Carrd vs Linktree (2026): One-Page Site or Link Hub?

Carrd and Linktree solve different problems. Carrd builds a one-page website you design yourself, good if you want a real page. Linktree builds a link list in minutes, good if you only need to route traffic. Choose Carrd for a page, Linktree for a list. Price is the tiebreaker, and it is not what most comparisons claim.

If you need	Pick	Why
A real one-page site you design	Carrd	Full layout control, annual pricing
A link list, live in ten minutes	Linktree	Paste links, done, no design work
To sell products natively	Linktree	Carrd has no checkout at all
A custom domain	Carrd (Pro Standard)	Linktree offers none on any plan
Both, without the trade-off	Neither, see below	Owned page plus link hub

Carrd or Linktree: which should you actually pick?

Pick Carrd if the output matters. You are building a page that people will judge: a portfolio, a product landing page, a personal site. Carrd gives you a blank canvas and expects you to design it, and the result looks like a website rather than a template.

Pick Linktree if the output is a routing layer. You have five links, you want them tappable under an Instagram bio tonight, and nobody is going to admire the page. Linktree does that in minutes with zero design decisions.

The mistake is picking on price. Carrd looks dramatically cheaper on paper, and at the tier most people actually need, the gap narrows in ways the roundups skip.

What is the real difference between Carrd and Linktree?

They are not the same category of product, which is why feature-by-feature tables mislead.

Carrd is a one-page site builder. You place elements on a canvas: text, images, buttons, forms, embeds. The page can be a link list if you build it that way, but it can equally be a landing page with a signup form and a pricing section. The ceiling is high and the floor is "you have to design something."

Linktree is a link hub. The layout is fixed: avatar, bio, stacked buttons. You are not designing, you are configuring. That constraint is the feature, and it is why Linktree is faster to ship and harder to make ugly.

If you are still working out which shape you want, our guide to what a link in bio page actually is covers the category before the tool choice.

How much do Carrd and Linktree actually cost in 2026?

Carrd is annual only. It publishes no monthly price, so any monthly figure you see for Carrd is amortized, including the ones below.

Carrd plan	Price	What it unlocks
Free	$0	3 sites, core features, Carrd branding, Carrd subdomain
Pro Lite	$9/year	Removes branding, premium templates, larger uploads, QR codes
Pro Standard	$19/year	Adds custom domains, forms, embeds, analytics, meta tags
Pro Plus	$49/year	Adds advanced forms, password protection, redirects, site downloads

Linktree plan	Price	Seller fee
Free	$0	12%
Starter	$8/month	9%
Pro	$15/month	9%
Premium	$35/month	0%

Here is the correction almost every comparison gets wrong: Carrd's $9/year Pro Lite does not include a custom domain. It also has no forms and no analytics. It buys branding removal and cosmetics. The cheapest Carrd tier with a custom domain, forms, or analytics is Pro Standard at $19/year, which is roughly $1.58/month amortized.

Even corrected, Carrd is far cheaper: $19/year against Linktree's $8/month floor. If you want every Carrd tier mapped out, including which one you actually need, we cover it in Carrd's 2026 pricing. Linktree's own ladder is worth reading closely too, since branding removal sits at Pro and not at Starter. We broke that down in Linktree's 2026 pricing.

Which one costs you more when you sell something?

Carrd charges no transaction fee. Linktree takes 12% on Free and 9% on Starter and Pro, dropping to 0% only on Premium at $35/month, all on top of Stripe's processing.

That looks like a rout for Carrd until you read what the 0% means. Carrd charges no seller fee because it has no commerce layer at all. There is no store, no checkout, no product page. You sell by embedding someone else's widget, which means you bring your own Gumroad, Stripe payment link, or similar, and you pay that provider's cut instead.

So the honest framing is: Linktree's fee is the price of a built-in checkout, and Carrd's zero is the price of not having one. If you sell regularly, do the arithmetic. Linktree Premium's 0% fee beats Pro's 9% once your page clears roughly $222/month in revenue. If you sell rarely, Carrd plus an external checkout is cheaper than any Linktree tier.

Can you use a custom domain on either?

Carrd: yes, from Pro Standard at $19/year. Your page can live at yourname.com.

Linktree: no. Linktree does not offer a custom domain on any plan, including Premium. Its help documentation confirms this and suggests redirect links as a workaround, which is not the same thing, since the URL your visitors land on and share is still linktr.ee.

For anyone building a brand rather than a temporary landing spot, this is the single largest difference between the two, and it is worth more than most of the feature checkboxes above it. It is also the reason so many creators eventually leave, a pattern we traced in Beacons vs Linktree.

How much work is each one to set up?

Linktree is minutes. Sign up, paste links, choose a theme, publish. There is nothing to design because there is nothing designable, and that is the correct trade for most people's first bio page.

Carrd is an afternoon, honestly. Even starting from a template, you are moving elements, choosing type, and making layout calls. The output is better and the work is real. If design is not something you enjoy, Carrd's blank canvas is a cost and not a feature.

Budget accordingly: Linktree is a task, Carrd is a small project.

When is neither the right answer?

Some people want a designed page and a custom domain and a link hub they can restyle without rebuilding it. Carrd gives you the first two but expects you to design and maintain the page. Linktree gives you speed but caps you at its subdomain forever.

That gap is why we built Linkero, our own link-in-bio tool, so this is the part where you should discount our opinion accordingly. It sits between the two: a custom domain and real styling control on the entry paid plan, without a blank canvas to design from scratch. Current plans are on our pricing page.

It is not the answer for everyone. If you genuinely want a full one-page website with sections and forms, Carrd does that better than any link-in-bio tool including ours. And if you need a page tonight for free, Linktree's free tier still wins on speed. For a wider view of the field, see our roundup of the best link in bio tools.

FAQ

Why did people stop using Linktree? Two reasons dominate. Prices rose sharply in late 2025, with Starter going from $5 to $8, Pro from $9 to $15, and Premium from $24 to $35. And Linktree still offers no custom domain on any plan, so creators building a long-term brand hit a ceiling they cannot pay their way past.

What do people use instead of Linktree? Common replacements split by intent. Creators who want a real designed page move to Carrd or a site builder. Sellers move to Beacons or Stan Store for lower fees and native storefronts. People who mainly want a custom domain on a link page move to tools that include one on an entry plan.

Is Carrd the best website builder? It is the best one-page builder for the price, which is a narrower claim. Carrd does not do multi-page sites, blogs, or ecommerce. For a single landing page, portfolio, or personal site, very little competes at $19/year. For anything with multiple pages or a store, use a full site builder instead.

What do people use instead of Carrd? Usually one of two directions. People who found Carrd too much work move to a link-in-bio tool with fixed layouts. People who outgrew one page move to Webflow, Framer, or a similar multi-page builder. Carrd's limit is almost always page count or commerce, rarely design.