Welcome to my comprehensive review of ThriveCart! I’m so excited to FINALLY be sharing this review for all of you, after using ThriveCart in my business for many years, and making hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result.
It was the main tool that has helped The Wanderlover scale from its first 5-figure month to multiple 6-figures, and still is what I use and recommend to all of my clients and customers.
It’s the one tool that has facilitated thousands of transactions behind the scenes, and now I have all my courses and memberships hosted on ThriveCart as well.
It’s an all-in-one tool and I am beyond loyal to them. They have made me so much money while traveling full-time around the world.
The Wanderlover is ALL about building scalable online businesses for time freedom, location freedom, and financial freedom, so I only recommend the tools I use that enable this freedom-based lifestyle for you as well.
So, what is ThriveCart?
ThriveCart is a powerful and versatile shopping cart solution designed to help you make sales online, which means it helps you make more money in your business.
Think of it as an online storefront where people can learn about your digital products and services, and check out at the cash register.
It offers tools and functionalities to create high-converting checkout pages, manage your products, and track sales. Whether you’re a solopreneur just getting started, or you are established with a large customer base, ThriveCart is the best in the market to take your business to the next level.
ThriveCart vs ThriveCart Pro
You are also offered the option to add on ThriveCart Pro for an extra $195 when you check out, which is what I have and recommend.
The Pro add on comes with your own affiliate center, subscription saver functionality, JV contracts, client usage rights, and custom domain functionality. This means, I’m able to have affiliates sell products on my behalf with their own logins and links, and have checkout cart pages and landing pages on my own domain.
What is ThriveCart Learn and Learn+?
In this article, I will also be mentioning ThriveCart Learn+, the platform I use and recommend to host courses and memberships like the Wanderlover Business Academy and Digital Nomad Society.
You can see a walkthrough of both courses and what students see on their end in this video here:
There are two versions of Learn available:
- Learn: included for free as part of your ThriveCart account
- Learn+: a paid advanced version containing a number of extra-powerful features (this is what I have)
Both Learn and Learn+ allow for unlimited courses, unlimited modules, unlimited lessons, and unlimited students.
It makes it SO easy for me to sell trainings and content to my students by creating courses that have modules and lessons. Plus it offer so many customization features, but we will get into that later.
Learn deserves its own article which I will write soon. But for now, let’s talk about ThriveCart.
Features: Why I LOVE ThriveCart
There are so many reasons why I am loyal to ThriveCart, and I’m going to try to list them all below. ThriveCart single-handedly deals with everything I need and more for my business model.
Value for money
In my article Top Reasons Entrepreneurs Fail, underestimating the amount of capital needed to operate your business was definitely up on that list. Making smart investments into your systems from the beginning is so important, as you don’t want month recurring subscriptions to eat away at your revenue.
ThriveCart offers a one time payment option, which is a MASSIVE advantage over other options. It’s truly a one time fee and can save you thousands of dollars over time compared to its competitors.
I made back the original investment within the first month of signing up for ThriveCart!
Intuitive Checkout and Cart Page Builder
I love ThriveCart‘s user-friendly checkout page builder, that is so freaking easy to use. You can design visually appealing and conversion-optimized checkout pages with drag and drop modules.
With a wide range of customization options, you can create a seamless experience for your customers, increasing their trust and likelihood of completing their purchase.
ThriveCart has templates you can use to help simplify the process of setting everything up, and then you can customize and tweak the steps for the best results.
Easy One-Click Upsells and Order Bump Offers
You can increase your average order value with one-click upsell and order bumps. These functionalities allow you to offer relevant add-ons and complementary products during the checkout process.
For example, on my Travel Influencer Handbook checkout, it was so easy for me to add an order bump where it encourages people to spend a little extra and get my 100+ list of platforms that pay content creators. Having the ability to add these bumps and upsells to a checkout process is so amazing as I can more than double each order value!
Payment Processing
Handling payments online can be a pain sometimes. But ThriveCart integrates easily with various payment gateways, enabling businesses to accept payments from customers using credit/debit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other payment methods. These payment options are integrated seamlessly through your user journey, so there are no awkward steps in the checkout flow. I cannot stress how important this is, as extra steps = lower conversions.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
It has built-in features to help recover potentially lost sales by sending automated follow-up emails to customers who abandon their shopping carts.
Powerful Affiliate Management
If you have thought about running an affiliate program, you have probably also realized that tracking your affiliate sales is a headache on its own. But ThriveCart simplifies affiliate management, making it easy for you to collaborate with affiliates and boost your sales. The platform provides real-time tracking and detailed analytics, ensuring you can track and reward your affiliates accurately and keep those sales coming.
Subscription Management
ThriveCart can handle subscription-based products or services, enabling businesses to set up recurring billing and manage customer subscriptions easily. Not only that, but you can stay on top of subscription churn with ThriveCart’s subscription saver, AKA dunning feature. It automatically follows up with customers whose subscriptions are at risk of cancellation, giving you a chance to address their concerns and retain their business.
Digital Product Delivery
For businesses selling digital products (ebooks, digital products, online services, courses), ThriveCart automatically delivers your download links or granting access to the purchased content. They immediately send your customers an email with their receipt and access.
You are also able to customize how many days they get access to the link. This prevents the likelihood of your digital product being distributed.
Integrations Galore
ThriveCart seamlessly integrates with a wide range of third-party applications, including email marketing platforms like ActiveCampaign, Zapier, and payment gateways. This enables you to create a tailored tech stack that perfectly aligns with your business needs.
For me, it was crucial that the platform I chose integrated seamlessly with my WordPress website, and ActiveCampaign, which is what I use for my email list manager.
🤩 Check Pricing and Availability
Pros of ThriveCart
One Time Fee
I cannot stress this enough about how much you will save as a business owner! With other competitors, you pay anywhere from $50 to upwards of $500 a MONTH for the same features and functionalities as ThriveCart. This means you’ll make back your original investment within the first year.
As someone who has been using ThriveCart for years, I cannot even begin to imagine how much I would have paid in recurring subscriptions. This honestly is such a steal!
Helpful Customer Support
The few times my team has submitted support tickets, we received responses and solutions from their helpful customer support team within 24 hours. We are truly happy customers and they always put you first.
ThriveCart also has a Facebook Group with over 15,000 members, so other times if you have a question about anything, there are other users who are happy to help. You are also able to search your question in the group because most likely, it has been asked before and there are always answers!
Unlimited Products
I’m so beyond spoiled with ThriveCart’s unlimited products features. I love testing new products and services to see what my audience needs and will buy. Some other platforms only offer a few products, which means you constantly have to go in and delete existing products or upgrade to a higher tier.
So Easy to Use
The drag and drop builders are so user-intuitive, and makes it so easy for you to design your checkout pages and courses exactly how you want them to look. You also get full customization, including bundling your existing products to create a completely new offer in an instant. There are so many possibilities!
Make More Money with Affiliates
I am very generous with my affiliate payments, and I offer up to 60% commission for each sale made. ThriveCart makes it so easy for you to manage all your affiliates in one place, set rules and payouts, and offer Marketing assets for your affiliates to use.
Lifetime Subscription with New Features
With a one time payment to a lifetime subscription, you get immediate access to ALL their new features that are always being rolled out. They don’t try to milk you for every penny, and instead are so generous with their loyal existing customers, giving you every new update completely free!
Values and Ethos
Overall, I align with the company’s values and ethos, as they overdeliver and overserve every time. I’ve dealt with so many Saas companies who are just out there trying to get your money. But with ThriveCart, I am blown away every time because I feel like I should be paying more for what they offer, which is always a great sign (and quite rare these days)!
Cons of ThriveCart
Cannot have multiple order bumps
My ONE annoyance with ThriveCart is the inability to add multiple order bumps to a product or service. You are able to have multiple upsells after they check out, but I would like ability to have order bumps before check out.
Hopefully, they are able to add in this feature in the near future! But in the meantime, I have made lots of money without it 😉
ThriveCart Payment Gateways
ThriveCart integrates with a wide array of payment gateways, giving you the flexibility to choose the one that best suits your business and your customers. From the well-known to the specialized, they’ve curated a selection that spans the globe, ensuring that your customers can complete transactions using their preferred methods.
Major Credit and Debit Cards
ThriveCart seamlessly connects with major credit and debit card processors. Whether your customers prefer Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or other popular cards, ThriveCart’s payment gateways support a smooth transaction process, enhancing convenience and user satisfaction.
PayPal Integration
For those who prefer using PayPal, ThriveCart seamlessly integrates with this widely recognized and trusted payment method. PayPal integration allows your customers to complete purchases using their PayPal accounts, offering an additional layer of convenience and security.
Stripe Integration
Stripe is a favorite among online businesses, known for its user-friendly interface and robust security measures. ThriveCart offers seamless integration with Stripe, allowing you to accept payments from your customers directly on your website and is what I use personally to process my online payments. This option is ideal for enhancing user experience and increasing trust during the checkout process.
Apple Pay and Google Pay
In today’s mobile-driven world, offering convenient mobile payment options is essential. ThriveCart integrates with Apple Pay and Google Pay, enabling customers to make purchases swiftly and securely through their mobile devices. This feature is perfect for enhancing the mobile shopping experience and driving conversions.
Custom Payment Plans and Subscriptions
ThriveCart allows you to offer custom payment plans and subscription options to your customers. Whether you want to provide a one-time payment, split payments, or recurring subscriptions, the platform gives you the flexibility to tailor payment structures according to your product offerings and customer preferences.
Pricing: How Much is ThriveCart?
ThriveCart is currently $495 USD for a lifetime subscription, and $195 extra for ThriveCart Pro, totaling $690. You will have the option to add on Pro upon checkout.
ThriveCart Learn comes FREE with your purchase of ThriveCart or ThriveCart Pro.
Pricing: ThriveCart Learn+
ThriveCart Learn+ is a one time fee of $195 USD. You do not have to purchase this right away and can always add it on later.
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My Experience with ThriveCart
When I created my first digital product The Travel Influencer Handbook, I initially signed up for SendOwl. It was a monthly subscription with limited customization features, and I quickly started to hit limitations.
Then when I launched my first online business course, the Wanderlover Business Academy, I had to have a whole other platform to host my course on, with another monthly fee to pay.
So there I was paying all these monthly fees, managing all the different parts of my business in different places, losing track of things, and just trying to make it all work together.
This caused me to miss earning opportunities, lose potential clients, and my customer experience was at an all time low.
Something had to change! And that’s when I found ThriveCart.
Suddenly I had a platform with a one time fee, and that could handle all my digital products, my online course on ThriveCart Learn+, affiliate program, online payments, upsells, bump offers, down sells, taxes, integrated seamlessly with my WordPress website, and ActiveCampaign. AAAAHHHHH!
I have now used ThriveCart for years now and it’s been one of the best decisions I made. I made back my entire investment of $690 for the Pro version within the first month of signing up, and my sales have just continued to increase every month since.
So when it comes to building a successful business with Thrivecart, and unlike a lot of articles out there that just compare software to others without any experience using them, I actually use ThriveCart to drive consistent multiple 5-figure passive income months.
The great thing about setting up your sales pages and products, is that you go through the setup work once, and you just have to go in and optimize or tweak it once in a while.
You make money in your sleep and it truly is SO SCALABLE online!!
FREE: Copy My Checkout Template
To help you out, I’m sharing my high-converting digital product checkout template page (the one I actually use for The Travel Influencer Handbook), available for you to copy when you sign up. You can simply make a copy and customize it as your own.
ThriveCart Alternatives
While there are several shopping cart solutions available in the market, all of which I’ve looked into meticulously, ThriveCart stands out due to its exceptional features and ease of use.
Let’s briefly look at the differences of ThriveCart with some of its main competitors:
Thrivecart vs Sendowl
As I mentioned before, I first signed up with SendOwl when I launched my first digital product. However, with SendOwl, I was lacking and needed more support with:
- Customization of sales pages and checkout carts to be on-brand (Over time, SendOwl felt like something you would see in the early 2000s in terms of a checkout cart and I felt like it lost us trust with potential customers).
- Order bumps and upsells were not converting
- Affiliate tracking was lacking
- The monthly fee did not justify what I was spending vs. what I was getting
SendOwl lacked many features I needed to scale efficiently, and even with it’s “lower” monthly fee, I ended up paying what ThriveCart cost me within the first year.
ThriveCart vs Shopify
While Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform, ThriveCart focuses specifically on checkout optimization and simplifying the buying process for *digital* products and services, not physical products sold online.
Unlike Shopify, ThriveCart doesn’t require you to build an entire online store, making it a more lightweight and conversion-focused option. If you are offering digital products and services, then Shopify definitely won’t be for you.
ThriveCart vs Kajabi
Before purchasing ThriveCart and Learn+, Kajabi was honestly my main contender. Many people I knew in the online coaching and content creation space were using it, and I have purchased many courses that are hosted on Kajabi. However, over time I have also seen many Kajabi users make the switch over the ThriveCart.
Kajabi starts at $69 USD/month or $55/month billed annually for their most basic plan, but this includes ONLY 1 product, 1 funnel, and 50 active users. Definitely not for businesses that want to scale! Even in their “Basic” plan where you’re paying $149/month, you only get the option to create 3 products. With their Growth plan at $199/month, you get 15 products, but that is still not enough for someone like me who likes testing new products and services every month.
As a reminder, with ThriveCart you get unlimited products and funnels and emails.
ThriveCart vs SamCart
I have never used SamCart, but one of my entrepreneur friends recently made the switch from SamCart over to ThriveCart because she said the only payment gateways they accepted were PayPal and Stripe. It is also EXPENSIVE for what you get ($159 USD/month)!
ThriveCart vs Kartra
I have also never used Kartra, but when I was doing my research, the heavy price tag of $119 USD/month for the starter plan and $229 USD or $549 USD/month for the growth plans were an immediate no for me.
ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels emphasizes sales funnels, but its checkout process is not as customizable and intuitive as ThriveCart. I also feel like ClickFunnels pages are more spammy and sales-y, which just doesn’t go with my brand.
Additionally, ClickFunnels lowest tier plan is $127 USD/month, $157/month for their Pro plan, and $208/month for their Funnel Hacker plan. This means you will spend the same amount in a few months than you get a lifetime subscription to ThriveCart.
I personally know SO MANY online business owners, course creators, membership owners, who have made the switch from their checkout cart and course platform to ThriveCart… because it really is superior, period.
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The Ultimate Verdict – Is ThriveCart worth it?
When it comes to shopping carts for digital products like courses, eBooks, memberships, or coaching packages, ThriveCart reigns supreme. With its ease of use and unbelievably affordable pricing, this tool is a game-changer!
For a one-time payment you’ll get a tool that outperforms competitors. It’s an all-in-one package that equips you with everything you need to hit the ground running and start making money right away (you can use my free template to get started)!
If you’re ready to scale your business, ThriveCart is your secret weapon. I KNOW you’re going to love it as much as I do!
Comment below if you have any questions!
