Looking for an E-Card Without the Membership?

You want to send someone a nice card online. You find a beautiful one, click it, and get asked to sign up for a year.

That's how most of the well-known e-card sites work, and to be fair to them, it's a reasonable business. I'd just like you to know what you're paying for before you pay, and that there's another way to do it.

Full disclosure, since you're reading this on my site: I make WishCopy. I'll try to be straight about where the others are better.

What the membership sites charge

Prices as I found them in October 2026:

These change, so check their sites before you decide. I'll update this table when I notice.

If you send a dozen cards a year to people who love them, thirty-six dollars is fair value. If you want to send one card, to one person, today, it's a lot.

Where the membership sites are genuinely good

I'm not going to pretend they're bad. Jacquie Lawson's cards in particular are lovely: hand-drawn, gentle, and they've been doing it for a long time. If the person you're sending to would love a hand-painted animated scene, that might be exactly the right card. Go and send it.

They also have huge catalogues for occasions I don't cover. WishCopy is mostly birthdays, plus party invitations. If you need a sympathy card or a Diwali card, look elsewhere.

What's different about WishCopy

The biggest difference is that a WishCopy card isn't something they watch. It's something they do.

Every wish is a reveal. They blow out the candles, scratch the ticket, crack the wax seal, unwrap the box, play the notes on the piano. Your message only appears once they've done it. It's a tiny bit of effort on their end, and that effort is the point: it feels like opening something rather than reading something.

The rest, briefly:

• No account. Not for you, not for them. You make it, you get a link, you send the link however you normally talk to them (text, WhatsApp, Messenger, email, whatever).
• No ads on the card. The homepage and these guides carry ads. The surprise itself never does.
• Your voice, if you want. Record a voice or video message right in the browser and it plays inside the reveal.
• You can lock it. Make it today, send it today, and set it to open at midnight on their birthday with Time Capsule. Before then they see a countdown.
• Help with the words. If you're staring at a blank box, there are 600+ hand-written wishes to start from.
• They can reply. Once they've opened it they can send back an emoji and a note.

What it doesn't do

Worth saying before you try it:

• Free cards don't last forever. A free WishCopy wish, and anything attached to it, is deleted 7 days after it's opened. If you want it kept, Encore ($0.89, once) keeps it online for good. The premium reveals never expire.
• It's not a hand-painted illustration. The look is more theatrical: dark velvet, gold, candlelight, confetti. Some people will prefer a watercolour, and that's fine.
• It needs a phone or a browser. Same as any e-card, but worth knowing if you're sending to someone who doesn't open links.

The premium ones, if you want to spend a little

If the free reveals feel too light for the occasion, there are five paid ones. You pay once per card, there's a free preview first so you know what you're getting, and they don't expire.

• Birth Sky ($0.89). Their name written in the real stars that were overhead the night they were born.
• Music Box ($0.89). A little 3D carousel that plays a tune made from the letters of their name.
• Pop-Up Book ($0.89). Five paper chapters about them, with tabs and flaps to pull.
• Zodiac ($0.89). An AR one: their birthstone forms in their own hand through the phone camera.
• The Shed ($0.89). For the bloke who'd rather be out the back. There's a ute involved.

Any one of those costs about a tenth of a year's membership.

So which should you use?

• You send lots of cards, for lots of occasions, to people who'd love a traditional illustrated card: a membership site is probably worth it.
• You want to send one birthday card, now, without signing up for anything: try WishCopy. If you hate it, you've lost two minutes.
• You can't decide: make a free WishCopy one first. It costs nothing to see what it looks like.

Sending from a few people? Group Wish lets up to 12 people add their own line, photo or voice message to one card.

Questions people ask

Is it actually free, or free until I hit a paywall?

The free reveals are complete. You don't get halfway through and get asked for money. The paid ones are clearly marked as paid before you start.

Do they need to download anything?

No. It opens in their phone's browser.

Can I send it by email?

Yes. It's just a link, so paste it into an email, a text, or anywhere else.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Turn on Time Capsule and pick a date and time up to a year ahead.

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