WILMINGTON, Del., May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ThriveCart, the leading checkout and sales funnel platform trusted by 75,000+ online entrepreneurs, coaches, and creators, today announced the launch of ThriveAcademy, its next-generation community-first learning management system (LMS) built to solve one of the biggest challenges in online education: student drop-off.
At the heart of ThriveAcademy is Communities: social learning functionality that fundamentally reimagines how students experience online courses. Rather than coaches and entrepreneurs delivering lessons inside an isolated course player, ThriveAcademy embeds every piece of course content directly inside a creator-branded social community, turning passive consumption into an engaging, connected, and motivating learning experience.
Addressing the Course Completion Rate Crisis
The numbers tell a stark story. The average course completion rate across the online education industry sits at just 12.6%*. ThriveAcademy is designed to disrupt this cycle. Research shows that supported and coached online courses achieve completion rates of 42%, and selective cohort-based programs can reach as high as 85-90%**. The difference? Community, accountability, and belonging.
With ThriveAcademy, students no longer land in a course player when they log in. Instead, they arrive at a personalized, branded community – presented with a dynamic activity feed that surfaces course progress, peer discussions, achievement celebrations, leaderboard rankings, quizzes, and creator announcements all in one place. Lessons load directly inside the community environment, so students never leave the social context while they learn.
"For too long, course creators have been forced to choose between a great checkout platform, course platform, and a great community platform," said Ismael Wrixen, CEO of ThriveCart. "ThriveAcademy changes that entirely. We've built a platform where community isn't a bolt-on feature – it's the foundation. When students feel connected, accountable, and part of something bigger than a single course, they show up, they complete, and they come back. That's what ThriveAcademy delivers, and we can't wait to see what our creators build with it."
One Platform. No More Fragmentation.
ThriveAcademy communities are built directly into the ThriveCart ecosystem, eliminating the need for third-party tools and delivering a seamless, unified experience from discovery, through checkout, fulfilment, learning, growth, and onward success.
Click here for more info and to see the platform in action.
* Jordan, K. (2015). Massive open online course completion rates revisited: Assessment, length and attrition. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i3.2112
** Mckeon, Judith. (2025). Achievements and attrition: Investigating an online course. 2. 1-7. 10.5281/zenodo.17114038
About ThriveCart
ThriveCart powers more than 75,000 businesses worldwide, has processed over $8 billion in sales across more than 70 million transactions, and supports more than 12 million student enrollments. For more, visit www.thrivecart.com.
Inquiries
Jared Orlin
jared.orlin@thrivecart.com
