Animated greeting cards

I built VdoCard, so treat this as interested. What follows are the structural differences between the options, plus the prices I read on each vendor’s own page on 15 September 2026. Pricing moves; check it before you commit to anything.

There is no file

This is what makes VdoCard different, so I will put it first. You never export anything. You send a link.

Open it and the card is already playing. Nothing to download, no attachment sitting in someone’s Files app, no spinner while a video buffers. Paste the link into WhatsApp or Messenger and the animation shows up in the preview, so people see the card before they tap anything.

And whoever gets it can hit Edit. That opens the same card in the editor with everything already filled in, so they change the name and send it on as theirs. A card that arrives as a file is finished. A card that arrives as a link is a starting point.

Three different products get called this

Design editors. Canva, Adobe Express. You make a file, then you are on your own. Download it, attach it to a message yourself. Adobe Express lists GIF in its free export formats. What your recipient sees depends on whatever app you sent it through.

Ecard and invitation services. Paperless Post, Punchbowl, Smilebox. These handle the sending. Guest list, who opened it, who replied. Different job from sending one person a birthday card, and priced like one.

Paperless Post charges per recipient with a Coins model (“$0.50 USD per guest” on Basic, “$1.05 USD per guest” on Premium), with the first 50 invitations sent by email or phone number free. Punchbowl has no permanent free plan. Its own help page says you send free “during your trial period” and that “after your trial period, your subscription will begin”. Paid tiers start at $3.99/month, and everything below Platinum shows ads to your guests.

A card that is a link. VdoCard. Covered above: one animated card, one URL, nothing to export and nothing for the person receiving it to install.

What does not change monthly

  • Account to make one: VdoCard, none. The others, yes.
  • Account for the recipient: none anywhere. Punchbowl and Paperless Post both state guests can view and respond without creating an account.
  • Cost per recipient: VdoCard, none. It is a link, so thirty people costs the same as one. Paperless Post and Punchbowl both charge by guest count.
  • What you send: a link that previews as the card, or a file you attach yourself.
  • What they can do with it: forward the link, or open it in the editor and send their own version. Nothing to save first.

Where VdoCard is the wrong tool

It does not do guest lists, RSVPs, reminders or anything that involves tracking who replied. For a wedding or a party you want Paperless Post or Punchbowl, and the per-guest price buys you real machinery. VdoCard has no printed or mailed option either. It sends one animated card to whoever you paste the link to, and that is the whole product.

What it does do

Twenty-one occasions with their own templates, eight languages including right-to-left for Arabic and Urdu, your own logo or one of 112 emoji, and export as MP4 or GIF if you would rather send a file than a link. It installs as an app. Start to shared link is about thirty seconds.

Try it. Nothing to sign up for, so it costs you one tab. The project page covers how it is built.