"Digital visiting card" is used to mean at least four different things, and that is why comparing them is so confusing. Some are a page. Some are a plastic card. Some are an image file. They are not the same product and they do not cost the same.
This is a plain guide to what is on offer in India, what each thing should cost, and what to check before you hand over money.
The four things people mean
A shared image
A picture of a business card, sent on WhatsApp. Free to make in any design app.
It looks fine and does almost nothing. Nobody can tap your number out of an image. It cannot be updated. It gets compressed until the text blurs. Use it as a graphic, not as a way for people to reach you.
A page with your details
One web address that holds your name, your number, your links, and a button to save you to someone's contacts. You share the address, and the address never changes even when the content does.
This is the useful core, and it is the part that should not cost much. Several services give it away, including ours.
A physical card with a chip
A plastic or metal card you tap on a phone. The chip holds a web address, so tapping it opens the page described above.
The card is a way to hand that page over in person. It is not a separate product with its own content. If a seller charges you once for the card and again for the page it opens, ask why.
A company system
Cards for a whole team, with an admin who can add staff, remove staff when they leave, and keep everyone's branding consistent. Priced per person per year. Worth it above roughly ten people, and hard to justify below that.
What these should cost in India
Rough market rates, meaning what other sellers charge. Ours are further down.
| What | Typical price |
|---|---|
| A page, basic | ₹0, and many services give this away |
| A page, with extras | ₹500 to ₹1,500 per year |
| Plain chip card | ₹700 to ₹1,000 |
| Custom printed chip card | ₹900 to ₹1,200 |
| Metal card | ₹1,800 to ₹3,000 |
| Team plans | ₹400 to ₹700 per person per year |
Two warnings.
Watch for a yearly fee on the card itself. Some sellers charge you every year to keep a card you already bought working. That is a rented card. You should pay once for a physical object.
Watch what happens when a subscription ends. With a fair service, your page and your card keep working and only the extras stop. With an unfair one, the card you paid for goes dead.
Five questions before you pay
Ask these of any service, including ours.
Does my card keep working if I stop paying?
It should. You bought a physical object. Losing extra features is reasonable. Losing the card is not.
Can the person receiving it save my number in one tap?
Look for a Save contact button. Without it, someone has to type your number by hand, which is exactly the problem you were paying to solve.
Does it work without the other person installing anything?
It must. If they need an app, the card is useless with strangers, and strangers are who you meet at events.
Can I change what is on it, myself, whenever I want?
Some services make you email support to change a link. Avoid those.
What happens to my information?
Ask what gets recorded about people who visit your page, and whether it is sold. Get an answer before you upload your contact list anywhere.
What we do, plainly
So you can hold us to the same five questions.
The page costs nothing while we are in pre-release. One page, as many links as you want, photos, videos, music, your contact details with a save button, an email sign-up box, 5 ready-made looks, and visitor numbers for the last 30 days.
What that does not include. A small Cardless Club mark stays at the bottom of your page. You can choose a look but not change its colours yet. You cannot download your collected email list yet. Those lift on a paid plan.
Paid plans are not open. You cannot buy one today, and we would rather say so than take pre-orders. When they open, the price will be an introductory one that goes up when we launch, and whatever you start on is yours for a year. Ask us what it is if you are budgeting for it now.
Cards are not ready. We are making them. When they arrive you will pay once, with no yearly fee to keep the card working.
Your information. We count visits so you can see them. We record the date, roughly what kind of device, which country, and which site sent them. We do not store the address of the computer that visited, or which browser it used. We do not sell anything to anyone. The privacy page says the same in more detail.
Make your page · See the plans
Is it worth it at all?
It depends on how often you meet new people, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
If you meet a handful a year, a page is plenty, and today it costs nothing. Put the link in your bio and your email signature and stop there.
If you are at events, in sales, or running a shop that people walk into, the tap is worth having. It removes the moment where someone means to save your number and then does not.
And if you have a drawer of paper cards with an old phone number on them, you already know the argument for something you can change after printing.
Questions
What is the difference between a digital visiting card and a link in bio page?
Mostly the words. Both are one address holding your details and links. "Visiting card" gets used when the focus is contact details, "link in bio" when the focus is social media. The same page does both.
Do I need GST or a business to buy one?
No. These are sold to individuals.
Will a digital card work outside India?
Yes. It is a web address, and NFC is a worldwide standard.
Can I have more than one card pointing at the same page?
You should be able to. Keep a card in your wallet and a tag on your keys, both opening the same page. Any service that charges you extra for a second card pointing at the same page is charging for nothing.
Is a metal card worth the extra money?
Only for the impression it makes. It does nothing a plastic one does not.