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Case study · Carrd

How a solo developer’s $19-a-year site builder, Carrd, passed $1 million in annual revenue

TL;DR

Carrd is a one-page website builder made by a developer who goes by AJ. He first built a following by giving away HTML templates, then narrowed a site-builder idea to one-page sites that one person could maintain. Carrd launched in March 2016, charged $19 a year for Pro, and by April 2021 reported more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue and 2.5 million sites with a team of two. The lesson: narrow the scope until one person can do the job well.

How it started

AJ was building and selling website templates and wanted to learn responsive design. He built a responsive template and put it online for free. After a few designs the site started to gain traction. He says people then asked to pay for extra features and support, so he began charging $19 for a perpetual license plus three months of access to downloads and support, a model described in a SaaS Club podcast interview. The podcast host reports the template business reached six figures a year.

The next idea was a site builder, but AJ was worried one person could not build and support a full one. He had noticed that one-page templates he made quickly were catching on, so he narrowed the scope to one-page sites. In the podcast he says one page is far simpler to handle technically than sites with many pages.

AJ launched Carrd in March 2016.

How they got the first customers

AJ already had an audience from the template work. In his Indie Hackers AMA he said the first 10 to 100 customers came from Twitter and the first thousand or so came from launching on Product Hunt.

In the SaaS Club interview AJ says a follower had posted Carrd on Product Hunt before it was ready, so it was not featured. Once the product was live he asked for it to be reconsidered, and it went up the next day. He also built a sign-up-free flow so visitors could try the builder before giving any information, which he credits for the strong response. Product Hunt ranked Carrd third in Community Product in its 2016 Golden Kitty Awards.

What drove growth

Pricing stayed simple. AJ says Pro started as a single $19-a-year plan, and he priced it to feel fair given how little the early product could do. Carrd’s own site still advertises Pro from $19 a year.

By April 30, 2021, AJ reported on Indie Hackers that Carrd was home to 2.5 million sites created by about 1.6 million users, earned over $1 million in ARR, and was growing by more than 10,000 new sites a day. The team was still mostly AJ on development and product and a colleague named Doni on operations. Carrd had become its own company, Carrd Inc, and was partly venture-funded. AJ wrote that he took the money mainly for the network and connections, since the product was already profitable.

Lessons you can copy

  1. 1Build an audience before you build the productAJ’s free template site gave him followers on Twitter. Those followers were Carrd’s first customers.
  2. 2Narrow the scope until one person can do itOne-page sites were easier to build, host, and support than a full site builder. Constraint is a competitive choice when you are alone.
  3. 3Price low and keep it simpleA single $19-a-year plan was easy to understand. Low prices can work when your overhead is small.
  4. 4Let people try before they sign upThe build-first flow removed friction during the Product Hunt launch. If your product is quick to understand, remove the signup step.
  5. 5Be ready for successAJ said he underestimated how big Carrd would get and did not plan for scale early enough. Plan simple growth limits, like hosting and support, before launch day.

Frequently asked questions

Is Carrd bootstrapped?

It began as a solo bootstrapped product and was profitable early. By April 2021 AJ described it as partly venture-funded, saying he took the investment mainly for connections and not because he needed the money.

How much does Carrd cost?

Carrd’s site advertises that Pro starts at $19 a year, and the plan was $19 a year when it launched, according to AJ.

What can I build with a similar approach?

Pick a narrow output, such as one-page sites, link pages, or waitlists, and serve it better than broad tools. A small scope helps a solo founder support customers.

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