Carrd vs iPage: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

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

• 
  Carrd (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a simple, affordable solution for creating single-page websites. Its user-friendly interface, wide range of templates, and ease of use make it perfect for personal profiles, landing pages, and small projects. When comparing Carrd vs iPage, Carrd stands out for its design functionalities and straightforward approach, although it lacks robust ecommerce features and advanced customization options.
• 
  iPage (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  , on the other hand, provides a more comprehensive set of services, including web hosting, domain registration, and ecommerce solutions. It is well-suited for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an all-in-one platform. In the Carrd vs iPage comparison, iPage excels in ecommerce capabilities, marketing tools, and customer support, making it a better choice for users who need a more versatile and scalable solution.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Carrd is suitable for simple, single-page ecommerce sites, while iPage offers more robust features for small to medium-sized businesses.

• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd is designed for simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for individuals or small businesses looking to create a quick, single-page ecommerce site. It supports basic ecommerce functionalities through third-party integrations like Stripe and PayPal. However, when comparing Carrd vs iPage, Carrd’s limited ecommerce features and customization options may not meet the needs of more complex online stores.
• 
  iPage
  
  : iPage provides a more comprehensive set of ecommerce tools, including inventory management, coupon codes, and SEO tools. It is better suited for small to medium-sized businesses that require more advanced ecommerce capabilities. However, it may not scale well for large enterprises or those with highly specialized ecommerce needs.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Carrd takes the lead with its simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for single-page websites. iPage, while versatile and offering comprehensive services, is slightly less suited for purely informational sites.

• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd excels in creating fully responsive, single-page websites with a straightforward interface and a variety of templates. Its ease of use, scoring 9.0, makes it perfect for beginners and those looking to establish an online presence quickly. Carrd’s design functionalities and templates are versatile, catering to different needs and preferences, which is crucial for informational sites. With a score of 7.9, Carrd is a strong contender for informational business websites.
• 
  iPage
  
  : iPage offers a user-friendly web hosting and site builder platform with a drag-and-drop builder and a variety of templates. It provides comprehensive services, including hosting and domain registration, making it suitable for small businesses and personal projects. However, with a score of 7.2, iPage is slightly less optimized for purely informational sites compared to Carrd. Its design options, while diverse, may not offer the same level of simplicity and ease of use as Carrd.

Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Carrd.

Carrd offers a wider range of design functionalities and templates, making it a more versatile choice for users.

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, ensuring there’s something for everyone.

Carrd Themes

On the other hand, iPage offers a wide variety of templates and designs, catering to users with diverse needs and preferences. With hundreds of options available, ranging from simple and elegant to complex and dynamic, users can easily find a template that suits their specific project or business requirements. However, iPage does not provide a link to their themes page or a screenshot of their template page.

🏆 Winner: Carrd

. With a score of 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. iPage, scoring 7.6, also offers a user-friendly experience but some users may find the design options somewhat limited compared to more advanced website builders.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Carrd

. Both platforms offer learning resources but Carrd’s resources are more easily accessible and designed to help users get started and make the most out of its features.

Carrd, primarily designed for one-page websites, lacks robust ecommerce features and requires third-party integrations for such functionalities. On the other hand, iPage offers a range of ecommerce features suitable for small to medium-sized businesses, including inventory management, coupon codes, SEO tools, and PayPal integration. However, it may not scale well for large enterprises or those with complex ecommerce needs.

Carrd ecommerce features:

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

iPage ecommerce features:

• Inventory Management and Tracking
• Coupon Codes and Promotions
• SEO Tools
• PayPal 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.

On the other hand, iPage offers a variety of ecommerce-specific templates designed to cater to online stores and businesses. These templates are integrated with features such as shopping carts, product catalogs, and payment processing options to facilitate online transactions. However, the exact number of ecommerce templates available can vary, and users might find some limitations in terms of customization and advanced ecommerce functionalities compared to specialized ecommerce platforms.

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.

iPage’s website builder offers a range of ecommerce product page customization options, allowing users to design their storefronts with various templates, adjust layouts, and incorporate multimedia elements like images and videos to showcase products. Users can also edit product descriptions, manage inventory, and set up different payment options. However, limitations may include less flexibility in advanced customization or coding for those who require unique, highly tailored functionalities beyond the provided templates and settings. Additionally, compared to specialized ecommerce platforms, iPage might offer fewer integrations with external tools and apps.

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.

iPage supports several payment options for eCommerce, including major gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and others, catering to a wide range of currencies and countries. iPage does not charge commissions for transactions, commissions are charged by the gateways themselves. While iPage offers flexibility in online payment processing, it does not explicitly mention integrated POS capabilities for in-person transactions. For billing and subscription payments, iPage accepts credit cards, PayPal, and check or money order, offering diverse payment methods for its users.

🏆

Winner: Carrd

. Carrd, with a score of 7.0, 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. Additionally, Carrd includes basic SEO tools and integration capabilities with external services, making it a versatile choice for personal projects, portfolios, and small business landing pages.

iPage’s editor, scoring 6.8, is designed for ease of use, catering to both beginners and those with some web design experience. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily add, remove, and customize elements on their web pages without needing to code. Users can choose from a variety of templates that are responsive and customizable to fit their brand or personal style. Additionally, the editor includes features for adding social media links, integrating e-commerce functionalities, and optimizing for search engines, making it a versatile tool for creating a wide range of websites.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Carrd

. Both Carrd and iPage do not have a dedicated mobile editor app, but they allow users to edit their websites on a mobile browser. However, Carrd has a slightly higher mobile editor score than iPage, indicating that it might offer a better mobile editing experience.

Carrd is a simple, yet powerful platform for building fully responsive, single-page websites. It is designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind, allowing users to create attractive and functional websites without the need for extensive web development skills.

On the other hand, iPage is a user-friendly web hosting and site builder platform that offers templates and a drag-and-drop builder to simplify website creation for those without technical expertise. It provides comprehensive services including hosting, domain registration, and e-commerce solutions.

In summary, while both platforms offer mobile editing capabilities, Carrd might provide a slightly better user experience due to its higher mobile editor score.

Overall Result

:

Carrd wins

. Carrd scores 6.0 in product testing options, while iPage scores 2.5. Carrd offers a 7-day free trial during which premium features can be tested. However, it does not offer a money-back guarantee. On the other hand, iPage does not have a free trial but allows testing of all features during a 30-day refundable period.

Carrd offers more affordable options, but iPage provides more comprehensive services and significant discounts for annual subscriptions.

🏆

Winner: iPage

iPage offers a range of affordable hosting services including shared, WordPress, and VPS hosting, with unlimited storage and bandwidth for various website needs. However, its performance speed and scalability features may not meet the expectations of all users, particularly those with high-traffic sites. Additional costs for backups, security features, and significant price increases upon renewal are potential downsides. Carrd offers shared hosting integrated with its website-building platform, however they don’t provide specific information on bandwidth or storage limitations. Additionally the platform does not have backups in traditional sense, users can create limited amount of copies of their websites or download the websites on higher plans.

🏆 Winner: Carrd

Both Carrd and iPage prioritize website performance and page speed, with Carrd focusing on mobile responsive design, caching, and Cloudflare CDN, and iPage emphasizing web server optimizations, caching, CDN, database optimization, and SEO optimization. However, Carrd gets a slight edge when it comes to website speed optimization.

Carrd, a platform for building fully responsive, single-page websites, focuses on mobile responsive design, caching, and Cloudflare CDN for speed optimization. Given the simplicity of websites built with Carrd, load times are expected to be minimal, and page speed scores are expected to be high. However, Carrd does not disclose any information related to Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, iPage, a user-friendly web hosting and site builder platform, emphasizes web server optimizations, caching, CDN, database optimization, and SEO optimization for speed optimization. The average load time for iPage is 2.6s, and the average PageSpeed score is 72/100. iPage also focuses on improving the Core Web Vitals, including LCP, FID, and CLS.

🏆 Winner: iPage.

iPage scores 6.3, slightly ahead of Carrd’s 5.8. iPage offers a variety of plugins and extensions, with options ranging from SEO tools to security enhancements. The pricing for these plugins and extensions varies widely, with some available for free, while others require a one-time purchase or a recurring subscription fee. This allows users to customize their websites according to their needs and budget.

Carrd also offers a range of plugins and extensions, including both free options and paid plugins. However, some plugins require at least the Pro Standard plan, while others necessitate the Pro Plus plan.

🏆

Overall Winner: iPage

. iPage stands out for its more comprehensive marketing tools, especially in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions. Carrd, while offering a simpler and more streamlined approach, relies heavily on third-party integrations for its marketing features.

🏆 Winner: iPage

. In the Carrd vs iPage comparison, iPage takes the lead in customer support with a score of 6.9. iPage offers 24/7 customer support through phone, email, and live chat, ensuring that users can get assistance at any time. This round-the-clock availability is a significant advantage for users who may need immediate help with their websites.

Carrd, on the other hand, provides 24/7 support via email, typically responding within 24 hours. While this is helpful, it may not be as immediate as the support options offered by iPage. Carrd’s support score of 6.2 reflects this limitation. However, Carrd’s straightforward interface and ease of use often mean that users may not need as much support as those using more complex platforms.

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Winner: Carrd

. Carrd and iPage both prioritize security, but they approach it differently. Carrd ensures website security by automatically enabling SSL for all sites, including custom domains and subdomains. This commitment to data security and encryption safeguards websites against unauthorized access and hacking.

On the other hand, iPage implements several security measures, including SiteLock, a comprehensive security suite designed to protect websites from malware, spam, and hackers. It also offers Domain Privacy Protection to shield personal information from being publicly accessible. However, Carrd’s automatic SSL for all sites gives it a slight edge in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: iPage

. Although iPage’s AI capabilities are limited, it still offers an AI-powered website builder, which gives it an edge over Carrd, which does not have any AI capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Carrd

. Both Carrd and iPage have limited user management features, but Carrd has a slight edge due to its Team feature that allows multiple users to collaborate.

• 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.
• iPage’s website builder offers very limited multi-user functionality and access levels compared to more sophisticated website builder platforms.

Unfortunately, neither platform provides a detailed breakdown of 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.

iPage, while not available on G2 for direct comparison, is known for its user-friendly web hosting and site builder platform. It offers templates and a drag-and-drop builder to simplify website creation for those without technical expertise. The recent partnership with Bluehost aims to enhance its hosting capabilities and pricing plans, targeting small businesses and personal projects. This makes iPage a viable option for users seeking comprehensive services including hosting, domain registration, and e-commerce solutions when comparing Carrd vs iPage.

FAQ