Physical business cards aren’t dead, but they’re rapidly becoming relics of the past in this fast-paced digital world. The need for building lasting professional relationships has encouraged professionals to look for innovative networking solutions.
Here’s where digital business cards come into the picture.
Digital business cards are a modern, future-proof upgrade to physical business cards. Whether you’re a professional, business owner, freelancer, or corporate leader, you can leverage digital business cards for better, more effective networking.
But with so many digital business card platforms, how can you choose the best one?
That’s where this in-depth comparison guide will help you out. We tested (yes, we tested them first-hand) the five best virtual business card solutions and compared them in-depth.
Here are our findings for the top five digital business card platforms, along with the criteria for choosing the right one.
Let’s delve in.
Table of Contents
- Why use digital business cards?
- How to select the right digital business card platform?
- Top five digital business card solutions
- Final thoughts
If you just want the name of the top 5 digital business card solutions, here you go:
- QRCodeChimp (4.9/5)
- Popl (4.1/5)
- Blinq (3.8/5)
- Beaconstac (3.6/5)
- HiHello (3.5/5)
- Knowee (3.3/5)
Before diving into the detailed explanation of each platform, we’ll discuss the benefits of digital business cards and how to select the right platform. If you want to jump directly to the list of solutions, click here.
Why use digital business cards?
First things first, should you use digital business cards?
Yes, absolutely. It’s not even a choice anymore.
As digital, fast-paced networking becomes the need of the hour, everyone needs digital business cards.
Let’s look at the advantages of digital business cards that make them an essential upgrade to traditional cards in this digital-first world.
Seamlessly enter your prospects’ phonebooks
Networking is all about entering your prospects’ minds and phone books in a frictionless way. And digital business cards help you do that.
You can use digital business cards to share your contact information instantly, and the prospect can save it on their smartphone. There’s no need to manually type in the information, and the whole process takes a few seconds.
No need to keep your prospects waiting
Here’s what the traditional networking process looks like.
You pull out your business card and give it to your prospect. They take out their phone, open the phone book, and manually type in the name, phone number, and other information.
All of this takes at least a minute, if not more.
Why take your prospects through such a tormenting experience when you can let them save your contact in a matter of seconds? Just share your electronic business card, and your prospects can save your contact information instantly without manually entering all the information.
Always share your up-to-date information
We all change our phone numbers, email IDs, and even addresses. And every time we change our information, we need to reprint our business cards with up-to-date details.
That’s tedious and costly.
A digital business card, being editable, solves this hurdle. You can edit your digital business card anytime without changing its QR code or page URL. Hence, you can always provide the latest information to your prospects and win them over.
Track client engagement and measure networking efforts
Digital business cards allow you to track client engagement and measure your networking performance. In fact, the top digital business card platforms have an analytics dashboard where you can see the traffic on your digital business cards and learn about your prospects.
You can leverage this data to determine the performance of your networking efforts and accurately calculate the ROI.
Take an eco-friendly step
Most paper waste comes from businesses, and physical business cards contribute significantly to it. By adopting digital business cards, you can reduce paper waste from physical cards and take a step towards a green environment.
Ace virtual and physical events
Though virtual events have grown exponentially in popularity, physical events like trade shows are here to stay. If you want your networking to bear fruit, you must ace virtual and physical events.
Digital business cards are effective in both physical and digital interactions. In physical interactions, you can use your digital business card QR code or NFC card to seamlessly share your digital business card.
In virtual events, you can directly send the digital business card page URL to the prospects.
How to select the right digital business card platform?
The digital business card market is projected to reach $242.7 million by 2023 as the demand for digital business cards skyrockets. Organizations are looking for robust and secure digital business card platforms to level up their networking efforts.
But how do you know if a digital business card platform is right for you? With so many solutions offering various unique propositions, knowing what to look for in an electronic business card platform is vital.
Here are some key factors to consider before choosing a digital business card platform.
Ease of use
Always pick a solution that’s easy to use. It should have a minimal learning curve, and everyone in your organization (not only the tech team) should be able to seamlessly use it.
Security
When you create digital business cards for your organization, you trust the vendor with your employees’ critical data. Therefore, it’s crucial to pick a digital business card platform that implements the best security practices.
Templates and design capabilities
The design of your electronic business card will play a crucial role in engaging prospects. Therefore, go for a digital business card platform that offers various design templates and customization features.
Bulk creation
Organizations wanting to create digital business cards for hundreds or thousands of employees should find a solution that supports bulk creation. You should be able to automate the digital business card creation process and create multiple digital business cards at scale.
Domain white labeling
Digital business cards are a robust branding tool. Find a digital business card platform that allows you to use your company’s domain for the digital business card page URL. It’ll help you ensure brand consistency and increase professionalism.
Folders and subaccounts
If you want to create and manage digital business cards for multiple employees or clients, you need robust management features. Look for a platform with features like folders and subaccounts to effortlessly organize and manage your digital business cards.
Analytics and retargeting
Measuring the performance of your networking campaigns is essential. Pick a digital business card platform that offers effective analytics and retargeting features. This functionality will help you track your networking efforts and make informed decisions.
Top five digital business card solutions
By now, we’ve discussed the advantages of digital business cards and the factors to consider before selecting a platform. Now, let’s delve into our top five best digital business cards for professional networking.
We’ve evaluated each solution based on the following criteria:
- Ease of use
- Design and customization
- Features
- Bulk creation
- Security
- Pricing
We’ve rated each solution out of five in these areas to help you pick the right platform as per your requirements.
Let’s delve in.
1. QRCodeChimp’s Digital Business Card (4.9/5)
QRCodeChimp’s Digital Business Card is a modern solution for effective and seamless contact sharing. It offers a user-friendly platform to help you create, customize, share, and manage professional digital business cards.
For starters, QRCodeChimp offers unmatched ease of use. It lets you create a digital business card in a few minutes without any technical know-how or experience. There’s a simple three-step process — choose a template and add data, customize the template design, and design the QR code. That’s it.
Design is the heart of every digital business card, and QRCodeChimp gives comprehensive design and customization features. You can choose from 20+ digital business card templates and customize them by changing the color palette and font style. Additionally, you can add a profile image and background picture/video.
QRCodeChimp lets you create a custom QR code for your digital business card for seamless sharing. It also supports NFC — you can write your digital business card URL on an NFC card and share it with a tap.
With QRCodeChimp, you get enterprise-grade creation and management features. It has a robust bulk creation module that lets you create multiple digital business cards in bulk.
You can also organize your digital business cards in folders for seamless management and sharing. If you want to grant different levels of access to your digital business cards, you can leverage the subaccounts feature for easy access sharing and management.
QRCodeChimp has a forever-free plan that lets you create 10 free digital business cards.
All of this is topped up by top-notch security. QRCodeChimp complies with all the security protocols like SOC-2 and GDPR. Furthermore, the team deploys access management, secure network infrastructure, and other security measures needed to safeguard user data and privacy.
A small downside to QRCodeChimp is that they’re still in the process of acquiring the SOC-2 certifications. However, when we asked them about it, they sent us the SOC-2 bridge letter, confirming their compliance to all the SOC-2 protocols.
Key features of QRCodeChimp’s Digital Business Card:
- User-friendly platform for effortless creation and sharing of digital business cards
- Extensive customization options to reflect your professionalism and style
- Advanced security measures to protect your personal and professional information
- Bulk creation module to create multiple digital cards at scale
- Folders and subaccounts for seamless sharing and access management
- Domain white labeling to enhance branding and professionalism
Pricing: $6.99/month for 50 digital business cards
Rating:
- Ease of use: 5/5
- Design and customization: 5/5
- Features: 5/5
- Bulk creation: 5/5
- Security: 5/5
- Pricing: 4.5/5
- Overall: 4.9/5
2. Popl (4/5)
Popl allows you to create sleek and user-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a digital business card and share your contact information within your network.
The process of creating a digital business card is fast and easy. Just fill in the information fields, sign up for Popl, and you’re all set.
Popl also offers physical NFC cards that you can integrate with digital business cards and share contact details with a tap.
With Popl, however, you may have to compromise on the design and appeal of your digital business cards. The customization options are limited, and the digital business cards will lack visual appeal. Additionally, the bulk creation process is not smooth and might require assistance from a tech person.
If you want to create amazing digital business cards that speak for your brand, Popl may not be the right pick for you. However, you may go for Popl if you need a simple digital business card platform with good features.
Popl also provides a digital business card app for Android and iOS.
Key features of Popl:
- Simple, user-friendly platform for creating digital business cards
- Integrations with various tools and platforms
- Buy physical NFC cards and integrate them with digital business cards
- Create a QR code for your virtual business card
Pricing: $6.49 per month for 3 cards
Rating:
- Ease of use: 5/5
- Design and customization: 3/5
- Features: 4/5
- Bulk creation: 4/5
- Security: 4/5
- Pricing: 4/5
- Overall: 4/5
3. Blinq (3.6/5)
Blinq is another emerging digital business card platform to create and share virtual business cards.
Creating a digital business card on Blinq is a three-step process. You first need to make your card by adding your details, such as professional information, contact details, social media links, website URLs, and payment links. Besides, you can add a company logo, profile picture, and cover photo.
After adding all your details, create your account and get your digital card. You can then share your digital business card by sending the page URL, sharing its QR code, or writing it on an NFC card.
Blinq has limited customization options, which is its biggest downside. You can only change the color palette of your virtual business card.
However, you get all the basic digital business card features, like centralized management, branding, and integration with tools.
Key features:
- Create digital business cards easily
- Share digital business cards with QR codes or NFC cards
- Branding and white labeling features
- Integrations with other tools
Pricing: $2.99 per month for 5 cards
Rating:
- Ease of use: 4/5
- Design and customization: 3/5
- Features: 4/5
- Bulk creation: 3/5
- Security: 5/5
- Pricing: 4/5
- Overall: 3.8/5
4. Beaconstac Digital Business Card (3.8/5)
Beaconstac is a new entrant in the digital business cards space. It’s a QR code provider that has a module for creating and managing digital business cards. The biggest issue we faced with Beaconstac is security. Though the platform boasts about its SOC-2 and GDPR compliance, it failed basic security tests run by our tech team.
Beaconstac’s digital business cards dashboard is simple and easy to navigate. You get six digital business card templates, which is a drawback of this platform. To create a digital business card, you need to select a template. After that, you’ll reach the Setup page, where you can enter the information you want to appear on the card.
This includes profile information, contact details, location, social links, profile image, and company logo. Please note that apart from the profile image and company logo, Beaconstac doesn’t allow you to add any other images and videos. This can be a dealbreaker, as many providers like QRCodeChimp allow you to add images, videos, and PDFs to your digital business card profile.
After entering the information, you move to the Design tab, where you can edit the color palette and font style of your digital business card template. Lastly, move to the launch tab, where you can set up a white label domain, enable some settings, and select the QR code design for the digital business card URL. Beaconstac lags behind in the QR code design department as well, with very few design options available.
Beaconstac allows you to create digital business cards in bulk. But just like Popl, the bulk creation module is confusing and not intuitive.
Overall, Beaconstac is a decent digital business card platform for small businesses that are willing to compromise on design, multimedia sharing, and other advanced options.
Key features of Beaconstac:
- 6 digital business card templates
- Contact management and two-way sharing
- Tracking and analytics
- Integration with other tools
Pricing: Starting at $6/user per month
Rating:
- Ease of use: 4/5
- Design and customization: 3/5
- Features: 4/5
- Bulk creation: 3/5
- Security: 4/5
- Pricing: 4/5
- Overall: 3.6/5
5. HiHello
HiHello is another known name in the digital business card space. It offers all the basic features needed to create and manage digital business cards.
HiHello’s onboarding process is quick and easy. Once you select a plan, you’ll see a few popups where you need to enter your information. This includes your name, title, company name, phone number, email, and profile image. After this process, you’ll be redirected to the HiHello dashboard, where two versions — Work and Personal — of your digital business cards will be created. You can click these cards to view them and add/edit the information.
HiHello has a free version, but it is an extremely restricted version of the platform, with most features locked. After upgrading, you get access to advanced features like more styles, white labeling, and bulk creation.
The customization options are limited, and so are management features like the organization of digital business cards in folders and adding access controls.
Key features of HiHello:
- Customization and editable templates
- Tracking and analytics
- Logo, branding, and white labeling
- Bulk creation
Pricing: Starting at $6/user per month
Rating:
- Ease of use: 4/5
- Design and customization: 3/5
- Features: 3/5
- Bulk creation: 3/5
- Security: 4/5
- Pricing: 4/5
- Overall: 3.5/5
6. Knowee (3.3/5)
Knowee allows you to create and share your digital business credential. You can use the platform to create a customized online contact and share it to build professional relationships.
Creating a business credential on Knowee is quite easy. First, you need to add your name and email address. There are three sections: Business data, Contact data, and Style and appearance.
In Business data, you can add your job details, company information, and address. In Contact data, you can give your phone number and social media links. Finally, in customization, Knowee allows you to add a logo, choose a card style, and upload an image.
Overall, the customization options are limited, and you have little scope for visually enhancing your digital card. On the bright side, you get all the features needed to create and manage digital business cards.
Key features of Knowee:
- Create a digital business credential to share contact information
- Various card design templates
- Card statistics and analytics
- Admin roles and access management
Price: $2.49 per month per user
Rating:
- Ease of use: 4/5
- Design and customization: 2/5
- Features: 3/5
- Bulk creation: 3/5
- Security: 4/5
- Pricing: 4/5
- Overall: 3.3/5
Extra: Sansan (3/5)
If you didn’t like any of the platforms discussed above, here’s a bonus one for you. Sansan allows you to create virtual business cards for digital contact sharing and manage them in one place.
The solution allows you to save all your employees’ digital cards in a centralized cloud database, allowing you to share and manage them internally. You get an advanced search to find employees based on job title and department.
Additionally, you can create a department-based organization tree to structure your organization and virtual cards.
For business networking, Sansan allows you to share your contact details easily using the digital business card URL and QR code.
Overall, Sansan is less of a digital contact-sharing solution and more of a contact management platform. You can create virtual cards for your organization’s employees and manage them digitally with higher convenience.
The ability for employees to share their contact information digitally acts as a cherry on top. However, essential digital business card features are missing, like page customization, bulk creation, and domain white labeling. That said, you do get good security and integration with other tools.
Key features of Sansan:
- Create virtual cards for employees at scale.
- Save virtual cards in a centralized database for easy access and management
- Structurize all virtual business cards by department using the organization tree
- Digital contact sharing with QR codes
Pricing: Not disclosed by the provider
Rating:
- Ease of use: 3/5
- Design and customization: 2/5
- Features: 3/5
- Bulk creation: 2/5
- Security: 4/5
- Pricing: N/A
- Overall: 3/5 (pricing excluded)
Final thoughts
Digital business cards are a powerful networking tool that every organization and individual must have. However, selecting the right digital business card platform from so many options can be hectic and challenging.
With this article, we’ve tried to give an unbiased, in-depth perspective on selecting the best digital business card solution for your professional networking requirements.
So, make a list of your requirements and check out each solution to figure out which one is the best for you.
