Google Sites vs Carrd: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

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

• 
  Google Sites (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is ideal for users seeking a collaborative platform with seamless integration with other Google services. It excels in user management, security, and hosting quality, making it suitable for team projects, personal portfolios, and small business websites. However, it lacks advanced design functionalities and ecommerce features, which may limit its appeal for more complex website needs.
• 
  Carrd (Overall Grade: 6.1/10)
  
  stands out for its simplicity, ease of use, and affordability. It is perfect for creating fully responsive, single-page websites quickly and efficiently. Carrd offers a wider variety of templates and better design customization options compared to Google Sites. While it is not primarily designed for ecommerce, it provides basic ecommerce functionalities through third-party integrations, making it a versatile choice for personal profiles, landing pages, and small business websites.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Google Sites and Carrd are not primarily designed for ecommerce, but Carrd offers more capabilities for small-scale online stores.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is not equipped with built-in ecommerce features. Users need to rely on third-party integrations for any ecommerce functionality, such as embedding payment buttons or linking to external platforms. This makes it less ideal for those looking to set up an online store quickly and efficiently.
• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd provides basic ecommerce functionalities, including integration with payment platforms like Stripe and PayPal. It offers a selection of ecommerce templates and allows for simple product listings. While not as robust as dedicated ecommerce platforms, Carrd is a better choice for small-scale ecommerce needs compared to Google Sites.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Carrd edges out Google Sites with a score of 7.9 compared to Google Sites’ 7.2. Carrd’s simplicity, ease of use, and design flexibility make it a strong choice for those looking to create visually appealing, single-page websites quickly and efficiently.

• 
  Google Sites
  
  : Google Sites is a robust tool for creating structured web pages, especially for team projects and small business websites. Its integration with other Google services and collaborative features make it a popular choice for users who need to work together on a site. However, its design and customization options are somewhat limited compared to Carrd, making it less ideal for those seeking extensive creative control.
• 
  Carrd
  
  : Carrd excels in providing a straightforward platform for building fully responsive, single-page websites. Its wide variety of templates and customization options cater to different needs, from personal profiles to business landing pages. Carrd’s user-friendly interface and affordable pricing plans make it an attractive option for individuals and small businesses looking to establish an online presence quickly. When comparing Google Sites vs Carrd, Carrd’s design flexibility and ease of use make it the preferred choice for informational and business websites.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Carrd.

Carrd offers a wider variety of templates and designs, more customization flexibility, and more creative design possibilities than Google Sites.

Google Sites offers a limited number of templates suitable for various purposes, from personal blogs to business websites. These templates are designed for user engagement, simplicity, and functionality, allowing for customization to meet specific needs. However, compared to other website builders like Carrd, Google Sites might offer less variety in templates and design customization options.

Google Sites Themes

On the other hand, 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

🏆 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. Google Sites, scoring 8.3, offers a user-friendly interface and integrates seamlessly with other Google services, but it may lack advanced features desired by more experienced web developers.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites offers a wide array of learning resources, spanning from practical guides for educators to comprehensive digital skill development programs for the wider public. Carrd also offers a range of tutorials and documentation, but Google Sites’ resources are more extensive and versatile.

When it comes to ecommerce, both Google Sites and Carrd are not primarily designed for this purpose. However, they offer some capabilities through third-party integrations.

Google Sites does not have built-in ecommerce features, but users can integrate ecommerce functionalities by embedding third-party tools or widgets, linking to an external ecommerce platform, or using buttons that link to payment processors. For instance, you could use Google Forms for order forms and integrate PayPal or another payment service for transactions. To have a full-fledged ecommerce platform with Google Sites, you’d need to rely on these external integrations or services.

Google Sites ecommerce features:

Google Sites itself does not have built-in ecommerce features.

On the other hand, Carrd allows for basic product listing options and integrates with payment platforms like Stripe and Paypal. It also offers a selection of ecommerce templates. 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. For users looking to incorporate ecommerce functionalities, they would need to integrate third-party services or use external links to platforms like Etsy or Shopify.

Carrd ecommerce features:

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

Ecommerce themes & templates

Google Sites does not have any ecommerce templates. On the other hand, Carrd provides a selection of 14 ecommerce 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.

Product page customization

Google Sites lacks any product page customization features, as the products can be listed with embedding third-party platforms, all the customization can be done within the mentioned platforms. 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.

Payment processing

You can integrate payment gateways into Google Sites using external tools or links, not through native features. This can be done by embedding HTML code for payment buttons from services like PayPal, Square, or Stripe, or by linking to an external checkout page. Third-party ecommerce widgets also offer a way to add payment functionalities. However, Google Sites doesn’t offer the comprehensive ecommerce capabilities that dedicated platforms provide.

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.

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Winner: Tie

. Both Google Sites and Carrd scored 7.0 for their website editors, each offering unique strengths.

Google Sites offers a user-friendly website builder editor that allows users to create and design websites without needing coding knowledge. With its drag-and-drop interface, users can easily add, customize, and arrange elements such as text, images, and videos on their web pages. It also provides a variety of templates and design options to help users get started quickly and ensure their site looks professional. Additionally, Google Sites integrates seamlessly with other Google services, enabling the incorporation of Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Maps directly into the website.

Carrd’s website builder editor 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. 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.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Carrd

. Neither Google Sites nor Carrd offer a dedicated mobile editor app. However, Carrd allows users to edit their websites on a mobile browser, which gives it an edge over Google Sites. This feature can be particularly useful for users who need to make quick changes on the go.

On the other hand, Google Sites does not support mobile editing, which can be a significant drawback for users who prefer to work on their websites from a mobile device.

Therefore, Carrd is the winner in this category due to its mobile browser editing capability.

Overall Result

:

Google Sites wins

. Google Sites scores 6.9 in product testing options, slightly higher than Carrd’s 6.0. Google Sites offers a free version and a 14-day trial period during which some premium features can be tested. Carrd, on the other hand, does not offer a free version but provides a 7-day trial period for testing premium features. Neither platform offers a money-back guarantee.

Carrd offers more affordable pricing plans compared to Google Sites, making it a more cost-effective choice for individuals and small businesses. However, Google Sites provides more robust features and scalability, especially for larger organizations.

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Winner: Google Sites

Google Sites offers cloud-based managed hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and operates 21 data centers globally, providing reliable and robust hosting services. Carrd, on the other hand, offers shared hosting but does not provide any statistics on uptime or information about its data centers, making Google Sites the clear winner in this category.

🏆 Winner: Carrd

Both Google Sites and Carrd prioritize website performance and page speed, but Carrd takes the lead with its simple, single-page design that ensures minimal load times and high page speed scores.

Carrd, with its focus on simplicity and ease of use, ensures minimal load times and high page speed scores due to its single-page design. It uses mobile responsive design, caching, and Cloudflare CDN as its key strategies for speed optimization. However, Carrd does not disclose any information related to Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Google Sites uses automated optimization, CDN, mobile optimization, browser caching, code minification, and the use of AMP as its key strategies for speed optimization. It also emphasizes on LCP, FID, CLS improvements for Core Web Vitals. However, Google does not disclose statistics about website Page Speed scores or load times.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites.

Google Sites scores 6.4, offering a wide array of plugins and extensions to enhance website functionality. It integrates with various Google services and third-party platforms like Elfsight and Common Ninja, providing functionalities like social media feeds, review displays, chat support, e-commerce tools, and various interactive widgets. Carrd, scoring 5.8, also offers a range of plugins and extensions, including both free and paid options. However, it falls slightly short in comparison to Google Sites in terms of the breadth and depth of functionalities offered.

Google Sites Applications

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Overall Winner: Carrd

. Carrd offers a wider range of marketing features, including SEO tools, email marketing through third-party integrations, blogging, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions. Google Sites, while offering basic SEO settings and Google Analytics integration, lacks in email marketing, blogging, and ads and promotions.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. In the comparison of Google Sites vs Carrd, Google Sites takes the lead with a customer support score of 7.2. Google Sites offers a range of support options, including a Help Center, community forums, and direct support for Google Workspace customers. Enterprise users benefit from 24/7 phone and email support, with the option to upgrade to enhanced support levels.

Carrd, on the other hand, provides 24/7 email support with a typical response time within 24 hours. While this is sufficient for many users, Carrd lacks the comprehensive support options and enterprise-level support that Google Sites offers, resulting in a lower customer support score of 6.2.

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Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites, with a security score of 9.3, offers robust security measures including SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and automatic malware scanning. It also benefits from Google’s regular security updates and compliance with international data protection standards. Google Workspace ensures private data storage and protection through data encryption in transit and at rest, strict access controls, and adherence to international data protection regulations like GDPR.

Although it may not offer the same level of security measures as Google Sites, Carrd, with a security score of 7.6, also ensures website security by automatically enabling SSL for all sites. Carrd collects personal information and uses cookies for website operation, data gathering, and enhancing user experiences. It implements measures to protect personal information online and offline, though it acknowledges that no internet transmission is fully secure.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Neither Google Sites nor Carrd offer AI capabilities. Both platforms focus on providing a straightforward, user-friendly interface for building websites, but do not incorporate AI tools or features into their platforms.

🏆 Winner: Google Sites

. Google Sites and Carrd offer different approaches to user management.

• Google Sites allows multiple users to collaborate with different roles, including Owners, who have full control, and Editors, who can modify content but not site settings. There’s no strict limit on the number of users who can edit a site, allowing flexibility in management and development. Viewers can only see the site, with no editing permissions. This structure supports collaborative website building with varied levels of access and control for different users.
• 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.

Unfortunately, there are no detailed user roles and access levels tables available for both Google Sites and Carrd.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Users consistently praise Google Workspace, particularly Google Sites, for its seamless integration, ease of use, and collaborative features, making it a go-to solution for various professional and educational needs. The platform’s simplicity and user-friendly interface are lauded, enabling effortless website creation and sharing of information within organizations. While some users desire more customization options and additional features, overall, Google Workspace remains highly valued for its versatility and streamlined workflow facilitation.

Users overwhelmingly praise Carrd.co 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.co is praised for its affordability, ease of use, and suitability for creating quick, simple webpages.

FAQ