Page builders changed the way WordPress works.

If before you had to count on clunky CMS customization options and a basic theme, now with a page builder you can take your website development to the next level.

On the cheap side too.

So today we’re doing a showdown between one of the most used page builders for WordPress: Kadence vs Thrive Themes.

And If you’re considering Thrive Themes vs Kadence for your WordPress website, then you’re doing yourself a huge favor!

Why?

Well, there’s a reason why these are two of the most popular page builders available for WordPress: They’re both top-notch solutions for creating a custom-looking website without having to code or even learn the backend of WordPress!

In this post, I’m going to delve into the details of Thrive Themes vs Kadence and talk about how they compare to each other.

In the end, I think you’ll see that both of them are worthwhile – the question we really need to answer is, which page builder is the better choice for your online business?

Let’s find out!

TLDR: Thrive Themes Vs Kadence

The difference between Thrive Architect and Kadence is in the target audience. Kadence works wonders for portfolio websites and general web design.

Thrive Architect is a very good page builder for marketers. Its templates and modules help you optimize conversion rates all over your funnels, and its integrations power-up your marketing efforts.

Thrive Themes Pros and Cons

Kadence Themes Pros and Cons

WHAT IS THRIVE ARCHITECT?

The first page builder we’re looking at in this post is Thrive Architect, a WordPress plugin included with the Thrive Themes suite. Formerly known as Thrive Content Builder, this popular tool is also available as a standalone plugin – you can purchase a single lifetime license of Thrive Architect for a one-time fee of just $67.

(You can also get access to Thrive Architect as part of the full Thrive Themes membership for $19/mo.)

Here’s why Thrive Architect might be the better choice for your business: it’s designed from the ground up for marketing and conversions. As important as it is to have a nice-looking website, the whole point of building a website is to support your business.

Here are some of the different conversion goals you can target with Thrive Architect:

All of these goals (and more!) are measurable with conversions. Fortunately, Thrive Themes is billed as a “conversion-focused WordPress theme and plugin” suite. If you get Thrive Architect as part of your Thrive Themes membership, you’ll also get access to a suite of other valuable plugins like Thrive Leads, Thrive Ultimatum, Thrive Apprentice, and more!

Remember, your conversions depend on how you present your content, and Thrive is specifically built to help you do this in a way where you achieve your website goals.

This is true for your main pages, and the same thing applies to your blog posts. If you’re getting organic traffic, you want your blog content to look as appealing as possible. The last thing anyone wants is questionable design to keep visitors from sticking around, engaging with your content, and converting.

Thrive Architect comes with a series of customizable conversion elements – both landing page templates and specific sections called blocks. These streamline the process of creating content that converts!

Thrive also features native integration with a ton of top marketing tools and platforms out there, from Constant Contact to Google to SendOwl. It specifically integrates with all major email marketing and webinar providers.

You can learn more about in our full Thrive Themes review .

If you’re ready to give it a try

WHAT IS KADENCE THEME

Kadence Theme is the flagship theme from Kadence WP. Up until launching Kadence Theme, Kadence WP had exclusively focused on plugins, with a number of WooCommerce plugins along with the Kadence Blocks plugin.

In April 2021, Liquid Web acquired Kadence WP via its iThemes subsidiary (which Liquid Web also acquired in 2018).

If you’re not familiar with Liquid Web, it’s a popular web host that’s been going on an absolutely massive buying spree when it comes to WordPress plugins and themes. Here are all of the WordPress brands that Liquid Web has acquired via its StellarWP subsidiary:

• Kadence WP
• iThemes
• LearnDash
• Restrict Content Pro
• The Events Calendar
• GiveWP
• IconicWP

Basically, there are a lot of resources behind Kadence WP and Kadence Theme — Liquid Web is clearly invested in building out the theme/plugin part of its business.

One of the things that makes Kadence WP a superior theme is that it works through an intuitive block builder. This helps simplify the design process for beginner users without all the code bloat and compatibility issues you face using page builders like Oxygen and Elementor.

You will also find that, while Kadence doesn’t come with as many starter themes as Thrive themes, but the ones they do offer are extremely well designed and easy to customize based on your needs

Thrive Themes VS Kadence Features

9 times out of 10, there’s not a huge difference between what Kadence and Thrive Architect can do. You get similar modules, similar integrations and both builders have developer tools (although Thrive themes fares a bit better in that latter category).

So when talking about Thrive vs Kadence, it’s not like there’s a bad choice.

Both of them can help you build a decent website.

However, we’re going to look at the slight differences between each feature so you can understand which tool is right for you, weighing the pros and cons of both builders.

User Interface And Getting Started

With Kadence it’s really easy to get started.

You just search for the plugin, install the free version from the plugin market:

And then upgrade to a paid plan if you know for sure you want to use it.

With Thrive, you’ll need to purchase the plugin externally:

And install it on your own.

You don’t need to unarchive anything, just upload the zip you download from Thrive Themes.

Honestly, it’s not a very complicated process, and if you’re well versed in WordPress you should knock it out in a few minutes.

But it’s still easier to get started with Kadence when compared to Thrive Architect.

Once everything’s installed, Kadence has an easy to navigate tab on the left side.

It can be confusing to get back to the main screen after you’ve edited a pre-made block.

But that’s the only drawback of this page builder in terms of user interface.

Other than that, it’s very easy to find the modules you want to drag onto the page, and all the tabs and menus are intuitive.

Thrive Architect is similar in terms of learning curve, but its design is a bit more cumbersome. For example, all of your options are spread out on two tabs, and the screen can be cluttered at times.

Besides, the design feels bland:

The contrast of light black on grey can make it hard to discern between options.

It’s not the biggest possible drawback, but it’s something to take into account

In all fairness, it should be easy to get started with either Thrive Architect or Kadence, and both of them have a minimalist interface, which makes it easy to hit the ground running.

But Thrive Themes is slightly better, both for getting started, and thanks to its stellar user experience.

Advanced Marketing Features

Needless to say, any entrepreneur would want to use a marketing tool that offers sales optimization too. Similarly, content creators and bloggers would also like to gain subscribers by enhancing their web pages.

Thrive Themes has the upper hand here as it offers conversion-optimized funnels and allows you to create order bumps, down-sell, and upsell. Kadence also allows sales promotion, but without the features provided by the Thrive Themes.

Analytics Tools

As an entrepreneur, you’d want to analyze how successful your marketing efforts are, the changing trends in consumer behavior, and more.

That’s when analytics tools of Kadence and Thrive Themes can help you judge your progress and make better sales and marketing plans. For this, Thrive Themes offers A/B testing or split testing of your sales pages and funnels.

Customer Support

Both Kadence and Thrive Themes offer 24/7 customer support, though the former boasts more avenues of support. First is the email/ticket assistance that you can use anytime. On weekdays, you can also type in your queries on the 24/7 online chatbot.

Additionally, Kadence manages a Facebook group, wherein you can interact with other users and share doubts and solutions together.

As for Thrive Themes, they also include a Facebook group for technical help. They also get you 24/7 “conversations” via the Support chatbot on the website. The representatives usually reply within a few hours of asking a query.

Pricing

Okay, bear with me here

Thrive Themes Pricing

There are a few different ways you can get Thrive Architect onto your WordPress website.

The pricing policy of Thrive is staggered across two levels. Thrive Suite and Thrive Suite Agency.

The Thrive Membership package gives you access to all of Thrive’s products and training for your projects. If you ask me, that’s an excellent value, because Thrive is always adding new themes and products to its membership.

That said, there are basically two membership plans to choose from here:

• Thrive Membership – $19 per month (paid annually) or $25 per month (paid quarterly). This plan lets you use all of their products on all of your own websites.
• Agency Membership – $49 per month (paid annually) or $59 per month (paid quarterly). This plan lets you use all of their products on your websites and clients’.

The best part?

With a Thrive membership, you’ll not only get the current products – you’ll also enjoy full access to all of their future products, enhancements, and updates!

Kadence Themes Pricing

Kadence is similar to Thrive in that they offer a generous free version that can help you create most basic websites. However, like Thrive , you will need to upgrade to the pro version for more advanced websites.

With Kadence, you have four options, their free version, an essential bundle, full bundle, and the lifetime bundle for their full version.

Thrive Themes Features

While you can always purchase themes and plugins individually, a Thrive Themes membership actually gives you a much better value by combining everything under a single plan.

With the Thrive Themes membership, you’ll have complete access to every one of their themes and plugins.

Apart from the themes we already listed above, here is the summary of other tools that come with Thrive Themes membership:

1. Thrive Architect (formally known as Thrive Content Builder) – A beautiful visual drag-and-drop page builder.
2. Thrive Leads – A detailed email sign-up form builder with a range of helpful features that go beyond most list building WordPress plugins.
3. Thrive Headline Optimizer – A tool that helps you to A/B test the titles of your blog posts.
4. Thrive Clever Widgets – A tool that helps you to display different widgets on your blog based on tags, categories, etc.
5. Thrive Ultimatum – A tool for creating evergreen countdown timers to drive urgency.
6. Thrive Ovation – A tool that helps you collect and show well-designed testimonials on your website.
7. Thrive Quiz Builder – A tool for creating interactive quizzes, showing offers, or adding visitors to your mailing list based on their answers.
8. Thrive Comments – A tool that helps you build engagement on your website with a comment system that includes likes, up-votes, featured comments, and badges.
9. Thrive Optimize – An add-on for Thrive Architect that makes it simple to split test landing pages on your website and boost conversions.
10. Thrive Apprentice – A plugin that makes it easy to create and sell online courses.

In addition to these products from Thrive Themes, you’ll also enjoy access to Thrive University, which includes a range of courses created to help you master digital marketing.

While there’s plenty of valuable and public information on Thrive Themes’ blog, these courses are only available as part of a paid membership.

I haven’t gone through Thrive University personally, so I won’t dive into it too much in this Thrive Themes review. But I can say that if you’re interested in making the most of the tools included in Thrive Themes, their online marketing education will be incredibly useful.

DRAG AND DROP ELEMENTS

In Thrive Architect, you can just drag an element from the Editor Sidebar to the center of the page. Your two content options are:

Foundations. The foundation elements are your most basic ones, such as text, buttons, and images.

Building Blocks. Building block elements consists of the more advanced ones, such as tables, countdown, progress bar, and testimonials.

It’s also possible to “pin” your favorite element to the top of the Editor Sidebar.

In terms of building pages in Thrive, all you have to do is grab an element from the sidebar and drag it to the center of the page.

There are multiple drop zones above and below or to the side of an element you’ve placed, which makes it easy to create columns by just dropping a new element there. You can also directly resize columns on your page to get the exact look you want.

CONTENT BLOCK TEMPLATES

One of the coolest features in Thrive is the Content Block templates.

Technically its own element, the Content Block is a handy design feature that makes it easy to customize your page for a truly professional look.

You have some great Blocks to choose from, such as Pros and Cons, Steps, Quote, Call to Action, and Product Rating. These are handy for all types of pages and blog posts!

THRIVE LANDING PAGES

In addition to Blocks for your existing pages, Thrive Architect comes with more than 300 landing page templates, all professionally designed with conversions in mind!

Remember that every element on your page is serving some kind of function, whether you know it or not – so Thrive Architect’s landing pages streamline the process of organizing your elements and writing copy to achieve your goals. You’ll be able to access these layouts for different types of pages, such as the home page, confirmation page, download page, and landing pages.

In addition to these templates, Thrive Architect makes it easy to connect your particular email marketing service to your website through the API, which allows you to set up email forms directly within WordPress.

THRIVE COMMENTS

Comments are a powerful way to earn social proof and get your readers investing in your content. The problem is, it’s HARD to get people to leave comments!

When was the last time you spontaneously left a comment on a blog post, social post, or video – especially if that content didn’t have any other comments yet?

That’s why Thrive Comments is so powerful. It combines the most attractive gamified engagement features from different platforms, such as featured comments, badges, and likes, to make it much easier to build a community.

Thrive Comments also has an interesting feature that sends first-time commenters to a “welcome to the community” free gift page – which is much more inviting than seeing “pending approval” – and actually converts those brand-new commenters into subscribers!

Besides a better comment system on the front-end for your visitors, the other great thing about Thrive Comments is its Comment Moderation Dashboard. Thrive Themes makes it easy to manage all comments in one place, sort them, and assign them to different members of your team!

BUILD PROFESSIONAL ONLINE COURSES

Everyone knows that information products are a fantastic way to monetize your website in almost any niche.

But your focus should be on creating valuable courses and products, not fumbling around with the technical aspects of course creation, layout, payment systems, or functionality.

WordPress was never designed to create and edit courses. With Thrive Apprentice, you can use a drag-and-drop editor to host great content and put your time into making sales.

THRIVE OPTIMIZE

If you’ve been wondering how to split test and analyze traffic to your website or landing pages, you can now do that with Thrive Optimize.

In split testing, knowing which element works better is very important – and if you’re always guessing what works when building landing pages, then Thrive Optimize can help. With the Thrive Optimize plugin, you don’t have to depend on guesswork, as it lets you test any page or element in real time.

The report above was generated via Thrive Optimize, and it’s quite detailed. More importantly, it’s pretty easy to understand, as it clearly delineates the difference between multiple variations by number of visitors, number of unique visitors, total subscriptions, and subscription rate.

Kadence Themes Features

PREMIUM FEATURES

Both Kadence and Thrive offer a pro version that can be purchased to enhance functionality and increase the types of websites that can be built. The critical thing to consider is that both themes have a tiered pricing system with different features available at different price points.

You will need to check what features are needed and evaluate these with the different bundles to ensure you get what’s necessary for your website.

Kadence, like Thrive, also offers many extremely helpful features with its pro bundles that can help you get the exact website you want. Kadence Pro really shines with their Kadence blocks pro and pro starter templates that make designing websites much easier.

Some of the features that you can get with the Kadence Pro bundle include:

• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Kadence Theme Pro
• Pro Starter Templates
• Kadence Custom Fonts

The full bundle for Kadence, which is the top-level plan, includes even more great features. Even better, it can be purchased as a lifetime bundle, so you don’t need to worry about renewing a license yearly.

Features of the Kadence full bundle include:

• Kadence Blocks Pro
• Kadence Theme Pro
• Pro Starter Templates
• Custom Fonts
• Kadence Cloud
• Kadence Conversions
• WooCommerce Shop Kit
• Child Theme Builder
• Kadence Recaptcha
• Access to all plugins
• Exclusive access to all future products

FREE FEATURES

Kadence also offers tons of functionality with the free version, making it easy to create basic websites without updating to pro. That said, it’s worth it to update for some of the more powerful features, which we’ll get into next.

With Kadence, the free features you get make it easy to design and manage basic websites like niche and authority sites. Some of these free features include:

• Starter templates
• Kadence theme
• Kadence blocks
• Global colors and typography
• Branding
• Header layout
• Footer layout
• Page layout

As noted, the pro version of Kadence greatly increases functionality and is worth the price, especially as you can get a lifetime license for the theme and other Kadence plugins.

Thrive Themes VS Kadence WRAP-UP

So, did you get all of that? I hope so!

Obviously, Thrive Architect and Kadence are both fantastic page builders with reliable customer support, intuitive tools, and tons of great features. But unfortunately, you can’t really have BOTH of them on your website, so now is when we have to make a tough choice! (Technically, you could install both, but it’s both cheaper and less confusing to pick just one.)

If you need my bottom line, I’d definitely suggest Thrive Architect or the full Thrive Themes membership, because Thrive is just a more professional tool for anyone with a focus on marketing and ecommerce. That’s what Thrive was specifically made for, so why would you want to reinvent the wheel with Kadence?