What is So Good About Thrive Architect?

Thrive Themes totally ROCK If you know how to use the tools correctly. You can find many websites using Thrive products if you're observant enough.

Obviously I am a Big Fan of Thrive Themes, even though there are ways the plugin can improve, That’s how powerful this Page Builder. Visual Editor Is!

Here are 12 reasons Why Thrive Architect is such an irresistible plugin:

1. Create Beautiful, Conversion Focused Websites:  Powerful page/ content editor will help you create beautiful and professional-looking websites. You no longer need to hire a web designer/ programmer for 10s thousands of dollar to build an amazing kick ass website!

2. A Powerful Tool for Brand Building:  Build your brand with these amazing powerful customized tools

3. Live Preview:  When you view most WordPress sites using the default WordPress dashboard editor, you cannot visualize what your site will look like while you are building it until you hit the “Preview” Button.

With Thrive Architect’s “Live Preview” you can see EXACTLY how your website will appear in real-time as you go. Just click on the “Edit with Thrive Architect” button in your WordPress Dashboard, and the Magic Happens.

Here is what my website looks in “Live Preview” while I am in the Thrive Architect Editor.

4. Build Conversion-Focused Landing Pages from Page Templates: Businesses and professionals can easily create custom landing pages that can be optimized for lead generation and higher conversions for any marketing strategy.

Make announcements, promote products, present offers, or even host a live webinar event; the Thrive Architect page builder offers a set of templates that can match all business needs.

5. Drag ‘n Drop Conversion Elements: Thrive Architect  comes with a set pre-built design tools called conversion drag ‘n drop elements, There is a wide assortment of these such as background sections,  countdown timers, customizable buttons, lead generation forms testimonials, icons, and custom menus.

Users can integrate these elements with their existing email marketing services such as AWeber, Mailchimp, or ConvertKit; helping them automatically capture lead information and grow their mailing list. This is a great benefit for conversions.

6. One-Page Website:  Simple and Clean: Recommended for local businesses, you can build a simple one-page site with Thrive Architect. Instead of creating a website with different pages, you can build a one-page site where all important information about a business can be found on one single page. You then can scroll down this page to different sections, and even use an Anchor Link feature with ID to automatically get to a specific point with “one click.”

This type of website can be updated easily, and all they need is a template from Thrive Architect’s landing page template library. This is an all-in-one website that functions as a homepage, landing page, and full website.  

7. Advanced Features to Expand Creativity and Imagination: Thrive Architect has advanced features that lets users apply a variety of ways to make their websites and pages more attractive and engaging. Users can create poster-and-magazine-style text layouts by accessing over 700 custom fonts. Another advanced feature is the ability to combine attention-grabbing texts and images. In this feature, texts and images can be overlayed on background images. Colored overlays or gradient overlays can also be applied to backgrounds and to images so the texts within them can be read clearly.

With Thrive Themes amazing powerful user interface and experience (UI/UX), you can build incredible images with precision detail without needing Photoshop. 

8. Mobile Responsive Pages: With Thrive Architect, you can create beautiful-looking websites and pages on mobile phones and tablets. The plugin allows you to preview any page on different screen sizes, define which screen sizes elements or content blocks will be shown or hidden on, and adjust the layout and position of elements so they will appear different on 3 different screen sizes: Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile.

9. Very Clear Detailed Tutorials: By using the Thrive Themes Members Dashboard, you have access to 51 individual tutorials which is specific to Thrive Architect. There is allow a Knowledge Base for more specific information about detailed features of the plugin. There are video tutorials for almost every text tutorial. 

The video tutorials are anywhere from 2-10 minutes long on a specific topic. You can certainly become good at Thrive Architect of you follow the tutorials (some of them you may have to repeat multiple times for the information to “sink in”); however there is a steep learning curve here for beginners.

10. Thrive University: Additional Training to Scale Your Business: Thrive University is a series of training courses on a variety of topics in internet marketing. Some of the topics included are:

• Email List Building
• Sales Funnels
• SEO if you Didn’t Want to Learn SEO
• Opt-In Form Clinic Webinar
• Creating Online Courses and Webinars
• Landing Page Creation

This is what I love about Thrive Theme products; I get ALL a whole variety of training courses and additional resources included that can help me build my business with ONE PRICE ($67):

• 10 Premium Themes
• 39 Thrive University courses
• Knowledge Base
• 51 Video Tutorials
• Support Forums

….and of course this Amazing Page Builder and Visual Editor.

Not too shabby, right?

11. Cheaper Than ClickFunnels: There are many of you who are familiar with the very popular software called ClickFunnels.

According to many marketers, this is the game-changer in the internet marketing industry because it is such a powerful tool to help you easily build a sales funnel without any technical skills.

ClickFunnels is great; however the problem with ClickFunnels is that it is too expensive for beginners.

The basic package is $97 per month and upgraded membership called "etison Suite" costs $297 per month. This is very expensive for beginners, especially since it's a monthly recurring fee.

That's why I would recommend beginners with lesser amount of capital to start with Thrive Architect if you're looking for a tool to help you build sales funnels.

It's just a $67 one-time fee with all the training included.

12. Lifetime Updates: Thrive Architect allows you to have access to all the plugin updates for as long as you continue using it. This is a feature you usually don’t see with other similar page builders.

This is critical since all software including WordPress will be updating on occasion. If your plugin can't keep up with the update, it'll eventually become obsolete and unworkable.

You are limited to only 1 full year of support. If you need their support forum after one year, you can just renew your support subscription at $40. As you will soon see, this can be a major limitation moving forward.

(By the way, updates are basically the latest version of the plugin and support is the forum for you to get help whenever you need.)

Where Thrive Architect Can Improve? (as told by one of the Most Honest Thrive Architect Reviews)

Considering all of the adulations and salutations I have already given Thrive Architect, you may be wondering why I only gave it a review of 84 out of 100.

As I have been telling you all along, this is one of the most honest Thrive Architect reviews I have ever seen.

A very valid question, and the answer lies in my personal experience with Thrive Architect in building this very website.

1. Learning Thrive Architect is NOT for Beginners

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Don’t let the words “easy drag ‘n drop page builder and visual editor” fool you!

There is a steep learning curve for taking full advantage of Thrive Architect. It is one very powerful plugin, but this is NOT a plugin for beginners.

Although there are great tutorials in Thrive Themes to teach you how to use all of its features, it may take a long time to Master learning these tools, and they can easily frustrate you.

Personally I spent HOURS upon HOURS building this beautiful and highly functional website you see here, not to mention many, many MORE hours consulting with the technical support team.

Granted if you know some CSS coding, and are advanced at understanding how drag ‘n drop visual editors work “out of the box”, you will have a slightly easier time of it.

Some may not like what I say here. But as I've said, this is one of the most honest Thrive Architect reviews I've seen.

2. There is NO Live Chat Support

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This is the most frustrating part of dealing with building a website with Thrive Architect. They DO NOT offer Live Tech Chat Support, only email support.

When dealing with a sophisticated product such as Thrive Themes, Live Chat Support is essential.

And the reason why a website that should have actually taken me only 1-2 weeks to complete the build of, actually had taken me 8 weeks to complete!

All in all, so far there have been a total of 243 tickets I have had to submit with questions in order to complete my website. Had Thrive Themes had its own 24/7 Live Chat Tech Support in place, these submits would have been cut down easily to 1/10^th.

Anytime I had a problem and was “stuck”, I would need to write a detailed email to the Tech Support Team of Thrive Architect. This detailed email would be called a Support Ticket. Often within that Support Ticket to effectively explain the problem, I would have to provide detailed Screenshots.

Since Thrive Themes does not allow direct screenshots on their servers for security reasons, I would need to use a tool such as Jing, which allows you to take screenshots and convert them into links. You would then include these detailed “links” within your support request email.

It would take a minimum of 24-48 Hours for a Tech Support Team member to get back to me with the solution to my problem.

The Tech Support Team is highly knowledgeable and very helpful when you finally do get to communicate with them. I don’t blame the Support team at all.

The problem lies in the process of communication that is current in Thrive Architect.

In a word, their Tech Support protocol is highly inefficient.

As much as I love the plugin, I have to call it as I see it, as this  is one of the most honest Thrive Architect reviews.

3. A Myriad of Tech Support Issues (Building the Site)

Once again, there were a total of 243 Support email requests that were necessary to complete the build of my site. These support requests were for a wide range of issues, from the page “blinking” upon load, to changing link colors in the testimonial sections, to that the view would at times extend beyond certain size computer screens.

All of these issues were fixable, but ultimately highly time consuming.  And I’d be lying if I told you not frustrating. And there is no way that I can lie, as this will be be one of the most honest Thrive Architect reviews you will ever see. 

4. Don’t Be Fooled: You WILL Need to Learn Some CSS Coding

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There are MANY wonderful effects you can create using Thrive Architect without any special knowledge. If you want to use the basic elements of Thrive Architect, you can get away without knowing any CSS coding.

Now if you want to change even more specific details in your design, such as changing the color when hovering over specific link text, or eliminating the default title and background box off an uploaded image as a Feature Image, or changing the background color in the “About The Author” box at the bottom of any post, you will either need to know CSS code, know how to "find" and recognize which code to use, or to rely on the Thrive Tech team for their CSS coding knowledge.

So to summarize, if you are very particular like me and want your site to look the exact way you want it to look down to the smallest details, you will need to either learn some basic CSS coding, or rely on the Thrive Theme Tech members to give you the proper CSS coding.

Not much CSS Code, but some basic CSS Code will get you far unless you are not really concerned with the smaller details of your website design.  Granted, I am a former interior designer, and I am a "stickler" for detail.

However, the Thrive Tech Support Team is not obligated to go very far with giving you CSS Code, as much of this is beyond the scope of their tech support requirement. What I found though, is that the Thrive Tech Team is most helpful, and if your problem pertains to CSS code that will correct an important detail (such as hover text) in a testimonial box, or getting something to work on your site, they will almost always offer you the needed help.

To be fair, Shane Melaugh (the founder of Thrive Themes) stresses this is a page builder and visual editor that will focus on optimized conversions in the quickest time possible. As with anything, if you want to perfect the smallest details in your design, you will need to "go the extra mile".

This takes tremendous patience, extra time, some technical knowledge, and being able to communicate your issues to the Thrive tech team effectively will certainly help.

However, here's a little secret. If you are very resourceful this will be a huge learning "plus" for you. I took on a different view when being faced with many of these mounting technical hurdles.

Every time I needed special CSS code to solve a problem or make a special design change from the Thrive tech team, I recorded that exact CSS code in a Word document (and labeled what the code would do), so I could reference it anytime I ran into a similar future problem.

The answers from all the tech email support questions turned into a great CSS code learning experience. The Thrive Tech team would at times also provide their solutions via short CloudApp videos, demonstrating the exact steps in proper sequence that needed to be done to fix the problem. This was a huge help, as I could follow the steps of the video and saved the links to many of those videos for future reference..

Now I am able to solve many future tech issues using CSS code myself.

By no means do I claim to be a WordPress expert, but fortunately I am not a WordPress beginner either. I can only imagine how frustrating this could be for a complete beginner.

So don't let'em fool you when they say "No coding is required." Unless you will be satified with the most basic website, there will be SOME CSS coding that you will need to learn and to implement to get your new site looking exactly the way you what it if you want your site to look Amazing.

However, if you are determined and resourceful enough like I was,  or even if you are a "stickler" for the small design details like me , you will get through this and be all the better and wiser website owner for it.

As I've said, this is one of the most honest Thrive Architect reviews.