Lifetime updates
Change a number or role once. Every card you ever shared points at the new one from that moment.
Digital business card
A free digital business card that is never out of date
A digital business card is a web page with your contact details on it, and a way of handing it over: a link, a QR code, or a touchpoint somebody taps. Yours is free, it needs no app on either side, and you update it once.
Product illustration
What you get
What a digital business card does that paper cannot
Same handover as a card, but the contact details on the other side update with you.
QR ready
A static QR for print, email signatures or van decals. Scans on any phone camera, no app needed.
Privacy controls
A card for each profile, so you share only what you want. Password-lock or expire any share link.
Save to contacts
One tap from the recipient saves your details straight into their phone. vCard included.
Share anywhere
WhatsApp bio, email footer, printed flyer, NFC card. The profile is the same underneath.
Multiple profiles
A separate card for work, a side business or a team role. One account, many profiles.
What a digital business card actually is
It is a web page with your contact details on it, and a way of handing that page over. Nothing is installed at either end. The person you meet opens an ordinary page in the browser already on their phone, sees your name, number, email, website, socials and whatever else you have chosen to show, and saves you to their contacts from there if they want to. You will also see it called an electronic business card, a virtual business card or an e-business card; they mean the same thing.
The phrase covers three different hand-overs, and it is worth separating them because people use the term to mean whichever one they have seen:
- A link. Your profile has a web address. It goes in an email signature, a WhatsApp bio, a text message or an invoice.
- A QR code. The same address as a square somebody points a camera at. It works on paper, on a van, on a window or on your own phone screen.
- A touchpoint. A physical card they tap (NFC) or scan (QR). The chip carries a code, not your details, which is what makes the card outlive the information on it. How the touchpoints work.
All three land in the same place. You do not choose one and give up the others — the profile is the product, and these are doors into it.
Do you need to buy a card?
No, and it is worth saying that plainly on a page that is also trying to sell you one. The profile, the QR code, the sharing and the contact-back form are free and stay free. A good many people never buy a card: they put the QR in an email footer or show it on their phone, and that is a complete digital business card.
What a card buys you is the hand-over. There is a moment at the end of a conversation where an object works and a request to type a web address does not. If your work has a lot of those moments — a doorstep, a counter, a stand at a show — the card earns its money. If it does not, start free and see.
Is a digital business card free?
Yours is. The profile, its QR code, the share link, the contact-back form that lets people send their details back, and the per-card counts are free, with no trial and no card details taken. What costs money is optional: a physical touchpoint, paid once, and Pro at £3.99 a month or £39 a year, which adds CSV and vCard export, saving a lead straight to your contacts, and webhooks.
Do you need an app?
No, on either side. Your profile is a web page, so the person you share it with opens it in the browser already on their phone and saves you with the contacts app they already have. You edit it in a browser too. The free Toolkit also makes an email signature and social graphics from the same profile, and LinkedIn QR code covers putting it on LinkedIn.
How to choose a digital business card
Five questions are worth asking of any provider, including us:
- Does the other person need an app?
- Can you change your details without reprinting anything?
- Can the person you meet send their details back, and is that free?
- What stops working if you stop paying?
- Can you take your data out?
Our answers: no app on either side; change once and everything follows; contact-back is free; nothing you have already shared stops working if you never pay; and your data exports as a JSON file for free, or as CSV and vCard with Pro. Our comparisons put the same questions to Blinq, Popl, V1CE and HiHello, with the date each answer was checked.
What paper still does better
A plain paper card costs pence, so you can leave a stack of them on a counter and not care what happens to them. It needs no phone, no signal and no battery on either side. And it can be handed to somebody who does not want to be tracked, looked up or added to anything, which is a real preference and not a fringe one.
What it cannot do is change. The number printed on it in March is the number on it in November, and the forty you have already handed out are unreachable. We sell printed cards with a code on them for exactly that reason: it is the cheap object with the live destination, rather than a choice between the two.
Digital business cards in the UK: what it costs
The digital business card itself is free. There is no trial, no card details taken and no tier where the sharing stops working.
An NFC card is paid once: plastic at £24, bamboo at £35, metal at £59, or a team pack of five at £95. Every card includes months of Pro, and when that ends the card carries on exactly as before. Pro is for export, webhooks and integrations; it is never required to keep a card working.
Trust & ownership
No app, no forced subscription, no surprises
no app needed
Recipients tap or scan, your profile loads in the browser.
no forced subscription
Standard profiles are free forever. Cards are one-off.
update anytime
Change your number, role or address once. Every card follows.
lost card?
Disable the old one or redirect it to a new profile in seconds.
you decide what's public
A separate card for each profile — share only what you want on each one.
UK-built
Designed and supported by Towpath Digital Ltd, registered in England and Wales.
Digital business card questions
What is a digital business card?
A web page that holds your contact details and a way of handing it over - a link, a QR code, or an NFC card somebody taps. There is nothing to install at either end. Whoever receives it opens an ordinary page in the browser already on their phone, and can save you to their contacts from there.
Is a digital business card free?
Yours is. The profile, its QR code, the share link, the contact-back form and the per-card counts are free, with no trial and no card details taken. What costs money is optional: a physical touchpoint, paid once, and Pro, which adds CSV and vCard export, saving a lead to your contacts, and webhooks.
Do I need an app to use one, or does the other person?
No. Neither of you installs anything. The person you share it with opens an ordinary web page in the browser already on their phone, and you edit yours in a browser too.
What is the difference between a digital, electronic and virtual business card?
None that matters. They are different names for the same idea: your details on a web page, handed over by a link, a QR code or a tap. Some people also call it an e-business card or an online business card.
Do I need to buy an NFC card to have one?
No. The profile, the QR code, the sharing and the contact-back form are free and stay free, and plenty of people never buy a card at all - they put the QR in an email signature or show it on their phone. A card is for the hand-over: it is the moment where a physical object works better than asking somebody to type a link.
How does the other person save my details?
There is a save button on your profile. On a phone it hands over a vCard, which is the format the contacts app already understands, so your name, number, email and company land in their address book with the photograph attached. They do not need an account with us and never will.
What happens when my number or job changes?
You edit the profile once, in a browser, and every card, QR and link you have ever shared points at the new details from that moment. Nothing is reprinted and nothing comes back to you. This is the one thing paper structurally cannot do.
Can I have more than one digital business card?
Yes. One account holds several profiles - two businesses, or a work identity and a personal one - each with its own details, colours, links, QR and cards. You choose which profile a card points at, and you can change that later without replacing the card.
Will it work if their phone is old, or their NFC is off?
Yes, because the QR is printed on every card and the profile is just a web page. Tapping is the fast path on a modern phone; scanning covers everything else, including work phones with NFC disabled and the people who reach for the camera out of habit.
Is my profile public?
Your profile is a page anybody with the link can open, which is the point of handing it over. What is on it is entirely your choice, you can run a separate profile for anything you would rather keep apart, and a share link can be password-locked or given an expiry date.
Do I have to subscribe?
No. The profile and the sharing are free forever. A card is paid once. Pro adds export, webhooks and integrations for a few pounds a month, it is optional, and every card comes with months of it included.
How it works walks the whole thing end to end, making a free profile takes a couple of minutes, and give a paper card a live QR instead makes the case at more length.
Not just a link
Your profile reports back
Share your live profile by link, QR or card - and whoever opens it can send their details straight back, landing as a lead you can act on.
Contact-back
Anyone viewing your card can send their name and number straight back — no app, no account. Connections land in your dashboard.
See it in action →Card analytics
Views, taps and connections per card with a 30-day activity view. Included free.
See it in action →The Toolkit
Email signature, video-call background and Apple Wallet or Google Wallet pass, generated from your live card.
See it in action →