Format vs Carbonmade: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Format and Carbonmade both cater to creative professionals, but they offer different strengths and weaknesses.

• 
  Format (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  is designed for creatives like photographers, artists, and designers, offering nearly 100 customizable templates and basic ecommerce functionalities. It excels in providing a comprehensive platform for showcasing portfolios with features like client proofing and blogging tools. However, its interface can be less intuitive, and its feature set may feel limited for broader website needs. When comparing Format vs Carbonmade, Format stands out for its ecommerce capabilities and extensive integrations, making it a better choice for creatives looking to sell their work online.
• 
  Carbonmade (Overall Grade: 4.4/10)
  
  focuses on simplicity and ease of use, providing a highly customizable platform without traditional templates. It offers personalized portfolio websites based on user inputs, making it ideal for creatives who want a quick and easy way to showcase their work. However, Carbonmade lacks ecommerce functionalities and integrations, which can be a drawback for users needing more advanced features. In the Format vs Carbonmade comparison, Carbonmade is best suited for users who prioritize design flexibility and a straightforward portfolio creation process.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Format is the better choice for ecommerce, offering basic functionalities suitable for creatives, while Carbonmade lacks any ecommerce capabilities.

• 
  Format
  
  : Designed for creative professionals, Format provides essential ecommerce features such as inventory management, discounts, and multiple currency options. It integrates with major payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, making it a viable option for selling physical and digital products. However, its ecommerce capabilities are limited compared to more robust platforms.
• 
  Carbonmade
  
  : While excellent for showcasing creative portfolios, Carbonmade does not offer any ecommerce functionalities. This makes it unsuitable for users who need to sell products online, limiting its use to portfolio presentation only.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Format stands out as the better option compared to Carbonmade. With a higher score of 7.2 versus Carbonmade’s 5.9, Format offers a more comprehensive set of features tailored for creative professionals, making it a more versatile choice for showcasing portfolios and managing online presence.

• 
  Format
  
  : Format is specifically designed for creative professionals such as photographers, artists, and designers. It offers nearly 100 customizable templates that are visually appealing and mobile-friendly. The platform includes features like an integrated online store, client proofing, and blogging tools, making it a comprehensive solution for creatives. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows users to create and manage their websites without any coding knowledge, making it an excellent choice for those looking to build a professional online presence.
• 
  Carbonmade
  
  : Carbonmade is also aimed at creatives but focuses more on simplicity and ease of use. It offers fully customizable layouts and a range of features designed to make portfolio creation quick and easy. However, it lacks the depth of features and integrations that Format provides. While Carbonmade is a good option for those who prioritize simplicity and speed, it may not offer enough flexibility for users who need more advanced functionalities.

Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Carbonmade.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Carbonmade is the preferred choice.

Format is a website builder specifically designed for creatives, offering nearly 100 customizable templates tailored for various artistic disciplines. It emphasizes high-quality imagery and mobile-friendly designs, ensuring portfolios look professional on any device. While it offers easy-to-use features and e-commerce tools for selling work directly, some users find its interface less intuitive and its feature set somewhat limited for broader website needs.

Format Themes

Compared to Format, Carbonmade does not have traditional templates. Instead, the platform creates a personalized portfolio website based on the inputs of the users. Carbonmade offers a high degree of customization flexibility tailored for creatives, enabling personalized, profession-specific layouts, responsive designs across devices, and support for unlimited uploads, including 4K videos. It provides a plethora of premade blocks and layouts for easy, drag-and-drop website design, along with specific features for various creative professions.

🏆 Tie

. Both Format and Carbonmade score an impressive 8.3 in ease of use. They are designed to be user-friendly, especially for creative professionals who want to showcase their work online without needing coding skills. Both platforms offer intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces and customizable templates, making it easy for users to create and manage their portfolios.

Learning Resources

🏆 Tie

. Both Format and Carbonmade provide comprehensive learning resources, including video tutorials and help centers. These resources are designed to guide users through the process of creating and customizing their online portfolios, ensuring a smooth user experience.

Format is designed for creative professionals and offers basic ecommerce functionalities, making it suitable for selling physical and digital products. It includes features like product management, currency options, and discounts. However, its ecommerce capabilities are limited and may not meet the needs of users looking for extensive ecommerce features. Carbonmade, on the other hand, does not offer any ecommerce functionalities, making it unsuitable for users who need to sell products online.

Format ecommerce features:

• Inventory management and tracking
• Discounts
• Multiple currency options

Carbonmade ecommerce features:

• There are no ecommerce features provided by Carbonmade

Ecommerce themes & templates

Format does not have ecommerce-specific templates, focusing instead on portfolio presentation. Carbonmade also lacks any templates, further emphasizing its unsuitability for ecommerce purposes.

Product page customization

Format offers limited details on product page customization but focuses on showcasing products through high-quality imagery and detailed descriptions. Users can manage product specifics like shipping, availability, and pricing, with customization likely extending to layout and presentation styles. Carbonmade does not support product pages due to its lack of ecommerce capabilities.

Payment processing

Format integrates with major payment gateways, including PayPal and Stripe, charging a 15% commission on the Pro plan and 5% on the Pro Plus plan. However, it does not have built-in POS capabilities. Carbonmade does not offer any payment processing capabilities, further limiting its use for ecommerce.

In summary, Format provides basic ecommerce features suitable for creatives looking to sell their work online, while Carbonmade lacks any ecommerce functionalities, making it unsuitable for users with ecommerce needs.

🏆

Winner: Carbonmade

. Carbonmade, with a score of 7.6, offers a range of features designed for creatives to build personalized, professional online portfolios without requiring coding knowledge. Its editor provides responsive design across devices, 4K video support, unlimited image and video uploads, and premade blocks for customization. The platform also includes unique features such as private portfolios, a before/after block, gallery slideshows, and a talent pool to connect with other creatives and potential clients.

Format’s editor, scoring 7.5, is highly regarded for its user-friendliness and is especially geared towards creative professionals, making it accessible for beginners. With a quick setup process, a wide range of customizable templates, and no need for coding knowledge, users can easily create and manage their websites. Features such as drag-and-drop image import, social media integration, SEO tools, and e-commerce capabilities enhance the platform’s utility.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Format

. When it comes to mobile editing capabilities, both Format and Carbonmade fall short of providing a dedicated mobile editor app. However, Format does allow users to edit their websites through a mobile browser, although the experience is not optimized for mobile devices and uses the same interface as the desktop version. This can make it challenging to navigate and use on a smartphone.

Carbonmade, on the other hand, does not offer any mobile editing capabilities, which significantly limits its usability for users who need to make quick updates or changes on the go.

In summary, while neither platform excels in mobile editing, Format has a slight edge due to its ability to be accessed and edited via a mobile browser, even if the experience is not ideal.

Overall Result

:

Format wins

. Format scores 8.3, offering a 14-day free trial with the ability to test all premium features and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Carbonmade scores 7.2, providing a trial period where all features can be tested but lacks a money-back guarantee.

Format and Carbonmade offer competitive pricing with Format providing higher discounts on annual subscriptions.

🏆

Winner: Carbonmade

. Carbonmade edges out Format with its managed hosting and unlimited storage, making it a more robust option for creatives needing reliable hosting. Format lacks detailed hosting information, which may be a concern for users seeking transparency and reliability.

🏆 Winner: Tie

Both Format and Carbonmade have the same score for website speed optimization, but they employ different strategies to achieve their performance.

Format is a website builder tailored for creative professionals, offering customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Its speed optimization strategies focus on image and video optimization, which is crucial for portfolio websites that often feature high-quality media. However, Format does not disclose specific details about its Core Web Vitals improvements or provide a range for its PageSpeed scores, making it difficult to gauge its overall performance.

Carbonmade, on the other hand, is also designed for creatives and emphasizes simplicity in portfolio creation. Unlike Format, Carbonmade does not specify any particular strategies for speed optimization or provide information on Core Web Vitals improvements. The load times and PageSpeed scores for Carbonmade vary depending on optimization, similar to Format, but the lack of detailed information makes it challenging to assess its effectiveness in speed optimization.

In conclusion, both Format and Carbonmade have room for improvement in terms of transparency and specific strategies for website speed optimization. Their equal scores reflect their similar performance levels, but users may need to conduct their own tests to determine which platform better suits their needs.

🏆 Winner: Format.

Format scores 4.9, offering limited but essential integrations such as Adobe Lightroom, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics. These integrations, while not extensive, provide valuable tools for creative professionals to enhance their online portfolios. Carbonmade, on the other hand, scores 0 as it does not support any plugins or integrations, focusing solely on simplicity and ease of use for portfolio creation.

Format’s integrations, though limited, give it a clear advantage over Carbonmade in this category.

🏆

Overall Winner: Format

. Format offers a more comprehensive set of marketing tools, making it a better choice for users who need basic SEO, email marketing, blogging, and social media integration. Carbonmade, while user-friendly, lacks many essential marketing features.

🏆 Winner: Format

. Comparing Format vs Carbonmade, Format takes the lead in this category with its 24/7 customer support available through email and live chat. The global distribution of its tech support team ensures round-the-clock assistance, making it a reliable option for users who may need help at any time.

Carbonmade, on the other hand, offers support primarily through a ticket-based system. While it does not provide live customer support, users generally receive responses within a few hours. Despite the lack of immediate assistance, Carbonmade’s support team is known for its quick response times, ensuring that users’ issues are addressed in a timely manner.

🏆

Winner: Format

. Format takes a more comprehensive approach to security, offering encrypted data storage, strict access controls, and compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR. These measures ensure that user data is well-protected, making it a more secure option for creative professionals who need to safeguard their portfolios and client information.

Carbonmade, while providing basic security measures, does not emphasize security as strongly as Format. Its focus is more on the ease of creating portfolio websites, with less detailed information on specific security protocols. This makes Format the better choice for users who prioritize data security.

Security Scores:

• Format: 7.4
• Carbonmade: 5.8

🏆 Winner: None

. Both Format and Carbonmade do not offer any AI capabilities. They are designed to be user-friendly and cater specifically to creative professionals, but they lack AI-driven tools and features.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Both Format and Carbonmade offer similar user management capabilities, which are quite limited compared to other website builders.

• 
  Format
  
  : Allows only one user to manage and edit websites. This can be restrictive for teams or collaborative projects.
• 
  Carbonmade
  
  : Similarly, only one user can manage and edit a website, making it less suitable for collaborative efforts.

Both platforms are designed for individual creatives who need to showcase their work online, and their user management features reflect this focus.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Users highly praise Format for its user-friendly website builder, particularly noting the ease of adding images and the effectiveness of customer service. Many reviewers appreciate the variety of modern templates and the platform’s suitability for users without technical expertise, especially photographers. Format’s mobile app and proofing section receive special mentions for their convenience and functionality. However, some users desire more customization options, particularly for mobile views, and mention minor limitations in template flexibility and SEO functionality.

Carbonmade is appreciated for its ease of use, modern design templates, and no-code platform, which simplifies creating professional portfolios. However, some users express a desire for a freemium plan and note limitations in customization and mobile site loading times. The platform is highly recommended for creatives, particularly illustrators and graphic designers, for its variety of design options and efficient customer service. Despite concerns over pricing, the overall sentiment is positive, with users finding value in Carbonmade’s ability to showcase their work effectively and streamline portfolio management.

FAQ