NFC Business Cards

An NFC business card, sometimes called a tap business card or a smart business card, is a printed card with a small passive chip and antenna sealed inside. When someone holds the card near their phone, the chip sends the phone a link, so your website, contact card or digital business card profile opens with one tap. It needs no battery and no app on the other person's phone. We make them in stainless steel, white PVC and real wood, printed to your design and programmed to your link.

A digital business card is a web page or contact file with your details: name, photo, links and a "save contact" button. An NFC business card is the physical card that opens that page when tapped. You need somewhere for the tap to land, and that can be your own website, a contact file, a link page, or a profile on a digital business card app you already use. Our cards work with any of them, because the chip just holds a link.

No. iPhone XS and newer, and Android phones with NFC switched on, read the chip with the operating system itself and show a notification that opens your link. iPhone 7, 8 and X can read it through the NFC Tag Reader in Control Center. For older phones, a QR code printed on the back of the card does the same job with the camera.

Yes. iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and every newer iPhone read NFC cards in the background: with the phone unlocked, hold the card near the top edge of the back, and tap the banner. iPhone 7, 8 and X read them through the NFC Tag Reader in Control Center on iOS 14 or later. iPhone 6 and older can't read NFC tags, so we recommend a QR code on the back as a backup. One iPhone catch: a contact card stored on the chip itself won't open without an app, so for contact cards we point the chip at a contact file on your own site instead.

Not from us. You pay once for the printed cards. The chip holds a link you choose, so there's no profile service to keep paying for unless you decide to point your card at one. If you already use a digital business card app, the card can open your profile there, but our card keeps working even if you cancel that plan; you just point the chip, or your redirect, somewhere else.

Our NFC plastic business cards are 149 USD for 25 and 249 USD for 100, about 2,49 USD a card. NFC wood cards start at 50 cards (get a price), and NFC metal cards at 229 USD for 25 (595 USD for 100). Plastic prices include full-color printing on both sides; wood and metal prices include laser engraving, with color printing as an add-on. Every order includes the embedded chip and a free design proof, and shipping within the continental US is free. Encoding your link and test-tapping the run is priced per order (get a price).

Yes. If the chips are unlocked, a free NFC writing app such as NFC Tools rewrites the link in a few seconds per card. The easier route is to point the chip at a short redirect on your own domain, then change where that redirect goes whenever you like, without touching the cards. The only thing you can't change is anything printed on the card itself, so keep the changeable link off the face.

Any of them. The chip can hold a web address: your site, a portfolio, a booking page, a Linktree, a digital card profile, your Google review form, or a contact file (vCard) on your own site that opens an "Add contact" screen. A vCard can also be written onto the chip itself, but iPhones don't open an on-chip vCard without an app, so we recommend the hosted contact file for anyone who meets iPhone users. A simple link fits on our standard chip; an on-chip vCard with several numbers and an address usually needs a larger NTAG215 or NTAG216 chip, which we can fit by custom quote. Tell us at checkout which one you want.

Yes. We print each card with a different name and title and write each chip with that person's own link or contact card, all from one shared design so the whole team matches. Team orders with a different name on each card are quoted together: send us the list of names and links through a custom quote and we'll price the set.

The card has to be within about 1–3 cm of the phone's reader, which is near the top edge on an iPhone and usually near the middle of the back on Android. Most ordinary cases don't get in the way. Thick rugged cases, metal cases and magnetic card wallets stuck to the back of the phone can block the signal, so if the first tap misses, move the card around slightly or take the wallet off.

Not on our standard builds. On white PVC, on wood and on the printed back of our metal card, the chip and antenna are sealed inside where you can't see them. Clear and frosted plastic are the exception: the antenna coil and the chip show through. We build those by custom quote and tell you exactly what will be visible before you approve the proof. Some clients make the coil part of the design.

Yes, when they're built for it. Solid steel blocks the phone's NFC field, so a chip hidden behind a plain steel face won't read. Our NFC metal cards bond a stainless steel front to a printed PVC back, and the chip sits in the back layer. That back is the side you tap. Builds with steel on both faces need a pocket or window for the antenna and are quoted individually.

It depends on the material. On NFC plastic we can add hot foil (our press team confirms it on the sheet first) and spot UV, but plastic can't be embossed or letterpressed. On metal, the finishes are laser engraving, cut-outs and color printing; foil and letterpress are paper processes that don't work on steel. Wood is laser engraved or color printed. NFC on paper cards is a custom build, and we confirm which finishes the build allows before quoting.

Yes, and we recommend it on most cards. A small QR code on the back, at least 2 cm square with a clear margin around it, covers older iPhones and Android phones with NFC switched off. On plastic it prints in flat dark ink, never foil or spot UV, because shine stops the camera reading it. On metal and wood it's laser engraved. Point the QR code and the chip at the same redirect so they always land in the same place.

The chip has no battery, so there's nothing to run down. Reads are effectively unlimited, and rewrites are rated for about 100,000 cycles, with the data held for at least 10 years. Bending the card hard enough to crease it or snapping it can break the antenna. If cards arrive with a chip that doesn't read, tell us: a defect that wasn't in the proof you approved is reprinted under our terms.

The best one opens a link you control and is a card you're proud to hand over. Check four things before you buy: the chip is sealed inside the card, not stuck on; it reads on iPhone and Android without an app; the link is yours, not a profile that stops working when a plan lapses; and the material suits your brand. For most people we'd start with NFC plastic: full color on both sides, and it reads from either face. Choose metal when the weight in the hand is the point, and wood when the material is part of the story.

You can make your own: buy blank NFC tags or white cards and write your link with a free app. What you won't get is a card that looks like your brand. NFC cards are worth it when the card itself matters, when you meet people in person often, and when your details change, because one tap beats retyping an email and the link can be updated without a reprint. If you hand out a few cards a year and never change jobs, a well-printed paper card with a QR code does the job for less.