I've been using Elementor Pro now for almost a year and I love having it in my blog arsenal. I've used it on about half of my blog posts and the majority of my pages mainly for extra decoration and efficiency. However, for a number of reasons listed below I decided to pick up Thrive Architect and try it out. Here is my Thrive Architect review.
A brief qualification
Page Builders are the future - as much as I love coding WordPress themes and pages, it is becoming less and less efficient. I have a custom Genesis starter theme spun up with SASS, Gulp, etc. and I really like building custom themes and pages with it.
But here's the bottom line:
Aside from the header, footer, blog page, archive pages, and any custom code functionality, websites can be built much, much faster, and just as stable with page builders. This leaves more time for design, strategy, marketing, etc.
For example, say your client wants some accordions or a grid of their latest posts on a page. You can either jump into some jQuery toggle features and a custom WordPress loop, OR you could simply drag them in. In both instances the client sees the same thing, both examples are responsive and beautiful, and the client could care less how they happened.
I could go on, but I will leave it at this: Page builders are not cheapening web development, or diminishing design and clean code. They are the future....accept it or be left behind.
The Situation
Trying out Thrive Architect was not a random occurrence or a desire to "try something new." Let me explain the growing situation:
1. First, I have decided to incorporate page builders into my business. They are efficient, they produce high-quality code, and they allow for the client (if you choose to let them) to change things on their site in the future without having to create custom fields for them, etc.
2. Next, and here is the dilemma: If I decide to incorporate Elementor into my process, how do I go about providing it to clients? With Elementor, it is a yearly (very affordable) subscription. This means either my client has to agree to pay an ongoing yearly subscription, or I have to have some package that allows me to handle the license for them.
Elementor actually allows unlimited licenses to use on client sites for $199/yr. But who pays that? I suppose if the client is on a care plan it can be part of that? However, if I was a client, I would probably want the developer to not use a page builder to avoid any yearly subscriptions.
In short, I just can't justify how to do this on a yearly subscription.
3. Thrive Architect is not a yearly subscription, but a one-time purchase. This was one of the main reasons I pulled the trigger.
This allows me a few options: First, I can add the $67 to the invoice and the client can just pay the one time fee. For $30 more, I can install it on up to 5 websites. For $50 more I can install it on up to 15!
As you see, this would allow for a win-win for the client and the developer. Most clients will be happy to pay $67 for a page builder. And if you manage their site for them, you can give them one of your licenses AND make a profit from it, even if you give them a discount.
In addition to all of this, there is a Thrive Member option that allows you to install it on up to 50 websites, AND use ALL of the Thrive products for $50/month. Perhaps this can be worked into a care plan, but I'm not seeing the value in it yet at least for my own business.
So based on the above, I wanted to try out Thrive Architect and see if it is a good solution for my clients. Financially it is, but is it functionally? Being a dedicated Elementor user, could Thrive Architect actually provide a better solution?
Thrive Architect Review
Now there will be no comparison chart displaying the functionality and features of each. There are LOTS of articles doing this already (here's a good one).
I want to simply share my experience in this Thrive Architect review.
The Difference
Here is the main difference between the two:
Elementor has become a powerful tool not only for building quality pages but is an entire Theme Builder with the release of version 2.0. It is great for people looking for the whole package or for those with limited coding skills.
Thrive Architect, on the other hand, is a powerful tool not only for building quality pages, but a tool focused intently (but not exclusively) on the marketing and conversion aspects of websites....thus the additional Thrive tools available.
In my scenario, I have no need for a page builder that builds themes. I use Genesis themes and I love to customize the header, footer, blog page, archives, etc., myself.
Given these differences, there is actually very little difference between the two. I have used Elementor for a while now, and Thrive Architect is very similar in functionality, design and cuts no corners in comparison. There are fewer features with Thrive Architect, but nothing that I really used anyways (remember that Thrive has fewer features not because it can't keep up, but because it has a different focus).
The Overall Functionality
So let's talk about functionality in this Thrive architect review.
Elementor is a clean plugin and offers a pleasant experience. I can confidently say that.
My experience with Thrive Architect has been the same, no less. In fact, Elementor had this quirk where you could edit the text and boxes on the page, but it was often buggy. Sometimes you would select a word, and when you start typing it would jump to the bottom of the paragraph and start typing there, and ultimately it would leave you having to edit content in the tiny text box in the panel.....which is not a pleasant experience.
Thrive Architect doesn't give you any text box in the admin panel....but forces you to type right there on the page. I LOVE IT. And it is smooth as ever.
As for how the options are laid out, the amount of options for each element, etc. there is very little difference. I can jump back and forth from Elementor to Thrive with very little problem or disruption at all.
The Philosophy
This will be brief and may come off a bit odd in a review, but I find Shane from Thrive Architect quite a fascinating and knowledgeable guy.
The Thrive Themes blog is filled with loads and loads of extremely valuable content. The content written by Shane is golden and it follows that his products reflect the value that he brings to web design, marketing, lead generation, etc.
You don't buy Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, etc. without receiving a handful of followup emails and tutorials that are very helpful, not only for the Thrive product but in marketing and design in general.
So all that is to say, I've come to trust the Thrive products not because they are fun to play with, or developers are extending it with all kinds of add-ons, but because the products are backed up with a team that continues to provide relevant value to people like me.
My Overall Conclusion
So here's the thing: I love Elementor, mainly because I've used it for a while now and have grown to understand it well.
But as my business grows and I look to use a page builder on my clients' sites, Thrive Architect's pricing provides a much better solution at this point.
So it follows: Does Thrive Architect provide enough value that I could consider replacing Elementor with it?
Based on my use of it, its clean code and interface, its similarity to Elementor, its integration with Thrive Leads (a wonderful product), its philosophy, and its one-time fee instead of a subscription, I am deciding to make the switch.
If you are looking for a rock solid page builder for your own site, or to use for your growing client list, go ahead and pick up Thrive Architect. It's a one-time fee of $67, and it's yours for life...upgrades and all. Also consider its cousin, Thrive Leads for all your lead generation, opt-ins, etc.
I hope this brief Thrive Architect review was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions or opinions!
Do you use a page builder? Which one? Have you tried Thrive Architect and if so how was your experience with it?
I have been using thrive architect for about 3 months and built a whole website with it. It is a really amazing page builder.
Their is one big flaw and I’m wondering if you have a suggestion to get around it.
You can’t build any global elements like a header, navigation or footer that gets updated globally. You can make templates and use those, but they are not connected so if you want to change something, you have to make that change everywhere you used that template.
Hi Mike, thanks for your comment. Yeah I think that is a point that Elementor wins at. Elementor now has a theme builder where all elements can be tweaked, not just the content. I personally didn’t like page builders working their way into my headers and footers so I wasn’t thrilled about that feature, but I know many people really love it and prefer Elementor for that reason. And I can’t remember if these can be updated globally or not? I would imagine so. Thrive looks to be headed towards a Thrive Theme/Architect builder (https://thrivethemes.com/theme-first-look/), so perhaps they will offer this in the future.
As for the CONTENT global elements, Thrive now offers Symbols which allows you to create elements that will update globally (and can actually be unlinked as well). But again, this is just for content between the header and footer. (https://thrivethemes.com/symbols-feature/)
On another note, some people are customizing the PHP to actually create global headers/footers in Thrive if that is something you wanted to experiment with (https://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/global-header-footer-thrive-landing-pages/)
We have a website that was built using OceanWP and Elementor Pro. A marketing team is proposing that we change the theme, possibly to a Thrive Theme. I would assume that this would mean having BOTH Elementor Pro and Thrive Architect installed unless they wish to re-do every page. What kinds of problems would you anticipate? I’m thinking performance would be one issue.
Kathy that’s a great question.
Currently, I don’t think you can get any of their Themes as that part of the site seems to be a landing page as they await the 2.0 “Theme Builder” Release (https://thrivethemes.com/themes/)(beta coming in July of this year). However, maybe the themes are still available with the Membership? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
But for sake of example, let’s say that 2.0 is released and it’s a Theme Builder and utilizes Architect by default, then yeah I think Elementor Pro may be overkill and could cause performance issues running both.
Depending on how many pages/posts you have built with Elementor, deactivating it only messes up the cosmetic issues. All text, headers, images etc will stay intact (which is why it’s much, much better than Divi). You could use a staging site or a local copy, deactivate the Elementor plugin, and see what kind of damage it would cause. But this could potentially be a lot of work.
Another option is to just use the Thrive products, not the theme. Products like Thrive Leads, Thrive Architect, etc. work great with most major themes out there.
Currently, I am using BOTH Thrive Architect (their page builder plugin) and Elementor Pro. But since both are plugins, they are not part of my theme and are only used when needed. So I have some posts using Elementor Pro, some posts using Thrive Architect, and many using nothing but the WordPress default. In this scenario, since you can only use one on a page, it causes no noticeable performance issues.
I have many posts back when I used Elementor Pro that are still there ( I also don’t want to redo everything ). But they don’t incorporate Architect at all in those posts. And many of my newer posts are using Architect, and those do not incorporate Elementor Pro. You have to choose one or the other per posts or page.
So you could use, say, a Genesis Theme, keep using Elementor Pro on all the old posts, and use something like Thrive Architect or Thrive Leads independent from all on the future ones.
Let me know if this helps at all and I’m more than happy to answer any further questions as well.
What would be the point of changing from OceanWP to Genesis? It seems as though your suggestion of using both Elementor Pro and Thrive Architect/Leads/etc would still be an option without using a Thrive Theme and sticking with OceanWP which works well with both. I’m pretty sure this marketing company probably continues to have access to Thrive Themes. Am I correct in my understanding that by using a Thrive theme, Thrive Architect will be running on every page making Elementor overkill with the requisite performance issues?
Kathy
The Genesis mention was just an example. If you stuck with OceanWP, or any non Thrive theme, then running Thrive Architect and Elementor Pro would be fine (or any other theme). They are separate plugins and only one can be used a page (if used at all).
As far as Thrive Themes, I have no experience with the actual Themes or if they run Architect by default. I would assume they do have some sort of page builder feature, and in that scenario, I agree that it would probably be overkill.
Thrive themes has lots of great products outside of the actual themes, such that being dead set on a Theme is not really a necessity. The Thrive Membership gives access to it all, so you could use the builder and all other tools with something like OceanWP and it not conflict with your use of Elementor.
So I now have a bit more specific information. I believe that the proposed replacement theme is ThemeTrust Create Theme and that this theme apparently comes with Site Origin page builder. I would imagine that the same concerns apply. Would you agree? If that is the case, I see even less reason to change themes since Elementor is probably the better builder.
100% agree with you here that the same concerns apply AND that Elementor is a far better page builder (and don’t forget, it’s now technically a theme builder).
I gotta thank you for turning me on the Thrive. I’ve known about WordPress for a long time but new to really diving into it. My first task was to find a very user friendly, no coding page builder and after a lot of research initially went with Elementor. But it wouldn’t load. Checking online I found this to be a perpetual problem dating back over a year and still ongoing. I come from Yahoo Website Builder (they suck) so I’m not about to get involved with another problematic site builder. I looked at Beaver Builder and a few others but the one time payment to Thrive while still getting all their updates was something I could not ignore. So further research on Thrive… All I found out was good stuff. Now that I’ve taken the plunge (you do have to pay – there’s no free lite edition to try it out) I get what you mean about Shane and understand why you couldn’t post your review without mentioning him. He’s passionate about what he does. I really like that. Anyway, I’m more or less at beginner level so don’t have real intelligent things to say but just wanted to express my sincere gratitude to you for posting this review.
Hey Jeff, great to hear! Glad it worked out for you.
I have been having the same thoughts as you. I have used Elementor for almost a year also. I love Elementor but am getting ready to jump the fence over the Thrive also. My reasons are similar to yours.
My concern is if I deactivate Elementor and use Thrive instead are all of my posts and pages I created with Elementor going to remain the same. Or will I have to redo all of them with the Thrive theme?
Since you have experienced the switch, I am looking for your expertise on this matter.
Thank You
Hi Laura,
So deactivating Elementor will not remove any content. All the content will remain on the page. But the elements and components of Elementor will be removed. For instance, if you created an alert box, just the text will remain (the alert box removed), if you created a table of contents with a nice background color, etc. then that will be removed but the table of contents links will still be in a list.
So you will have to go through and “re-tweak” your pages/posts.
What I opted to do was to keep Elementor for the time being and just not use it on any future posts, but just to maintain those previous posts/pages, with the intention of tweaking them one by one over time (and intention I haven’t been good at keeping, ha).