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When comparing Paykickstart vs ThriveCart, which of these shopping carts are best? I will tell you that I am a user of PayKickstart (PKS), so my bias is based on the fact that I’ve been using it for a year or so now, and it is the best shopping cart platform I’ve used in my 17 years online.
But let’s take a close look at them both to see whether I’m right or not. I’ve learned first hand how important your shopping cart and affiliate platform is in the success of your online business, whether it be ecommerce, service based, or digital (SaaS etc).
Why Do You Need a PayKickstart vs ThriveCart Comparison?
Your shopping cart is not just a necessary service to sell products. It should absolutely be a complete all-inclusive marketing tool that you can add to your existing marketing platform. That’s why we’re doing this PayKickstart and ThriveCart comparison.
I’ve used other shopping carts and the sad thing is that most of them are NOT all-around marketing tools, they’re simply another piece of the puzzle. That’s what makes PayKickstart really stand out!
PKS features integration’s that you can leverage to get more out of your existing marketing tools. You will be able to create custom shopping carts, manage subscriptions, integrate membership services, manage affiliate systems, and integrate more payment gateways into your website with a single tool.
Now that you know why you need one, it’s time to choose which one would work the best. Due to the impact this kind of platform can have on your business, it is best to choose wisely. In this PKS vs Thrivecart comparison, we’ll be pitting two of the leading shopping cart tools against one another to help you figure out which one you should be using.
1. Customization
Believe it or not, one of the big things that can dictate your conversion rate would be customization. You want to find a shopping cart that will provide you with enough flexibility to be able to get maximum conversions.
PayKickstart Customization
PayKickstart offers a lot of high-converting and proven checkout templates that you will be able to leverage when you are crafting your shopping cart. You can customize every important aspect of them, including adding testimonials, descriptions, product images, and more. You can also add one-step and multi-step checkout options and up-sales, which can increase your profits with the click of a button!
With PKS you can also add exit intent popups, which save lost sales. You can even setup an autoresponder series now (new feature) to send to those who leave the checkout page without buying. This can enable you to further increase your conversion potential by promoting discounts and offers to those people who otherwise would have never spend a penny.
ThriveCart Customization
ThriveCart on the other hand is only going to give you a limited selection of templates to choose from. While each template they offer is supposed to be optimized to convert, the limited options to choose from limits your flexibility and profit potential.
Customer Relationship Management Software: Indirect through Zapier
Membership: Wishlist Member, Teachable, OptimizeMember, MemberMouse, Digital Access Pass, MemberPress
Webinar: Demio, WebinarNinja
As you can see, they both offer a good number of integrations. Because both platforms support Zapier, you are going to gain a lot of indirect integrations that you wouldn’t be able to use for endless possibilities.
However, as far as direct support is concerned, there is no contest. Paykickstart is the clear winner with both direct and indirect integrations on virtually all fronts. Having direct integration is key for those who don’t want to have to deal with the hassle and the issues that could come from using custom solutions.
PayPal, Authorize.net, Braintree, EasyPayDirect, Stripe, Apple Pay (Coming Soon), Google Pay (Coming Soon)
ThriveCart Payment Options
PayPal, Authorize.net, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay
As you can see, when it comes to payment options in our PayKickstart vs Thrivecart compariosn, they are both competitive. Both offer some of the essentials that you would expect from any platform. As of right now, ThriveCart offers mobile payment solutions including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
However, this isn’t going to be the case for long as Paykickstart has both of those options in the works. Because of the significant uptick in mobile purchases, having seamless mobile payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay has become essential. After all, ecommerce volume is expected to bring in as much as 44% of total commerce by 2024 [1].
Therefore, you want to have something that is going to effectively boost conversion potential among the growing segment of the buying market.
Because PayKickstart covers more bases in payment options and because they will be integrating mobile solutions in the near future, the payment portion can be considered a tie. After all, Paykickstart offers custom payment integration and 11 more currencies than ThriveCart.
Winner: Tie
4. Affiliate Features
Each E-commerce tool offers built-in affiliate features that should be deemed a must for any all-inclusive shopping cart. Both offer fairly comprehensive affiliate management platforms that could prove to be a benefit to any E-commerce site. They each have everything you would expect in an affiliate management platform including delayed commissions, second-tier affiliate program, manual and auto-approval, and campaign and sub-ID tracking.
However, Paykickstart has clear advantages. For one, it offers the opportunity to get instant commissions. It also offers the ability to manage affiliate contests.
Support is huge when you’re talking about something as fundamental to your business as your shopping cart! If you have a problem, it can impact virtually every aspect of your business. Therefore, you want to be certain that you are going to get your support requests handled quickly and professionally.
Paykickstart Support:
With Paykickstart, I have had nothing but a positive support experience. All of my questions have been answered quickly. You have an entire support center that you can look through.
Knowledge Center
You will be able to find a lot of the things that you are looking for in the Knowledge Center which you can search for keywords and terms that you might want more information about. From here, you should be able to find a lot of the answers to the common questions that you may have. The Knowledge Center currently has 221 articles that you can sort through on 31 different categories. Therefore, you should be able to find the information you are looking for without having to delve even further.
Help Desk
You will also be able to directly message customer support through the Submit Ticket area. This is going to give you the ability to directly contact support and ask a specific question or raise a concern that you have. They promise to deliver a response to your ticket within 24 hours of submitting the request.
Facebook Group
You are also going to be able to leverage PayKickstart’s very own Facebook Group where you will be able to ask questions that you have to the active and highly engaged community. Within the Facebook Group, you should be able to get quick answers to questions you have and you can even find tips that you can implement with your website.
ThriveCart Support:
Support Articles
With ThriveCart, you should be able to search through the various articles they have presented to find the answer to a question you may have. You can find a lot of different answers to common questions with their 180+ articles covering 26 different categories.
Help Desk
You can also submit a ticket to their support staff. This will allow you to get a response within 24 hours with an average response time reaching you much quicker. Therefore, if you are unable to find the answer you are looking for in their FAQ section or their existing article base, you can get an answer from the support team.
ThriveCart Academy Facebook Group
You will be able to join the ThriveCart Facebook group that has over 9,000 members. This is a highly active and engaging community that you will be able to ask questions to and talk about relevant topics with.
Winner: Tie
6. Cost
Paykickstart starts at $79 per month. You will be able to fit Paykickstart into your budget at a set price. This for an E-commerce business is a very good thing. After all, as you continue to scale your business, you will be able to reap the rewards.
You won’t have an E-commerce solution that is going to continue to scale their costs with your business success exponentially to increase your costs. Instead, you will have something that you can continue to build with to boost your profitability.
ThriveCart is notgoing to do the same thing. Instead, they charge up to 8.5 percent of each and every sale. While this may be good for someone who is starting out who doesn’t want to pay the monthly cost, this is not going to fly for those who are looking to build a long-term and sustainable business.
After all, you will have to end up paying 8.5 percent for each sale over the long haul as you continue to scale your business and drive in more and more sales. This is not a good thing considering these tools are expected to boost sales within your business.
When you are paying a fixed cost, you will be able to have a point where you pass break even. Therefore, as you scale your business to earn more sales, you will eventually outproduce the cost that you are paying for the marketing tool. With ThriveCart, you will never reach that point because you will be stuck paying 8.5 percent every time you make a sale.
Even if ThriveCart eventually changes its pricing plan, you are getting more value with Paykickstart. Paykickstart simply offers more features and better integration making it a much more valuable platform to leverage for your business. Given you are getting greater value at a fixed price point, the cost advantage that Paykickstart offers is very significant.
As you can see, there is a lot to consider when you are shopping around for the best online shopping cart. But when we did a PayKickstart vs ThriveCart comparison, PayKickstart was the clear winner!
Both of these are good shopping carts, but PayKickstart’s emphasis on marketing, and its flexibility, make it by far the best choice. Having an all-in-one shopping cart and affiliate management system for your E-commerce site can really help to minimize a lot of the tedious work that goes into running an online business and it can help you scale your business, drive up conversions, and bring in new sales on a daily basis.
Having the tools this type of solution offers can be a major boon to your business. However, when comparing PayKickstart versus ThriveCart, there is simply no comparison. While ThriveCart does offer a good product for some businesses, it pales in comparison to what PayKickstart offers.
PayKickstart is the best solution for most serious ecommerce, service-based, or digital business. After all, it offers more direct integrations, a monthly base price, more currency support, a better and more feature-rich affiliate center, and excellent support.
You should choose PayKickstart if:
The most complete shopping cart solution on the marketplace is important to you
You don’t want to pay 8.5 percent of all the sales you make
Better direct integration’s that allow you to leverage more of your E-commerce tools is important
