Carrd
👤 AJ (ajlkn) (Made free HTML5 UP templates; saw one downloaded thousands a day, built Carrd in about 9 months (2016). Now 2 people, $1M+ ARR.)🌐 siteaj.lkn.io𝕏
You don't beat Wix — you build what they're too big to bother with, price it like coffee, let the free tier market it.
Will it work? · our read
A textbook wedge. Honesty check: much of the boom was luck stacked on years of grind — COVID, link-in-bio, a Kim Kardashian tweet. The real lessons: patience, a viral free tier, ruthless focus.
01How the money moves
Anyone builds a free one-page site in minutes
→
Every free site shows a 'Made with Carrd' badge → new signups
→
Pay $9-$49/yr to remove badge, add custom domain, forms, analytics
02The numbers
$1M+ ARRStatedARR · founder-stated
2021-04
the sentence on the page
Hi! I'm AJ, maker of Carrd and ... after 2.5M sites, $1M ARR, and a funding round, probably time for an AMA! - Indie Hackers Home Starting Up Case Studies DB Products Ideas DB Vibe Codin
Founder-stated in AJ's Indie Hackers AMA and the SaaS Club interview ($1M-$1.2M ARR, 4M+ sites, 2.6M users). Figures come from interviews at slightly different dates. Indie Hackers AMA (AJ)
$1M+ ARR from $9-$49/year subscriptions; bootstrapped for years, then raised $2M (Rainfall Ventures + about 12 angels) for expertise not cash — still a 2-person company.
🔒
You have the verdict. Members get the work behind it.
- The CENTS scorecard — where it's strong, where it's soft
- The founder's key move, and the counter-move
- How it could die — the evidence, and how sure we are
- The case against our own call
- A 🚀 launchpad prompt — the case, as a plan for your business
We rate our own confidence — and argue against ourselves. Nobody else in this category does.
Sources always public on all 560 cases · cancel anytime · 14-day refund
See a full teardown, free → ImportYetiSourcesSources last checked 25 August 2026
AJ's Indie Hackers AMA — $1M ARR, 2.5M sites (first-party)SaaS Club interview with AJ — $1.2M ARR, 4M sites, $2M raise (founder interview)Indie Hackers Podcast — AJ of Carrd (founder interview)Carrd Pro plans — official pricing tiers (first-party)Carrd: The Making Of — AJ's own build story (first-party)
Revenue is founder-stated by AJ himself (Indie Hackers AMA: $1M ARR; SaaS Club interview: about $1.2M ARR, 4M+ sites) — first-party, not a third-party estimate — but figures are unaudited and site/user counts come from interviews at different dates. The $2M raise (Rainfall Ventures + about 12 angels) is interview/report-sourced. Founder's full legal name is not publicly disclosed; he goes by AJ / @ajlkn. We never score you.