Carrd vs Dreamhost: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Carrd and Dreamhost both offer unique advantages, but they cater to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Carrd (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a simple, affordable solution for creating single-page websites. Its ease of use, affordability, and straightforward interface make it perfect for individuals and small businesses looking to establish an online presence quickly. However, it lacks advanced ecommerce features and extensive customization options, which may limit its appeal for more complex projects.
• 
  Dreamhost (Overall Grade: 6.7/10)
  
  provides a more comprehensive solution with its robust hosting capabilities and integration with WordPress. It offers greater flexibility and customization, making it suitable for users looking to build more complex websites or online stores. Dreamhost’s higher learning curve is offset by its extensive learning resources and customer support, making it a strong choice for both beginners and experienced users.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Dreamhost is the superior choice for ecommerce, offering a more robust and feature-rich platform compared to Carrd.

• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd is designed for simplicity and ease of use, making it suitable for basic ecommerce needs. It integrates with third-party platforms like Stripe and PayPal for payment processing. However, its ecommerce capabilities are limited, making it less ideal for businesses looking to scale. In the Carrd vs Dreamhost comparison, Carrd scores 3.5 for ecommerce.
• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : Dreamhost excels with its comprehensive ecommerce features, including WooCommerce integration, making it a strong contender for businesses aiming to grow. It offers a variety of payment gateways and extensive customization options for product pages. Dreamhost scores 7.4 for ecommerce, making it the better choice for more advanced ecommerce needs.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Carrd and Dreamhost both offer unique advantages for informational and business websites, but Carrd slightly edges out Dreamhost with a score of 7.9 compared to Dreamhost’s 7.5. Carrd’s simplicity and ease of use make it an excellent choice for quick, single-page websites, while Dreamhost offers more robust customization and integration options.

• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd is ideal for users looking to create fully responsive, single-page websites quickly and efficiently. Its straightforward interface and variety of templates make it suitable for personal profiles, landing pages, and portfolios. With a focus on simplicity, Carrd is perfect for individuals and small businesses that need an online presence without the complexity of more advanced platforms.
• 
  Dreamhost
  
  : Dreamhost’s website builder, Remixer, provides a comprehensive solution for creating professional-looking websites without extensive coding knowledge. It offers a variety of themes and a drag-and-drop interface, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced users. Dreamhost’s seamless integration with WordPress also allows for easy transitions to more advanced features, making it a robust option for those looking to expand their website’s capabilities.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Dreamhost.

Dreamhost slightly edges out Carrd in terms of design functionalities and templates, offering a user-friendly interface that allows for a high degree of customization flexibility.

Carrd is a versatile platform that offers a wide variety of templates and designs, catering to different needs and preferences. Users can choose from a broad selection of themes, ranging from simple and minimalist to complex and dynamic layouts.

Carrd Themes

On the other hand, Dreamhost’s website builder, offers a user-friendly interface that allows for a high degree of customization flexibility. Users can edit various elements including text, images, backgrounds, and layout structures to match their preferences. The platform also provides a wide range of themes and templates that can be further customized to ensure the final website aligns with the user’s brand identity.

Dreamhost Themes

🏆 Winner: Carrd

. Scoring a solid 9.0, Carrd stands out for its simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for beginners and those seeking to create single-page websites quickly. Dreamhost, with a score of 8.2, offers a robust platform but with a slightly steeper learning curve, especially for those new to website building. If ease of use is a priority, Carrd is the clear winner in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. While both platforms offer solid learning resources, Dreamhost goes a step further with its wide array of detailed guides on using the WP Website Builder with BoldGrid, building websites with various hosting plans, and optimizing sites for performance and visitor engagement, making it easier for users to learn and adapt.

When it comes to ecommerce, Dreamhost outperforms Carrd with a score of 7.4 against Carrd’s 3.5. Carrd, primarily designed for one-page websites, lacks robust ecommerce features and requires third-party integrations for such functionalities. On the other hand, Dreamhost offers a more comprehensive ecommerce solution with WooCommerce-ready features.

Carrd ecommerce features:

• Paypal and Stripe Integration
• External Widgets integrations
• Basic Product Listing options

Dreamhost ecommerce features:

• WooCommerce-Ready Themes
• Magento integration
• Shopify integration

Ecommerce themes & templates

Carrd provides a selection of 14 e-commerce templates aimed at users looking to quickly launch online stores for products ranging from e-books to physical goods. These templates are crafted with a focus on simplicity and conversion optimization, featuring designs that vary from dark themes to minimalist aesthetics. They are priced starting at $19 or $25, depending on the template, and require a Pro Standard account or higher due to the use of advanced elements and widgets.

DreamHost facilitates eCommerce site creation mainly through WooCommerce, offering a powerful, open-source platform with plans designed to cater to varying levels of eCommerce activity. Additionally, DreamHost’s WP Website Builder, equipped with BoldGrid, provides a range of mobile-friendly themes for easy site customization without coding knowledge. While the exact number of eCommerce-specific templates wasn’t specified, the available options emphasize flexibility, security, and ease of use for building professional online stores.

Product page customization

Carrd offers a streamlined approach to ecommerce product page customization, primarily through integrations with third-party platforms such as Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, and Gumroad. Users can create product pages within Carrd by adding product details like name, description, image, and price, and then integrate a checkout button using Carrd’s Widget element for platforms like Stripe. Users can integrate third-party services for ecommerce functionalities, but the customization possibilities for product pages would then depend on the capabilities of those external platforms.

Through the integration of WooCommerce, DreamHost’s website builder offers a range of customization possibilities for e-commerce product pages to enhance the shopping experience. These possibilities include layout adjustments like modifying the single product page layout and adding custom tabs, introducing custom fields and sections for additional product information and FAQs, implementing dynamic content like personalized recommendations, and enabling product variations with swatches and custom product builders. These features are designed to make product pages more engaging and potentially increase sales by tailoring the shopping experience to meet the needs of both the business and its customers.

Payment processing

Carrd allows for payment-enabled forms for Pro Plus users or higher, integrating with Stripe Checkout for payment processing. This setup enables creating forms for various transactions like order forms or paid email lists. The process requires setting up the payment through Stripe, either via a preconfigured price or a custom price, and entering Stripe API keys. There’s no direct mention of Carrd charging commissions or offering POS capabilities within this documentation. For payment gateways, it specifically supports Stripe and Paypal.

DreamHost supports a variety of popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net, Amazon Pay, and Square, each with its own fee structure but no additional charges from DreamHost. These gateways offer features like POS capabilities, fraud detection, and international currency support, making DreamHost a versatile choice for website builders focusing on WordPress integration.

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Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost, with a score of 7.3, offers a user-friendly interface for creating and customizing WordPress websites, employing a drag-and-drop editor that eliminates the need for coding skills. It offers a selection of mobile-friendly themes to accommodate various website needs, along with essential tools like backups to safeguard user data. The builder streamlines the website creation process, from theme selection and layout customization to the final installation, enabling users to easily adjust their site’s appearance and functionality.

Carrd’s website builder editor, scoring 7.0, is designed for simplicity and efficiency, catering primarily to users looking to create single-page websites. It offers a user-friendly interface that allows for easy drag-and-drop functionality, enabling users to add, customize, and position elements such as text, images, buttons, and forms with minimal effort. The editor also provides a range of pre-designed templates and responsive design options, ensuring that websites look professional and work seamlessly across various devices.

Mobile editor/app

🏳️

Draw: Carrd and Dreamhost

. Both Carrd and Dreamhost do not offer a dedicated mobile editor app. However, they do provide some level of mobile editing functionality through a mobile browser. This means you can make changes to your website on the go, although this may come with certain restrictions compared to editing on a desktop.

Carrd, known for its simplicity and efficiency, allows users to make basic changes to their single-page websites through a mobile browser. This can be handy for quick updates or modifications.

Similarly, Dreamhost also allows users to modify their websites using a mobile browser. While this offers some flexibility, it’s worth noting that the experience may not be as comprehensive or user-friendly as using their desktop editor.

In summary, while neither Carrd nor Dreamhost offer a dedicated mobile app for editing, they both provide some level of mobile editing capability, making it a draw in this category.

Overall Result

:

Carrd Wins

. Carrd scores 6.0 in product testing options, significantly higher than Dreamhost’s 2.7. Carrd offers a 7-day free trial during which users can test premium features. However, it does not provide a money-back guarantee. On the other hand, Dreamhost does not offer a free trial but allows users to test premium features during a 30-day refundable period. It also provides a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Carrd offers a more affordable pricing structure compared to Dreamhost, making it a great choice for individuals and small businesses. However, Dreamhost provides more comprehensive hosting solutions, which may be more suitable for larger projects or businesses.

Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost outperforms Carrd in hosting quality, offering shared and cloud hosting with a 99.93% uptime guarantee and automated daily backups. Their hosting is included in all plans and they have two data centers in the US. Carrd, on the other hand, offers shared hosting without specific information on bandwidth or storage limitations and does not provide any statistics on uptime or have an uptime guarantee. They also do not disclose any information about their data centers.

🏆 Winner: Carrd

Carrd’s speed optimization strategies and expected high PageSpeed scores give it an edge over Dreamhost in website speed optimization.

Carrd’s speed optimization strategies include mobile responsive design, caching, and Cloudflare CDN. Given the simplicity of the websites built with Carrd, load times are expected to be minimal, and PageSpeed scores are expected to be high. However, Carrd does not disclose any information related to Core Web Vital improvements.

Dreamhost uses built-in caching on higher plans, code minification, and image optimization for speed optimization. Its load times range from 1.75 to 3 seconds on average, but no data is available for its PageSpeed scores. Dreamhost also does not disclose any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost.

Dreamhost scores 8.8, offering a wide range of WordPress plugins that significantly enhance a website’s functionality beyond the capabilities of basic website builders. Carrd, with a score of 5.8, offers a range of plugins and extensions, including both free and paid options. However, Dreamhost’s extensive range of plugins and seamless WordPress integration give it the upper hand.

It is worth mentioning that Carrd offers some unique plugins like scroll-to-top buttons, accordion FAQs, autoplay videos on mobile, and confetti buttons, which can enhance user interactions and provide a more engaging, dynamic, and tailored user experience.

Dreamhost Applications

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Overall Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost stands out for its comprehensive SEO Toolkit and integration with email marketing platforms. Carrd, while offering a simple and easy-to-use platform, lacks in-built advanced marketing features.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. In the Carrd vs Dreamhost comparison, Dreamhost takes the lead with its more comprehensive customer support options. Dreamhost offers 24/7 live chat and email support, ensuring users can get assistance quickly and efficiently. Additionally, phone support callbacks are available, providing another layer of support for users who prefer speaking directly with a representative.

Carrd, on the other hand, provides 24/7 email support, typically responding within 24 hours. While this is sufficient for many users, it lacks the immediacy of live chat and phone support. Despite this, Carrd’s support team is known for being helpful and responsive, making it a reliable option for those who prefer email communication.

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Winner: Dreamhost

. Dreamhost’s security measures are comprehensive, including free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, domain privacy, multi-factor authentication, anti-spam filters, daily backups, and DDoS protection. They also offer advanced security features such as DreamShield for malware removal and mod_security and lua-resty-waf as web application firewalls. Despite robust security protocols, DreamHost has experienced breaches, highlighting the importance of continuous vigilance and the implementation of personal security practices alongside provider measures.

On the other hand, Carrd ensures website security by automatically enabling SSL for all sites published on .carrd.co URLs, with no setup required from the user. This SSL certification extends to custom domains and subdomains, automatically issued via Let’s Encrypt once DNS records are in place. These measures signify Carrd’s commitment to data security and encryption, safeguarding websites against unauthorized access and hacking, and align with security standards observed by leading website builders. However, Carrd’s security score is lower than Dreamhost’s, indicating that it may not offer as robust security features.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Although both platforms have limited AI capabilities, Dreamhost slightly edges out Carrd with its AI business name generator. This tool can be useful for users who are starting a new business and need help coming up with a catchy name.

🏆 Winner: Dreamhost

. Carrd and Dreamhost have different approaches to user management.

• Carrd is primarily designed for individual use or small teams, with each account managing its own sites. The platform introduced a Team feature to allow multiple users to collaborate, but traditionally, Carrd sites are managed by a single account holder with full control. The specifics of access levels and permissions for collaborators, if available, are less detailed but generally include editing capabilities.
• DreamHost’s website builder primarily uses WordPress, which allows for multiple users to edit a website. While DreamHost doesn’t specify a limit on the number of users, WordPress enables the addition of numerous users with various roles such as Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. Each role has its own set of permissions and capabilities, allowing for flexible and controlled access for different users. This feature makes it convenient to manage a website collaboratively on the DreamHost platform.

Dreamhost User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

User Feedback

Users overwhelmingly praise Carrd for its user-friendly interface, excellent customer support, and attractive templates, making website creation effortless and enjoyable. The drag-and-drop builder, affordability, and mobile-friendly designs are highlighted as significant benefits. However, some users express limitations, such as the inability to create multi-page websites or a desire for more design options. Overall, Carrd is praised for its affordability, ease of use, and suitability for creating quick, simple webpages.

Dreamhost users appreciate its ease of use, broad template selection, and integrated hosting solutions, highlighting its utility in building and managing websites efficiently. However, some users suggest improvements in areas such as image editing capabilities, customer support, and software optimization to enhance speed and functionality. While many find it a cost-effective and user-friendly option for website development without coding, others express concerns over occasional software bugs, slow website performance, and the desire for more advanced features. This feedback provides a balanced view when comparing Carrd vs Dreamhost.

FAQ