If you are preparing to sell your online course or membership from a WordPress website, you may be wondering which shopping cart solution is best for you. Both ThriveCart and WooCommerce provide all of the features you need, but ultimately serve different needs.
There are multiple factors to consider when choosing your cart tool. In this post we will break down those factors, evaluate price, look at each of the relevant features, and provide you with all the information you need to choose ThriveCart or WooCommerce.
Is ThriveCart or WooCommerce better for selling online courses with WordPress?
Unless you have a large number of SKUs, ThriveCart is the best shopping cart and sales funnel tool to sell online courses and memberships. WooCommerce allows for browsing products, adding to cart, and continuing a shopping experience. ThriveCart directly sells one product at a time to a user through a sales page.
This table provides a side-by-side, feature-by-feature comparison between ThriveCart and WooCommerce. I'm only including the features relevant to selling online courses and memberships.
Header | ThriveCart | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
Sales Pages | Yes | 3rd-Party Paid Tool Required |
Order Bumps | Yes | 3rd-Party Paid Tool Required |
Upsells / Downsells | Yes | 3rd-Party Paid Tool Required |
Two-Step Checkout | Yes | 3rd-Party Paid Tool Required |
Affiliate Center | Yes | 3rd-Party Paid Tool Required |
Customer Hub | ThriveCart-Hosted Page (TC Branding) | My Account Page |
Coupons | Complex Coupons with behavioral conditions | Basic coupon support or 3rd-Party Upgrade |
Sales Tax Calculation | Yes | Through JetPack (additional tool) |
Subscription Management | Yes | Annual Paid Upgrade |
Email Marketing Integration | Yes | 3rd-Party Tools Required |
Membership Tool Integration | Yes | Yes |
Course Platform Direct Integration | Yes | Yes |
Impact Hosting / Website Speed & Performance | No | Significant Impact on Hosting & Website Performance |
Maintenance / Security | No maintenance or security issues | Mandatory maintenance and vigilance to stay on top of security concerns. |
Price | $690 ONE-TIME | Base Price: Free |
Is ThriveCart or WooCommerce More Expensive?
In order for WooCommerce to have the same features as ThriveCart, you will need to spend $647 each year on first and third-party paid plugins. ThriveCart's one-time price of $690 becomes significantly more affordable when you consider WooCommerce's annual upkeep.
Thrivecart is also a hosted solution and does not impact your hosting requirements. The hidden cost of running WooCommerce that most people do not consider is the need for faster and more robust hosting.
WooCommerce taxes your server's CPU significantly more than a basic WordPress blog.
Failure to provide adequate hosting will result in a massive page speed drop, long load times, sluggish admin area, and inability for customers to complete payment.
Which Plugins are Required for WooCommerce?
I recommend the following plugins in order for WooCommerce to have the features necessary to successfully sell a membership.
Feature | Tool | Price |
|---|---|---|
Order Bumps, Upsells, Two-Step Checkout, Sales Pages | CartFlows | $299 / Year |
Affiliate Marketing | AffiliateWP | $149 / Year |
Subscriptions | WooCommerce Subscriptions | $199 / Year |
Tax Calculations | Jetpack | Free (Hidden cost of impact on server) |
Benefits of Using WooCommerce
Customer Accounts & Data are on WordPress
Since WooCommerce is on your WP site, your customer data is there as well. This makes integrating with other tools on your website very convenient. While ThriveCart can still integrate arguably as easily as WooCommerce can to Memership and Course platform, WP will integrate with far more on-site tools without the need for webhooks and extremely complicated tools.
Third-Party Developers
Although these tools add to the ever-increasing annual cost of using WooCommerce, developers are able to make tools that integrate with and extend the functionality of WooCommerce. CartFlows is a perfect example, and a fantastic tool.
Benefits of Using ThriveCart
Designed Specifically for Funnels
ThriveCart was built specifically to sell one product at a time. It was meant for funnels with upsells, downsells, order bumps, and sales optimization. There isn't a need to manipulate it or add additional tools. It does one thing and it does it extremely well.
Support & Community
ThriveCart has a really good community on Facebook where the developers communicate with customers. They also have a good support ticket system and can assist specifically with exact orders from your customers. Trying to get support from WooCommerce is an exercise in futility, and their support staff are rude.
Hosted SaaS
There's no maintenance or babysitting required for ThriveCart. This services is hosted, managed, and maintained by a the provider meaning once you have your funnels set up, you can forget about them and let them work. Contrast that to WooCommerce and you're going to be monitoring it daily or at least weekly to ensure everything is updated and working.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the three critical components to consider are price, maintenance, and impact on your website. On all three, ThriveCart comes out way ahead.
While both ThriveCart and WooCommerce get the job done well, ThriveCart is the best choice for selling online courses and memberships.
Great article with lots to think about! Considering getting the LTD with Thrive Cart using your affiliate link, but still not sure I need it. I sell a bunch of single products with WC, but am getting ready to launch a membership site. Sounds like I’ll need to use WC’s subscription plan, which is $200/year ANYWAY, so the LTD on ThriveCart might be worth it.
Can I keep all of my products on my site using Woo, and then just use ThriveCart for the shopping cart?
Thank you!
Using the two together is limited to only one basic option, and it’s really not using them together. If all of your products are digital, set them to external products. Then link the buttons to ThriveCart checkouts. I think that’s a weak reason to use WooCommerce, though, and I would personally look to just replace all of those products in WooCommerce with a page built in Thrive or something.
The ThriveCart LTD is an absolute no-brainer if you sell single products and don’t have hundreds of SKUs. Absolutely pays for itself within 2 years or less.
I don’t know if you use Thrive Apprentice, but if you pick up ThriveCart through my affiliate link I have some bonuses that are pretty great for someone starting out with Apprentice.
If I just built the products in Thrive, I think I’d lose some of the functionality of WC, like searches, related products, etc. Right?
But the TC LTD is indeed looking more and more like a no-brainer, especially because I have a membership site brewing. And the bonuses are indeed sweetening the deal!
Thanks for your help.