Mini Casa vs Carrd
A layout builder and an illustrated casa, compared for personal pages and link pages, with sourced facts and an honest answer about when each one is the better pick.
Carrd and Mini Casa both help one person put a good-looking page online without code. The difference is where you start and how much you arrange.
Carrd starts from a layout. You pick a starting template and build the page out of sections and elements: headings, text, images, buttons, forms, dividers, embeds. You control spacing, colours, fonts and order. People use it for personal homepages, link pages, launch pages and small landing pages, and many enjoy the craft of getting every block right.
Mini Casa starts from a finished scene. You pick an illustrated casa, such as a letterpress cottage, a postal outpost or a shared work cottage, with a resident who lives there. You write your introduction, add links and change the casa's details until it feels like yours. There is little to arrange, because the illustration carries the design.
The table below uses Carrd's own pages, with the date we checked them, and Mini Casa's current features, including what is still in preview. We make Mini Casa, so we are not neutral. We have tried to describe Carrd the way its fans would.
The short answer
If you want to design the page yourself and enjoy placing every element, Carrd rewards that. If you want a page with character in an evening and would rather write than arrange, Mini Casa is built for that. If you are unsure, ask yourself whether you enjoyed the last time you adjusted margins.
Building versus choosing
A Carrd page is a blank-ish canvas. That freedom means two Carrd pages can look completely different, and it also means the result depends on your eye and patience. A one-page site that looks tidy on a phone is very achievable; a striking one takes time.
A casa is a set of choices made for you by an illustrator. You can change its details with Casa DNA and add your own words and links, but you cannot move the cottage to the left. That constraint is the point: the page looks considered on the first evening, and you spend your time on what you say.
Keeping it current
The real test of a personal page is month six, not day one. Pages go stale when updating them feels like a project. On a section-built page, adding a new project might mean duplicating a block, resizing an image and checking the mobile layout. In a casa, it means adding a link or a portfolio piece with a short story, and the layout looks after itself.
On the other hand, if your page needs a new kind of content, say a pricing table or an embedded calendar, a builder can grow sideways in ways a casa cannot. Think about which kind of change you expect to make most often.
Cost
Carrd's free plan: Yes, up to three sites per account1. Its paid plans are billed yearly rather than monthly. Mini Casa has a free plan with a free address and every free casa; paid plans are listed on our pricing page. Compare the plan you would actually need, for example the one that includes your own domain, rather than the cheapest one.
Mini Casa suits you if
Mini Casa suits you if you want a personal page that feels like a place rather than a layout. A writer might choose Margin Notes, a freelancer Good Company, someone with many interests Lunar Post Office. The scene says something about you, and the words stay readable beside it.
It also suits people who want their page to grow in small steps. You can add posts and portfolio pieces to the same casa over time, which turns a link page into a modest personal site without a rebuild.
Be aware of what is early: connecting your own domain, the signup form and visit counts are in preview, and premium casas can be browsed but not yet published. Every casa shows a small Made with Mini Casa link. If those are fine for now, you can be online tonight.
Carrd suits you if
Carrd is the better choice if you want precise control over a one-page layout: exact sections, your own fonts and colours, forms wired to the email service you use, and embeds from payment or booking tools. Its plans are priced by the year, starting at USD 9 per year (Pro Lite); custom domains start with Pro Standard, as of October 25, 20262. Your own domain: On Pro Standard and above, with SSL2.
It is also the better choice for landing pages with a specific goal, such as a product launch with a signup form or an event page with a ticket button, where layout matters more than atmosphere. And if you have already built a Carrd page you are proud of, keep it. A page you enjoy maintaining is worth more than a new one.
Feature by feature
| What you get | Mini Casa | CarrdChecked October 25, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Free way to start | Yes: a free address and every free casa | Yes, up to three sites per account1 |
| Lowest paid plan | See the pricing page | USD 9 per year (Pro Lite); custom domains start with Pro Standard2 |
| Your own domain | Domain connection is in preview | On Pro Standard and above, with SSL2 |
| Removing their branding | Every casa shows a small Made with Mini Casa link | On every Pro plan2 |
| Email signups | A signup form with confirmation, in preview | Signup forms linked to an email service, on Pro Standard and above2 |
| Visitor stats | Visits and link activity, in preview | Through Google Analytics, Plausible and others, on Pro Standard and above2 |
| Starting point | Illustrated casas with a resident | Premium starting-point templates on every Pro plan, including Pro Lite2 |
Moving over from Carrd
Moving from a one-page builder to a casa is mostly a writing job.
- Copy your page's words into a note: your headline, your introduction and your links with their labels.
- Choose a casa. Try two or three, such as Paper Trail, and keep the one that matches your tone.
- Paste your links into the guided import and review the draft before anything is published.
- Trim your introduction to two or three sentences. A casa shows less text at once than a long scrolling page, and that usually helps.
- If your old page had a signup form, export the subscribers from your email service and decide whether the new page needs one. Mini Casa's signup form is in preview.
- Test on your phone, then update the link in your profiles.
If your old page used your own domain, keep it pointed there until your Mini Casa page is ready. Connecting your domain to a casa is in preview, so for now you would share the free Mini Casa address. Read how posts work if you plan to grow the page, and our guide to choosing your web address if the domain question is still open.
Questions people ask
Can I design my own layout in Mini Casa?
No. You choose an illustrated casa and change its details, but you cannot rearrange the scene or build sections from scratch. If designing the layout yourself is the part you enjoy, a section builder is the better fit.
Which is quicker to set up?
A casa is usually quicker, because the design is done and you mainly write. A section-built page can be quick from a template too, but tuning it to look right often takes an evening or more.
Can I add a contact or signup form?
Mini Casa can show a signup form with a confirmation step and a private way to say hello, both in preview. If you need custom form fields or payments, a section builder with form integrations will serve you better.
Sources
- Carrd: Carrd home page, checked October 25, 2026
- Carrd: Carrd Pro plans, checked October 25, 2026
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