Ecard Website Roundup

If you regularly exchange email with friends and relatives, there’s a good chance that you’ve received, or probably even sent, an electronic greeting card. A blending of classic correspondence and modern convenience, “ecards” can be a great way to say “happy birthday”, “get well soon” or even just “thinking of you” without spending much (if any) money. Ranging from still photos to animated mini-movies, there are ecards out there for just about any person and occasion. Ecards can be heart-warming, tear-jerking, or gut-busting. The recipient feels special and it only took you a moment: a definite win-win situation.

So, you’re sold on ecards, but where do you start? Some ecard sites require a membership or per-card fee, while many are completely free. Some sites are family-friendly and others provide a somewhat racier selection of cards. Some let you customize your creation by uploading photos, and others offer unique features you won’t find anywhere else. How do you know which site you should visit first and which aren’t worth your time?

Here to help you are some of my top picks for ecard websites, including their features, flaws, fees, and family-friendliness. Try a few and you’re bound to find the right one for you.

123 Greetings

Price: Free

123 Greetings, started in 1997, and has over 20,000 greetings cards to choose from, all organized by occasion and popularity. It’s completely free and though the flash animated cards aren’t particularly slick or hip, there’s a lot of heart behind the more sentimental cards. Sending a card is very easy and you can schedule a card to be sent up to 60 days out, which is handy. Some customization (backgrounds and text) allowed, but don’t expect to unleash your inner Van Gogh here.

This site uses “rollover-to-expand” ads, ads which grow in size as you place your mouse cursor over them. Personally, I find this type of ad to be intrusive and annoying, and there were two on the homepage alone, but I understand that they need to make money somehow.

With no membership login to remember and a staggeringly huge selection of ecards to browse, this family-friendly site is perfect for sending an ecard to Mom or maybe to a great Aunt who just learned how to email.

eGreetings

Price: Free

With over 2,000 ecards to choose from, and a well-organized site, you can spend a nice afternoon picking out just the right one. Most cards include a customizable text box that expands to fit your message, which is unique. An especially nice touch are the cards that include Flash mini-games, such as “Boss Dartboard”. There are some beautiful photos on quite a few cards as well and there is dedicated “Spanish” category. Suitable for all ages.

Fun Punch

Price: Free

Part of a new(ish) breed of ecard sites that let you upload a picture of your face and paste it onto the body of a character in your very own Flash-animated cartoon, FunPunch stands out as innovative and easy-to-use. You can put your face in a magazine, on the body of a sexy dancing nurse/cop, on the body of a superhero, or even cast yourself in a (very) short remake of Dracula. Guaranteed to be an unforgettable ecard, and it’s completely free, to boot. Geared mostly toward adults, I only wish there were more options upon which to paste my face.

HipsterCards

Price: Free

Funny, hip, vintage, retro, and perhaps a bit too cool for its own good, HipsterCards is the perfect place to find an ecard for the hipster in your life. Many ecards here feature vintage black and white photos mixed with more modern sentiments. The more interesting categories of ecard include “What Was I Thinking”, “Gay and Lesbian”, “Strange Clowns”, and “Yoga”.  There are some tamer family-friendly ecards here, but finding one would take longer than just trying another site on this list.

Smilebox

Price: Free

Not strictly ecards, Smilebox allows you to create an array of projects using your photos, videos, words, and music. You can make your own slideshows, scrapbooking projects, and postcards, but there are also hundreds of ecard designs from which to choose. The interface is friendly and well thought-out, and wizards guide you through the process of creating whichever project you choose. It’s definitely worth checking out if you consider yourself blessed with the creativity gene. This site is family-friendly, depending on which pictures/movies you decide to upload.

Someecards

Price: Free

Someecards is the ecards website I might have built if I had any artistic talent or wasn’t so busy sifting through cutesy ecards on other sites. The cards are irreverent, off-color, hilarious, edgy, and should be sent between like-minded friends only. It’s free with a quick sign-up, the whole site is tongue-in-cheek, and it might be the funniest ecard site I’ve ever seen (your mileage may vary).

Hallmark

Price: $0.99 Each or Unlimited With a $9.99/Year Subscription

It’s no surprise that Hallmark has gotten into the electronic greeting card market, what with their being a juggernaut in the real, live greeting card industry. Their website is easy to use, the designs are top-notch, some ecards have licensed film or television clips embedded in them, and you can schedule a card to be sent on a future date. I also like the fact that I can send a single ecard for under a dollar, instead of needing to buy a membership for the whole year. The big drawback? Well, besides the fact that you’re paying for a service that many sites offer completely free, there’s also not a huge selection. One would think Hallmark would have an extensive collection of ecards to choose from, but it’s simply not the case and some categories fall very short in this regard. Also, there is virtually no customization of ecards available beyond some text.

The ecards are family-friendly and include a lot of singing animals. Hallmark ecards are good for sending to a wide variety of people, but the trick is finding the right card in such a paltry selection.

American Greetings

Price: 7-Day Free Trial, $24.99/Year, Varies Based on Features

I’ve received quite a few ecards from American Greetings over the years, mostly from my mother-in-law and before the site instituted a membership fee. The site has a lot of cards to choose from (over 4,000) and specializes in letting you customize your ecard with your own text, pictures, backgrounds, and more. There are two types of cards: regular ecards that you send to an email address and “Create and Print” cards that you can print out and mail, in case you’d like to see the smile on their face for yourself. Special software that runs in your web browser allows you to edit imported photos and graphics: remove red-eye, crop, resize, and rotate until it looks just right.

All of this comes at a price that’s quite a bit higher than most other ecard pay-sites, but American Greetings still remains very popular. Cards tend toward cutesy animals singing and antiquated clip-art, but a few gems can be found buried under the fluffy bunnies and doe-eyed puppies. I found a few fake-out faux-naughty cards, but nothing you couldn’t show around at the office. American Greetings is family-friendly, doesn’t have a very extensive collection to choose from, and is a bit pricey for what it offers.

By the way, BlueMountain is owned by American Greetings. They’ve got a lot of the same card design, the same membership fees, but over twice as many ecards to choose from. If you already enjoy AmericanGreetings but want more cards to choose from, try BlueMountain.

Out of all of these sites, I found that 123Greetings had the best selection with over 20,000 ecards to choose from, but Fun Punch was the most fun to use, the most innovative, and would undoubtedly make the biggest impact on the recipient. I recommend either of these sites as a good place to start.

Someecards was the funniest and tied with HipsterCards for being the least family-friendly/most likely to offend. Personally, I’d be delighted to find cards from either site in my inbox.

With all of the free ecard website out there, I simply couldn’t see myself spending money with Hallmark or American Greetings, though I could see why some people might: Hallmark has the brand name you trust in addition to licensed television and film clips you won’t find anywhere else, while American Greetings offers unparallelled customization options (Smilebox, which is free, comes in a very close second on this front). Of the two, Hallmark was the better deal with unlimited ecards for under ten dollars per year.

As we rely more and more on the convenience of our high-speed internet connections for contact with our friends and family, ecards will continue rising in popularity. No matter who you are, what you’re age, or to whom you’re sending, the right ecard is waiting out there, just a few clicks away.