ThriveCart Vs PaykickStart: Which Is Good For Me?

I poured out my heart and soul into this ThriveCart and PaykickStart comparison.

As there are dozens of similar comparisons out there – while most of them are aimlessly recommending one and ditching the other…

I’m NOT going to do that in this ThriveCart vs PaykickStart head-to-head comparison.

I guarantee this would be unbiased, fluff-free, and definitely the best comparison post you’ve ever come across.

See, I won’t go ahead telling you to use THIS or try THAT, NO! rather, after you read through this ThriveCart and PaykickStart post, you will get to see the shopping cart solution your type of business needs that also meets your budget and expectations.

All you have to do is PICK the right ONE for your online business with the help of my analysis.

However, for you to have a better understanding of what and what features a PERFECT shopping cart service should have, let’s take a look at a few of the SUPER IMPORTANT things you need to bear in mind, moving forward.

But first…

What Makes a Good Shopping Cart?

Whether you desire to sell digital or physical products online using an awesome checkout tool that increases conversions and revenue, there are shopping cart functionalities that you just can’t do without.

Check them out:

#1: Customization

Having the ability to customize your checkout page so you can have everything on it speak about your brand’s product or services should be one of the features your shopping cart solution provides.

Changing things up the way you like.

And not get stuck with the templated designs format and designs. Like customizing custom fields, product images, description, testimonials, scarcity elements, social proofs, video embeds, etc.

#2: Sale Boosters

These are features that help you in boosting your conversion rates when you leverage them within your funnels or on your checkout page.

• Order Bump
• One-Click upsells
• Coupon codes
• Discounts
• A/B testing

#3: Integrations

Be sure to look out for the number and type of third-party integration supported by both PaykickStart and ThriveCart when making your final decision.

The important ones are Email marketing, memberships, and webinar integration.

#4: Different Payment Processors

This is another HUGE feature I know a lot of online business owners consider. Your shopping cart solution should have multiple payment integrations and models.

#5: Digital Tax Calculation

Your shopping cart tool must have an EU VAT calculation feature or allow seamless integration of one.

#6: Affiliate Center

This shouldn’t be a big deal though, as most shopping cart solution is supposed to come along with an affiliate management software.

Diving Into ThriveCart & PaykickStart Features

ThriveCart and PaykickStart are two amazing shopping cart tools with quite a lot of features that are kind of similar and also NOT all that the same.

Let’s take them in parts:

Part #1: About Customization And Templates

PaykickStart and ThriveCart do come with customizable checkout templates you can add your branding elements, testimonials plus few others.

But there is more to the type and number of templates you get from each.

ThriveCart Templates

In the aspect of design templates – ThriveCart is pretty weak in terms of selection that it only gives you 4 options to choose from.

However, these templates each have their own goals and behaviors depending on what you want to achieve.

• The one-step checkout
• The two-step checkout
• The embeddable checkout
• The popup checkout

PaykickStart Templates

On the other hand, PaykickStart comes with many more templates, but it turns out that you can only choose a checkout template in stage 2 of setting up your product campaign. Not a problem.

PaykickStart is made up of about 12 one-step and 5 multi-step checkout templates that is very customizable.

Part #2: Looking At Sale Boosters

You will agree with me when I say that it’s not always about getting customers into your online sales funnel and further getting them to buy your products.

There is more to it.

Things like ascending them up your value ladder using bumps, upsell and ultimately increasing the value of every single customer which puts more money into your bank account.

Not forgetting coupons, discounts and A/B testing features.

How Do ThriveCart Boost Sales?

ThriveCart has a bunch of these sale boosting functionality built into it leaving none out. You can create and manage coupons for your products in any way you like or automatically attribute it to affiliates.

The ThriveCart bump and one-click part also give you the option to customize.

Finally, the A/B split testing allows you to test different variations of your checkout page (products, colors, pricing, format, etc.) to see which converts best by rotating the variations till a particular period is passed to tell the winner.

How Do PaykickStart Boost Sales?

Yes! PaykickStart also allows for coupons and discounts, even rebills. But I couldn’t find a way to attribute coupons and discounts to affiliates here.

You can also do bumps and one-click upsells on PaykickStart.

How about A/B testing?

It’s so sad to hear as PaykickStart has no A/B split testing capability for you to test variations of your pages, despite its upsales and order bump thingy.

Part #3: ThriveCart and PaykickStart Integrations

Having your shopping cart to properly integrate with the rest of your existing marketing tools is very essential.

Does ThriveCart Fit In?

ThriveCart supports quite a lot of third-party integration. Email marketing, memberships, webinar integration plus its flexibility with Zapier which effectively gives you unlimited options.

When it comes to direct autoresponder integration with ThriveCart, I have to say that it’s kind of limited here.

See them below:

• Ontraport
• Hubspot
• ConvertKit
• ActiveCampaign
• AWeber
• GetResponse
• Infusionsoft
• MailChimp
• Drip
• MailerLite

To integrate others that aren’t found on this list, there is a functionality to copy an paste form code from your favorite autoresponder or use Zapier.

For ThriveCart membership integrations here are the ones you can integrate directly:

• MemberPress
• Wishlist Member
• Teachable
• OptimizeMember
• MemberMouse
• Digital Access Pass

Other platforms not on this list either integrates via API or Zapier

At the moment there is only two direct webinar platform integration which allows you to add a customer to a webinar (Demio and WebinarNinja).

But that’s not all…

Because of the good part, ThriveCart is supported by Zapier deep linking which advantageously gives you possible integrations with any other webinar platform out there.

How About PaykickStart Integrations?

PaykickStart didn’t come too bad either when it comes to integrations. In fact, PaykickStart supports more direct integration than ThriveCart does.

Below are PaykickStart’s direct integration for email autoresponders:

• Drip
• GetResponse
• GetResponse 360
• Campaign Refinery
• Constant Contact
• ActiveCampaign
• Aweber
• ConvertKit
• iContact
• Infusionsoft
• Klaviyo
• Interspire
• MarketHero
• SendLane
• Maropost
• MailChimp
• Ontraport
• SendReach

There is also the availability of custom integration through Zapier for platforms not currently included.

PaykickStart also BEATS ThriveCart in comparison to the number of direct and indirect membership integrations.

Here are they:

• AMember
• ClickFunnels
• OptimizeMember
• ProductDyno
• FreshMember
• Kajabi
• Digital Access Pass
• EverLesson
• Memberful
• MemberMouse
• S2Member
• Teachable
• Thinkific
• Wishlist

There is room for custom integration as well.

PaykickStart webinar integration:

• Demio
• EverWebinar
• GoToWebinar
• Webinar Ignition
• WebinarJam
• WebinarJeo
• Zoom

Related: Thrivecart vs CartFlows review

Part #4: PaykickStart vs ThriveCart Payment Gateways and Models

Despite the fact PaykickStart and ThriveCart support and integrates with various payment processors you can sharply connect. There are still a few things I do like to bring to your notice.

Getting started with ThriveCart Payments

The payment processors you can link to your checkout pages on ThriveCart are:

• Authorize.net
• PayPal
• Stripe
• Apple Pay

These payment platforms are nothing to be much excited about, as they are the standard processors supported by almost every platform.

Except for Apple Pay…

At the moment ThriveCart is the only shopping cart solution that offers Apple Pay as a payment option. Apple Pay allows your customers to swiftly and easily make payments online directly from their mobile devices.

This is so good in the sense that they do not need to be logged into PayPal or tediously input their credit card info all the time during a checkout for payments to be made.

This would definitely increase sales massively if you ask me. Not also forgetting that mobile internet usage continues to take over the world.

For ThriveCart Payment Models:

You can set different payment plans for your product and services on ThriveCart. It supports one-time, subscription-based, split payment (pay what you want) payment options. It all depends on how you want to configure it.

Some other things worth mentioning are:

• 17 currencies and 10 languages supported on ThriveCart
• Free trial, paid trials and auto-billing
• Product quantity option

How About PaykickStart Payment Gateways?

PaykickStart currently supports a greater number of payment options.

• Authorize.net
• Braintree
• EasyPayDirect
• PayPal
• Stripe

As you can see from the above list – no Apply Pay payment option supported, which could be a total bummer for a lot of people.

But I think they already make up for it by allowing a full one-click upsell PayPal integration and the below extra features.

How about PKS Payment Models?

PKS supports both one-time and subscription-based payments. Plus, complete configuration of free and paid trials just as ThriveCart.

But there no ‘pay what you want’ functionality built into it.

One quite amazing thing I found interesting about PaykickStart is the real-time currency exchange calculations. 32 currencies and 12 languages are supported on PKS.

Part #5: Digital VAT/Sales Tax Calculation

Both PaykickStart and ThriveCart support VAT/Sales Tax calculation services which are super cool. Although, this always requires the services of a tax calculation service.

Luckily, users of ThriveCart do not need that. ThriveCart comes with fully integrated with automatic digital sales tax calculating service built into it for free without needing any third-party service.

What about PaykickStart?

PaykickStart also supports tax calculation, but this is only possible when you connect via an external service called Taxamo which I think costs an extra fee starting from $30+.

Part #6: Affiliate Management Center

Of course, they both have an inbuilt affiliate management platform that lets you harness the power of affiliates and have them promote your products/services in return for commissions.

ThriveCart’s Affiliate Center feature has the basic options you’d expect to see in a platform. Like 2^nd tier, promo area, manual and auto-approval option, delayed and instant commission.

There is also a JV Contracts feature that’s needed in case you want to split all sales of a product with someone you’re partnering with.

For PaykickStart – It’s quite obvious that the Affiliate Center has a brighter side:

• Option for affiliates to append SUB IDs for tracking their campaigns
• Affiliate contests and leaderboard real-time stats
• Marketplace for affiliates

Part #7: Support and Documentation

Both tools have pretty damn good documentation and Facebook support for both users and prospects.

For ThriveCart – there are support articles for almost everything related to the shopping cart where you can easily search or navigate anything you are looking for.

ThriveCart documentation is always available and they do well to update it frequently.

Even though there’s nothing like live chat and phone support, you will have to submit a ticket during pressing situations or better still…

Just post your question in Thrive Cart’s highly engaged official Facebook group.

For PaykickStart – there are also helpful documentation articles or knowledge base where I found almost anything I search for. Which can get you familiarized with the whole platform in a short while?

You can also raise a support ticket in emergency situations. Just like ThriveCart’s you will get a response within 24hours.

There is a Skype group and a Facebook group for PKS users but it’s not as engaging as that of ThriveCart. Who really cares about engagement when their problem gets resolved when in need?

Part #8: Pricing of ThriveCart and PaykickStart

How much does ThriveCart cost?

I guess you must have heard in one way or the other that ThriveCart hasn’t been launched to the entire public yet?

At the moment the only way to get your hands on ThriveCart is to go through an affiliate link that gives you access to an early bird offer or lifetime access to this shopping cart software.

Take a look at the Thrivecart price table below:

Yes, you get on ThriveCart for life at the cost of $495 (standard). There is a choice for you to get the PRO package (an additional $195 on time) which comes with a more advanced feature. You can choose to upgrade to PRO anytime though.

How much does PaykickStart cost?

PaykickStart pricing starts from $29/mo (only 5 products allowed) which doesn’t include the affiliate center and some advanced feature, but definitely a deal-breaker for those getting started.

The second pricing plan (PROFESSIONAL) for PaykickStart costs $99/mo which I think is the plan that matches up to ThriveCart in terms of the core features.

There is also a PREMIUM plan for power sellers costing $149/mo. I don’t think there’s much to this particular plan unless you need extra marketing feature like:

• Survey Builder
• Audience Builder
• Uptime Monitoring
• Demographics

Else just stick with the PRO plan.

Which is Right For Me?

Like I said earlier in this comparison – I’m not here to condemn one and shower praises on the other. No!

PaykickStart and ThriveCart are two awesomely crafted shopping cart solutions for every online business owner out there. So, no favors 😊

I just want you to scroll up a bit to see what is LACKING in each of them and also see where each power the most – then you will definitely see which of them suits your business.

It totally depends on your priority!

Mind if I simplify things for you?

ThriveCart Failures

• Lacks direct integration with some tools (but Zapier is supported)
• Lacks affiliate contest/leaderboard, marketplace feature
• No monthly pricing which makes onetime option expensive for beginners
• Not many templates (only 4)
• No Trial period to test (only 30 days money back)

ThriveCart Wins

• A/B split testing of your checkout pages
• Option for ‘pay what you want’
• Apply Pay payment option for mobile users
• Free inbuilt EU VAT Tax calculation
• Lifetime access to the software for a one-time payment
• More engaged Facebook group

PaykickStart Failures

• No A/B testing feature
• No ‘pay what you want’ option
• Lacks Apple Pay payment integration
• You pay an extra monthly fee for digital sales Tax calculation
• The monthly plan costs more on the longer run

PaykickStart Wins

• Supports more direct integrations
• Supports full one-click upsell PayPal integration
• More currencies supported
• Advanced affiliate center feature (leaderboard, contest, tracking, and marketplace)
• Low entry price point (starts from $29)
• 14 Days Trial Available

Conclusion

To summarize this ThriveCart vs PaykickStart comparison – whichever solution you settle for, you will surely begin to see to a maximum increase in conversions from your checkout pages.

However, both tools are capable of meeting the needs of 90% of a standard shopping cart solution. Select your option below to begin.

Overall between both tools – Thrivecart clearly wins with lots of juicy features. Like Apple Pay, Inbuilt digital sales tax calculation, Robus affiliate center, onetime pricing, etc. While PayKickStart lacks some standard features and costs more over time.

Read my full review of Thrivecart here.

Grab your Thrive lifetime deal here.

Do let me know in the comments you preferred platform. PayKickStart or Thrivecart?