ThriveCart is a one-stop shopping cart platform. It’s perfect for any online entrepreneur who is looking for an easy and intuitive way to set up a product and have it ready to sell within a matter of minutes. In this post, I’ll be doing a thorough ThriveCart review so you can determine if it’s the right shopping cart platform for your business.
What if I told you there was a shopping cart platform that only makes you pay a one-time fee and you get to use it forever?!
To top it off, what if I told you it could literally do everything that other shopping cart platforms charge you $888/year to do… except you only have to pay nearly half of that.
Well it exists and it’s called ThriveCart.
The problem is, if you’re like me you probably want to make sure you’re going to love it and it’s going to do/be everything you need it to do/be before you commit to spending a lifetime with it.
And that’s why I wanted to do this super detailed ThriveCart review.
In this ThriveCart review, I’ll be breaking down everything for you in an easy to understand way so you can see how ThriveCart works and how it will work for virtually any online business owner with something to sell.
I also know that you’re reading this ThriveCart review because you know your business needs a solution like this and you’re just not sure that this is the right fit.
No matter whether you decide to go with this tool or a different one, my goal for this review is to give the criteria to follow when choosing the right one for you.
Let’s dive in.
ThriveCart Integrations
The first thing you’ll do when you create your account is go to Settings and connect your different accounts to your ThriveCart account.
So let’s check out those integrations first.
ThriveCart Payment Integrations
You have 3 options for your payment integrations inside ThriveCart:
- Stripe
- Paypal
- Authorize.net.
I use both Stripe and Paypal in my business.
ThriveCart Autoresponder Integrations
You have tons of options for Autoresponder Integrations inside ThriveCart:
- ActiveCampaign
- Aweber
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- GetResponse
- Hubspot
- Infusionsoft (Keap)
- Mailchimp
- MailerLite
- Ontraport
ThriveCart Membership Platform Integrations
ThriveCart includes Membership Platform Integration to the more popular options out there, but I do selfishly wish it had a Kajabi integration since that’s what I use to host my programs.
However, I can easily use Zapier to connect ThriveCart to virtually any other platform that uses Zapier, including Kajabi.
ThriveCart Features
To make life easier for you, I decided to break down the main features inside of ThriveCart and give you a behind-the-scenes look inside of my account.
Product Creation Wizard
One of my favorite part about ThriveCart (besides the one-time price) is their product creation wizard.
It makes setting up a product so quick and painless and you can have it up and running within a matter of minutes.
Watch the tutorial video below to see the Product Creation Wizard in action.
1-Click Bump Offer
Wanna know the #1 way to increase your average cart value (and make more money per transaction)?!
Bump Offers!
They are so easy to set up and you likely have a valuable resource you’ve already created that you could offer as a low-priced bump offer.
1-Click Upsell
Having the built-in capabilities of including a 1-click Upsell is nothing short of amazing for this price point.
If you’re not familiar with how Upsells work, let me paint you a picture…
You go to buy someone’s shiny new online course, you enter all of your important contact info and credit card details and you click “Submit Payment”.
Except, instead of going to a standard thank you page, you’re sent to an “upsell” page, where the course creator offers you a special limited-time offer for a complimentary product at a discounted price.
You can either decide to take them up on the offer by clicking on a button that says something along the lines of “Yes, add this to my order”, which it will then automatically change your total price, add it to your order and charge you for both the main offer and the upsell offer.
Or, you can simply click the “No thanks! Please complete my order” button and it will take you to your order details or a thank you page.
1-Click Upsells are definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, so you certainly don’t have to use them, but I think they are a nice way to offer a bonus product that will complete your customer’s experience AND increase the cart value at the same time.
Popup Checkout Page
I love this feature, because it allows your customer to purchase a product without ever leaving your website.
This type of shopping cart experience would work great for low-priced products and could function more like an “Add to Cart” eCommerce platform does.
Embeddable Checkout Page
The one thing that ThriveCart lacks is different shopping cart page templates so you can customize the look a bit more. However, with the Embeddable Cart feature, you can work around that by embedding your checkout form onto a page on your own website. This way, you can make it look however you want.
Note: your website needs to be SSL certified in order to embed a checkout form.
Customer Behavior Rules
The Behaviors tab makes it very easy to customize how you move customers from your ThriveCart account to your email marketing platform, where can deliver their purchase and continue following up with them.
First, you choose a trigger and then you choose how that customer gets added to your email software. You can either apply a tag to the customer or you can add them to a sequence. But you can create as many behavior rules as you want, so the sky is the limit!
Affiliate Platform
The fact that you get access to an entire affiliate platform is so amazing. With the biggest competitor, you have to pay close to $200/month to have access to their affiliate platform.
First, you set up your affiliate settings within the individual product.
Set up affiliate commissions
You can choose the commission type, commission percentage, how your affiliates are going to be paid (manually, instantly, withhold a percentage or after a delay), and when commissions are due.
Choose your affiliate options
This section is how you manage your actual affiliates and how they earn a commission.
Manage your affiliates
There is a separate tab where you can manage your affiliates for your products.
This is where you can see an overview of your affiliate’s sales and commissions, approve affiliates, manage payments and upload promo materials for your affiliates.
You can also set behavior rules for your affiliate program, like adding a new affiliate to a tag in your email marketing software.
There’s so much you can do with this affiliate platform, so drop a comment below if you have any specific questions.
ThriveCart vs. SamCart
I figured it only made sense to compare the two powerhouse shopping cart software companies against each other.
In essence, ThriveCart and SamCart are basically the exact same things.
They’re features are all very comparable. Anything that SamCart can do, ThriveCart can do, too.
For example, they both have the same set of features for the Standard account (SamCart calls this level their “Pro” account):
- 1-Click Bump Offers
- 1-Click Upsells
- Popup Cart
- Embeddable Cart
- 2-Step Cart
- A/B Testing
- Coupons
- Cart Abandonment Tracking
And they both have the same features for their Pro account (SamCart calls this level their “Premier” account):
- Subscription Saver (Dunning)
- Affiliate Center
Where the big difference shows up is in the price tag.
The lowest tier of ThriveCart is a one-time fee of $495. (Yes, pay once and never pay again)
The lowest tier of SamCart is a monthly payment of $99.
So, if I do the math, you’ll have completely paid off your ThriveCart Standard Lifetime Account after 5 months of paying for the lowest SamCart monthly plan.
That seems like a no-brainer to me!
I would much rather pay for something once, than pay every single month for it.
Especially when the alternative is much more expensive in the long-run.
But, I digress.
Let’s do a quick little breakdown to see how it all shakes out.
For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to compare the lowest tier of both ThriveCart and SamCart so we’re comparing apples to apples.
ThriveCart Pricing
I already mentioned the price of the Standard ThriveCart Account, but let’s dive in a little deeper to see exactly what you’re getting at each level and how much it costs.
Whether or not you should spring for the Pro Account, boils down to 2 things:
- Are you going to use affiliates to promote your products?
- Do you (or do you plan to) offer payment plans or have a monthly membership site?
If you answer yes to either of those, I’d highly recommend choosing the ThriveCart Pro Account for only $195 more.
ThriveCart FAQs
Is ThriveCart really just a one-time payment?
Yes, however, they don’t always plan to be that way. They will be moving over to a monthly/annual plan just like their competitors, and likely around the same price point as their competitors. That’s why you want to jump on this one-time lifetime access now before they do switch.
What payment processors does ThriveCart currently work with?
ThriveCart works with Paypal, Stripe and Authorize.net.
Can I sell physical products with ThriveCart?
Yes! You can choose shipping price, shipping weight, product dimensions, quantities and more on your checkout pages. They also seamlessly integrate with Kunaki, Disk.com, Shippo, and Printful, with more fulfillment companies being added constantly.
Is ThriveCart GDPR compliant?
Yes. They offer you the ability to add a checkbox to receive consent to send marketing emails, the ability to add additional terms in the footer, the ability to clear our customer data, and much more to ensure that you can stay GDPR compliant.
Do they update ThriveCart regularly?
Yes, they seem to always have new updates and features rolling out on a regular basis. They have many new features planned and your lifetime license gives you access to those new features, at no extra cost.
Should you use ThriveCart?
Based not only on the fact that we use it, but after talking to other people who have tried this tool, we decided to score ThriveCart a rating of 4.5/5.
The reason I can’t give it a full 5 stars is because I wish they had more options for customizing the checkout pages. However, I understand they limit these features so they can make sure your checkout page will convert.
The larger one-time fee may seem a little daunting at first, but when you factor in how much you would pay for an alternative tool, it’s a total no-brainer to splurge once and never pay again.
And if you’re reading this right now, you’re in luck, because the one-time fee won’t be here forever.
In fact, they have already announced they will be going to a monthly/yearly fee very soon, so I highly recommend you grab this one-time lifetime license while you can (and before the platform becomes the same price as it’s competitors).
I hope this ThriveCart Review was helpful for you to figure out if it will be good shopping cart to use in your online business.
Leave a comment below if you have any other questions.
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