Thrive Architect - Page-Builder for WordPress

Thrive Architect is the intuitive and fast Page-Builder from Thrive Themes. The content builder is a plugin that is theme independent. Unlike most competing products, it is a front-end editor, so the editor in the WordPress backend is completely bypassed.

This Thrive Architect review will show you everything you need to know about the WordPress Page-Builder. After this article, you can decide for yourself if the tool is right for your website.

Prices

Such an elaborate plugin is of course not free. But not really expensive either.

	Thrive Suite	Thrive Suite Agency
Audience	Private and sole proprietor	Agencies and web designers
Websites	5	50
Use on client websites	no	yes
Price	$ 299.00 / Year	$ 588.00 / Year
	To Offer	To Offer

The Thrive Suite Membership costs $ 24.00 per month. With annual prepayment you are allowed to use on 5 websites. The standalone plugin costs $ 97.00 per year.

Installation

For ease of use you will find the Thrive Product Manager in the Member Dashboard of Thrive Themes. You can now upload this plugin .zip file as usual in the Plugins menu of WordPress and activate it afterwards.

Howto: How to install a WordPress plugin

Afterwards you have the item Product Manager in the WordPress dashboard menu. The first time you click on it, you need to connect to the ThriveThemes.com dashboard. Enter your login details and click Log In.

If you have a Thrive membership, you can install all products immediately. If you have only bought single plugins or themes, only these are unlocked. All others are grayed out.

Now select Thrive Architect and click Install selected products.

The Thrive Architect Editor

The editor can be divided into several areas. To help you get started as quickly as possible, let me explain the most important areas.

Elements

By clicking on the plus symbol in the upper right corner, the elements will be displayed. These are the building blocks of your article or Landing-Page.

Content Blocks are prefabricated blocks, which in turn consist of elements.

Foundation contains the most important basic elements.

Building Block are numerous advanced elements like CTAs, lists or a contact form.

Since there are a lot of elements, the search function is very handy.

Editor area

In the middle you will find the content area. Here you drag the elements, move them, select and change them.

Of course, the texts are also written here.

Element options

For the active element you will find the element options on the left. This is the strength of Thrive Page-Builder. While working you will notice that you can do everything imaginable here.

For example, for forms you can add fields here, or connect to a mail service.

You can collapse this area to the left.

Text options

For each text field the text options are shown at the top. Add formatting, lists or a shortcode. Nothing special, you probably already know it from text programs like Word.

Preview options

You can directly edit your text in desktop, tablet or smartphone mode. The selection for this is made via one of the three icons at the bottom.

The Preview button opens a preview in a new tab, directly on the website. So without the editor.

Version history and saving

At the bottom left you find the revision manager and a back and forward button. Additionally there are save and close options.

Advanced document settings

The gear icon opens the Advanced Settings. This is where Thrive Page-Builder really scores again.

• View Page Source (HTML) opens a code editor with syntax highlighting.
• Custom CSS allows you to specify CSS directly for this document.
• Page Events allows you to configure an exit-intent pop-up, for example.

Getting Started with Thrive Architect

Just like you’ve always done, in the WordPress dashboard, go to Posts/Pages -> Create. All that has changed is the new Launch Thrive Architect button.

First, you should assign a title. All document settings like category, keywords or post image you still assign here on the right side.

Click on the green button to start the Thrive Architect Editor.

In the newly opened tab you can see your article as it actually looks on your website. Including all elements like header and menu. The new, empty article is now waiting to be filled. So far, we only see the previously assigned title.

In order to start texting, you need to drag at least one element into the editor area. So I start with the Paragraph/Text element. I simply drag this element from the right side into the text area of my article.

Immediately, all available options for the element appear on the right side. Since text is active, the text properties are also displayed above it.

Below that, I can position an image, for example. For this, the original Add Media dialog of WordPress is used.

In the next step I position an image element between the two text elements. Immediately a pop-up opens where I can upload an image or select an existing one to insert.

In the menu you will find countless elements that you can now insert into your text. With the mouse you can always move and position all elements. Of course also next to each other in columns and containers.

Now you know the basic functions of Thrive Themes Architect.

What elements are there?

The list of elements and blocks is long. By dividing them into groups and using the search function, you can always find what you need quickly. You can also pin frequently used elements to the top of the Pinned group.

• Paragraph/Text
• Heading
• Image
• Button
• Background Section
• Column Layout
• Content Box
• Templates and Symbols
• Logo
• Click to Tweet
• Social Share
• Content Reveal
• Countdown
• Countdown Evergreen
• Credit Card
• Custom HTML
• Disqus Comments
• Facebook Comments
• Custom Menu
• Divider
• Fill Counter
• Icon
• More Tag
• Lead Generation
• Progress Bar
• Styled List
• Styled Box
• Table
• Full Scalable (Retina) Icons
• Post Grid
• Star Rating
• Tabs
• Toggle
• Responsive Video Embed
• Table of Contents
• Testimonial
• Video
• Audio
• Call to Action
• Google Maps
• WordPress Content
• Data Tables
• Pricing Table
• Search
• Custom HTML/CSS
• Thrive Leads Shortcode

The selection of usable elements is quite impressive. Basically sorted into Simple Content Elements, Multi-Style Elements and Advanced Elements I counted 46 elements. Constantly growing.

Already created areas can be saved as templates at any time. Frequently reused elements need to be created only once.

Simple content elements – Foundation

Text elements, images, buttons, icons and areas with their own CSS specifications form the foundation for each article. With the Content Container you have the possibility to adjust the width and spacing around the simple text element.

Advanced Elements – Building Blocks

You probably won’t need these Building Blocks in every article, but sometimes they are certainly very useful. With a content box, social share buttons, styled lists or a call-to-action element you can do quite a lot.

In this section you can also find your previously created templates & symbols.

Very handy is also the Column Layout, with which you can insert the most diverse column designs.

What should not be missing is a generator for HTML tables. You need a table every now and then. After clicking on “Add Table” you can specify the desired columns and rows and you have the table, where each field is individually clickable and editable.

Content Blocks

Content Blocks were introduced on 2019-05-08. They are predefined template blocks that you can freely edit. To list and explain all of them is beyond the scope, as there are simply too many. More sets of Content Blocks are already being planned.

The following video shows the Content Blocks in action:

The advantage of these blocks is that they were created by designers. That’s where I, as a more technical marketer, can really benefit from them.

But it’s also about speed. If you only have to position ready-made blocks, you save a lot of time in daily content creation.

Originally, there was the following breakdown:

• Page Blocks
• Content Blocks
• Theme Blocks

In the meantime, the blocks have been simplified and combined under the name Blocks. Depending on the plugin used, different blocks and functions are available.

Templates and Symbols

You have texts or CTAs that you send over and over again? The Template & Symbols element is exactly what you are looking for.

First you need to select your desired area and click on the save icon.

This will open a window where you can assign a name and, if desired, a new category for your template/symbol.

But what is the difference between a template and a symbol?

• Templates can be changed independently on each page.
• Symbols, on the other hand, are changed across all pages.

The Templates & Symbols element allows you to insert previously saved templates. After clicking on it, a pop-up opens where you can find all your templates.

Landing-Pages

In Thrive Architect you can create Landing-Pages in many ways. The editor offers many elements for this purpose. But the easiest and fastest way is to use one of the 325 Landing-Page templates.

These templates are only available for WordPress sites. In the Thrive Architect editor you will find the new icon with the cloud and the arrow in it. Click on it and immediately a new window will open with all available Landing-Page templates.

The LPs are always grouped into sets. First click on a set to expand it. Then you can click on the desired template and load it into the editor with Choose Template.

Smart Landing-Pages

The newest feature is the Smart Landing-Pages. This is a really great achievement.

First, you can assign so-called Global Fields in the Thrive Dashboard. These are variables that are then automatically loaded by the Smart Landing-Pages. These can be the name, address or links to social profiles.

The same is possible with color profiles. With just a few clicks you have changed all the colors and data of the LP.

The following video explains the Smart LPs more clearly:

Thrive Lightbox

With this feature you replace all pop-up plugins in one go. Maybe not completely. Thrive Lightboxes offers pop-ups with exit intent and timers as triggers. Extensive tracking and reporting is missing. You can connect numerous newsletter providers, though. Thrive Architect offers close to 40 integrations.

For advanced lead management, check out the Thrive Leads plugin.

Page Event Manger

On any page, you can call an event using the Thrive Architect Page-Builder. You can find the Page Event Manager by clicking on the gear icon, on the far right of the menu.

There you can select the trigger you want to use. You can choose between a timer and an exit intent.

The next step is to select your desired lightbox, with advertising or a prompt.

More functions

Thrive Themes Content Builder also works with a variety of newsletter services like MailChimp. Once you’ve created the connection in the API Connections menu, the CTA buttons and newsletter forms are ready to go.

In the Font Manager you can import additional fonts from Font Squirrel and then use them on your site.

The Icon Manager allows you to load IcoMoon icons. Similar to what we already know from the Enfold theme.

Perfect integration with Thrive Quiz Builder.

Thrive Architect target audience

Now the question is, is Thrive Architect the right product for me and my website?

Sole proprietors, SMEs and small teams often want to do as much as possible themselves. That’s where a Page-Builder like Thrive Architect comes in handy. Especially for Landing-Pages that need constant modification and don’t need HTML and CSS intervention.

Many Thrive customers also start a side income and cannot afford external programmers. What initially starts as a private project often becomes a stable financial mainstay.

If you do affiliate marketing or generate customers through your website, then you have found the right tool for you.

Thrive Architect FAQ

Alternatives:

• Beaver Builder
• Elementor

Conclusion

The Thrive Architect Page-Builder from Thrive Themes can convince. If you are looking for a frontend editor for WordPress, the content builder is certainly a good choice.

As promised by the manufacturer, the visual editor works intuitively and, above all, very quickly. The usable elements cover all imaginable possibilities. The editor was created for marketers and not for developers.

If you have any questions, please use the form below. I will be happy to help you with Thrive Architect.

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Updates

18.02.2022

• One year later, Thrive Themes plugins and themes are available again individually.

01.02.2021

• Thrive products are now only available with Thrive Suite.

11.07.2020 – Version 2.5.6

• Improvements for the video element, page block, icons library, autofill option and template switching.

11.06.2020 – Version 2.5.5

• The TOC (Table of Contents) element has been completely reworked. New templates and new functions. Each menu item I can be changed or hidden.
• There are new header variants. Something the split menu with the logo in the middle.
• Custom tags to choose from for lead gen forms
• Form values can now be passed to the thank you page.

21.05.2020 – Version 2.5.4.1

• Checkboxes for lead gen forms
• Hide Smart Completed Lead Gen Fields
• Editing post title, featured image, video and audio from Thrive Architect
• New Lead Gen Button Styles
• Custom fields for Campaign Monitor and Brevo

01.05.2020 – Version 2.5.4:

• Radio buttons for opt-in forms
• Dropdown menu for opt-in forms
  
• New editor for email notifications: Used the lead generation element.
• New login form element

09.04.2020 – Version 2.5.1

• Drag handles for easy resizing of videos
• Customize video thumbnail icons
• Added text area form field for lead generation and added labels to form fields
• Floating Video feature
• Integration of custom fields in MailerLite

26.02.2020 – Version 2.4.9:

• A completely redesigned tabs element (with beautiful new templates and Smart Color Technology)
• Improvements to the typography bar with Dynamic text
• Updates to the dynamic text control
• Integration with the Advanced Custom Fields plugin (AFC support)
• And improved saving of templates and symbols

07.02.20 – Version 2.4.8:

• Completely redesigned toggle element
• Different aspect ratios for video
• ConvertKit now compatible with custom fields