Last updated: August 2026
Most comparisons are written by the vendors. So is this one — but instead of a rigged scoreboard, here's the checklist we'd use to evaluate anyone, including us.
The short answer for 2026: Blinq or HiHello if you want the most free cards (two and four respectively, both with signature, background and wallet); CompanyCard if you're a small business or self-employed and want an Apple/Google Wallet pass on the free plan, published flat pricing and no team seat minimum; Popl if you're a team focused on event lead capture and comfortable with demo-quoted pricing.
The best card is the one the other person can save fastest. No app for the receiver, one-tap vCard save, QR + link + wallet options.
Templates are table stakes. Look for locked company templates so every employee's card stays on brand automatically.
Adding people one by one doesn't scale. You want central management, invite links and role-based access.
All competitor figures below were read from each vendor's own pricing page and verified in August 2026. Plans change — check the linked source before you decide.
| Tool | What the free plan includes | Team seat minimum | Published price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CompanyCard | 1 card, QR + link, Apple/Google Wallet, unlimited edits (carries a small CompanyCard credit) | None | $7.99 Pro ($5.99/mo billed yearly) · $12 per user Business ($10 billed yearly) | Small businesses and self-employed pros who don't want a seat minimum |
| Blinq | 2 cards, email signature, virtual background, Apple & Google Wallet | 5 team cards | $9.99 Premium ($7.33/mo billed yearly) · $6.99 per card Business ($4.99 billed yearly) | Individuals who want two free cards with signature, background and wallet included |
| HiHello | 4 cards, email signature, virtual background, wallet — capped at 5 card & badge scans per month | 5 users | $6 Professional · $5 per user Business | Someone who wants several free cards and low scan volume |
| Wave Connect | Digital card, Apple & Google Wallet, lead capture form, unlimited sharing | 3 seats (Teams) | $7 Pro · $5 per user Teams | Small teams that want lead capture on the free plan |
| Popl | No free tier or pricing published — quoted after a demo | n/a | Not published — quoted after a demo | Event and lead-capture teams comfortable with demo-quoted pricing |
Sources, verified August 2026: blinq.me/pricing · hihello.com/pricing · popl.co/pages/pricing. CompanyCard's figures are our published rates on our pricing page. · wavecnct.com/pages/pricing
If you want the biggest free tier, Blinq or HiHello win it. Blinq gives two cards and HiHello four, and both include an email signature and a virtual background at $0 — we won't pretend otherwise. HiHello's free plan does cap card and badge scans at five per month, which matters if you hand your card out at events.
Where CompanyCard wins is the moment you stop being one person. Blinq's Business plan bills a minimum of five team cards and HiHello's Business plan starts at five users — so a two- or three-person business pays for seats nobody uses. CompanyCard has no seat minimum: add one colleague, pay for one colleague.
And you can see the price before you talk to anyone. Popl doesn't publish pricing — you book a demo to get a custom quote. For a small business comparing options on a Tuesday night, a published rate is worth something.
The honest summary: if you're an individual who wants the most free cards, try Blinq or HiHello. If you're a small business or self-employed professional who wants a card that stays free, includes a wallet pass, and won't force you onto a five-seat plan the day you hire, that's the gap CompanyCard is built for.
Popular apps in this category include Popl, Blinq, HiHello and Wave — each with real strengths. Blinq, HiHello and Wave publish their pricing, and their team plans bill per card or per seat, so check the total at your actual headcount. Popl is different: it leads with AI event lead capture and quotes pricing after a demo rather than publishing it.
CompanyCard's bet is different: no hardware to buy or lose — sharing is pure QR, link, wallet and email signature — and every seat includes the complements teams actually use daily: a matching signature and a branded video-call background per employee, managed from one team dashboard with locked branding.
The honest advice: start with your receiver's experience and your admin's workload, run the 10-minute evaluation above on two or three tools, and pick the one your team will still be using in a year. We're confident enough in that test to recommend it.
| Criterion | What to check | How CompanyCard answers it |
|---|---|---|
| Receiver experience | Taps from scan to saved contact; app required? | No app; QR/link opens in any browser; one-tap vCard save |
| Free plan honesty | Is the free card actually shareable, or a teaser? | Full card, QR and link free with unlimited edits |
| Hardware dependence | Do you must-buy physical accessories per employee? | None — pure QR, link, wallet pass and signature |
| Brand control | Can admins lock templates so cards can't drift off-brand? | Locked company templates for every seat |
| Team admin | Central dashboard, invite links, roles, directory import? | One dashboard; invite links; Google Workspace & CSV import |
| Daily-use extras | Email signature and video-call background included? | Both included per employee, matched to the card |
| Analytics | Views, saves and lead capture visible to you? | Yes, per card and per team |
Solo professional or freelancer: weight the free plan and the receiver experience above everything. You need one great card, a QR code, and a signature — not an enterprise dashboard. Start with a free digital business card and upgrade only if you feel real friction.
Sales team of 5–50: lead capture, CRM-bound contacts and brand-locked templates start paying for themselves quickly. Check the per-seat total honestly, including any physical accessories some vendors require per employee — that line item often doubles the real price.
Company-wide rollout: the deciding factors are administration and consistency: directory import (Google Workspace or CSV), role separation between admins and employees, and per-employee email signatures and video-call backgrounds so the brand shows up in every channel — see digital business cards for teams.
Event-heavy networkers: prioritise offline sharing (wallet pass on the lock screen) and analytics that tell you which events produced saved contacts, not just scans.
The one that saves your contact into the other person's phone fastest, keeps every employee on brand automatically, and prices fairly at your team size. Run a 10-minute hands-on test rather than trusting any vendor's comparison table — including ours.
QR and link sharing cover virtually every situation and work on every phone. NFC hardware is a nice-to-have that costs money per employee and can be lost — CompanyCard deliberately works without it.
Locked brand templates, central admin with invite links, per-employee email signatures and virtual backgrounds, analytics, and role separation between admins and employees.
Yes — the free plan is a full working card with QR and link, no credit card required.
For an individual, often yes — a good free plan covers a full card, QR code and unlimited updates. Teams usually outgrow free tiers because they need locked brand templates, central administration and analytics.
Most platforms run freemium: a free personal card, then per-seat monthly pricing for teams, and some also sell physical accessories per employee. Compare the total for your actual headcount including any hardware — that's where quotes diverge most.
Create your new card, then update the link in the places you control: email signature, LinkedIn, printed QR codes. Because CompanyCard links never expire, you only ever have to do this migration once.
No app to install, a page that loads fast on any phone, and a one-tap "Save contact" button that downloads a complete vCard. If the receiver has to work, the card has failed.
Make a free card, share it with a colleague, count the taps. We'll take our chances.