What's Included with Thrive
The upgrade prompts are spread across the app, which makes it hard to see the whole picture from any one of them. This page collects every place Thrive changes what you can do.
In your budget results
Locked plans. The Builder generates a set of plans at different intensities — typically five, from Minimum Effort to Maximum Effort. Free unlocks one. The rest show their name and headline numbers behind a lock overlay, so you can see a faster path exists without opening it.
If your situation only produces a single plan — The Only Way or The Plan — that one is unlocked, so you're seeing everything.
The recommendation reasoning. The results screen shows what people in similar situations chose. The explanation behind it shows Upgrade to see why on Free.
See Understanding Your Results.
While tracking
Editing bill amounts. Tapping a bill to correct its amount for a period shows Upgrade to edit on Free.
Editing the paycheck amount. Same gate, same reason — adjusting a period's real income against the planned figure.
See Completing Bills.
On the dashboard
Some analytics views prompt Upgrade Your Plan. The core stat tiles and charts are available on Free; the deeper analysis is part of Thrive.
See Dashboard Overview.
Canvas
Canvas itself is locked on Free. Opening it shows an upgrade prompt over the canvas area.
Sharing is gated separately. The share button reads Upgrade to share. Because Canvas as a whole requires Thrive, you'll typically only encounter this if a subscription has lapsed.
See What is Canvas? and Sharing & Exporting.
Budgets
Multiple budgets for comparison, and automated restoration of past budgets, are Thrive features. Your budget history stays visible on Free.
See The Archive.
What Free keeps
Worth stating plainly, because the list above reads heavier than the experience:
- ›Building budgets
- ›Tracking bills paycheck by paycheck
- ›All nine calculators, unrestricted
- ›Budget history
- ›Core dashboard metrics and charts
- ›Accountability features
- ›Budgeting resources and guides
You can run a complete budget cycle on Free indefinitely. There's no trial clock.
Deciding
The clearest way to think about it: Free tells you a plan and helps you follow it. Thrive shows you all the plans, lets you adjust as you go, and gives you the deeper analysis.
If you're new to budgeting, start Free and run a full pay cycle first. The value of seeing four more aggressive plans is much easier to judge once you know whether the routine sticks.
Upgrading
Settings → Subscription. See Managing Your Subscription for plans, discount codes, restoring a purchase, and canceling.