Why Carrd costs so little

Carrd started with a solo developer

Carrd was built by AJ (@ajlkn), a solo developer based in Nashville. It launched on March 7, 2016, and reached #1 on Product Hunt on March 16, 2016. The company is Carrd Inc.

There's some revenue history behind the low prices, too. On the Indie Hackers podcast in 2019, AJ said Carrd was making about $30,000 a month. In a 2021 AMA, he reported over $1M in yearly revenue, along with 2.5 million sites and 1.6 million users.

Those are dated figures. They're what AJ reported at those points, not a claim about Carrd's revenue or user count today.

If the price makes you wonder whether this is a new project with no business behind it, Carrd's launch and those reports give you something concrete to go on.

The price was a deliberate choice

Why charge so little? AJ has said he picked $19 a year to make upgrading cheap enough for people using the free plan, at a time when other builders charged $20 to $250 a year.

That wasn't a price attached to an unrestricted website builder. Carrd builds one-page sites, and AJ has said keeping that scope made the product small enough for one person to run.

He's also said Carrd grows through word of mouth and uses cheap, flat-price servers. Those are the operating choices he's described behind the pricing, rather than a promise that every kind of website can be built for the same price.

The scope matters. If you want a one-page site, Carrd is built for that. If you want separate pages, its one-page focus is a limit you'll need to account for before choosing it.

Here's the comparison, including Heya, the builder publishing this guide. Heya is another option if you're looking for a low-cost builder with multiple pages per site.

For Carrd, the distinction to check first is the custom domain. Pro Lite doesn't include one; Pro Standard includes custom domains with SSL, along with forms and the listed widgets.

And if downloading your site matters, that's a Pro Plus feature. It includes HTML, CSS and JavaScript downloads, plus advanced forms, redirects and password protection. Don't pick a plan on price alone and assume those features are included.

Try the plan before buying

Carrd offers a 7-day Pro trial with no card required. You can try Pro before making a purchase (and without entering card details).

Its terms say purchases are generally non-refundable.

That's worth reading before paying, especially if you're choosing a plan for a particular feature. Use the trial to check the features you need rather than treating the purchase as something you can automatically reverse.

Where Heya fits

Need separate pages? Heya is a no-code website builder, and you sign in with Google to publish. Its Free plan has no credit card requirement and no time limit.

Heya Pro Lite costs $3 a month. It keeps the 3-site allowance while raising the page limit to 20 pages per site, removing the badge and removing nofollow from links.

Custom domains start with Heya Pro Standard at $6 a month, with 5 sites and 1 custom domain per account with HTTPS. Heya doesn't sell domains; you bring one from any registrar.

Heya Pro Plus costs $15 a month. It includes 25 sites, up to 10 custom domains and a download of your site as a ZIP of HTML files.

Heya doesn't have a built-in store, checkout or form builder. You link a button to your checkout or store page, use a Google Form or a Tally form, or add the Calendly embed for bookings.

Related guides: Is Carrd free?, Carrd pricing, Is Carrd trustworthy? and Carrd alternatives.

More from Heya: All guides, Templates and Pricing.