Digital business card vs NFC card vs paper: which should you carry?

Every networking event in South Africa now has all three in the room: the person with a stack of printed cards, the person tapping a plastic NFC card against your phone, and the person holding up a QR code from their wallet app. They all want the same outcome, which is to end up saved in your phone under their own name. They get there with very different reliability and cost.

Paper business cards

What they are: the 90 x 50mm card you know. Printed, boxed, carried.

Where they win: ceremony. Handing over a card is a gesture, and in some industries it still carries weight. They also need no technology on either side.

Where they fail: the card has to survive the walk from the venue to the phone. Most do not. People photograph them, mean to type them in, and never do. A number change makes the whole box obsolete. A decent print run costs R400 to R600 per 250 and most of those end up in a drawer.

NFC tap cards

What they are: a plastic or metal card with a chip inside. You tap it against the other person's phone and a web page opens with your profile.

Where they win: the tap is a nice moment. Metal ones look good.

Where they fail: the tap needs the other phone to have NFC switched on and to be held in the right spot, which turns into a small awkward dance more often than the adverts suggest. The tap opens a web page, not a contact, so there is still a "save contact" step on a page that has to load. Most NFC cards run on a subscription, typically R100 to R300 a month or a few hundred rand a year, and the profile lives on the vendor's servers. If the vendor closes or you stop paying, the card in your pocket is a piece of plastic. The card itself costs R300 to R1,500.

Wallet digital business cards

What they are: a card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet with a QR code that contains your contact details. The other person scans it with their camera and their phone offers to save you as a contact.

Where they win: nothing to carry, nothing to run out of, and the scan works on any phone with a camera, with no NFC alignment and no page to load. Because the QR holds the contact itself, it works with no signal. Editing your details refreshes the card in your wallet. A Good Shout card is free, or R149 once-off for Pro. There is no subscription and nothing that stops working if you stop paying, because there is nothing to pay.

Where they fail: it does not put anything in the other person's hand, so in rooms that expect the ceremony you may want a few paper cards as well. And you need your phone on you, which, in fairness, you do.

Side by side

• Cost: paper R400 to R600 per box, repeated. NFC R300 to R1,500 for the card plus a subscription. Wallet card free, or R149 once.
• Saves the contact directly: paper no. NFC usually via a web page. Wallet card yes, straight into contacts.
• Works with no signal: paper yes. NFC no. Wallet card yes.
• Survives a number change: paper no. NFC yes while you subscribe. Wallet card yes, edit and re-add.
• Depends on a vendor staying in business: paper no. NFC yes. Wallet card no: the card is a standard Apple or Google pass and the contact is already saved on their phone.

Our recommendation

Carry a wallet card as your default, because it is free, it works on every phone, and it gets you saved rather than photographed. If your industry expects paper, print a small run with the same QR on the back so the card does the ceremony and the QR does the work. Skip the NFC subscription unless you love the tap enough to pay for it every month.

Frequently asked questions

Can an iPhone scan a Google Wallet card, and vice versa?

Yes. The wallet is only where your card is stored. The scan is a QR code, and every phone camera reads those.

Is a wallet card less professional than a metal NFC card?

The card on screen carries your logo and colours, and the moment that matters is the contact appearing on their phone with your name spelled correctly. Nobody remembers the material.

Can I have both a wallet card and a QR on my paper cards?

Yes, and it is the combination we suggest. See QR code business cards.