Platform risk on Carrd
jasonleow • 10 Mar 2023 •
It finally happened to me. I always knew there’s platform risk on Carrd. I mean, any platform has risk. When you build a house on someone else’s land, there’s always a chance they can rug pull you in unexpected ways.
For me, building plugins on Carrd had these risks:
- The platform might have a change of mind and no longer allow plugins
- They decide that my plugins infringe on their trademark
- Site gets deleted or lost somehow (like Heroku)
- They build new features that effectively make my plugin(s) obsolete
The fourth risk is the most real and probable. And it just happened. One of my best selling plugins—the mobile navbar plugin—became obsolete because recent new features on Carrd meant people can now make their own mobile responsive navbar using available Carrd components. No custom code required no more. It doesn’t do it perfectly, but good enough. Good enough that my plugin no longer makes sense. The real kicker is realising that if I was the customer, I wouldn’t buy my own navbar plugin.
Sigh…
I always expected it would happen, sooner if not later. But encountering it in real life just hits different, over pondering a theoretical possibility. I mean, it’s not like I’m upset with the platform or founders in any way. I’m still grateful that they’re open minded and cool about my plugins. I guess this is just grieving over that eventuality that now became reality.
That’s why I was in a conundrum about my new free Carrd template and tutorial about the new way to create a responsive navbar in Carrd. It felt like by launching it, I’m also killing my older plugin. But do I really have a choice?
Stay with the times, or be left behind, they say.
The tough choices of an entrepreneur. Kill your baby to give birth to a new one. Who can do that without hesitation?
Comments
i think u do the right thing and might gain you more customers!
@andrewtsao Yes it’s the visibility setting! Added not too long ago yes. The feature isn’t new new, but I think using it the way I did might be novel.
Yes, I do hope so that I’ll figure it out! 🙏 It’s inevitable anyway, kinda like how app developers go out of a job when Android or Apple add their app features into the OS. Gotta keep moving forward.
@knight Thanks bro! Yes it feels right indeed, even though it’s painful. Like ripping out a bandaid plaster! 😅 Fingers crossed about more customers!
I actually had no idea there was a new feature until you mentioned it. Just checked out your template and saw you did it with the “visibility” setting, was that just added?
It must feel awful feeling like something you’ve built is going to be obsolete (esp a best seller) but I also just want to remind you that you have offered so much value to people building in Carrd and you’ll figure it out! Maybe it’ll push people who struggled with building a mobile nav bar to use Carrd more but come to use it when they realize they need the mega nav bar!