Shopify vs Carrd
Shopify scores 9.0/10, Carrd 8.1/10. Where each one wins, what they cost and who should pick which, side by side.
The short answer
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Carrd scores 8.1/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick.
Shopify leads on design, flexibility, and support. Carrd leads on ease of use and value.
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Carrd starts at $1.58/mo and has a free plan. Carrd is the cheaper way in.
| Shopify | Carrd | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 9.0 | 8.1 |
| From | $29 | $1.58 |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Sells online | Yes | No |
| Code export | Yes | No |
| Ease of use | 8.4 | 9.6 |
| Design | 8.2 | 7.8 |
| Flexibility | 9.2 | 5.6 |
| Value | 8.0 | 9.8 |
| Support | 9.4 | 6.8 |
What Shopify does well
- Deepest commerce feature set anywhere
- App ecosystem handles every edge case
- Scales from first sale to enterprise
What Carrd does well
- $19 a year, not a month
- One-page sites live in under an hour
- No bloat at all
Who each one is for
Shopify. Anyone whose primary activity is selling physical or digital goods and who wants the commerce infrastructure to be someone else's problem. It is the right answer from the first sale up to very large volumes, and the point at which you outgrow it is far enough away that most merchants never reach it.
Carrd. Link-in-bio pages, personal profiles, event and launch pages, and validating an idea before committing to a real site. On cost per outcome at this size, nothing here is close.
Pricing side by side
Shopify
| Basic | $29/mo yearly · $39 monthly | 2% fee on third-party gateways, 10 inventory locations |
|---|---|---|
| Grow | $79/mo yearly · $105 monthly | 1% third-party fee, 5 staff accounts |
| Advanced | $299/mo yearly · $399 monthly | 0.6% third-party fee, 15 staff accounts, third-party shipping rates |
| Plus | from $2,300/mo | 0.2% third-party fee, full checkout customization, unlimited staff |
Carrd
| Free | $0 | up to 3 sites on a carrd.co address, with Carrd branding |
|---|---|---|
| Pro Lite | $9/year | 3 sites, no branding, but no custom domain |
| Pro Standard | $19/year | 10 sites, custom domains, forms, embeds and analytics |
| Pro Plus | $49/year | 25 sites, redirects, password protection, downloadable sites |
What a year costs
Shopify
The prices on the plan cards are yearly prices. Pay month to month and Basic is $39 rather than $29, Grow is $105 rather than $79 and Advanced is $399 rather than $299, so the monthly option costs about a third more. If you are confident enough to launch, the annual plan is the obvious saving.
Subscription, billed yearlyShopify's third-party transaction fee
Carrd
Carrd's pricing is refreshingly small, but the three Pro plans are not interchangeable. Pro Lite, at $9 a year, removes the branding and adds bigger images and premium templates, but it does not let you use your own domain. For almost everyone with a business, the right plan is Pro Standard at $19 a year: custom domains, contact and signup forms, embeds for things like Stripe or Gumroad, and analytics.
Plan price
Who should skip each one
Shopify
A content site with a small shop attached. If you have ten products and two hundred articles, you are paying commerce pricing for a blog. It is also the wrong pick if you need an unconventional checkout, since the checkout is the part Shopify guards most closely.
Carrd
Any site that needs multiple pages, a blog or a store. Using Carrd for those means fighting the product's single clear decision.
The bottom line
Shopify
For most people starting a store, Shopify is the safe choice and the right one. Buy the annual plan, start on Basic, and move to Grow once you are selling more than about $5,000 a month and cannot use Shopify Payments, or once you need staff accounts.
Carrd
For a one-page site, Carrd is the best value on the web, and Pro Standard at $19 a year is the plan to buy. Use it for a personal homepage, a launch page or a link hub, and do not be embarrassed by how little it costs.
Questions people ask
Is Shopify better than Carrd?
Shopify scores 9.0/10 and Carrd scores 8.1/10 on our rubric. Shopify is the stronger all-round pick. Shopify leads on design, flexibility, and support. Carrd leads on ease of use and value.
Which is cheaper, Shopify or Carrd?
Shopify starts at $29/mo with no free plan; Carrd starts at $1.58/mo and has a free plan. Carrd is the cheaper way in.
Which is easier to use, Shopify or Carrd?
Carrd scores 9.6/10 for ease of use against Shopify at 8.4/10.
Do Shopify and Carrd have a free plan?
Shopify has no free plan; Carrd has a free plan.
Can you sell online with Shopify and Carrd?
Shopify can take payments and run a store; Carrd is not built for selling products.
Can you move your site off Shopify or Carrd?
Shopify lets you export your code; Carrd does not export a working site.
Some links on PlatformZoo are affiliate links, so we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. That never affects a score: every tool is scored on the same rubric before any link is added.