ThriveCart vs WooCommerce in 2026: Which Is Right for You?

ThriveCart vs WooCommerce: when it comes to two of the most popular ecommerce platforms on the market today, each promises to supercharge your sales and make payments easier than ever. But the two are not exactly the same – so which one is right for you?

In this post, we deep-dive into comparing and contrasting ThriveCart and WooCommerce to help you make an informed decision. We’ll cover everything from features and pricing to feature comparisons, so you can choose the platform that best suits the way you want your business to run.

Whether you’re a seasoned affiliate marketer, a newbie dropshipper, or wondering whether you should switch platforms, read on to find out the differences between the two.

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What is ThriveCart?

ThriveCart is an all-in-one shopping cart platform designed to simplify the process of selling products and services online. Founded in 2016 by Josh Bartlett, ThriveCart has rapidly gained popularity for its user-friendly interface and powerful features.

ThriveCart is known for its ability to create high-converting checkout pages, manage subscriptions, and offer various payment options, making it an excellent choice for entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses looking to streamline their online sales processes.

Features of ThriveCart

• High-converting checkout pages: ThriveCart provides users with customizable checkout page templates that are optimized for high conversion rates. You can easily tweak these templates to match your brand’s look and feel.
• Payment options: ThriveCart supports a wide range of payment processors and types, including debit/credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, and Apple Pay. This flexibility allows you to cater to a global audience.
• Subscription management: If your business relies on subscription-based revenue, ThriveCart has you covered. It offers robust subscription management features, including the ability to create subscription plans and manage customer billing.
• Affiliate management: ThriveCart includes built-in affiliate management features, making it easier to collaborate with affiliates and track their performance.
• Third-party integrations: ThriveCart offers over 50 native integrations. For anything not included out the box, it does provide a Zapier integration, allowing you to connect with a wide range of third-party apps and tools.
• SEO-friendly: With SEO-friendly features, ThriveCart can help improve your online store’s visibility in search engine results.

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Is ThriveCart self-hosted?

No, but it gives you the option. ThriveCart is a hosted platform, which means that you don’t need to worry about hosting or maintaining your own website (but you can use a custom domain if you wish). It also includes a number of features that are designed to help you increase sales, such as high-converting checkout pages, subscription management, and affiliate management.

ThriveCart pricing model (2026)

Highlights:

• ThriveCart is a hosted ecommerce platform with lifetime memberships through one-time payment plans.
• The Standard option doesn’t have a built-in recurring subscription fee.
• Transaction fees are only from Stripe/PayPal.

ThriveCart lets you pay for lifetime access and avoid recurring costs, which can appeal to creators and membership site owners who want to stick to a budget. 

ThriveCart in a nutshell

• User-friendly: ThriveCart is known for its intuitive, no-code interface, making it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise.
• High conversions: The platform’s focus on optimizing checkout pages can lead to higher conversion rates, increasing your revenue.
• Affiliate management: Built-in affiliate management simplifies the process of collaborating with partners to boost sales.
• Subscription support: ThriveCart’s robust subscription management features are a boon for businesses relying on recurring revenue.
  
  

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Now that we’ve covered the basics of ThriveCart, let’s shift our focus to WooCommerce.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a popular open-source ecommerce plugin designed for WordPress websites. Launched in 2011, it has become one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms globally, known for its flexibility and scalability.

WooCommerce empowers businesses of all sizes to create and manage online stores within their WordPress websites. It offers a vast ecosystem of plugins and themes, making it a versatile choice for entrepreneurs and established businesses alike.

Features of WooCommerce

• Customizability: WooCommerce allows you to customize your online store extensively. With thousands of themes and plugins available, you can create a unique shopping experience for your customers.
• Scalability: Whether you’re a small startup or an enterprise-level business, WooCommerce can scale to accommodate your needs as you grow.
• Content integration: Since WooCommerce integrates seamlessly with WordPress, you can combine your ecommerce site with a robust content management system for blogging and content marketing.
• Payment options: WooCommerce supports a wide variety of payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and major debit/credit card providers.

Is WooCommerce self-hosted?

Yes. WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, which means that you’ll need to purchase and maintain your own web hosting and custom domain (it doesn’t give you a free subdomain). However, it can be more complex to set up and use than ThriveCart.

WooCommerce hosting + plugin costs (2026)

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin, but since it’s a self-hosted WordPress platform, you may need to pay some costs for hosting and other extras.

The WooCommerce core plugin is free. But since it’s an ecommerce platform on WordPress, you need to pay for hosting, maintenance, and extra plugins. Features like subscriptions, memberships, and advanced checkout need additional plugins or third-party developers, driving up the costs.

These ongoing costs in WooCommerce can add up over a year or more.

WooCommerce in a nutshell

• Flexibility: WooCommerce’s customizability allows you to tailor your online store to your specific requirements.
• Large community: Being a part of the WordPress ecosystem means WooCommerce benefits from a massive user and developer community, providing you with ample resources and support.
• Cost-effective: WooCommerce itself is free, and you only pay for the extensions and themes you need, making it a potentially cost-effective solution for many businesses.
• Content integration: Combining your online store with a content-rich website can help you attract and engage customers more effectively.
  
  

However…

• Technical expertise: While WooCommerce is user-friendly, it still requires a certain level of technical knowledge, especially when dealing with extensive customization.
• Maintenance: As an open-source platform, you’re responsible for updates, security, and maintenance, which can be time-consuming.

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Now that we have a solid understanding of both ThriveCart and WooCommerce, let’s break down the comparison further.

Feature comparison

If you’re going to sell digital and physical products on both platforms, here’s a short table comparing their features:

What’s new in 2026?

Let’s see what these two platforms have for 2026 and beyond:

ThriveCart updates

• Continuing to focus on high-converting checkouts, order bumps, funnels, built-in affiliate tools, and one-click upsells.
• LMS add-on options through Learn+ make ThriveCart a better choice for selling online courses within the same checkout system.
• Added integrations with Zapier and marketing stacks.

WooCommerce trends

• Increasing dependence on premium plugins for memberships and subscriptions, such as WooCommerce Subscriptions
• Strong WordPress community support.

Can I use both ThriveCart and WooCommerce?

You technically can but it’s unlikely, because ThriveCart and WooCommerce are two very different types of checkout systems.

WooCommerce has been built and is designed for more traditional ecommerce “add-to-cart” shops, where customers may browse and purchase several products at once. These are traditionally not very effective at converting visitors into customers, with an industry average conversion rate of around 1-3%: think quantity over quantity. If you want your store to look more like Amazon, Wish, or Shein, this is the kind of checkout platform you need.

ThriveCart, on the other hand, is a conversion-focused, funnel-based checkout system. This is where you have targeted traffic sent to specific offers for specific products and then have the opportunity to maximize revenue through the use of a bump sale and upsells. Targeted and focused selling offers a much higher conversion rate. ThriveCart is not an ‘add-to-cart’ type of system – it performs best with larger digital products such as courses and infoproducts. If you have one product you want to sell at volume, ThriveCart is the platform for you.

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Example scenarios

Scenario 1: Online course creator
If you want to sell digital products, like online courses with order bumps and upsells, minus the recurring software fees, ThriveCart’s one-time payment works well for you.

Scenario 2: Boutique ecommerce store
Let’s say you want to open an ecommerce boutique store and sell your physical and digital products. You should consider a platform that offers inventory management and SEO content marketing capabilities.

This is where WooCommerce comes in. Its plugin ecosystem, custom checkout, and extensions can conveniently promote all the items in your boutique.

Scenario 3: Membership site owner
Imagine you own a membership website. You have a lot to manage, including logins, content, and billing.

In these scenarios, you can use either WooCommerce or ThriveCart. The former has membership plugins and actual member login and content access, while the latter has an LMS and integrations with your current tools, helping you manage member logins smoothly.

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Which products should I sell?

If you’re just starting out in an online business and haven’t made a decision as to what to sell yet, we strongly recommend beginning with digital products.

Digital products are easier to create and simpler to deliver to customers than physical products. You don’t have to worry about storing inventory, shipping costs, or damaged items. Digital products can be big, complex, and expensive, or tiny impulse buys at lower price points.

ThriveCart is the best solution for digital products, especially larger ones like courses, ebooks (with bonuses), and infoproducts and guides.

ThriveCart vs WooCommerce: the verdict

Choosing between ThriveCart vs WooCommerce ultimately depends on your specific needs and goals. It all boils down to the type of products you want to sell and the way you want to sell them.

Have lots of smaller, low-cost physical products? WooCommerce is the way to go, although it comes with additional costs, such as hosting, a custom domain, and any third-party plugins you may need.

Have a large collection of digital products you’re really proud of? ThriveCart will help you make the most of it. With a lifetime pricing model, you won’t need to worry about monthly payments, and everything you need is included.

Here are some further key takeaways to help you make an informed decision:

• Choose ThriveCart if:
  • You prioritize ease of use and a user-friendly interface.
  • You rely heavily on subscription-based revenue.
  • You want built-in affiliate management features.
  • You want extensive customization options for your checkout cart.
  • You want to integrate your checkout cart into any website, including WordPress.
  • You’re looking for a streamlined solution with a focus on optimizing checkout pages.
• Choose WooCommerce if:
  • You’re already using WordPress and want ecommerce to live inside your existing site.
  • You plan to sell physical products or manage inventory and shipping.
  • You’re comfortable using plugins to add features like subscriptions or memberships.
  • You don’t mind handling hosting, updates, and ongoing site maintenance.
  • You prefer flexibility and control, even if setup and optimization take more effort.

Both ThriveCart and WooCommerce are excellent platforms: you just need to choose the right one for you.

Consider your business model, technical skills, willingness to learn, and long-term goals when deciding between ThriveCart and WooCommerce. There should be a clear winner.