ThriveCart Review 2024 (From an 8-Figure Course Seller)

ThriveCart Review 2024 (From an 8-Figure Course Seller)

PROS

  • Super clean and easy-to-understand interface, even for non-techies
  • Integrates with all major payment gateways
  • Offers flexible payment models such as subscriptions, plans and trials
  • Granular control over coupons and discounts
  • Supports bump offers and one-click upsells
  • Feature-rich affiliate management built right in
  • Easy-to-digest reporting dashboard with advanced filters
  • Growing list of deep integrations with Zapier support
  • Detailed documentation and an active FB community group

CONS

  • Can’t accept cryptocurrency payments
  • Limited selection of checkout templates
  • Some controversial design elements + limited customization
  • No emergency support, such as live chat or phone support
  • Not ideal for selling services

>> Claim The Lifetime Discount for ThriveCart

ThriveCart is shopping cart software created by Josh Bartlett back in 2016, and despite undergoing 4+ years of development, the software is still only available through it’s pilot program at a heavily discounted one-time fee.

Unlike other shopping carts, ThriveCart is typically thought of as a direct competitor to the more established (and arguably market-leading) SamCart, which happens to be the cart of choice among the biggest names online.

ThriveCart has already amassed a feature list that rivals the best in the industry, not to mention a following of die-hard fans to boot… so there’s certainly a lot riding on the shoulders of this newcomer.

In this ThriveCart review, we’ll do an in-depth, 100% objective analysis on where this emerging cart stands today, and whether or not it truly holds its own against the big boys.

ThriveCart Review 2024: The Good, Bad, And The Ugly

For this review, I fired up ThriveCart to see how it fares in comparison to popular alternatives.

From here on out, I’ll share my experiences using this tool, as well as what I liked and didn’t like along the way.

How Well Does It Accept Different Payments?

The payment processors that integrate with ThriveCart are Authorize.net, PayPal, Google Play, Apple Play, and Stripe.

While these are pretty standard, ThriveCart does offer deeper integrations than some other carts, with one example being that you can offer one-click upsells and downsells through PayPal.

Another thing to note here is that Stripe also allows you to accept payment through BitCoin, although the tool doesn’t currently work with Bitcoin (or any other cryptocrrency).

This is a classic example of why you shouldn’t take these integrations at face value, because you may end up disappointed with the depth of integration between the two.

That being said, ThriveCart works with the most popular payment processors on the market, with upcoming integrations (like Braintree) and even a direct bank transfer option in the works.

That’s enough about payment methods, what about paymnt models?

Well, this is where ThriveCart really begins to shine. The level of flexibility you get over your product payment models is really good.

You can choose between several options, including:

  • 20 currencies, including USD, EUR and GBP
  • Offering a single price, or multiple pricing options
  • One-time, subscription, payment plans (called split-pay) and ‘pay whatever’ payment options
  • Billing frequency for subscriptions and payment plans
  • Free trial periods, paid trials & auto billing
  • Bump offers & one-click upsells
  • Product quantity limitation

The best part?

No matter how complicated of a funnel you try to build, the user interface is so well laid out that even a complete novice would breeze through the setup process.

That means less time banging your head on a wall, and more time focusing on generating sales for your business — EXACTLY what you want from a full-featured shopping cart.

Verdict

Aside from the lack of crypto support, ThriveCart still offers one of the most flexible checkout experiences I’ve seen in a shopping cart.

How Well Does It Convert Prospects?

It’s easy to forget that while getting someone to your checkout page is several steps in the right direction until they click that buy button, they haven’t yet converted.

(Even the most qualified prospect can bail at the last minute, and nothing says RUN like a terrible checkout experience.)

On it’s homepage, ThriveCart claims to offer “high-converting cart pages” among other things, but let’s be honest, what shopping cart on the planet would say otherwise?

Let’s look at the facts.

When it comes to design templates, ThriveCart gives you 8 options to choose from.

Not only is this a weak selection to start with, but these design templates are also tied to different checkout behaviors.

For example, if you want a one-step checkout hosted by ThriveCart, you must go with the first template. If you want to have a popup checkout on your own site, you’ll have to go with the last template… and so on.

In fairness to ThriveCart, you do get some flexibility when it comes to customization of these templates, but it’s mostly just the contents of the page and not the overall appearance.

Many would argue that these templates are built for conversions, and so fewer customization options are better since too many changes could be detrimental to that goal.

While I agree to some extent, I’m not at all convinced these templates have been so rigorously tested that no further changes could be considered an improvement.

In the past few months, Thrivecart has been adding new templates to their kit. 

The biggest step-up, however, is the checkout page editing tool:

It’s truly a page editor now, filled with tons of conversion-focused elements.

Finally, let’s talk about A/B testing.

ThriveCart does have a robust A/B testing feature that allows you to test different products against each other.

These can be the same product with slight variations (such as format, pricing, pricing options, etc.), or a completely different product to see which performs best.

The A/B test will rotate the variations until a set period of time has passed, at which point it’ll show the winner indefinitely.

Lovely jubbly.

Additionally, the Products dashboard is really intuitive, and it has a lot of other conversion-focused functionalities, like upsells or coupons:

Additionally, the Products dashboard is really intuitive, and it has a lot of other conversion-focused functionalities, like upsells or coupons:

Verdict

While the template and customization options are currently pretty limited, ThriveCart’s checkout pages are proven to convert if the overwhelming community response is anything to go by.

Does It Help Boost Your Sales?

If the last section was about making the sale, this one’s about increasing the value of that sale.

ThriveCart has a bunch of stuff in it’s arsenal to help you with this, and I want to tackle each of them here.

Let’s start with discounts and coupons.

ThriveCart has a whole subsection for creating and managing coupons, and I really cannot fault the level of control you get over the smallest of details.

Whether it’s setting a fixed-amount or a percentage, expiring the coupon after a set time or fixed number of uses, automatically attributing it to an affiliate, or applying to one or all of your products…

…there’s just so much to sink your teeth into here that I could almost write a mini-review of this feature alone.

Plus, you can always analyze how people interact with checkout pages, product details and other elements important for both a small business, and a large enterprise.

What about bump offers?

I briefly mentioned them earlier in the context of design, but now I want to drill down more into the setup process and functionality of this feature.

Firstly, let me give you a more zoomed-out view of the options:

Unlike coupons, the bump offers feature has a lot LESS going in terms of flexibility, but that’s intentional.

Since bump offers are added to the initial order total, they inherently benefit from things like payment plans, coupons and affiliate attribution.

That aside, the ability to even use bump offers on your checkout is something that not all shopping cart software supports, so that gets a big tick from me.

A close cousin of the bump offer is the one-click upsell, and this feature alone can seriously move on the needle on your average cart order value if the tech is in place.

Fortunately, ThriveCart really gets the importance of one-click upsells.

Despite the upsell showing AFTER the initial purchase, you can still apply granular, independent rules to your offer.

These include different payment models like a one-time fee or subscription, optional product quantity settings, and even the ability to add a trial to specifically to your upsell offer.

Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about affiliate management.

You’ll be pleased to know that it also has an entire affiliate suite directly built into the cart, and it’s just as full-featured as most dedicated affiliate software out there.

The first thing you’ll notice about this is the reporting dashboard, which, like the rest of ThriveCart’s reporting is clean, easy to read and offers a myriad of data to sift through.

As you delve into the other 4 tabs — Payouts, Affiliates, Product Options and Rules — you’ll find options that allow you to have even more granular control over your affiliates and their payout settings.

I mean seriously, you can even set custom commissions for individual affiliates, as well as make them a second-tier affiliate to reward them for sales made by people they’ve referred.

Crazy stuff.

Verdict

This is where most of thrivecart's impressive feature list comes into play, and whether it’s bump offers, upsells or payment plans, you really couldn’t ask for more when it comes to pushing profits

Integrations

When it comes to shopping carts, making them properly integrate with the rest of your tech setup is essential.

And more so than almost any other aspect of your business, it’s often the depth integration (or lack thereof) that can be the deciding factor.

ThriveCart isn’t shy about flaunting their list of integrations, which is actually quite extensive considering the little time they’ve been around, relatively speaking.

Most of their integrations currently lie under email marketing, which covers the more popular email providers including Mailchimp, Drip, ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign.

The membership integrations aren’t too far behind either, with the likes of WishList Member, MemberMouse and Teachable making the list.

While these are perhaps two of the most important areas of integration for ThriveCart customers, the rest of the categories do feel a little bare in comparison.

For example, there’s one one service listed under the ‘Webinar Integrations’, and I can’t say it’s one of the better known platforms.

On the bright side, ThriveCart is supported by Zapier which effectively gives you possible integrations with hundreds of other apps in Zapier’s ever-growing library.

Unlike some other shopping carts, ThriveCart places a ton of emphasis on deep integration, meaning you get more flexibility and control over how these apps talk to each other.

Surprisingly, this is even carried through to Zapier…

The developers clearly understand what their customers need when it comes to stack integrations, and I have no doubt their list of supported apps will steadily continue to grow.

Verdict

While ThriveCart doesn’t have the most extensive list of integrations, the quality and speed of implementation of those integrations are nothing to laugh at. Zapier is also supported.

Support

Your shopping cart has one of the most important roles in your business.

Any roadblocks that may arise, whether that’s understanding how to use the software, potential technical challenges or even unscheduled downtime, you need to have the appropriate support lines in place.

For the issues that won’t give you heart palpitations, ThriveCart’s documentation is packed with detailed support articles and how-to’s.

It’s all pretty elementary stuff, but it’s useful if you’re not familiar with how shopping carts work.

One of my favourite things about ThriveCart, however, is that the user interface is an absolute dream to navigate.

Everything is where you expect it to be.

Everything behaves the way you expect it to behave.

It just…. works.

For that reason, you’ll probably find that these low-level issues hardly arise, but if they do, the documentation is there to pick you up.

So what happens in more urgent situations?

Who can you call on in the middle of a big launch when you need immediate assistance?

Unfortunately, the tool doesn’t currently have a direct line of communication, such as phone support or live chat.

In fact, if you want a direct line of support with an agent, you’ll need to submit a ticket.

Not ideal for emergencies as it can take up to 24 hours… and that doesn’t even include weekends.

The only remaining line of support, and the one saving grace from all this is the Facebook group.

This is an official, engaged group with close to 5k members, and the developers actively reply to member queries as well.

Between the ticket system and the Facebook group, you shouldn’t go more than a few hours without someone chiming in to offer a hand — but it’s not quite enough when the unimaginable happens.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend in the shopping cart industry, with very few companies offering any immediate line of support.

Verdict

Thorough documentation, fast ticket response and an active Facebook community group. No emergency contact such as live chat or phone support, however.

ThriveCart Pricing

To get the tool you’ll need to pay for a lifetime subscription:

For many, this lifetime offer is still a pretty significant amount of money despite what a shopping cart can do for your bottom line.

That aside, let’s look at how other shopping carts are priced, so you can get a better idea of where this tool currently sits in the market.

Note: the pricing above reflects the lowest tier monthly plan for each of the shopping carts, and should not be seen as a direct comparison since the features and limitations vary a lot from cart-to-cart.

Is ThriveCart Right For You?

Now that I’ve covered all the different features and functions of ThriveCart, weighing up the pros and cons and giving my experience along the way — let’s talk about YOU.

As with any tool, this one isn’t going to be the right choice for everyone, so I’d like to get to the bottom of who exactly this page builder is suitable for.

Can ThriveCart Be Used To Sell Digital Products?

Hell yes.

Everything about ThriveCart feels like it was built specifically to sell digital products.

You’ve got access to deep email marketing integrations to automate the delivery of anything from email sequences, ebooks and videos.

You’ve got powerful built-in affiliate management software to get other marketers and bloggers shouting about your product.

And of course, you’ve got bump offers and upsells which work GREAT for digital products in particular.

The only downside?

ThriveCart doesn’t actually host things like PDF’s and video files, whereas something like Gumroad has all that built in.

Aside from that, ThriveCart is your wet dream when it comes to selling digital products.

Can ThriveCart Be Used To Sell Physical Products?

It depends.

If you’re selling a handful of products with simple checkout pages and can benefit from how easy to use it is, you can certainly set them up in ThriveCart with their own dedicated checkout links.

If you have a large variety of physical products, however, things get a bit more complicated.

ThriveCart will never be a Shopify or WooCommerce alternative, though it is possible to use something like WooCommerce to display your physical products, but have them link up to their own ThriveCart checkout page, or shopping cart. However, this is not a Thrivecart vs Shopify article, so let’s keep talking about our review.

You’ll also need to account for details like product options, sizes and colors, which ThriveCart currently doesn’t support

One workaround is to use custom fields, which will ultimately appear on your sales notification and the order receipt.

It’s a little messy, but it works. As long as you use the legacy product templates.

Overall, while there’s currently a few minor inconveniences to using ThriveCart for physical products it’s also good to know the team are working hard to iron these out.

Can ThriveCart Be Used To Sell Services?

Again, it depends.

ThriveCart doesn’t feel very tailored for services, but it is possible to bill clients by setting up service packages under “products”. It really just comes down to how you name them, and the shopping cart and checkout pages work all the same.

Another option is to set up a ‘pay what you want’ checkout page, where clients can input the amount you’ve quoted in the checkout page, after they’ve filled their shopping cart.

It’s not perfect, but it works.

The invoicing within ThriveCart is also pretty basic, and it isn’t set up in the way that service-based businesses would typically expect to use them:

It’s not all bad news.

The great thing about using ThriveCart to sell services is that you still benefit from many of the built-in features, including automatic sales tax calculation, upsells, recurring billing, one time fees, an easy to use interface and other details.

Overall, while it can technically be used to sell services, there are some improvements to be made before I can consider it one of the better options out there.

ThriveCart Review: Conclusion

ThriveCart has blinked on my radar countless times over the past year, so I was especially excited to see what this bad boy could do.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Despite being one of the newer carts on the market, and despite not even being publically released yet, ThriveCart is already a very worthy contender for the top spot.

You can claim a lifetime discount (no subscriptions) using this link.

Ryan Ciocca

Data-Driven Digital Marketing Manager | eCommerce | Lead Generation | Performance Marketing

2w

Have had TC for many years. It was once the bulletproof solution you could trust. With the aqusition, that trust is now gone. It is still excellent and it appears they are committed to fixing the bugs.

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Larry Ludwig

CEO and Founder at Ludwig Media, Inc.

3w

This is pathetic. Not you, but Google is ranking this content after less than two weeks. Lets see what happens from the latest update from Google in a few weeks.

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Milos Kozul

Digital Marketing at Authority Hacker

4w

And up it goes 🎉

Gael Breton

Co-Founder of Authority Hacker

1mo

I posted less than 24 hours ago, and I'm already on the front page for some decent keywords 😬.

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Palash Nag

SaaS Link Builder ▪️ Online Marketing ▪️ Ft. Semrush, GetResponse, Encharge & more

1mo

will wait for the results

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