Why I Want You to Know About the Carrd.co Website Builder

Carrd

Aug 28

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I'm willing to bet you haven't heard of the website platform Carrd.co. While its early users have become firm fans, this easy website builder is still not well-known compared to competitors like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, and WordPress.

These days, the custom websites I build for clients use the Squarespace platform: it’s more adaptable and lets you play bigger, with superior SEO tools built in.

However, if your budget is absolutely teeny (think, starving artist!) and you can get by with a really simple, minimal site, then Carrd.co is still a strong choice.

Carrd.co offers an impressive free plan. If you join and later upgrade to a paid plan, I make a small commission from introducing you.

Ever since I built my first website (20+ years ago), I've been aware that my comfort level with technology is higher than average. But it wasn't until I started publishing my fiction, and attending writers conferences and other author events, that I came to appreciate how daunted others can feel about "getting a website". The two outcomes I saw were either they stayed stuck, too overwhelmed to know where to start, or they hired a web design service that charged them more than I paid for my first car.

This troubled me, and on more than one occasion, I wondered if I should offer help. But, even though I used WordPress for my own website for years (before finally moving to Squarespace, which is what you’re reading now), I never felt it was the ideal solution for technology-challenged folk, who would much prefer to do work they love.

I would much rather you have a simple, modern website, than nothing at all.

Carrd.co could be the easy website builder you've been looking for.

Prefer video?

Watch my 5-minute guide on whether Carrd could be right for you.

Before I expand on my WordPress doubts, let me highlight what I love about Carrd:

1. It encourages us to keep websites simple.

Most of us have far too many "features" on our websites. We have pages we never update, sidebars that look dated, and blogs we feel guilty about not writing.

Sites made with the Carrd website builder are simple. You'll have 5 or 6 pages at most, and no blog. (You can link to external articles at places like Medium.) By forcing you to choose which key things you want your site visitors to see, it's natural then to focus on what key actions you want them to take.

And instead of your website project becoming a massive, drawn-out headache, the time you'll spend deciding what goes on there is a breeze by comparison.

2. Your website will look great, right out of the gate.

How many small business websites have you seen that look a little... well... amateur? My eye for design is keener than most, but it's clear to all of us that it's easy for a complex website to get overly cluttered, and to date fast.

Carrd helps you look professional, sleek, and up-to-date, while allowing for just the right amount of customization so that the brand, colors and fonts really represent you and your work. The starting templates offered by Carrd all look wonderful, and with a little extra design consideration, your website will grab your reader's attention for all the right reasons.

3. Carrd costs less than you dreamed of. How does $19 a year sound?

Carrd.co is a small company with an amazing product. It's clear to me they're not trying to lure us in with short-term deals followed by endless advertising and upselling: the impressiveness of the platform, I believe, will underpin their long term growth. Because your website is simple, I reckon their costs are probably lower too.

This means you'll pay less than you'd imagine for a stylish, high-quality website.

If you hire me to design and build a Carrd website for you, then yes, you'll have some upfront costs. But after that, wow:

The free plan gets you a .carrd.co web address and one tiny site credit for them. That's it. No annual fee. This is a perfectly reasonable option if you're right at the start of your writing or coaching career, and you can still feel proud of your website.
The plan I like best, which allows you to use your own domain name, with no mention of the platform you used, and a few other benefits, is just $19 per year. Yes,per year.

I'll pause for a moment. The equivalent annual cost with Wix: $156. Weebly: $60 - $144. To host your WordPress website, budget $60 - $100 once the cheap initial year expires. And that's before you pay for a theme, plug-ins and so on. Squarespace, which is my favored choice for more extensive sites, starts at $144 per year.

The drawbacks of WordPress

WordPress has a lot of moving parts. You need to understand hosting, a theme, plug-ins, widgets, and more. You should appreciate that it will need your ongoing care and attention. Because it's developed by a whole community of programmers, it changes frequently, things break, and one small tweak can bring your site down (trust me on that one). Let's not even begin to talk about what a popular target it is for security attacks (yep, trust me on that one, too). Although I liked my WordPress website, I complained about it frequently. With enough WordPress headaches of my own, there was no way I was going to embark on creating similar sites for other users. Even though it's the default choice for many author and solopreneur websites, I just couldn’t recommend it, and especially not to beginners. And then I discovered Carrd.co. Here, for the first time, is an option which is simple, stylish, and affordable. Not only is it an appealing choice for me as a website developer, but I feel great about handing it over to my clients to keep up to date.

Before you decide on a website, you owe it to yourself to consider Carrd.co

If you're ready for your first website, or to makeover your existing online presence, then of course I'd be happy to help. If you’re ready to invest, and want a beautiful, custom website done for you, find my design services here.

But if you want to go it alone, I warmly recommend Carrd.co. It stopped me in my tracks the first day I saw it, and I think it could be an ideal solution if you’re longing for a cheap and easy website builder. You now have some wonderful choices in website technology, and you don't have to stick with difficult, complex, or costly providers.

If you decide to proceed with Carrd, I'd love to hear how you get on.

Carrd.co offers an impressive free plan. If you join and later upgrade to a paid plan, I make a teeny commission from introducing you.