Generally, crokinole is a much less punishing game than carrom, if we're talking about Indian carrom boards. American carrom boards, that were really popular in after-school programs when I was growing up, have relatively HUGE pockets than the Indian boards, in addition to being smaller boards. American carrom is like playing 8-ball, Indian carrom is like playing snooker.

I like carrom a lot, but I'm terrible at it. I'm at least a reasonable player at crokinole, and it's a lot easier to introduce others to the game without them getting too frustrated by it.