How to choose a Creator Duel or two live submissions
A Creator Duel is a 48-hour challenge with a share link. Two live submissions collect their own crush rates in the feed. Pick the one that matches the question you can actually answer.
Picture Noor, a growth lead in Toronto, in a Monday planning doc with two boxes drawn and no arrow between them. One box says "duel." The other says "run both in the feed." The homepage variants are already designed. The meeting in an hour will ask which box to tick, as if the boxes were moods. They are different instruments. One gives you a clock and a link. The other gives each page its own crush rate, weekly votes, and velocity in the ordinary swipe feed. Choosing badly does not break LandingCrush. It wastes the week you were going to spend reading the result.
You can use both in a sequence. You should not use them as synonyms. This article is the choice. The mechanics of a clean duel are in how to run a homepage duel that answers one question. The mechanics of a clean pair are in how to write the one difference. Read this page first if you are still holding both boxes.
What you are holding when you choose the feed
Two live submissions mean two approved homepages, each with a detail page. People voting at /swipe meet them one at a time in the feed, the same way they meet anyone else's page. Each page accumulates crushes and passes. Crush rate is crushes divided by all votes on that page. The creator dashboard adds weekly votes and velocity. Velocity is votes per hour over the last 48 hours. Those numbers tell you whether a page is still being seen, not whether your ads are working.
This is the right box when you want a record that can keep growing after the meeting. A page can sit in the feed and collect a This Week view and an All-Time view on the Homepage Hall of Fame. You can come back in ten days and the denominator may have changed. That patience is the feature. It is also the risk. The pages do not share a clock. One may be shown more often. A higher crush rate on a much smaller count is not a win. You have to refuse the comparison until the counts are in a similar range.
The free plan includes one active homepage submission. Two variants in the feed at the same time need another submission slot. Creator Pro is $19 a month or $190 a year and includes unlimited submissions. If you only have the free slot, you cannot honestly choose "both live" until you can submit the second page. Do not archive the current page, upload the challenger, and then talk as if you compared them. You replaced one record with another.
What you are holding when you choose the duel
A Creator Duel starts at /duel. You sign in, select one of your approved homepages, and enter the other homepage id from its public URL. Both pages must be approved. The duel runs 48 hours from creation. The page returns a share link and describes the window as a head-to-head the community vote will decide. You need at least one approved homepage of your own to start. The comparison table on the pricing page includes Creator Duel challenges on the free plan as well as on paid plans. The second homepage still has to exist and be approved. If that second page is yours, the submission limit still applies.
Choose the duel when the argument needs a shared deadline and a single link you can send. A cofounder who will not look at a dashboard will sometimes open a link with an end time. The 48 hours are the point. They stop the comparison from becoming a permanent maybe. They also stop you from waiting for a thick sample if nobody opens the link. A duel with a thin response is a thin response. Extend your thinking, not the product's clock. The expiry is set when the duel is created.
The duel does not erase the crush rate each page already has in the feed. When you report it, say whether you are talking about the challenge you shared or about the history on the detail pages. Those histories may have started on different days. A page that has been approved for a month is not in the same position as a page approved this morning, even if the duel link went out to both. The velocity article shows how a stale rate flatters an older page. Read it before you announce a winner from All-Time numbers you did not earn this week.
A short test that picks the box
Answer these in order. Stop at the first one that decides it.
Do both pages exist as approved homepages? If no, you are not choosing yet. Submit and wait. A file on a laptop cannot enter a duel or a feed.
Is there one difference, written in a sentence? If no, neither box will save you. Write the sentence. A duel on two redesigns and a feed test on two redesigns fail in the same way. You get a preference and lose the reason.
Do you need the result framed by a shared link and a 48-hour end, because the decision meeting is already on the calendar? Choose the duel. Send the link. Read comments on both detail pages when the window closes. If the counts are thin or lopsided, say "no preference yet" and let the pages keep collecting in the feed if they are still approved.
Do you need each page to have its own ongoing crush rate, weekly votes, and a place on the leaderboard views? Choose two live submissions. Do not also expect the duel clock. Tell the meeting the date you will look, and what count is too small to act on. Fifty community votes is the floor LandingCrush uses before it compares an AI prediction with the community. Borrow that caution. It is a floor for taking the result seriously, not a certificate of certainty.
Are you trying to measure trial starts? Choose neither. Change the live site when you have picked a presentation, then use your analytics. LandingCrush does not split your traffic and does not see your billing events. Shipping the winner is the step that belongs to your domain.
What you tell the room so the choice stays honest
Write the choice in the planning doc in words that forbid a later remix. "We are running two approved homepages in the feed. We will look on Friday. We will not call a winner if either page has a thin count." Or: "We started a 48-hour duel at this link. We will read the detail pages when it ends. We will not treat older All-Time votes as if they happened inside the duel."
You might be thinking you should do both at once and let the stronger signal win. You can create a duel between two pages that are also in the feed. Say that you did. Do not average the duel story and the all-time rate into one score. They are different windows. If they disagree, describe the disagreement. "The shared link preferred B. The older feed still prefers A, on a larger count." That sentence is allowed to be the whole update. It is better than a fake blend.
The product describes a Battle Tested badge for a duel winner. If it shows up, it records the duel. It does not record revenue, and it does not replace the crush rate on the homepage. Mention it if you see it. Do not build the decision around a badge you have not actually been given.
Leave the AI Panel out of this choice. A $29 single-variant preview or a $49 preview of two to four variants is a simulation with fictional personas. It is not a duel and it is not the feed. If you bought one, put the verdict in another column. Community votes are the ground truth when they conflict with the panel. The panel article keeps that column from leaking into the meeting.
After you pick, stop adding process
The failure mode is a third box called "and also ask five friends." Friends already know the story. Their replies do not have a crush count. If you want a plain comparison of methods, the answer page on votes versus a designer or a friend poll is the longer argument. For this choice, the rule is smaller. You picked a clock or you picked an open record. Run that. Read it on the date you named. Then either ship one presentation or change one thing and submit again.
The arrow between Noor's boxes is the question, not the vibe of the room. Which question is on your calendar, a shared 48 hours or an open crush rate you are willing to wait for?
Common questions
Q: Can I duel a page that is not approved?
A: No. The duel form requires approved homepages. Submit the challenger and wait for approval before you start the clock.
Q: Does the free plan include two live variants?
A: The free plan includes one active homepage submission. Unlimited submissions are part of Creator Pro at $19 a month or $190 a year.
Q: Which one tells me the page will convert?
A: Neither. Both record preference on submitted homepages. Conversion is what you measure on your own site after you ship a presentation.