Page builders changed the way WordPress works by revolutionizing website development.
Gone are the days of relying on clunky CMS customization options and basic themes. With a page builder, you can now take your website to the next level by easily creating custom designs without needing to know how to code.
Elementor and Thrive Architect are two of the most popular page builders around. They both have their own strengths and weaknesses that will help you decide which one works best for your project.
In this comparison of Thrive Architect vs Elementor, we’ll highlight all the differences, pros and cons and features of the tool.
We have already covered everything regarding Elementor in our detailed Elementor Review.
Bottom Line Upfront:
Thrive Architect and Elementor have distinct target audiences.
While Elementor excels in portfolio websites and general web design, Thrive Architect is a powerful page builder specifically designed for marketers. Its optimized templates and modules are geared towards boosting conversion rates throughout your sales funnels, while its integrations provide added marketing capabilities.
Thrive Architect vs Elementor:Â
What is Thrive Architect?
 Thrive Architect from Thrive Themes is built for non-techies. Their parent company Thrive Themes has all the products that are necessary to create a high-converting website.
Thrive Architect is a visual page builder for the construction part of a website. They have a ton of landing page templates to further simplify your foray into web page building. Thrive Architect has very enticing one-time payment plans that are perfect for beginners.Â
About Elementor
Even though it was introduced quite recently in 2016, Elementor has rapidly conquered the web page builder user base.
With over 5 million active downloads and counting, it wins the popularity contest by a country mile. It is also absolutely free to download and use, which explains its huge popularity. There is also a paid version named Elementor Pro that comes with beefed-up features compared to the free one.Â
Thrive Architect vs Elementor: Ease-of-use
Thrive Architect was made for those who wanted to build stunning websites without the need for coding. It has the drag & drop option that web designers just love. Lately, it has started providing more advanced options to ensure that its features are not limited.Â
However, this has compromised its user-friendliness somewhat and made it slightly more convoluted. You will have to take some time and get to know its features better before commencing the web page design. Â
Elementor also has a drag-and-drop interface which makes it a joy to use. Like Thrive Architect, Elementor also requires no coding and can be used by an absolute beginner to create beautiful web pages.Â
It comes with right-click options and keyboard shortcuts that make it massively user-friendly and increases accessibility.
Thrive Architect vs Elementor: Key Features & Benefits
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Drag & drop editor
The drag & drop option will let you build a website easily as the name suggests. It is the fastest way to customize a website without the need for back-end coding.
Thrive Architect contains hovering buttons that will expand into a sidebar with a single click. You can select the required designs and drag them onto the main panel. There is also an option to resize this window and move it around wherever you want.Â
Elementor has a toolbar on the left side of the screen which contains a multitude of templates and designs. You can drag & drop any option as you please to customize your web page.Â
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Designer templates
The designer-made templates simplify the process of building a website since they are pre-made and ready to use. These templates can be further customized to suit your style of brand.Â
Thrive Architect offers 294 pre-made designs and 100+ full website packs with new layouts being added every week. These full website layout packs offer several different templates in a particular niche for various pages like:
- Home
- Support
- Blog
- Contact
Elementor boasts a comprehensive selection of over 300+ designer-made templates for a variety of niches. But they are all single-page templates and they can’t match the full website pack that Thrive Architect has to offer. However, they have started to launch full website packs and could match Thrive Architect in years to come.Â
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Widgets
Widgets are stand-alone user interfaces that will increase the aesthetic appeal and provide functionality to your website.Â
Thrive Architect provides you with a plethora of options to choose from on the widget front. You can also install Thrive Clever widgets to build your own widgets or combine existing widgets to create intricate widgets. Given below are a few widgets that are available to choose from in Thrive Architect:
- Follow me widget
- Popular posts widget
- Recent posts widget
- Call to action widget
- Counter widget
- Countdown widget
- Content reveal
- Guarantee boxes
- Pricing tables
- Content boxes
And much more.
Elementor offers over 90+ widgets that range from basic elements to advanced widgets that are available only on the Pro version. You also have the option to add third-party widgets or even build your own if need be.
Given below are a few of the built-in widgets available to choose from in Elementor:
- Icon box
- Sound cloud
- Counter
- Accordion
- Menu anchor
- Countdown
- Gallery
- Flip box
- Author box
- Breadcrumbs
- Sitemap
- Upsells
- Product stock
- Menu cart
And much more…
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Theme builder
Theme builder allows you to edit every part of your website without the need for coding. This means you won’t have to settle for WordPress default themes and can create your own headers, footers, and blogs.Â
There is not much to separate from Elementor and Thrive Architect when it comes to theme building. Both plugins are quite powerful and offer plenty of customization. Theme builder can be used to:
- Modify the header & footer to personalize your website according to the brand needs.
- Customize the layout of blog posts on your website by designing new templates.
- Create a 404-page template to provide your viewers with a more user-friendly experience.
- Create a unique template for archive posts.
- Design your own personalized search pages to set your brand apart.
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External plugin support
Third-party extensions can customize and improve the page builders further to suit your style of branding.Â
Thrive Architect is feature-filled and hence, does not have a large market that churns out extensions to further enhance Thrive Architect. Most of the applications you will need are built-in & there are still a decent number of extensions available.
Listed below are a few third-party plugins that are made available for Thrive Architect:
- Drip
- ConvertKit
- iContact
- Mailpoet
- HubSpot
- Mandrill
- reCaptcha
- KickTipp
- Zapier
Elementor is free, and this would automatically attract a large market of third-party plugin developers. There are plenty of developers producing various plugin extensions to cover every need you could think of.
This makes Elementor a bit more versatile than Thrive Architect. Listed are a few external plugins that are made available for Elementor:
- NavMenu addon for Elementor
- Hotel booking & Elementor integration
- Anywhere Elementor
- Elementor addon elements
- StylePress for Elementor
- Powerpack
- Envato elements
Thrive Architect vs Elementor: Pricing PlansÂ
Thrive Architect does not offer a free version. However, they do have one-time payment plans. The plans differ based on the number of websites. Thrive Architect comes with three purchasing plans:Â
- Single license pack plan – This allows you to avail of all the services of Thrive Architect for one website at a one-time fee of $67. One full year of support is provided along with unlimited free updatesÂ
- 5 license pack plan – This includes everything in the Single license pack and can be used on up to 5 websites for a one-time fee of $97.Â
- Thrive membership plan – This plan includes everything above and can be used on up to 25 websites. Thrive Membership plan will give you unlimited support for a monthly fee of $19.
Thrive Architect also has a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you are not satisfied with the product.
Elementor is free to download and use with no annual fees as well. This makes it a godsend for those who want to design a web page on a budget.Â
However, if you need features like theme builder and pop-up builder, you’ll have to opt for Elementor Pro. Elementary pro comes with three purchasing plans:
- $49 per year plan – The personal package is the most affordable plan and provides all benefits of Elementor Pro for one website
- $99 per year plan – The plus plan allows you to use designing three websites using Elementor Pro.
- $199 per year plan – This expert package allows you to design up to a thousand websites using Elementor Pro, which is essentially unlimited.
Verdict: Being a frugal-minded penny hoarder, I would choose free above everything else. Thrive Architect is not expensive at all, but Elementor wins this round for obvious reasons. Â
Thrive Architect vs Elementor: Pros & Cons
While both these tools might have some advantages and disadvantages, let’s find the pros and cons of Elementor vs Thrive Architect.
Thrive Architect Pros
- Plenty of templates to choose from. 294 so far and increasing.Â
- Thrive Themes have a whole array of advanced marketing features that you can choose from.
- Thrive Architect is constantly improving so that you won’t have to miss out on the latest trends.Â
- Â Thrive Architect works with almost any theme
Thrive Architect Cons
- The theme builder is not up to the mark in terms of features.
- There are limitations to the external plugins that can be used.
Elementor Pros
- There are thousands of external plugins available with almost every conceivable function.
- Elementor will work with almost any theme.
- Elementor is regularly improving and keeps bringing new features to the table.
- You can create your own eCommerce store with WooCommerce builder.
Elementor Cons
- The user interface is lagging behind the times.
- Customer support is painfully slow
- No one-time payment option.Â
Quick Links:
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- How to Setup a CPA Landing Page With Elementor
Thrive Architect vs Elementor 2023: Which Tool Is Better?Â
In this bout between Thrive Architect and Elementor , no one was able to land a knockout punch.Â
This is a difficult comparison, and I believe it will come down to pricing for some.
Thrive Architect comes with lifetime updates, whereas Elementor is a yearly licensing fee
It’s also worth noting that Elementor is far more polished and well-suited to comprehensive website construction.
Elementor Pro also has the ability to generate dynamic headers, footers, and post templates, which makes it more powerful
Elementor also has a plugin ecosystem that allows it to increase its capabilities.
Thrive Architect has a strong marketing focus, including capabilities like scheduled content, popup boxes, and deep integrations with Thrive’s other plugins.
I’ve been using Elementor for one year. It has some upsides to it which are:
•Core item is 100% free
•Incredible UI
•Global widgets are magnificent
•Open source
•Dynamic Facebook group.
•Outrageous customization
•Regular updates
Elementor is a WordPress plugin that lets you create your own unique website design with just a few clicks. It takes the hard work out of web design, making it easy for anyone to do it. You can also download templates from the Elementor website, or hire a designer to build a site for you.
There are things that I figure Elementor ought to further develop like you can’t utilize it perfectly with other WordPress subjects that have diverse primary page builders like WPBakery or Beaver Builder.
Now and again sites seem broken on different browsers like Microsoft Edge or Firefox.