Carrd vs Square Online: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Carrd and Square Online cater to different needs with their unique strengths, making them suitable for various user requirements.

• 
  Carrd (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  excels in simplicity and ease of use, making it an ideal choice for individuals and small businesses looking to create single-page websites quickly and efficiently. Its user-friendly interface, affordable pricing, and variety of templates make it a great option for personal profiles, portfolios, and simple landing pages. However, its limitations in e-commerce functionalities and user management features make it less suitable for users looking to build comprehensive online stores.
• 
  Square Online (Overall Grade: 7.2/10)
  
  stands out as a comprehensive website builder designed for businesses seeking to establish a professional online presence with integrated e-commerce capabilities. It offers a range of customizable templates, easy drag-and-drop tools, and seamless integration with Square’s payment processing and business management tools, making it a robust option for retailers, restaurants, and service businesses aiming for online sales and operations management. Despite its higher pricing and less focus on single-page website designs, Square Online’s e-commerce features and marketing tools make it a compelling choice for businesses looking to grow online.

	Overall grade: 6.1	Overall grade: 7.2
Design functionalities & templates	7.5	7.4
Ease of use	9.0	8.4
Ecommerce	3.5	7.3
Website Editors	7.0	6.6
Product testing options	6.0	7.8
Price	8.9	7.5
Hosting quality	5.0	7.8
Website speed optimization	8.2	6.2
Plugins and integrations	5.8	7.6
Marketing features	5.8	7.4
Customer support	6.2	6.7
Security	7.6	8.5
AI capabilities	0.0	7.4
User Management	4.3	5.2
Overall	6.1	7.2

Best for ecommerce

3.5

7.3

Verdict

: Square Online significantly outperforms Carrd in ecommerce capabilities, making it the superior choice for businesses looking to manage their online presence, sales, and operations efficiently.

• 
  Carrd
  
  : While Carrd is praised for its simplicity and ease of use in creating single-page websites, it falls short in ecommerce functionality. It’s best suited for individuals or small businesses that require basic product listings and payment integrations but do not need advanced ecommerce features.
• 
  Square Online
  
  : Designed with businesses in mind, Square Online offers a comprehensive set of tools for creating professional, fully integrated online stores. Its strengths in product listing, inventory management, payment processing, and POS features make it a robust platform for businesses aiming to expand their online sales.

Best for informational & business websites

7.9

7.4

• 
  Carrd
  
  : Excelling in simplicity and design, Carrd is ideal for users looking to create straightforward, single-page websites. Its focus on ease of use, coupled with a variety of templates and customization options, makes it a great tool for personal profiles, portfolios, and basic business sites.
• 
  Square Online
  
  : Square Online offers a robust platform for businesses aiming to integrate their informational websites with e-commerce capabilities. While it provides a range of customizable templates and tools for online sales, it may not offer the same level of simplicity and design focus as Carrd for purely informational sites.

Detailed comparison

7.5

7.4

🏆

Winner: Carrd.

Carrd edges out Square Online by a small margin in this category, offering a slightly higher level of design functionalities and templates.

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. The platform continuously updates its library with new designs, keeping up with the latest trends in web design.

Carrd Themes

On the other hand, Square Online offers a flexible website builder with a focus on e-commerce, providing a variety of design options through integration with platforms like Weebly. Users can customize their sites extensively, choosing from themes and preset styles to best represent their brand.

Square Online Themes

Get a head start on website creation with AI

Create a custom website tailored to your business needs 10X faster with 10Web AI Website Builder!

Generate Your Website

No credit card required

9.0

8.4

🏆 Winner: Carrd

. With a score of 9.0, Carrd is designed for simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for beginners and those seeking to create single-page websites quickly. Square Online, scoring 8.4, offers a comprehensive set of tools for ecommerce, making it accessible for users without coding skills. However, Carrd’s straightforward approach to website building gives it the edge in this category.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Both Carrd and Square Online offer high-quality learning resources. Carrd provides clear, step-by-step instructions that cater to both beginners and those with more experience in web design. Square Online offers comprehensive guides, video tutorials, active community forums, and accessible customer service.

3.5

7.3

When it comes to ecommerce, Square Online outperforms Carrd with a score of 7.3 against Carrd’s 3.5. Square Online is designed to help businesses create professional, fully integrated online stores and websites, making it an attractive option for businesses looking to manage their online presence, sales, and operations efficiently within a single ecosystem. On the other hand, Carrd is primarily designed as a simple, lightweight platform for building one-page websites and does not inherently offer robust eCommerce features out of the box.

Ecommerce themes and templates	4.5	6.8
Product page customization	3.0	7.6
Payment processing and commissions	5.0	7.9
POS capabilities	0.0	9.0
Payment gateways	5.5	7.5
Product numbers	2.0	7.0
Additional ecommerce features	3.5	7.2

Carrd ecommerce features:

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

Square Online ecommerce features:

• Product Listing and Inventory management
• Payment Processing and POS features
• Shipping and Fulfillment
• Marketing features

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, Square Website Builder offers a range of eCommerce templates designed to meet various business needs, enabling users to customize their sites to match their brand identity. It includes dynamic styling tools, personalized user experiences, and integrated payment solutions, including Square’s own payment gateway.

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.

In contrast, Square Online allows you to add up to 250 variations per item, like different sizes or versions, through “Selectable Options” in the item details section of your online store. Additionally, “Item Modifiers” allow for further customization by letting customers choose options or input custom text, such as engraving names on jewelry, without affecting inventory levels.

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.

Square’s website builder supports a variety of payment options including Square Pay, Apple Pay, Cash App Pay, Google Pay, and Afterpay, catering to diverse customer payment preferences. The platform charges a transaction fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction for its free plan, with a discounted fee available on the Premium plan. Additionally, Square offers comprehensive POS capabilities, with a range of hardware solutions that seamlessly integrate with its online store and point of sale systems, ensuring a unified management system for both online and in-person sales.

7.0

6.6

🏆

Winner: Carrd

. Carrd, with a score of 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.

Square Online’s website builder, scoring 6.6, is designed for businesses looking to establish an online presence with ease, focusing on e-commerce functionality. It offers limited customization options, aiming to simplify the design process, yet includes essential e-commerce and marketing tools suitable for a variety of business needs. While Square Online is user-friendly and efficient for quickly setting up a website, it may not cater to those seeking extensive design flexibility or advanced e-commerce features.

Mobile editor/app

5.5

5.5

🏆

Draw: Carrd and Square Online

. Both Carrd and Square Online do not have a dedicated mobile editor app. However, they allow users to manage and edit their websites using a mobile browser. This feature can be convenient for making quick changes on the go, but it comes with certain limitations. For instance, the mobile browser version may not offer the same level of functionality and ease of use as the desktop version. Therefore, for more complex edits and customizations, it’s recommended to use the desktop version.

Carrd, on the other hand, excels in general website editing through its mobile app. It provides a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to edit various aspects of their website, including content, design, layout, and blog management. The app is particularly beginner-friendly, making it easy for users with no prior website building experience.

In summary, Carrd and Square Online receive the same score for their mobile editing capabilities due to their versatility in general website editing and a more beginner-friendly interface, while Square Online is strong in ecommerce management but may be better suited for users with some experience.

6.0

7.8

Overall Result

:

Square Online wins

. Square Online scores 7.8, offering a 30-day free trial and a free version, while Carrd scores 6.0, offering a 7-day free trial but no free version. Both platforms allow testing of premium features during the trial period, but neither offers a money-back guarantee.

Free Plan	No	Yes
Trial Duration	7 days	30 days
Testing Premium Features	Yes, during free trial	Yes, during free trial
Money-Back Guarantee	No	No

8.9

7.5

Carrd offers more affordable plans, but they are limited to single-page websites. Square Online’s plans are more expensive, but they offer more comprehensive features for online stores.

	Offerings	Offerings
Free	No offering at this amount.	Free ($0/month): For businesses who want to start selling online fast. Online payments with 2.9% + 30¢, basic-site layouts and design controls, tax calculation, unlimited items, SEO tools, blog feature, Facebook ads.
$0-$1	Pro Lite ($0.75/month): Basic features suitable for simple, personal websites. Up to 3 1-page websites. Value for price: 6.0	No offering at this amount.
$1-$3	Pro Standard ($1.58/month): Offers more features and flexibility, ideal for professional profiles and small projects. Up to 10 1-page websites. Value for price: 7.5	No offering at this amount.
$3-$10	Pro Plus ($4.08/month): Enhanced features for more complex sites, including additional customization options. Up to 25 1-page websites. Value for price: 8.5	No offering at this amount.
$20+	No offering at this amount.	Plus ($29/month): For businesses looking to drive online growth and streamline operations. Includes all the features of the free plan, plus, free custom domain for a year, professional branding, custom embed code, manage multiple sites, pre-orders, abandoned cart recovery, free shipping and delivery progress bar, product reviews, discounts, website statistics. Value for Price: 7.5

5.0

7.8

Winner: Square Online

. Square Online offers unlimited bandwidth and a 99.96% uptime, although it does not provide an uptime guarantee. Carrd, on the other hand, offers shared hosting but does not provide specific information on bandwidth or storage limitations, and does not have an uptime guarantee. Neither platform discloses information about their data centers. Despite the lack of transparency, Square Online’s hosting services are rated higher due to their unlimited bandwidth and higher uptime.

Do they offer hosting?	Yes	Yes
Data Centers:	Not disclosed	Not disclosed
Type of hosting:	Shared Hosting	Not specified
Uptime:	Not provided	99.96%
Uptime Guarantee:	No	No

8.2

6.2

🏆 Winner: Carrd

Carrd and Square Online both prioritize website speed optimization, but Carrd has a higher score in this area.

Focus	Mobile Responsive design, Caching, Cloudflare CDN	Lazy Loading, Code Minification, Caching, Image optimization
Performance Tools	Not specified	Not specified
Key Strategies	Mobile Responsive design, Caching, Cloudflare CDN	Lazy Loading, Code Minification, Caching, Image optimization
Load Times	Minimal due to simplicity of websites	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Page Speed Scores Range	High due to simplicity of websites	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Not disclosed	Not disclosed

Carrd, a platform for building fully responsive, single-page websites, prioritizes website 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. Carrd uses strategies like mobile responsive design, caching, and Cloudflare CDN for speed optimization. However, Carrd does not disclose any information related to Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Square Online, a comprehensive website builder designed to help businesses create professional, fully integrated online stores and websites, also prioritizes website speed optimization. However, load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on optimization and website complexity. Square Online uses strategies like lazy loading, code minification, caching, and image optimization for speed optimization. Like Carrd, Square Online does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

Get a head start on website creation with AI

Create a custom website tailored to your business needs 10X faster with 10Web AI Website Builder!

Generate Your Website

No credit card required

5.8

7.6

🏆 Winner: Square Online.

With a score of 7.6, Square Online offers a wide array of app integrations to facilitate various aspects of business operations, including eCommerce, accounting, marketing, and employee management. These integrations unlock functionalities beyond its base capabilities, providing the tools for deeper business insights, personalized customer engagement, streamlined operations, and financial management. On the other hand, Carrd, with a score of 5.8, offers a range of plugins and extensions, including both free and paid options. These plugins enable functionalities beyond its base features, including advanced user interactions, sophisticated content presentation, and media enhancements. However, Square Online’s comprehensive plugins and integrations give it the upper hand in this comparison.

Square Online Applications

5.8

7.4

🏆

Overall Winner: Square Online

. Square Online offers a more comprehensive set of marketing tools, including built-in email marketing and advanced analytics and reporting. Carrd, while offering a simple and easy-to-use platform, relies on third-party integrations for many of its marketing features.

SEO Tools
Email Marketing	Through third-party integrations
Blogging
Social Media Integration
Analytics and Reporting	Integration with Google Analytics	Comprehensive suite of analytics and reporting tools
Ads and Promotions	Through third-party integrations

6.2

6.7

🏆 Winner: Square Online

. With a customer support score of 6.7, Square Online edges out Carrd, which has a score of 6.2. Square Online provides customer support through phone, live chat, and email, with availability ranging from 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time on weekdays for general inquiries. Additionally, the customer success team is accessible for account issues Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 9 PM EST. The level of support varies by subscription tier, with more extensive support available for higher tiers. Premium plan users benefit from 24/7 phone support in English, alongside weekend support hours from 8 AM to 5 PM PST.

On the other hand, Carrd provides 24/7 support via email which typically replies within 24 hours, though sometimes they may respond much sooner. However, Carrd does not provide enterprise support as they don’t have an enterprise plan.

7.6

8.5

🏆

Winner: Square Online

. Square Online takes the lead in security with a score of 8.5, compared to Carrd’s 7.6. Square Online prioritizes user privacy and data security through a series of measures including encryption, adherence to industry standards, and constant security monitoring. The platform complies with GDPR for EU and UK users, ensuring users’ rights to data privacy are respected. Square Online also provides free SSL security for every site created with their platform, crucial for encrypting data transferred between web servers and browsers, ensuring that personal and financial information remains confidential and protected.

Although it may not offer the same level of specialized ecommerce security features as Square Online, Carrd is committed to maintaining a secure platform for all types of websites. This includes collecting personal information such as names, email addresses, and, if applicable, phone numbers and billing addresses, and using cookies for website operation, data gathering, and enhancing user experiences. 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.

0.0

7.4

Personalized Design
SEO Optimization
Customer Behavior Analysis		AI-powered personalized product recommendations
Sales Predictions
Inventory Management
Content Generation		AI assistance in creating website content and menu generation

🏆 Winner: Square Online

. Square Online, with a score of 7.4, utilizes AI mainly to enhance the ecommerce experience and operational efficiency. Its AI features focus on customer behavior analysis, personalized shopping experiences, and content generation.

Carrd, on the other hand, does not have any AI capabilities. This means it lacks features such as personalized design, SEO optimization, customer behavior analysis, sales predictions, inventory management, and content generation that are often found in other website builders.

4.3

5.2

🏆 Winner: Square Online

. Both Carrd and Square Online offer user management features, but they approach it differently.

• 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.
• Square Online allows multiple staff accounts, however the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.

Given the lack of detailed information on user roles and access levels for both platforms, it’s difficult to make a direct comparison. However, Square Online’s ability to support multiple staff accounts gives it a slight edge over Carrd in terms of user management.

Additional Features

SSL Certificate
Custom Domain
Free Custom Domain Included
International Domains
Mobile Responsive
Page Speed
Website Builder Mobile App
Convert a Website To An App
Website Analytics
Multilingual Sites
Multiple Users

User Feedback

Carrd

31 reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

Square Online

16 reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars

Carrd is highly praised by users for its user-friendly interface, excellent customer support, and attractive templates. 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.

Square Online is appreciated by users for its ease of setup, no initial payment requirement for registration, and dependable payment processing. The platform is lauded for its simple user interface, which allows for quick product sales and efficient inventory management. However, some users express dissatisfaction with the limited design customization options and the simplicity of the store layouts. Additionally, limitations in scheduled order processing and a desire for more advanced features and better support for custom HTML and SEO were highlighted.

FAQ

Build a website with AI in one minute

Build a website with AI in one minute

Create your dream website with 10Web AI Builder and take your business online!

Generate Your Website