Choosing the right platform to manage sales and products is crucial for business owners and marketers.
Although ThriveCart is a popular choice, it’s not the best fit for everyone.
In this article, I’ll introduce you five best ThriveCart alternatives. We’ll discuss their features, benefits, and pricing.
By the end, you’ll better understand each and be able to pick which one to use.
Table of Contents
What is ThriveCart?
ThriveCart is a popular shopping cart tool and checkout platform that provides features for selling physical and digital products.
Whether you’re a course creator, consultant, or e-commerce business owner, ThriveCart can help increase your sales by streamlining your checkout process.
It gives you access to many revenue-boosting tools, including upsells, downsells, and order bumps.
The platform also provides advanced business insights to help you track your sales and optimize your online store.
Core Features of ThriveCart
Here are some features that make ThriveCart an excellent shopping cart software.
- High-converting checkout pages – ThriveCart provides modern-looking templates for checkout pages. It also allows you to add elements to make them more high-converting.
- Payment options – It lets you offer a range of payment options. That includes free trials, one-time payments, subscriptions, retainer fees, and split payments. Moreover, it connects with many payment gateways. You won’t have any problems receiving money anywhere you are.
- Many integrations – ThriveCart is a versatile tool. You can connect it with email marketing, tracking and analytics, membership, and webinar platforms.
- Drag-and-drop template builder – ThriveCart offers no-coding customization for your landing pages, making it an even more stellar shopping cart solution.
- Advanced metrics and analytics – You can view real-time sales, revenue, and conversion data. This information optimizes your online business for even better results.
Why Look For A ThriveCart Alternative?
Let’s look at the good and bad sides of using ThriveCart.
Pros
- One-time fee payment
- Has a built-in sales tax collector
- A/B testing tool
- Beginner-friendly
Cons
- No free trial and free plan
- Has a limited selection of checkout templates
- Not ideal for selling services online
- No live chat or phone support
5 Best ThriveCart Alternatives
1. SamCart
SamCart provides versatile and easy-to-use eCommerce features that can help businesses increase conversion rates.
Founded in 2013 by Brian and Scott Moran, the platform provides a range of features for creating mobile-responsive sales pages. But it’s primarily famous for building an effective one-page checkout.
Like ThriveCart, it’s an excellent choice for physical and digital product sellers.
But what makes SamCart the best among the ThriveCart alternatives are its long track record and consistent updates.
SamCart has built a reputation as one of the best online shopping carts. Besides many success stories on their site, they also have many loyal users.
Besides, the platform expanded its offerings to include complete course creation with the SamCart Courses app.
SamCart has also improved its payment processing methods. It’s now catering to digital payments and cryptocurrencies.
features
Powerful Sales Funnels and Checkout Pages
SamCart offers professionally-designed yet customizable templates proven to convert.
This saves time and effort in creating your pages and quickly getting them up and running.
Although SamCart is known for its 1-page sales pages, you can use its features to create complete and effective sales funnels.
Sandbox Mode
This feature lets you make test purchases on any product or upsells without worrying about getting billed.
It’s like a preview mode and saves you from the headache of refunding yourself.
Unlimited Products and Pages Creation
With SamCart, you can sell complete courses, memberships, and video uploads without limitations.
This is useful if you offer a wide range of products and services.
One-Click UpSell and Order Bumps
Let’s say you’re an online course creator selling a digital course on your website.
With SamCart’s one-click upsell feature, you can offer an additional class or resource that complements the original system, like a workbook or an ebook, with just one click.
This makes your sales process seamless and helps increase your average customer value with minimal effort.
Subscription Saver
SamCart has a feature that automatically cancels a subscription if a customer fails to update or fix payment issues after several tries.
Dunning is an excellent tool for managing customer accounts and preventing lost revenue due to failed payments.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Has a free trial
- Provides a broader range of pricing options for users
- Built-in affiliate management
- Offers a user-friendly interface
- Accepts extensive payment gateways
Cons
- Does not offer a one-time payment option
- Lacks built-in sales tax collection
- The affiliate system does not provide tracking IDs
Pricing
SamCart offers three pricing plans.
- Launch plan at $59/month
- Growth plan at $119/month
- Scale plan at $299/month
If you want to save money, the annual billing provides up to 47% off.
Related:
2. SendOwl
SendOwl is an eCommerce platform designed to help individuals and organizations sell digital products and subscriptions online.
Since 2010, SendOwl has helped thousands of sellers streamline their sales process and provide secure payment gateways for their customers.
One of the most significant advantages of SendOwl is its swift launch process, allowing sellers like you to set up sites and shopping carts quickly.
In addition, SendOwl takes the security of your digital products and customers’ data seriously. With reliable safety management add-ons, you can protect your products and prevent unauthorized re-sharing or duplication.
What I like about SendOwl is that it provides a smooth and headache-free customer experience.
From choosing to purchasing and receiving, your buyers won’t feel any hassle when transacting with your business.
With its simplicity, flexibility, and robust features, SendOwl is an excellent alternative to ThriveCart for sellers selling digital files, service-based products, or physical products.
Key features
1 – Shareable Link
SendOwl allows your customers to bypass the shopping cart area and minimize the effort of your customers. This can help improve conversions.
It allows you to send a link directly to customers who have already made the sale.
You can share this through Twitter, Facebook, your website, and other sales channels, making it a powerful tool for getting more customers.
2 – License Keys Generator
The platform automates tasks such as the generation, safe storage, issuing, and distribution of license keys.
This will save you time while ensuring all your produced keys are valid.
3 – Convenient Product Bundling
SendOwl’s approach to bundling products is also seamless.
You can easily create product “bundles” by grouping related products together and encouraging more sales on your checkout page.
4 – Pre-order and Pre-selling
SendOwl supports pre-order and pre-selling, allowing sellers to take orders before a product is available.
If you want to test the demand for your products and services before releasing them, these features can greatly help.
5 – Additional Offers
Like the other ThriveCart alternatives, SendOwl offers complementary upselling and bump offers.
Besides linking other products on your checkout page, you can offer coupons, discounts, and vouchers for more sales.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free forever plan
- Offers 14-day free trial for paid plans
- More affordable pricing model
- Simple and great for beginners
- Unlimited products, orders, subscriptions, and integrations
- Safe and secure for users and buyers
Cons
- Limited community support
- Limited checkout page customization options
- It might be too simple for advanced users
- Doesn’t support other cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin
- No direct integrations with popular online course platforms like LifterLMS, Thinkific, and Teachable.
- Has a transaction fee
Pricing
Besides the free plan, SendOwl offers two paid plans.
- Starter plan – $15/month
- Pro plan – $39/month
SendOwl doesn’t provide an annual billing option and charges a management fee per order on all plans.
3. PayKickstart
PayKickstart is a powerful affiliate marketing and shopping cart software.
It’s a company co-founded by Matt Thompson and Matt Cullen in 2014.
The tool is quite complex for beginners, but it provides comprehensible guides and an introduction to its features.
With PayKickStart, you can expect a fully-fledged shopping cart with robust features such as coupons, bump offers, upsells, and a visual funnel builder.
Just like with ThriveCart, you can create customizable sales funnels that include conversion-boosting elements.
It also supports various payment options, making it easier for buyers to pay, including Apple, Google, Visa, Stripe, and more.
In addition, both platforms offer automated VAT/sales tax calculations.
One thing that sets PayKickstart apart from ThriveCart is its iOS and Android app, which allows you to manage your business from your pocket.
Key features
1 – Powerful Integrations
PayKickstart offers smooth integrations with third-party email and membership tools, including ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Drip, and Zapier.
This makes automating workflows and business processes easier for online business owners.
2 – Extensive Checkout Templates
With over 50 customizable templates, PayKickstart allows you to offer customers a seamless checkout experience.
The themes are easy to use, and the platform provides various styles that can fit your brand and preference.
3 – Pay What You Want Option
This payment option can help more businesses win customers and generate revenues.
It’s beneficial for sellers who rely on donations or supporters.
For example, if you’re creating videos about digital marketing and want to use the “Pay What You Want” option, you can set a minimum price and let your customers choose how much they want to pay.
4 – Affiliate Marketing Management
PayKickstart’s affiliate management, marketing, and analytics tools make building campaigns around digital or physical products easy.
This feature can increase your reach and revenue by leveraging the power of affiliates.
5 – Customer Retention Tools
PayKickstart’s shopping cart tools, like exit-intent pop-ups and abandoned cart emails, can help online business owners convert customers about to leave their checkout page.
You can use an exit-intent pop-up to offer them a discount and encourage them to complete their transaction.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 0% transaction fees
- Free trial on paid plans
- Accepts multiple payment gateways
- Offers live chat support
- Provides mobile app for users
- Accept both online and offline payments
Cons
- UI is not as intuitive as ThriveCart
- A/B testing is not available
- Charges overage fees once you reach your plan’s earning ceiling
Pricing
PayKickstart has three paid plans you can choose from.
- $99/mo – Starter plan
- $199/mo – Growth plan
- $299/mo – Scale plan
You can try one for 14 days and get two months free when you opt for the annual billing.
4. Systeme.io
Systeme.io is a comprehensive marketing software solution that offers a range of features in one easy-to-use interface.
Launched in 2018 by founder Aurelien Amacker, it has quickly gained a reputation for excellence, boasting almost 5-star ratings on all significant trust sites like TrustPilot and G2. It’s one of our top recommended sales funnel builders.
This is quite an achievement for a relatively new platform.
What sets Systeme.io apart from other ThriveCart alternatives is its speed, ease of use, and affordability.
It is an all-in-one platform that can handle everything from building sales funnels, websites selling online courses, marketing automation, and much more.
However, Systeme.io is not suitable for physical product shops or large agencies. It is best for those with digital products or services.
Key features
1 – Course Creation Tool
The course creation tool allows users to add individual lectures to modules using video or text-based templates.
While the tool can’t beat other dedicated course builders, it’s great for building simple courses.
2 – Landing Page Editor and Website Builder
Systeme.io’s drag-and-drop page builder allows users to create pages quickly and easily.
You can add images, videos, forms, and social buttons, among other elements.
For the price, you can’t expect it to be the best in the market. It offers fewer templates and customization options but can still help you create converting checkout pages.
3 – Marketing Features and Automation
With this platform, you can quickly create email sequences and workflows triggered by actions like a customer signing up using an email.
The platform also has built-in opt-in forms and top-notch email deliverability.
Besides powerful marketing automation, Systeme.io provides other ways to connect with your audience, like blogging and community management.
4 – Affiliate Management
Systeme.io’s affiliate program is unique because users can publish their offers on the platform’s marketplace, making it visible to thousands of potential affiliates.
This feature can significantly boost users’ affiliate marketing efforts and increase their revenue.
5 – Powerful Funnel Builder
If you want something that can offer the same power level as Clickfunnels, you won’t be disappointed with Systeme.io.
Systeme.io’s funnel builder is easy to use, organize, and highly responsive.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy-to-use sales funnel builder
- All features available in the free plan
- Smooth integration of native features
- Affordable plans
- No transaction fees
Cons
- Some features don’t run as smoothly as premium platforms
- No mobile app is available
- Native third-party integrations are not allowed
- It does not offer live chat support
Pricing
Systeme.io offers pretty decent pricing plans.
- Startup – $27/month
- Webinar – $47/month
- Unlimited – $97/month
They offer more discounts occasionally, but you can enjoy 30% off when you subscribe to the annual plans.
5. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free e-commerce plugin available through WordPress.
Unlike most ThriveCart alternatives I’ve mentioned here, it’s the only one you can’t use as a standalone.
The company started in 2008 as WooThemes but transitioned to an exclusive e-commerce tool in 2017.
Now, WooCommerce has over 330 team members in over 32 countries, continuing its legacy as an all-remote company.
WooCommerce is an excellent ThriveCart alternative because it is an open-source that is free to start and can be integrated into WordPress, making it a more versatile and customizable platform for medium to large businesses.
features
Full-customization
WooCommerce allows business owners to create a customized online store, whether a simple site selling a few products or an entire e-commerce store with unlimited product listings.
Flexible integration
It offers seamless integration with WordPress, making extending your store’s capabilities easy using a wide range of plugins.
For instance, you can integrate your shopping cart with other tools or platforms for payment processing, shipping, or accounting.
Countless themes
WooCommerce offers many customizable themes that you can choose from to match your online store’s look and feel.
Built-in blogging
To attract more traffic to your site and build relationships with your customers, you must share relevant and helpful content.
WooCommerce has a built-in blogging feature that allows you to incorporate organic marketing tactics into your e-commerce strategy.
Modular system
WooCommerce’s modular system allows you to create a customized e-commerce store using various building blocks that can be configured to adapt to different customer needs.
This feature allows you to create the perfect customer experience for your prospects by adding elements like product reviews and social sharing buttons.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free WordPress plugin
- Fully customizable
- Offers a variety of free and paid themes
- SEO-friendly
- Provides a mobile app for business owners
Cons
- It is not a standalone tool
- Can be overwhelming for beginners
- It doesn’t include custom domain and website hosting
Pricing
WooCommerce itself is free to use, which can make it a more affordable alternative to ThriveCart.
However, your overall expense in using WooCommerce can vary on the plugins and themes you invest in.
Conclusion
So which is the best among the ThriveCart alternatives?
The answer depends on your specific needs and preferences. However, based on the features, pricing, and user feedback, here are my top ThriveCart alternatives.
- SamCart is the closest app that offers features similar to ThriveCart. It has a good reputation and can be used to sell physical and digital products.
- SendOwl is the most affordable and suitable for newbie business owners. It’s the best alternative for digital products and services online and offers unique features that ThriveCart doesn’t.
- WooCommerce is ideal for medium to large-sized businesses. If you’re using WordPress and are looking for a fully customizable checkout page, this is for you.
To learn more about them, check our comprehensive reviews for the ThriveCart alternatives on this list.
Honorable Platform Mentions:
