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Founder, No Code MBA
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Carrd vs Retool

An in-depth head to head comparison

In this article, read a side-by-side comparison between two no-code tools: Carrd and Retool. We'll compare pricing, the benefits, the drawbacks, give examples of what you can and can't build, as well as our overall recommendation.

What is Carrd?

A free platform for building simple, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything.
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What is Retool?

Build internal tools, remarkably fast
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Pricing

Carrd pricing

  • Free basic plan with the carrd.co domain and up to 3 sites
  • $9/year - $49/year for custom domains and no branding, additional published sites, more data storage and features

Retool pricing

  • Free plan with editor mode only and up to 5 modules
  • $10/month - $50/month per user enables user mode (people can use your app without the ability to edit your set up), version history, more modules, and more advanced features

Benefits

Carrd benefits

  • Simple to use
  • Great for one page websites
  • Can integrate with Stripe for payments (limited e-commerce functionality)
  • Integrates with platforms like Mailchimp to collect emails
  • Responsive
  • Most affordable website builder (as low as $9/year)

Retool benefits

  • Build internal apps connected to your company's data
  • Supports data from just about every database and data source
  • Lots of templates and components
  • Display, filter, and edit your company's data directly from retool
  • Allows businesses to create custom dashboards without developer resources

Drawbacks

Carrd drawbacks

  • Can’t export code
  • Not as customizable as Webflow
  • No CMS - have to hard code in content or embed an Airtable CMS

Retool drawbacks

  • Somewhat high learning curve

What you can build

Carrd use-cases

  • Simple websites with full control over design
  • Landing pages
  • Simple e-commerce sites

Retool use-cases

  • Internal dashboards
  • Internal apps for your business such as a refund management system, data visualization, inventory management, content scheduler, promo code manager and more

What you can't build

What you can't build with Carrd

  • Websites with a CMS that dynamically creates pages (check out Webflow)
  • Multi-page websites (check out Webflow or Squarespace)
  • Web apps with complex logic (check out Glide or Bubble)

What you can't build with Retool

  • Customer-facing apps (Retool apps are meant to be used internally)

Overall Recommendation

Carrd recommendation

Carrd is best for simple one-page websites. It combines an easy learning curve with high customization. It's perfect for testing out an idea.

Another great option for this use-case is Umso.

You can also use tools like Webflow and Squarespace, but for simple sites those tools may be overkill.

Retool recommendation

Retool is a fantastic tool for building internal apps at your business.

Where Retool really shines is allowing non-technical people to build apps that interact with a live database without needing to use developers.

Retool is the best tool for this use-case.

Access all of this with No-Code MBA Unlimited
Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Friendly Tip!
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Bring Your Ideas to Life with AI and No Code

Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Access all of this with No-Code MBA Unlimited
Unlock premium step-by-step tutorials building real apps and websites
Easy to follow tutorials broken down into lessons between 2 to 20 minutes
Get access to the community to share what you're building, ask questions, and get support if you're stuck
Friendly Tip!
Companies often reimburse No Code MBA memberships. Here's an email template to send to your manager.

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