ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels (2024): Key Differences to Determine Which Is Best for Your Business

With the growth of e-commerce in recent years, more and more businesses are turning to online platforms to reach new customers and generate sales.

In fact, according to Shopify, online purchases are expected to increase from 17.8% to 23% in 2025.

But with so many platform options, picking the right one is getting more challenging.

In this article, we’ll put two of the most popular software head-to-head – ThriveCart and ClickFunnels.

We’ll compare their top features, integrations, value for money, and more.

What Is Thrivecart?

ThriveCart has been a popular shopping cart platform for businesses looking to sell digital products and services online since 2016.

So far, it has helped online companies make over $2.6 billion in sales, which is pretty impressive!

One of the reasons people like ThriveCart so much is that it’s excellent for beginners. It has many cool features that make selling a breeze, like easy-to-use checkout pages, different offers to boost sales, and tools for managing subscriptions and partnerships.

But in 2021, ThriveCart went one step further and launched its own online course platform called ThriveCart Learn.

Now, not only can you use ThriveCart to help with sales and transactions, but you can also host your own online courses right inside the platform.

Who Is It For?

ThriveCart is suitable for various types of businesses and entrepreneurs, including:

• Those who operate a physical or digital store and wish to expand their online sales
• Content creators that sell information products like ebooks, courses, or software
• Coaches, trainers, and consultants
• Businesses that have recurring subscriptions or offer memberships
• Marketing agencies who want to make high-converting checkout platforms for their clients

What Is ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels is a comprehensive sales funnel builder that helps you gain visitors and generate leads and customers.

It was launched in 2014 by a small team led by Russell Brunson but has later grown into a $120M business in a span of five years.

ClickFunnels has been a go-to for most marketers and agencies I’ve seen online and in communities. Mainly because it offers an excellent and complete solution.

Moreover, ClickFunnels has recently introduced ClickFunnels 2.0.

The update is not just a simple upgrade of user experience but introduces new features that will help you streamline your business faster than ever.

Who Is It For?

While ClickFunnels can cater to the same market as ThriveCart, it is more suitable for medium to large businesses that want everything in one place.

That includes customer management, web hosting, blogging, and email marketing.

ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels – Differences Overview

Here are some key differences between the two platforms.

• Focus – ClickFunnels primarily focuses on creating and managing sales funnels, while ThriveCart pivots on e-commerce and shopping cart functionality.
• Payment Processing – ThriveCart offers more payment gateway integrations than ClickFunnels, including PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and many others. The latter supports PayPal and Stripe but requires additional setup to connect other payment gateways.
• Pricing – ClickFunnels is generally more expensive than ThriveCart. ClickFunnels 2.0 plans start at $147 per month, while ThriveCart offers a one-time payment option of $495 for lifetime access.
• Email Marketing Automation – ClickFunnels offers more robust email marketing automation features, including email sequences and action-based automation. Meanwhile, you need to depend on a third-party app to do this in ThriveCart.

ThriveCart and ClickFunnels – Similarities Overview

While ThriveCart and ClickFunnels are quite different from each other, they also have several similarities:

• Sales Funnel and Landing Page Creation – Both platforms offer an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface for creating custom sales funnels, allowing businesses to develop landing pages that match their brand and product offerings.
• Digital Offers – These platforms let you easily create and sell online courses, memberships, and other digital products with their built-in LMS (ThriveCart Learn and ClickFunnels Courses).
• Integration with Third-Party Tools – They offer integrations with third-party tools, such as payment gateways, email marketing services, and webinar platforms.
• Upsell and Downsell Feature – Both platforms allow you to create upsell and downsell pages, which can help increase revenue by offering customers additional products or services after purchase.
• Affiliate Management – They let you set up and manage your own affiliate program to incentivize others to promote your products.
• A/B Split Testing – ThriveCart and ClickFunnels allow you to test different variations of your sales funnels. So you can utilize the better one for higher conversion rates.

ThriveCart Features

Let’s take a closer look at the core features of ThriveCart.

Customizable Checkout Pages

ThriveCart allows users to customize their checkout pages to match their brand and offer a seamless checkout experience for customers.

Although it’s not a complete customization, it is still a great chance to build a professional and unified page. Doing so can increase the trust and confidence of buyers in your products and business.

For example, if you’re selling jewelry, you can create a checkout page with your brand colors and add elements like product images, product details, and testimonials.

Profit Boosters

ThriveCart offers a range of sales features, including one-click upsell and downsell, bump offers, free trials, subscriptions, discounts, and more.

With these offers, you can attract more buyers, increase revenue per customer, and boost your earnings.

Let’s say you plan to sell a membership subscription. With ThriveCart, you can provide a 50% discount or a free trial for your existing online course students. This can encourage them to sign up and pay a recurring fee.

Built-in Sales Tax

ThriveCart has a built-in sales tax feature that automatically calculates sales tax rates based on location and product price. It supports big countries like USA, Canada, Australia, and the EU.

This feature will simplify the sales tax process on your part and save you from manual computations.

Various Shopping Cart Modes

ThriveCart offers different shopping cart modes: standard, sales cart, embeddable, and pop-up.

You can choose one that fits your needs and preference.

For example, you already have a website or landing page. Instead of creating a new sales page, you can embed or create a popup checkout cart.

Affiliate Management System

One of the best ways to cut down on huge marketing costs is to start an affiliate program.

ThriveCart’s affiliate management system offers you the benefit of quickly setting up commissions for your products and services in just a few clicks.

Additionally, you can manually add your affiliates or provide them with a URL where they can register.

Subscription Management

ThriveCart’s subscription management feature provides a centralized platform to monitor and manage all your members’ subscriptions.

It lets you easily search for customers and filter them by status, specific product bought, and time period.

With this feature, you can better understand your subscription revenue and take action to retain customers and reduce churn.

Automation

Automation tools are a must-have if you want to have a better sales and marketing system in place.

ThriveCart offers automation features that help you save time, like setting rules to follow up with visitors who abandon their cart, modifying affiliate commissions based on the number of sales made, and much more.

For instance, you can create an automated email containing discount codes to encourage people to complete their purchases.

Related:

• Learn More About ThriveCart’s Features in Our Full Review.

ClickFunnels Features

Website and Page Builders

With ClickFunnel’s intuitive builders, you can create beautiful websites and high-converting landing pages quickly and easily.

ClickFunnels also provides dozens of pre-built page templates if you don’t want to start from scratch. And you can personalize them using the drag-and-drop editor.

Additionally, the platform’s version 2.0 provides insanely fast page loading speeds, which is a crucial factor for optimized pages.

Comprehensive Sales Funnel

The comprehensive sales funnel feature in ClickFunnels 2.0 is designed to help you attract visitors from all over the internet, including your website and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Once your prospects past the first stage, ClickFunnels makes it easy to turn them into leads and, ultimately, paying customers.

Email Marketing and Automation

ClickFunnels 2.0 also includes email marketing features that allow users to send valuable emails to their subscribers.

This platform has what it calls follow-up funnels. The purpose of follow-up funnels is to automate communicating with your email subscribers and leads over time.

You can create automatic email sequences and schedule them to be sent to your contacts at specific intervals. For instance, after they opt-in to your email list or make a purchase.

With in-house SMTP and premium deliverability, you can be confident that your emails will land in your subscribers’ inboxes.

In addition, the user-friendly editor makes it easy for users to create professional-looking emails.

Customizable Customer Center

This management feature enables you to create a personalized dashboard for your customers where they can access their purchased products and courses and get updates.

The customer center reduces the risk of frustration and confusion on your client’s part.

Additionally, you can use this feature to promote new or upcoming products to your existing customers, increasing sales and driving repeat business.

Workflows

Workflows are a powerful automation feature that allows users to streamline several marketing processes.

This feature is beneficial because it lets you collect sales, leads, and conversions on autopilot, freeing up time to focus on other essential aspects of your business.

With workflows, you can deliver targeted marketing messages to the right customer at the right time. This, in turn, prevents micromanagement and increases your marketing campaigns’ effectiveness.

CRM

ClickFunnels also includes a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that allows users to manage their contacts in one place.

You can collect valuable information on each contact; store notes to track essential conversations, and follow a client’s progress over time.

Having all customer data in one place can help you make informed decisions about marketing strategies and customer engagement.

Related:

• Read Our Full ClickFunnels Review for More Feature Details.

ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels – Ease of Use

When it comes to ease of use, both ThriveCart and ClickFunnels have their own strengths.

ThriveCart is known for being incredibly user-friendly and intuitive. Its drag-and-drop editor is easy to navigate, and the platform’s overall design is clean and organized.

ThriveCart also provides a range of tutorials and support materials to help users get started and troubleshoot any issues they may encounter.

On the other hand, ClickFunnels also offers a beginner-friendly interface, but it may have a slight learning curve for some users.

That’s because it has many features and capabilities, which can make it overwhelming for new users to navigate.

But like ThriveCart, ClickFunnels offers a comprehensive knowledge base.

Once familiar with the platform, you can quickly build sales funnels, market your products, and sell them easily.

ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels – Integration

Both ThriveCart and ClickFunnels offer a great list of integrations, making it easy for users to connect with third-party software.

You can connect both with a series of webinar platforms, email autoresponders, and payment processors.

Both platforms also support Zapier, a tool that allows users to automate workflows between different apps.

However, it is worth noting that ThriveCart offers slightly more integration options, particularly regarding membership sites like Teachable, LifterLMS, and MemberPress.

ThriveCart also offers direct integration with Slack and Google Sheets, only available on ClickFunnels via Zapier.

Overall, ThriveCart and ClickFunnels offer various integrations, including compatibility with Zapier.

However, ThriveCart may be a better choice for users who need to integrate with specific membership sites or have other unique integration needs.

ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels – Customer Support

Good customer support is crucial for any online business, as it ensures that users can get the help they need when encountering issues or having questions.

Speed is also essential to customer support, as users want to resolve their problems quickly.

ClickFunnels has a strong reputation for providing excellent customer support. They offer 24/5 live chat priority support from Monday through Friday, which helps to reduce the “handle time” for resolving customer requests.

You can see this option inside your ClickFunnels account.

Their average handle time for a ticket is around 20 minutes, which is quite impressive.

Additionally, ClickFunnels has a new community support feature that looks like a forum where users can comment on a post or topic posted by a community manager.

This community support feature encourages users to help each other and share their experiences, creating a sense of community around the platform.

In comparison, ThriveCart doesn’t have the best support out there.

While their knowledge base is quite comprehensive, submitting a ticket is the only way to contact customer support for questions.

ThriveCart vs ClickFunnels – Pricing

Regarding pricing, ThriveCart, and ClickFunnels offer different payment offers that suit different needs and budgets.

ThriveCart Pricing

ThriveCart offers a simple pricing model with only two options: a lifetime access plan and an upsell for their Pro plan.

With the lifetime access plan, you can get all the basic features of ThriveCart and Learn, including customizable checkout, embeddable cart, online course and membership, and sales funnel building.

All this is for a one-time fee of $495.

You can upgrade to the Pro plan for advanced tools like the sales tax calculator, affiliate management center, dunning ability, and custom domain feature for an additional $195.

Moreover, you’ll also get to use ThriveCart Learn+ advanced features like selling bundle offers and adding team members to manage your course and students.

Unlike most platforms, Thrivecart doesn’t offer a free trial. But you’re entitled to a 30-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied with your purchase.

ClickFunnels Pricing

On the other hand, ClickFunnels offers more pricing options for both their Classic and 2.0 versions.

However, their pricing can be pretty complicated, as the pricing options for the Classic version are hidden until users sign up for their 14-day free trial.

ClickFunnels Classic and 2.0 prices range from $97/month to $297/month, depending on users’ chosen plan and features.

While ClickFunnels has a lower upfront cost, it does not offer a one-time fee option, which can be more expensive in the long run.

However, you can enjoy up to a $3,468 yearly discount if they opt for annual billing.

Reviews and Rating

ClickFunnels has more reviews than ThriveCart, but both platforms have high ratings overall.

ThriveCart has received good feedback on Capterra and G2, with users praising its user-friendliness.

On Capterra, ThriveCart has a 4.8/5 score, while on G2, it has an average of 4.6 stars.

ClickFunnels also got impressive comments on both platforms, with users complimenting its sales funnel builder and advanced marketing features.

On Capterra, ClickFunnels has a 4.6/5 star rating and has been included in the “Noteworthy Products For 2023.”

On G2, ClickFunnels has an impressive 4.7 rating based on 378 reviews.

FAQs

Can I integrate ThriveCart with ClickFunnels?

Yes, you can connect these two platforms. However, you must use Zapier since the two platforms have no direct integration.

What are the benefits of using ThriveCart?

ThriveCart offers many features for creating checkout pages, managing affiliates, and optimizing conversions. It also includes customizable templates and integrations with popular payment processors and email marketing tools.

What are the benefits of using ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels is designed specifically for creating sales funnels and landing pages. It’s a comprehensive platform that provides all the features you need for lead generation, promotion, and sales.

Conclusion – Which Software Should You Choose?

That’s all for this comprehensive comparison between the best e-commerce platforms.

ThriveCart and ClickFunnels are great software options for businesses looking to generate sales and increase conversions.

You can’t go wrong with any of the tools, as they are intuitive, user-friendly, and powerful.

ThriveCart is an excellent choice if your main focus is building checkout pages, monitoring subscriptions, and accepting different payment processors.

It’s also the best choice if you prefer a simple pricing model with a one-time fee for lifetime access.

Meanwhile, you can go for ClickFunnels if you want an all-in-one solution. I’m talking about lead generation to sales.

Its more comprehensive marketing features offer tools like website builder, blogging, email marketing, and customer management.

If you haven’t invested in other tools yet and have the money to pay for the annual or monthly fee of ClickFunnels, it’s a good option.

So, which one are you going for?