Thrivecart vs Clickfunnels [2024]: Which Tool is the Best?

Thrivecart vs Clickfunnels

When you’re building an online business, choosing the right tools to manage your sales processes can make all the difference. ThriveCart and Clickfunnels are two popular platforms that help entrepreneurs achieve success, but each tool serves a different purpose. ThriveCart is known for its sleek, high-converting checkout pages, while Clickfunnels is an all-in-one funnel-building platform designed to handle every aspect of your marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll compare the features, pricing, ease of use, and other aspects of ThriveCart vs Clickfunnels to help you determine which platform is best suited to your business.

What is ThriveCart?

ThriveCart is primarily a checkout cart and payment processing platform. It’s designed to help you create high-converting checkout pages that can handle everything from one-time payments to subscriptions. ThriveCart allows you to sell physical and digital products, set up order bumps, upsells, and downsells, and even manage affiliate programs. While its primary focus is on the checkout process, it does include some basic tools for managing sales funnels and integrating with email marketing platforms.

Pros of ThriveCart

• One-Time Payment: One of the most significant advantages of ThriveCart is its one-time payment model. For just $495, you get lifetime access to the platform, which is a massive cost-saving compared to subscription-based services like Clickfunnels.
• High-Converting Checkout Pages: ThriveCart excels in its checkout optimization capabilities. The platform provides tools to create highly customizable, conversion-optimized checkout pages. 
• Affiliate Program Management: ThriveCart provides an affiliate management system built right into the platform. You can recruit, manage, and track affiliates effortlessly, all while offering commission structures and tracking tools. 
• Subscription & Recurring Billing Features: For businesses that offer subscription-based services or products, ThriveCart’s subscription management is top-notch. You can set up flexible billing cycles, create trials, and manage recurring billing in a seamless manner. 
• No Monthly Fees: In addition to the one-time fee, ThriveCart also doesn’t have any monthly costs for the core functionality of the platform. For users who are looking to avoid ongoing charges, this can be a huge advantage.
• Easy Integration with Third-Party Tools: ThriveCart integrates seamlessly with popular tools, such as Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Zapier, Stripe, and PayPal.

Cons of ThriveCart

• Limited Funnel Building: While ThriveCart offers robust checkout page features, it lacks comprehensive funnel-building capabilities.
• Basic Marketing Automation: ThriveCart does not offer advanced marketing automation tools within the platform.
• Limited Customer Support Options: ThriveCart doesn’t offer 24/7 customer support like some other platforms.

What is Clickfunnels?

Clickfunnels, on the other hand, is an all-in-one marketing tool focused on building entire sales funnels. A funnel is a multi-step process designed to lead potential customers through a series of actions that eventually result in a purchase. Clickfunnels provides drag-and-drop tools to build landing pages, create email sequences, set up membership sites, and even manage affiliate marketing programs. It’s a more comprehensive tool for businesses looking to manage every part of their marketing strategy from lead generation to sales conversion.

Pros of Clickfunnels

• Comprehensive Funnel Building Platform: Clickfunnels is known for its funnel-building capabilities. With Clickfunnels, you can build complete sales funnels, starting from lead generation, creating landing pages, nurturing leads via email marketing.
• Drag-and-Drop Page Builder: Clickfunnels offers a drag-and-drop page builder, which makes it easy to create highly professional and customized landing pages without needing any coding knowledge. 
• Email Marketing and Automation: With Clickfunnels, you don’t need a third-party tool for email marketing. The platform includes email automation tools that allow you to nurture leads, send follow-ups, and engage your audiences.
• Affiliate Management with Backpack: Clickfunnels includes Backpack, a robust affiliate management system. This feature allows you to set up affiliate programs, recruit affiliates, track their sales, and pay commissions easily. 
• High-Level Integrations: Like ThriveCart, Clickfunnels integrates with popular tools such as Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, Mailchimp, AWeber, and ConvertKit.

Cons of Clickfunnels

• Expensive Pricing: One of the major drawbacks of Clickfunnels is its pricing. Starting at $147/month, it can be quite costly, especially for small businesses or solopreneurs who might not need all the features.
• Steep Learning Curve: Because Clickfunnels is packed with features, it can be overwhelming for beginners. The platform requires some time to learn, especially for users who are new to sales funnels and marketing automation.
• No One-Time Payment Option: Unlike ThriveCart, Clickfunnels operates on a subscription model with monthly payments. This ongoing cost can be a turn-off for businesses looking for a one-time payment solution.

Pricing Structure: ThriveCart vs Clickfunnels

ThriveCart Pricing Structure

ThriveCart offers a straightforward and cost-effective pricing model, charging a one-time payment of $495 for lifetime access to the platform. This is a significant advantage for businesses looking for a long-term solution without worrying about recurring fees. There are no hidden charges or monthly costs, making it an attractive option for entrepreneurs and small businesses who prefer to make a one-time investment rather than dealing with ongoing payments.

Clickfunnels Pricing Structure

Clickfunnels operates on a subscription-based model. Its basic plan starts at $147/month, which includes the core funnel-building tools, including the drag-and-drop page builder, email automation, and integrations with other tools. Clickfunnels also offers a $197/month plan (Platinum), which adds more features such as advanced funnel-building capabilities, priority support, and access to Actionetics (for email automation) and Backpack (for affiliate management). For businesses that want the most advanced features, including unlimited funnels, pages, and more comprehensive tools, there’s a $297/month plan.

Key Features: ThriveCart vs Clickfunnels

Primary Function

ThriveCart Primary Function

ThriveCart is primarily a shopping cart and checkout system. It allows you to create customized checkout pages for selling products, managing subscriptions, offering upsells, and handling payment processing. It’s designed to optimize sales transactions and cart conversions, focusing heavily on payment integrations and offering a seamless checkout process.

ClickFunnels Primary Function

ClickFunnels is an all-in-one sales funnel builder that allows you to create full marketing funnels from landing pages to checkout pages. It’s designed for building entire sales systems, including lead generation, upsells, email sequences, and membership sites. It’s more focused on marketing automation, funnel creation, and sales journey mapping.

Ease of Use

ThriveCart Ease of Use

ThriveCart is relatively easy to use for those who are focused on optimizing their checkout process and sales pages. It doesn’t require technical skills to set up a product, integrate payment gateways, or create basic checkout pages. However, its focus is not on full funnel building, so if you’re looking for a complete funnel builder, it may fall short.

ClickFunnels Ease of Use

ClickFunnels is very user-friendly with its drag-and-drop builder. It’s easy for non-tech-savvy users to create entire sales funnels, landing pages, opt-in pages, and more. While it’s not as simple as ThriveCart in terms of setting up just a checkout, it offers much greater customization for building detailed funnels from start to finish.

Funnel Creation

ThriveCart Funnel Creation

ThriveCart’s funnel-building features are limited compared to ClickFunnels. While you can add upsells and cross-sells to your checkout process, ThriveCart doesn’t provide an extensive funnel-building framework. It’s primarily a checkout system with some funnel-like elements.

Via ThriveCart

ClickFunnel Funnel Creation

ClickFunnels excels in funnel creation, allowing you to create multi-step sales funnels that include opt-in pages, sales pages, order forms, upsells, down-sells, and thank you pages. It provides a variety of pre-built funnel templates that help users quickly get started with high-converting funnels.These templates are designed based on proven marketing principles, enabling even novice users to create effective funnels quickly.

Templates

ThriveCart Templates

ThriveCart offers a set of customizable templates for checkout pages. These templates are designed to convert well, but they are limited to the cart and checkout process, rather than the full sales funnel. 

For Instance, Notion Foundation’s ThriveCart checkout page is all about helping you create a digital workspace using the popular digital workspace app Notion.

Appealing to the typical Notion fan, the site’s design is clean and modern, with a clear focus on the content. The layout is easy to navigate, making it a breeze to find the resources you need to up your Notion game.

ClickFunnels Templates

ClickFunnels offers a wide range of templates not only for checkout pages but for entire funnels—from lead generation and sales pages to webinars and membership sites. The platform provides hundreds of pre-built templates that cover various industries and funnel types.As users leverage these templates, they can save time and focus on strategic aspects of their marketing plans, ultimately driving greater success in their online business endeavors.

Via Clickfunnels

Integrations

ThriveCart Integrations

ThriveCart integrates with popular email marketing tools (like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit), payment processors (Stripe, PayPal), and other essential business tools (like Zapier, and membership plugins). It also supports integrations for webinars, affiliate management, and marketing automation tools, but is more limited compared to ClickFunnels.

Via Thrivecart

ClickFunnels Integrations

ClickFunnels offers extensive integrations with various tools and services. It connects to email marketing platforms (like Actionetics, ActiveCampaign, and Mailchimp), payment processors (PayPal, Stripe), and other tools like webinar platforms, CRMs, and membership software. ClickFunnels also integrates deeply with its own built-in tools like Actionetics and Backpack for email automation and affiliate management.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both ThriveCart and Clickfunnels come with distinct advantages and drawbacks. If your primary goal is to create high-converting checkout pages and you’re looking for a cost-effective solution with a one-time payment, ThriveCart is the better choice. It’s perfect for businesses focusing on sales and conversion at the checkout stage, especially for those who already have a functioning funnel and need an optimized cart system.

However, if you need a full-fledged marketing system that includes everything from landing pages to email marketing, funnel building, and affiliate management, Clickfunnels might be the right tool. It provides a complete suite for automating and managing your entire sales process, but the high monthly costs and learning curve are important considerations.

Ultimately, the choice depends on your business needs and your budget. If you need a simple and affordable solution, ThriveCart will serve you well, but if you want to create a more sophisticated marketing strategy, Clickfunnels is the more robust tool.