The honest UniversalContacts vs V1CE comparison.
V1CE makes polished, design-led NFC cards and promotes a serious sales-CRM subscription on top. If you want a straightforward card with a free live profile — and Pro included with every card, optional £3.99/mo after — compare the totals.
Product illustration
| UniversalContacts | V1CE | |
|---|---|---|
| Card pricing | £24–£59 by material, one-off | From £75 one-off, by material (their pricing page) |
| Ongoing software fee | None forced — Pro (£3.99/mo) optional, included with every card (3 months plastic, 6 months bamboo, 12 months metal) | Optional "Client Capture OS" CRM at £49.99/month after a 30-day trial |
| Free live profile | Yes — works without buying a card | Profile comes with the card |
| Design options | Free Design Studio — 17 templates, 3 materials, live preview — plus clean standard designs | Strong — custom design-led cards |
| Best for | Budget-conscious UK small businesses | Design-led brands and sales teams who want the CRM |
Prices and features checked on 22 September 2026 from v1ce.co/pricing (cards "from £75 one-time"; Client Capture OS £49.99/month after the trial - their plan card says £49 and their own body copy and checkout say £49.99, so we quote what a customer is actually charged). Check their site for current figures — plans change.
What a year actually costs
V1CE sell a card and a subscription, and the subscription is where the money is. Their own page disagrees with itself about the figure — the plan card says £49 a month and the body copy and the checkout say £49.99 — so we quote what a customer is actually charged.
- V1CE, a metal card and the CRM for a year: from £75 for the card, plus £49.99 a month after a 30-day trial — about £675 in the first year, and £600 every year after.
- UniversalContacts, metal card: £59, once, with twelve months of Pro included. After that Pro is £39 a year if you want it, and the card, the profile, the capture and the analytics carry on without it.
Read off v1ce.co/pricing on 22 September 2026. Their cards are listed from £75 one-time on that page.
When V1CE is the right answer
Their cards are the best-looking in the category and they will make you something custom. If the card is a piece of brand collateral and the budget is a marketing budget, that is a real argument and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
And if you will genuinely use a sales CRM every week, £49.99 a month for one is not unreasonable — it is roughly what a CRM costs. The question is whether you want it bundled to the card you hand people, because once it is, stopping paying for the software is a decision about the card as well.
If you want a custom, design-led card and you will use their sales CRM, V1CE is a proper option. If not: our metal card is a one-off £59 — about the cost of a single month of their £49.99/month CRM — and ours comes with 12 months of Pro included.