Do you want to capture leads with an overlay, but aren’t sure whether to build it as a Thrive Architect lightbox or a Thrive Leads form? In this guide, we will clarify the key differences between the two so you can choose the right tool for your needs, now that both are designed inside the same embedded Thrive Architect editor.
Understanding the Core Differences
Where Do Your Lightboxes Come From?
The first key difference is where each lightbox comes from:
- Thrive Architect Lightbox: This type of lightbox is built into the Thrive Architect plugin. If you have Thrive Architect, you can use this feature.
- Thrive Leads Lightbox: This lightbox is part of the Thrive Leads plugin, which is mainly used for collecting email sign-ups and building your email list.
Knowing which plugin the lightbox comes from is important because it changes the way you create, manage, and show these lightboxes on your website.
How Your Lightbox Is Constructed
The next differentiating point is how the lightbox is made.
- Thrive Architect Lightbox: This lightbox can be built using the Lead Generation element. You can easily add this element from the right sidebar when editing a page with Thrive Architect. It’s simple and quick to add to your page design.
- Thrive Leads Lightbox: In Thrive Leads, you open My Forms and add a new overlay-style form (such as a Popup) from the ThriveBoxes tab. Its design then happens on the form’s own Design tab, the same embedded Thrive Architect editor used for every other Thrive Leads form type.
Adding and Displaying Your Lightbox
The process of adding and displaying lightboxes differs significantly between Thrive Architect and Thrive Leads. Let’s break it down.
Adding a Lightbox Using Thrive Architect
- Open your WordPress admin area and navigate to Thrive Lightboxes » Add New Thrive Lightbox.
- Enter the lightbox title and click Launch Thrive Architect. A Thrive Lightbox opens in the editor.
- Click the plus icon in the right panel to see the elements you can use on the lightbox.
- Drag and drop the Lead Generation element into the lightbox, which opens a popup of lead generation templates to choose from — the same procedure as adding a Lead Generation element to a regular Thrive Architect page.
Thrive Architect lightboxes are manually added to individual pages by linking them to specific elements (like buttons or images) that trigger the lightbox. They can only be displayed on pages built using Thrive Architect.
Adding a Lightbox Using Thrive Leads
- In Thrive Leads, open My Forms and select the ThriveBoxes tab, then add a new form.
- Use the form’s Display Rules tab to set where and how it should appear.
Thrive Leads lightboxes offer more flexibility in display: since Thrive Leads is a standalone plugin, its lightboxes can be shown on any page or post on your self-hosted WordPress site, regardless of whether that page was built with Thrive Architect, and can be targeted to multiple pages, posts, categories, or post types through Lead Group conditions rather than being added one page at a time.
Additional Settings and Information: Enhancing Your Lightboxes
Both Thrive Architect and Thrive Leads have features that help your lightboxes work even better, not just create and show them.
Controlling When and How Your Lightbox Appears
Thrive Architect Lightbox: This lightbox is typically triggered when a user accesses the page where the form has been added. You set the trigger when you add the Lead Generation element, and it can be linked to elements like a button or an image using the Animation & Action settings in the left sidebar of the Thrive Architect editor.
Thrive Leads Lightbox: Thrive Leads offers more trigger options through its Display Rules tab, including a time delay, a scroll distance, and reaching the bottom of the page. You can also set a Display Frequency to control how often the lightbox reappears to a visitor who already dismissed it.
Pre-designed Options for Your Lightbox
Thrive Architect Lightbox: Thrive Architect provides a predefined set of templates for its lightboxes, giving you a good starting point that you can customize further to match your website’s look and feel.
Thrive Leads Lightbox: Thrive Leads also lets you choose from a variety of templates for your lightboxes, and you can switch templates later using Change Template on the Design tab without losing the elements you’ve already added.
Dynamic Views for Enhanced User Experience
Thrive Leads Lightbox: Thrive Leads lightboxes support multiple states in addition to the default one (see how to add interactive elements to your opt-in forms for how to manage states on the Design tab). This means you can create different views for your lightbox that appear based on user interactions — for example, a visitor clicks a button and the lightbox transitions to a new state with different content or a different form, enabling more interactive, multi-step opt-in processes.
Thrive Architect Lightbox: Thrive Architect lightboxes do not support multiple states the same way. They are generally designed for a single, static view once triggered.
Optimizing Your Lightbox Performance
A/B testing helps you understand which version of your lightbox converts best. Both platforms offer it, but with different approaches:
Thrive Architect Lightbox: To A/B test a Thrive Architect lightbox, you need the Thrive Optimize plugin installed alongside Thrive Architect — an additional plugin is required to unlock this functionality.
Thrive Leads Lightbox: Thrive Leads lightboxes come with A/B testing built directly into the plugin. You can set up and manage A/B tests for your overlay forms right from the Thrive Leads dashboard, with no additional plugin needed.
That’s it! You now know the differences between the lightboxes in Thrive Architect and Thrive Leads. Next, see the differences between Thrive Leads and Thrive Architect in building your email list for the broader picture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which lightbox should I use for list building?
Use a Thrive Leads lightbox (built as a ThriveBox form) if your goal is growing your email list, since it comes with Thrive Leads’ Display Rules, Lead Group targeting, A/B testing, and Lead Reports built in. Use a Thrive Architect lightbox for a general-purpose overlay on a single Architect-built page that isn’t part of your list-building strategy.
Can I convert a Thrive Architect lightbox into a Thrive Leads lightbox?
These are separate features managed in different places. Rebuild the design in a new Thrive Leads ThriveBox form using its Design tab rather than trying to move an existing Architect lightbox into Thrive Leads directly.