Carrd vs Ghost

Carrd is a builder for simple, responsive one-page websites: landing pages, personal profiles, link-in-bio pages, portfolios, waitlists and event pages. It is built and run by a single independent developer, known as AJ, who also created the HTML5 UP template collection, and it has stayed deliberately small and focused for years.

The editor works with sections, containers and elements on a single page, with fine-grained control over typography, spacing and backgrounds, and a library of clean templates. The free plan allows up to three sites on a carrd.co subdomain. Paid plans are billed yearly rather than monthly: Pro Lite removes Carrd branding and unlocks premium carrd.co addresses, Pro Standard adds custom domains with SSL, forms that connect to Mailchimp, Kit, Formspree and other services, plus embeds, widgets such as Stripe and PayPal buttons and Google Analytics, and Pro Plus adds advanced site settings, more sites and the option to download a site's source files. Even the top plan costs less per year than many builders charge per month.

Carrd is ideal for indie makers, freelancers and early-stage startups who need a polished single page in an afternoon. Its limits are structural: there is no CMS, no blog, no real multi-page navigation and no team collaboration, and interactions and animations are basic. When a project needs several pages, Framer and Webflow are the usual next steps; Linktree is simpler for pure link lists, and Squarespace or Wix suit small businesses that want a full site with commerce.

Ghost is an open-source publishing platform created in 2013 by John O'Nolan and Hannah Wolfe and run by the non-profit Ghost Foundation. It combines a fast, focused editor, SEO-friendly themes, built-in email newsletters and paid memberships, and it is used by independent writers, media startups and company blogs that want to own their audience and their domain.

Memberships and subscriptions run through Stripe with zero platform fees, so publishers keep their subscription revenue apart from Stripe's own charges. Newsletters are sent from the same system that publishes posts, with free and paid tiers, segmentation and analytics. Ghost 6.0, released in 2025, added native web analytics and ActivityPub support, so publications can be followed and interacted with from the fediverse. Ghost(Pro) is the managed hosting with pricing based on member count and staff users; self-hosting is free under the MIT license but requires Node.js, MySQL and a bulk email provider.

Ghost fits writers and publishers who want a real website, strong SEO and memberships without a revenue share. It is not a general website builder, and custom themes require Handlebars and front-end skills. Substack is easier to start with and has a discovery network but takes 10% of paid subscriptions, beehiiv is stronger on newsletter growth tools, and WordPress is more flexible for sites that need many page types and plugins.