Carrd vs Strikingly

Both build sites that live on a single scrolling page, and both are aimed at a business whose story is short. From there they diverge sharply, and mostly on price.

Where they actually differ

Carrd stayed small on purpose. One page, no store, no blog, no bookings, and a paid tier that costs a few dollars a *year* rather than a month. Setting one up is a single sitting, there is nothing to administer afterwards, and the free tier builds several sites without paying anything. Support is a contact form with no published response time, which is the honest cost of the price.

Strikingly went the other way. A store, a blog, signup forms and multiple sites all sit inside its paid tier, along with a domain included for the first year. It is still a scrolling page built from stacked sections, but a business that later wants to sell a few things is not forced to leave.

The price gap is the headline. Strikingly's paid tier is priced with the mainstream builders — roughly what a full drag-and-drop platform costs per month — while Carrd's is priced like a domain renewal.

What that gap buys

Very little, if the page really is one page. A business that needs a name, a description, a photograph, a contact form and an address on a domain it owns is fully served by the cheaper option, and paying monthly for a store it will not open is waste.

It buys a great deal if there is any chance of selling. Adding commerce to a tool that has none means bolting on an external service and linking away from the site.

Which should you choose?

Choose Carrd if the site is genuinely finished at one page and you want to stop thinking about it. For an address online, a launch page or a portfolio, nothing here comes close on cost, and the restraint is the product rather than a limitation.

Choose Strikingly if you can see a small shop, a mailing list or a blog in the next year. Paying mainstream prices for a one-page format only makes sense when you intend to use the parts that are not one page.