ThriveCart vs Gumroad: Which Platform Should You Be Using?

ThriveCart and Gumroad are two platforms you can use to sell digital products online, but they’re very different in what they’re looking to achieve.

Both of these solutions are super powerful, but choosing one will depend on what you’re looking to do!

Inside of this exhaustive review of ThriveCart vs Gumroad, I’ll be going over everything you need to know about each of these so stick around before making a final decision.

Let’s dive right into it!

What is ThriveCart?

ThriveCart is a shopping cart platform founded by Josh Bartlett in 2016.

With a focus on helping online business owners sell digital products more effectively, this software helps you create customized order forms and sales pages with the ability to offer 1-click upsells, downsells, and order bumps!

Currently they are in their pre-launch phase and offering a discounted lifetime license, so I urge you to stick around and see if it’s a good fit for your business.

What is Gumroad?

Gumroad is a digital product marketplace founded by Sahil Lavingia in 2011.

And a quick shout out to Sahil for being a huge inspiration of mine as I’ve followed his journey for a while now!

Anyways, Gumroad’s purpose is to help creators sell products directly to consumers in a simple manner!

After a bunch of up-and-downs with funding, Gumroad eventually cracked the code on how to become sustainable and profitable with their business and they’ve been crushing it ever since.

What’s the main difference between the two?

ThriveCart and Gumroad are very different solutions, but have the same goal in mind – to help creators sell and deliver products to their customers!

ThriveCart is focused more on online businesses that want to sell more and increase profits since they allow you to create fully customized shopping cart experiences! You can tweak the sales page and order form to increase conversions and add in upsells, downsells and order bumps to maximize profits.

Gumroad is focused more on creators that want to sell digital products in a simple yet effective manner. While Gumroad doesn’t allow for much customization, they offer you a trusted platform to sell your products on that’s already optimized for conversions!

Does ThriveCart or Gumroad have better features?

While they’re totally different platforms, I’d have to give ThriveCart the edge here.

Since ThriveCart allows you to fully customize what the customer sees, it gives you the ability to control the entire checkout process and grow in the future!

Additionally, you can maximize your profits by utilizing upsells, downsells, and order bumps. Over time with testing, you can have much better results by using these features to your advantage!

On the other hand, Gumroad has a lot of things to like. You can use their platform to build an email list, follow-up with customers, recruit affiliates, and even get additional sales from their “discover” page.

So if you are looking for a simple place to sell lower-ticket products, Gumroad might be the perfect fit!

They even have an upgraded plan available where you can get customizable options if that’s something you want, but Gumroad doesn’t compare to ThriveCart in that category.

How much does each solution cost?

ThriveCart is currently in it’s prelaunch phase, where it has a lifetime license available.

At the price point of $495 with an optional $195 upgrade to pro (recommended), it’ll provide you lifetime access to the software which is great for those in it for the long-haul!

You can claim that offer here if you are interested. Once it’s fully released, it’ll cost around $95 per month at the minimum, so this is a great offer to save a bunch of money in the long run.

And for Gumroad, it’s a completely free platform but you’ll want to upgrade if you are taking it seriously.

You’ll have to pay a processing fee and a stripe fee, but it’s still super cheap in comparison to other shopping cart platforms!

In the beginning, Gumroad will cost $10 per month to upgrade until you reach 1,000 customers. Once you hit that point, it’ll incrementally increase for every few thousand customers you get!

They offer an annual discount as well that you can claim here.

Why you may want to choose ThriveCart over Gumroad

If you’re an online business owner, choosing a software like ThriveCart to drive your sales is going to be the better choice.

Since you’ll have complete customization and the functionality available (such as upsells, downsells, order bumps, etc), you’ll be able to increase conversions and maximize profits which is going to really help you!

ThriveCart isn’t as simple as Gumroad to get setup, but it shouldn’t take you very long at all to start selling products more effectively (even if you’re a complete beginner).

Why you may want to choose Gumroad over ThriveCart

If you’re a solo creator who’s looking to get your feet wet with selling information products, Gumroad is going to be the right fit for you.

Since they make it super simple to get a product up and selling, it’s perfect for those who are getting started!

As you grow, you may find Gumroad to be limiting but you can always switch at a later date (although ThriveCart may not have their lifetime license available anymore)!

Closing Thoughts

In conclusion, ThriveCart and Gumroad are both awesome platforms targeted at different audiences.

We’ve went over everything you should know before making a decision, so now it’s up to you to determine which is going to be the best solution!

Here’s how I would go about making a decision.

If you’re a creator looking to get your feet wet, Gumroad is probably going to be best for you.

If you’re a business owner who’s selling higher ticket products, ThriveCart is probably going to best for you.