Creator and checkout platform

ViralPayouts vs ThriveCart

ViralPayouts has no monthly fee, pays your affiliates for you and pays recruiters on every program. You pay 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3%, and nothing in a month when nobody sells. With ThriveCart, paying affiliates for you is optional or extra and has two-tier recruiting on some plans only. It costs $47 to $87 a month.

Every figure for ThriveCart comes from its own pages or named review sites, checked 12 October 2026. Sources are listed at the bottom.

Why brands pick ViralPayouts over ThriveCart

Best fit: Brands that want to be listed where partners browse programs, want recruiters as a second level by default, and want payouts handled for them without a monthly subscription.

$0 a month
No plan and no setup fee. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Payouts done for you
One invoice per program. ViralPayouts sends every partner and recruiter their money and collects tax forms.
Recruiters built in
Customer links and recruit links on every program, with the override set your way and reversed on refunds.

Start a program free

Side by side

	ThriveCart	ViralPayouts
Price	$47 to $87 a month	$0 a month. 10% of what you pay partners, falling to 3% at $10,000 a month.
Setup fee	Not stated	None
Fee for paying affiliates	None from ThriveCart ('0% fees on sales'; 'We never take a cut of your revenue'). Processor fees (from 2.9% + $0.30) are passed through from Stripe/PayPal/Authorize.net; affiliate payouts via the seller's PayPal carry PayPal's own costs.	Included in the fee above: no charge to the brand for sending payoutsPartners pay Whop's own fee when they withdraw to their bank
Pays your affiliates for you	Optionalvia Seller's own PayPal account via ThriveCart's PayPal integration; seller remains 'responsible for paying them'	Yes You fund by bank transfer; we pay every partner
Two-tier recruiting	Higher plans2 levelsPro+	Yes Two levels on every program: share of commission, share of sale or fixed. Paid on approved sales, never sign-ups
Public program directory	No	Yes Partners browse and join with one account
Tracking	affiliate links with configurable cookie expiry; first-cookie or last-cookie attribution choice; multiple-product tracking on own site; adding/removing affiliate on an existing transaction	First-party links with click IDs, signed server-to-server events, Stripe Checkout webhook
Coupon tracking	Not stated	Yes A code per partner, per program
Mobile app tracking	Not stated	App installs, sign-ups and purchases reported from your server through the signed event API, with bounties on them. No SDK to ship in your app.
API, webhooks, MCP	API, webhooks	REST API for brands and partners with an OpenAPI spec, an MCP server for AI agents, a signed event API and partner postbacks
Integrations	Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, autoresponders (adding affiliates to lists), Slack / Google Sheets via behaviour rules	Stripe Checkout, Shopify orders, any backend via the event API

ThriveCart plans in full

Standard: $47 a month. Checkout, funnels, 1 bump, upsells, Academy Starter. No affiliate centre (affiliates are Pro+). A one-time 'ThriveCart Account' checkout at $495 also exists.
Pro+: $87 a month. 'Affiliate Center & Automated Payouts', 'Joint Venture Contracts', 2nd-tier affiliates, behaviour rules. Price taken from Pro+ monthly checkout (future payment $87 after trial).
Enterprise: price not published. Custom pricing, volume-based processing rates

Pricing source

Where ViralPayouts comes out ahead of ThriveCart

What ThriveCart offers

Course creators, coaches, info-product and community sellers who want a checkout/funnel cart with built-in LMS and a native affiliate centre.

Creator and checkout platform · G2 4.6 (31 reviews) · Trustpilot 4.4 (542 reviews)

Why ViralPayouts is the better choice

ViralPayouts pays partners for the brand (brand funds by bank transfer); on ThriveCart the seller pays affiliates from their own PayPal or manually.
Two levels built into every program by default with separate recruit links; ThriveCart's 2nd tier is enabled affiliate-by-affiliate on Pro+.
Public directory of live programs with one partner account across programs; ThriveCart has none.
No monthly fee; works with any checkout through redirect links, signed S2S API and Stripe Checkout webhook.

What ThriveCart users say

Paraphrased from public reviews. Follow each link to read the original.

Praise

G2 reviewers call the built-in affiliate management 'robust' and note it has no additional fees. g2.com
Bump offers and upsells credited with higher order values; quick checkout setup. g2.com
Trustpilot reviewers (Jul 2026, Nov 2025) praise fast, clear support replies. trustpilot.com

Complaints

A G2 reviewer found it hard to log in to an affiliate account to see what affiliates see. g2.com
Trustpilot reviewer (Aug 2026) reports order-bump bugs mixing up prices and courses not unlocking. trustpilot.com
Paid Pro feature not appearing on account and slow refund (Trustpilot, Aug 2026). trustpilot.com
Limited design customisation and slow feature updates (G2). g2.com

About ThriveCart

In their words:: "The Creator Stack used by 75,000+ solopreneurs, coursemakers, and community builders" (homepage H1)
Company:: Founded 2016 (launch, per About page milestones) · ThriveCart (independent; CEO Ismael Wrixen). Acquired Convertri (2023), Piktochart (2024), VBOUT (2026).
Funding:: $35M investment from LTV SaaS Growth Fund (2023)
Named customers:: Gemma Bonham-Carter (Course Creator School), Chris Huntley (TheRiseToTheTop.com), Dom Wells (Onfolio)
Website:: thrivecart.com

Try ViralPayouts on test money

Set your commission and recruiter override, see what each sale costs you, and run it on the test network before a real partner joins. No monthly fee.

Start a program See pricing

More comparisons

All comparisons

Sources for ThriveCart (19), checked 12 October 2026

ThriveCart is a trademark of its owner. ViralPayouts is not affiliated with ThriveCart. Prices and features change: check thrivecart.com before you decide. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.