Carrd Review: One Page Websites Made Simple

For many business owners, a minimalist website builder is all they will need. After all, much of their business might not need an entire site.

Carrd seeks to solve that problem by offering a tool to build one-page websites. But does this builder let you create sleek, professional websites that your customers won’t think twice about? To find that out, we need to take a closer look at Carrd.

Carrd Review: What is Carrd?

 Carrd was originally a side project made in 2016 for making minimal sites. AJ, its creator, took about one year to make it. The project initially had no other contributors, making it a solo endeavor.

The product grew quickly after getting featured on Product Hunt. The quick success has caused it to be featured on mainstream platforms like Business Insider.

With it being a one-person show, Carrd is an impressive success story. The company is still tiny, sticking under 10 employees. This has stayed the same as Carrd has grown to thousands of users. 

Who is Carrd best for?

Carrd is ideal for solopreneurs, influencers, and those who want to host an online portfolio site. If you don’t need much from your website, Carrd is an excellent choice. 

However, for those expecting advanced features, like email marketing, CRM tools, or marketing funnels, you won’t find what you need here. Carrd is ideal for those who want to get online quickly with direct results. 

Carrd Builder Pros and Cons

Carrd pricing & plans

Carrd has four different plans you can choose from. Regardless of your plan, you get a 7-day free trial. So, Carrd gives you some time to test all of these features. 

Below, we will break down those plans:

The free plan 

The free version of Carrd comes with fewer exciting features when looking at the other plans. Those who pay for the free plan get three free sites. But you don’t get many additional features. 

You have photo upload limitations, fewer templates, and no access to custom domains. You also can’t use any forms, making it virtually worthless as a lead capture device. 

The Pro Lite Plan

 The Pro Lite plan costs a measly $9 per year, making it very cheap. Here’s what you get with this basic plan:

• Premium URLs (no custom URLs)
• Three sites 
• No branding
• Use of high-quality images
• More website templates and access to custom templates 
• No element limit for your sites 
• Video uploads
• Site favicons 
• Can share your site with other Carrd users 

At this point, you still don’t get access to contact forms, making this level less useful for lead generation. 

The Pro Standard Plan

 At $19 per year, Carrd doesn’t charge much for its professional plan. You also get a few more advanced features:

• Custom domains with SSL support 
• Ten sites 
• Access to functional contact forms 
• Email marketing third-party integrations 
• Payment-based interactions (PayPal, Stripe, etc.) 
• Google Analytics 
• Meta tags 
• Code embed blocks (for custom HTML on your site)

The Pro Plus Plan 

Pro Plus members get the most features but only pay $49 annually. As you might imagine, users get a few extra options with this:

• 25 sites 
• Advanced forms that are entirely custom 
• Password protection for your site 
• Redirects to Carrd 
• Support for variables and dynamic content 
• Can control advanced features (custom styles, JavaScript features, etc.)
• You can download your sites 

This sounds great on paper, but how does it work in practice? To find out, we need to create an account on Carrd.

Getting started with Carrd

Step one of the creation process throws you straight into a template selection. Carrd doesn’t waste any time showing you what it has. 

 There are five template types, with “form” being the most useful for internet marketers. Creating sectioned pages that simulate multi-page websites is also interesting, but it’s still all a one-page experience.

 From selecting the page type, you are brought immediately to the builder.

Navigating the Carrd website builder

The Carrd page builder is about as basic as it gets. The simple website builder is ideal for solopreneurs overwhelmed by other building tools. Carrd even starts you with a tutorial overlay to highlight what each button does. 

Following the menu in the upper-right, you can add different website elements, undo or redo, preview page animations, sort to different page sections, switch to a mobile view, save, and publish. So, your basic functionality is similar to page builders like ClickFunnels but much more straightforward.

Adding and editing elements

Clicking on any of the page elements will bring up different style-based edits. However, these style edits are not available under the free and Pro Lite purchase levels. 

All the standard editing options are here, but those who prefer advanced page builders might not like the simplicity. On the other hand, others might think page builders try to be too much, so Carrd might solve their problem.

Editing text is somewhat unique, as Carrd relies on something similar to markdown formatting. This means you have to use keyboard symbols to change the format of your text.

You can’t copy and paste your text from a Word document and keep the formatting. All formatting must be done within the text editor (which is annoying). 

When adding page elements, you click the plus symbol. Then, a drop-down menu lets you browse through all the elements you can add. 

Everything is readily available on one page. However, you don’t get as many elements as other page builders.

It isn’t hard to make an attractive portfolio website or a lead generation page using Carrd. Those with an individual purpose will appreciate that Carrd doesn’t overcomplicate its editing process. But if you want a more advanced website with features like membership or product access, you’ll need to look elsewhere. 

Carrd integrations

Clicking on the form will reveal your options for third-party integrations. Namely, Carrd integrates with all major email marketing platforms, including MailChimp, GetResponse, and Sendinblue.

These integrations are necessary for digital marketers who need a place to put their lead-generation data. Carrd does not have an integrated CRM dashboard, which is part of why it is one of the more inexpensive options.

Other third-party integrations Carrd include Google Analytics and WordPress. You’ll need to create an account to find out how to use these integrations.

Publishing your website (creating a Carrd Account)

All of the features that we’ve mentioned up to this point can be tested without making a Carrd account. Carrd is one of the few simple website builders that lets you try the tool before providing your email.  

Even when you provide your email, you don’t need to provide a payment card. Instead, you can check the dashboard to see if the platform feels good before giving a credit card. 

So, this is one of the few reviews where the dashboard is the last thing we will look at. 

 Navigating the Carrd dashboard 

The Carrd dashboard is straightforward. The left-hand navigation menu lets you access your sites, access shared sites (between other Carrd users), view various notifications and set updates, access the knowledge base, pay for the pro plan, log out, and access your account details.

The top button brings you back to the home page, which isn’t very helpful and should be replaced with the account access button. The dashboard has a lot of wasted space, as it could be reduced to your account, sites, and knowledge base and be much handier. 

Carrd is also a decent solution for website designers. The seller program makes the website templates you make available for purchase. But, because of the platform’s low cost, Carrd isn’t the most lucrative reselling platform. 

What do Carrd users say about the platform?

Carrd gets anywhere from average to above-average customer reviews. G2 gives it about a 4.5 on average between 24 reviews. ProductHunt is where it got the most attention, giving it 156 reviews which are mostly five stars. 

We tried TrustPilot, but the reviews have some questionable merit (and sanity). There are two identical reviews like this below.

One review from TrustPilot did raise an interesting concern: the anonymity of the tool’s owner. AJ doesn’t identify themselves, which might raise some concerns. So, this might have you think twice about using Carrd. 

On the positive side, Carrd gets compliments because it is easy to use. It’s a simple website builder for business owners who want to release something in under a minute and have no need for the more bulky websites.

Criticisms tend to focus on the lack of advanced settings. It isn’t a good choice for blogs, membership sites, or anything that requires more than one page. 

FAQs

Is Carrd worth it?  

When asking Carrd is worth it, that depends on what you need. 

Are you a business owner looking for an integrated system to run your online business? If yes, Carrd isn’t for you. Instead, it would be best to have something like LeadPages or KickFunnels. 

But, if you need a way to get online quickly with direct results, Carrd is excellent. It’s ideal for hosting portfolios, getting emails, and making simple landing pages. However, Carrd does almost nothing to help you with that data after this, meaning you will need to integrate it with other platforms. 

This means Carrd isn’t ideal for a business that wants to scale as they demand more from a site builder. But it can work in a pinch when you need to get the job done.