout template pages. While you can add your branding elements and customize the layout, the customization options may not be as extensive as other platforms.

Also, unlike other platforms, you’ll also have access to a few landing page templates.

Not only can you accept payments, but you can also build high-converting checkout pages and cart pages, integrate with webinar platforms, sell physical products, and offer multiple pricing options to visitors.

Another downside is the lack of built-in email marketing capabilities.

While ThriveCart integrates with popular email tools, such as GetResponse and Aweber, it does not offer its own native email marketing features. This means you’ll need to rely on a third-party tool to handle your email marketing campaigns, which will be an additional expense.

Also, some users have reported occasional glitches and bugs when using ThriveCart, particularly when it comes to integrating with third-party tools or tracking analytics accurately.

While the support team is responsive and usually resolves issues quickly, these technical hiccups can be frustrating. That being said, the tech issues seem to be not too common, and is something that any software platform will experience from time to time.

Lastly, while the lifetime option can still be attractive, you no longer have to pay a big sum upfront. Standard starts at $47 a month with a 30-day free trial, so new businesses can get going without a large one-time cost. The lifetime option is still there if you prefer to pay once.

Having said that, if you plan to stick around for years, compare the lifetime option against the annual price. Standard is $47 a month or $444 a year, and Pro+ is $87 a month or $804 a year, so the annual route can already lower your monthly cost. If you prefer to pay once, the lifetime option is still there.

ThriveCart Pros

• Versatile Payment Options: Supports multiple gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Customizable Shopping Carts: Offers various cart types like embeddable, popup, and standard carts with high customization.
• Multiple Cart Elements: Includes videos, countdown timer, coupon code field, bullet points, and buy button.
• Effective Upsell and Downsell Strategies: Includes one-click upsell, downsell, and bump offer capabilities to increase average order value.
• Affiliate Center (Pro+): Available on the Pro+ plan at $87 a month, it gives you an integrated system for managing and tracking affiliate performance, with automated payouts.
• A/B Testing: Enables testing of different cart pages and funnels to optimize for higher conversions.
• Courses and Communities (ThriveCart Academy): Bundled with every plan, ThriveCart Academy lets you create and manage online courses and communities directly within the platform. Standard includes Academy Starter with unlimited courses and students plus 100 GB of video storage, while Pro+ includes Academy Growth with 500 GB of video storage and a custom domain.
• Retargeting Capabilities: Supports retargeting strategies to re-engage customers who have shown interest.
• Comprehensive Coupon Management: Facilitates the creation of diverse discount offers and promotions.
• User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive design and drag-and-drop editor for ease of use.
• No Additional Fees: ThriveCart takes 0% fees on sales, though payment processor fees still apply. Plans are now subscriptions, with Standard at $47 a month and Pro+ at $87 a month, and a lifetime option is still available.

ThriveCart Cons

• Limited Design Options: Some users may find the design templates and customization options limited compared to other platforms.
• Learning Curve: New users may require time to fully understand and utilize all features effectively.
• Limited Third-Party Integrations: While it offers essential integrations, it may not support all third-party tools or services.

Features of ThriveCart

Here are all the features you get access to with thriveCart:

• High-Converting Cart Pages
• Sales Funnels Creation
• Affiliate Campaign Management
• Online Course Builder
• Drag & Drop Editor
• One-Click Upsells and Bump Offers
• Embeddable Carts
• Comprehensive Tool Integration
• Real-Time Business Analytics
• A/B Testing
• Advanced Affiliate Center
• Retargeting and Affiliate Marketing Link Tracking
• Unlimited Carts and Customer Management
• Coupon and Secure Checkout Features
• Physical Product Sales Support
• Membership and Subscription Management
• Sales Funnel Builder
• Email Autoresponder Integrations
• Mobile Payment Compatibility
• Zapier Integration
• GDPR Compliance Tools
• Detailed Analytics and Customizable Checkout
• JV and Partner Contract Management
• Automated Sales Tax Calculation
• Behavioral Rules Automation
• Customizable Offers and Pricing
• Churn Reduction Tools
• Monthly, annual or lifetime billing options

Sales Funnel Builder

The ThriveCart sales funnel builder is actually pretty decent, and is comparable to many of the top competitors like ClickFunnels, Systeme.io, and Kartra.

This tool allows you to create high-converting sales funnels easily, which can significantly contribute to increased conversions and revenue.

The drag-and-drop editor is also pretty nice to work with and helps you to simplify the customization process. With ThriveCart you can tailor their sales funnels to your specific business needs and brand voice.

One of the key aspects of ThriveCart’s sales funnel builder is its ability to create one-click upsell funnels.

This feature is designed to maximize sales by offering additional products or services to customers during the checkout process. The flexibility of adding upsell buttons to existing pages offers businesses a versatile approach to increasing their average order value.

Upsells and Downsell Pages

ThriveCart excels in creating one-click upsell and downsell pages. These pages are designed to be highly effective in converting sales. Basically, with these features you’ll be able to offer additional products or services to your customers during the sales process.

The platform makes it easy to set up your sales funnels, ensuring that they can be tailored to match the specific needs of the business.

Order Bumps

Another key feature of ThriveCart is its ability to offer eye-catching bump offers during the checkout.

This feature is designed to increase the average order value by encouraging customers to add additional products or services to their purchase right before purchase.

The process is streamlined and integrated nicely into the checkout experience, making it easy for customers to take advantage of these offers.

Courses (ThriveCart Academy)

ThriveCart Academy, which covers courses and communities, is included with every plan and gives you a way to integrate course creation and management into your online business platform.

This feature directly competes with other course platforms like ClickFunnels and SamCart, positioning ThriveCart as a complete end-to-end solution for digital product sales and course delivery.

The Learn feature allows for efficient project and course management, enabling the hosting and organization of multiple courses under one umbrella.

Course content can be accessed in various ways, including immediate full access, scheduled releases, or access on specific dates, providing flexibility in how content is delivered to students.

Student management tools are also included, allowing for control over who accesses your content.

There’s no separate Learn+ add-on now. The Academy tier comes with your plan. Standard includes Academy Starter with unlimited courses and students, up to 2,000 community members, 10 communities, and 100 GB of video storage. Pro+ includes Academy Growth with up to 10,000 community members, unlimited communities, a custom domain, and 500 GB of video storage. Enterprise includes Academy Scale with white-label options, unlimited video storage, and 4K streaming.

So, this makes it an attractive option for those looking for more advanced course management and marketing tools.

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One of the key advantages of ThriveCart’s course features is the smooth integration with the shopping cart system. This is great because it eliminates the need for separate payment systems that can rack up more monthly expenses.

However, it’s worth noting that ThriveCart Academy now includes video storage. Standard comes with 100 GB, with a 2 GB max per video and HD 1080p, Pro+ comes with 500 GB, and Enterprise includes unlimited storage. If you have a big video library, check the limits before you choose a plan.

If you want courses plus a full CRM, email and SMS, and booking in one tool, then GoHighLevel is worth a look. Its all-in-one platform includes a course builder, CRM, email and SMS marketing, automations, and calendars, so you can run more of your business from one dashboard.

Built-in Affiliate Management

Now, onto ThriveCart’s Built-in Affiliate Management Center feature. In my opinion, this is a great tool, and is one of ThriveCart’s strongest features.

ThriveCart’s built-in affiliate system is robust and user-friendly, and allows you to easily set up and manage your affiliate programs.

It offers a range of highly useful functions including customizable commission structures, which enables you to tailor your affiliate programs to your specific needs and goals. This flexibility is crucial for creating attractive and effective affiliate partnerships and recruiting an army of strong affiliates.

Moreover, the platform provides detailed tracking and reporting capabilities. This means you can monitor affiliate performance, track sales, and understand the impact of their advanced affiliate marketing efforts in real-time. These insights give you vital info for making better decisions and further optimizing your affiliate strategies.

Another thing I particularly like about this ThriveCart feature is that it simplifies the affiliate payment process. The system automates payments to affiliates, ensuring timely and accurate payouts. This not only saves time and reduces administrative burden but also helps to maintain good relationships with your affiliates.

Video Carts

The Video Carts feature gives you the ability to integrate videos directly into their cart pages. This is great because it can enhance the customer experience and potentially increasing conversions.

By embedding videos, you’ll be able to provide additional product info, testimonials, or engaging content right at the point of sale. Needless to say, this can have a huge positive impact on your conversions.

This integration of multimedia content into the checkout process is a strategic move to keep potential customers engaged, reducing cart abandonment rates and boosting sales.

Retargeting

Yep, ThriveCart has a built-in retargeting feature!

This feature allows you to re-engage your customers who have shown interest in your products but did not complete a purchase.

By implementing retargeting strategies, you can effectively remind these potential customers of the products they viewed, encouraging them to revisit the cart and complete their purchase.

The power of retargeting lies in its ability to keep your products and brand at the forefront of a potential customer’s mind.

This is particularly useful in a digital marketplace where distractions are frequent, and purchasing decisions can be delayed or abandoned.

ThriveCart’s retargeting feature enables businesses to create targeted campaigns that reach out to these customers, using personalized messaging and offers to draw them back to the checkout page.

A/B Testing

ThriveCart’s A/B Testing feature is another highly useful tool for optimizing your campaigns and increasing conversions.

Unlike ClickFunnels and SamCart, the A/B testing feature is available on all ThriveCart plans, which is the way it should be, IMO.

This feature is super-useful and allows you to create and compare different versions of cart pages, funnels, or other elements to determine which one performs better in terms of conversion rates.

By testing variations in design, copy, offers, and pricing, you can make data-driven decisions to enhance their sales strategy.

The A/B Testing functionality is intuitive and user-friendly, enabling even those with limited technical skills to set up and run tests effectively.

This feature is particularly beneficial for businesses looking to refine their sales funnel and maximize revenue from existing traffic.

Shopping Cart Options

Next up, the ThriveCart shopping cart feature.

ThriveCart’s shopping carts come with a range of customizable options. These allow you to create high-converting cart pages, embeddable carts, and popup carts that can be integrated seamlessly into any website.

This flexibility is a huge advantage for businesses looking to optimize their sales process.

One of the key strengths of ThriveCart’s shopping cart is its ability to create one-click upsell funnels and bump offers, which are designed to increase the average order value.

Needless to say, you’re gonna bring more money to the bank with these kinds of features.

Moreover, ThriveCart’s shopping cart is continuously evolving, with a focus on increasing conversions.

The drag-and-drop editor makes customization easy. This ensures you can tailor your shopping cart to meet your specific needs and preferences.

This adaptability is crucial for businesses aiming to provide a streamlined and effective shopping experience for customers.

Payment Options and Coupons

ThriveCart’s Payment Options and Coupons feature offers a versatile and user-friendly experience for online businesses.

This tool offers great payment processing and supports popular gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net, and even accommodating Apple Pay and Google Pay.

This inclusivity ensures a broad range of customers can easily transact, enhancing the checkout experience.

Moreover, ThriveCart excels in its coupon management capabilities.

Businesses can create diverse discount offers, including percentage-based reductions, fixed amount discounts, and “pay what you want” pricing schemes.

This feature not only caters to a variety of promotional strategies, but also empowers businesses to attract a wider audience with tailored offers.

The combination of robust payment options and comprehensive coupon functionalities makes ThriveCart a compelling choice for businesses seeking to optimize their online sales process.

ThriveCart Alternatives

If you’re not quite sold on ThriveCart, then don’t worry! There are several alternatives available that offer similar features.

Here are the top running competitors:

SamCart

One of the best alternatives to ThriveCart is SamCart. If you’re a creator or an ecom seller, then SamCart will be a great fit for you.

SamCart has one of the best optimized checkout experiences out there. Not only does it provide a great experience for your customers, it can also increase your sales by as much as 30%.

That’s a pretty big deal!

SamCart’s comprehensive checkout platform specializes in maximizing sales of both digital and physical products. If you want to get the most out of selling your own products online, then you can’t go far wrong by leveraging SamCart’s highly optimized checkout process and conversion-focused tools.

SamCart offers a wide range of features, many of which are comparable with ThriveCart. These include a landing page and funnel builder, an online course app, an affiliate program manager feature, and conversion features like order bumps, one-click upsells, and beat cross-selling feature.

SamCart also provides decent analytics. This is great because the platform enables you to hone in on exactly what’s working in your business so you can scale.

SamCart also integrates with many popular tools out there including all the popular email marketing platforms. You also have a variety of options for payment gateways when using SamCart including PayPal, Stripe and ApplePay, ensuring a seamless and secure checkout experience for your customers.

ClickFunnels

Another popular alternative is ClickFunnels, a sales funnel builder that lets you create high-converting landing pages, sales funnels, and membership sites. You can see how it compares in our full ClickFunnels review and pricing guide.

ClickFunnels offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy for beginners to create professional-looking pages without any coding knowledge.

Being another all-in-one platform (but with less features), ClickFunnels also comes with a built in course feature, a webinar feature, and it’s own email autoresponder. ClickFunnels 2.0 also allows you to build full blown ecommerce sites if that’s what you’re looking to do.

With ClickFunnels you also get varying degrees of access to their extensive library of training, known as FunnelFlix, depending on which ClickFunnels pricing plan you choose. This is great because it means you can increase your marketing knowledge while you build your business.

Similar to SamCart, ClickFunnels also integrates with a wide variety of third-party tools, allowing you to connect your sales funnels with your favorite marketing and automation platforms.

GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel is an all-in-one platform that goes way beyond a checkout tool. It pulls funnels, websites, a CRM, email marketing, and online courses into one place. And unlike ThriveCart, it actually hosts your course videos inside the platform.

That’s a big deal if you’re selling courses, because ThriveCart doesn’t host videos. GoHighLevel’s course builder lets you upload and host your lesson videos right there, along with memberships, blogs, and an online store.

Beyond courses, you get a full CRM with email and SMS marketing, automations, and built-in calendars and booking. It’s basically a business command centre, not just a cart.

Pricing starts at $97 a month for the Starter plan, then $297 a month for Unlimited, and $497 a month for Founder, which was formerly called Agency Pro. Founder adds SaaS Mode, so you can resell the platform under your own brand. There’s also a custom-priced Enterprise tier.

So, if you’re ready to ditch the patchwork of separate tools and run everything from one dashboard, GoHighLevel is worth a look. It’s particularly handy if you’re selling courses and want built-in video hosting, or if you’re managing clients and want a branded experience. And you can test it all with a 14-day free trial.

ThriveCart Pricing

Here are the current ThriveCart plans:

Standard Plan:

• Price: $47 a month or $444 a year (about $37 a month on annual billing).
• Includes: Unlimited products and funnels, 1 bump offer, 1-click upsells and downsells, A/B split testing, abandoned cart recovery, sales tax automation, ThrivePages, subscriptions, and ThriveCart Academy Starter with unlimited courses and students plus 100 GB of video storage.

Pro+ Plan:

• Price: $87 a month or $804 a year (about $67 a month on annual billing).
• Includes: Everything in Standard, plus multiple order bumps, the Affiliate Center with automated payouts, JV contracts, subscription dunning, custom branding and domains, multi-user permissions, business intelligence reporting, and ThriveCart Academy Growth with 500 GB of video storage and a custom domain.

Enterprise Plan:

• Price: Custom quote.
• Includes: A dedicated account manager, volume-based processing rates, and Academy Scale with white-label options, unlimited video storage, and 4K streaming.

Standard and Pro+ come with a 30-day free trial and 0% ThriveCart fees on sales, though payment processor fees still apply. A lifetime option is still offered as a secondary choice if you would rather pay once.

What Customers Have To Say About ThriveCart

ThriveCart has been around for a few years now, and they have so far gained a pretty solid reputation.

Here’s what some ThriveCart users have to say about it:

FAQs

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about ThriveCart:

Can you build a website with ThriveCart?

No, ThriveCart does not have website building capabilities.

If you want all all-in-one tool similar to ThriveCart, but one that also gives you the ability to build a fully functional website then here are a few options for you.

If you just want a website to build a blog, then take a look at Systeme.io. It’s an easy to use all-in-one platform that also provides a blogging feature.

If you’re after full websites, blogs, and an online store alongside your funnels, then GoHighLevel is an all-in-one platform that covers all of that, plus CRM, email marketing, and automations.

What is the difference between ClickFunnels and ThriveCart?

When it comes to choosing between ClickFunnels and ThriveCart, it’s important to consider the key differences between the two.

While they share some similarities in functionality, each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses that could make one a better fit for your business.

In a nutshell, ClickFunnels’ main strength is its funnel builder. It’s awesome. On the other hand, ThriveCart excels with a better shopping cart solution, making it stand out among shopping cart services.

ClickFunnels does offer in-house email marketing on every plan now, and Launch at $97 a month includes 50,000 emails a month. Personally, if I were to go back to using ClickFunnels again, I’d still opt for a third-party email platform and integrate the two. Just saying.

That aside, both platforms come with a course feature, which are both pretty good.

ClickFunnels also offers a webinar feature, but ThriveCart does not. On the other hand, ThriveCart’s affiliate management feature is far superior to ClickFunnels’.

And another thing to consider is neither platform offers free video hosting. If you absolutely want that, look to GoHighLevel, which lets you host course videos right inside its course builder.

Is ThriveCart a payment gateway?

ThriveCart offers more than just a payment gateway. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing checkout pages, sales funnels, and affiliate programs.

You can easily connect your ThriveCart account to popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal to securely process transactions and accept payments from your customers.

Is ThriveCart Pro+ worth it?

One key advantage of ThriveCart Pro+ is the extra selling and management tools it adds on top of Standard, such as multiple order bumps, the Affiliate Center with automated payouts, JV contracts, subscription dunning, custom domains, and multi-user permissions.

Those tools can help you increase sales in different ways, from adding more order bumps to running an affiliate program and keeping subscriptions on track.

Additionally, the advanced analytics and reporting capabilities offered by Pro can provide you with deeper insights into customer behavior, conversion rates, and sales data, allowing you to make informed, data-driven decisions and optimize your marketing and sales strategies.

Support is the same on Standard and Pro+, with 24/7/365 support on both. Pro+ instead adds things like multi-user permissions and business intelligence reporting, which can be useful if you have a team and want deeper reporting. Priority support and a dedicated account manager are Enterprise features.

Review of ThriveCart: My Final Thoughts

In summing up this review of ThriveCart, it’s clear that ThriveCart is an all-encompassing tool, ideal for enhancing your online business.

Its user-friendly interface, combined with powerful features like A/B testing and effective upsell strategies, positions it as a top choice for anyone looking to boost their online sales.

What really shines through in this ThriveCart review is the platform’s ability to streamline your sales process and increase revenue, all while being economically attractive with plans starting at $47 a month, a 30-day free trial, and 0% ThriveCart fees on sales. A lifetime option is still offered if you prefer to pay once.

So, if you’re on the fence about trying ThriveCart, remember that there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can explore all its features risk-free and get a full refund if you’re not completely satisfied.

So, why not give ThriveCart a try and see how it can transform your online business?

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