It is difficult to find pricing on the site, but offers both subscription and the option to add credit toward future purchases. Look for this before attempting to make a purchase; it is not discoverable from the check-out page. Note that cost is based on the number of people who sign the card/ add images, etc. as well as if it is a group-signed card or sent from an individual.
I did not find this to be cost-effective, and I don't appreciate the less-than-transparent pricing options. I will find another service.
PE
Peter
Confusing - don't waste your time
Don't waste your time here if you're an occasional "evite" type person. You get what you pay for. I'll confess, I went here seeking a less expensive alternative for a simple e-card for a 11 year old birthday party. All I wanted to do was use a photo my daughter created as the cover and sent it to 15 people. Evite wanted to charge me maybe $1.5-2/invite? So I tried this service (maybe owned by Evite, ironically).
The interface is confusing. Notifications about responses to an event don't seem to occur. Want to share or co-host with a spouse or other person. Nope. Need a mobile experience - get ready for 5 years ago.
Maybe if you send e-invites all the time and want rock bottom pricing and are ok learning a new system for managing all your invites, maybe you'd like this service. Maybe.
JR
Jennifer R.
Ellacards is not a no subscription fee…
Ellacards is not a no subscription fee service as advertised.
I wish I would have scrolled down to the bottom of the pricing page after the pricing options per card before wasting my afternoon trying to design one card (my first and last time using Ellacards) to discover that prepaid credits are required, not the option to purchase a single card as listed. Ellacards has unique options with the ability to add photos, personalize messages from contributors (friends/family), and add music to their cards but I found it unfortunate that they don’t advertise their pricing credit/subscription fee honestly on their site. I should have known prior to creating the card before I used my time I can’t get back.
Response from EllacardJan 16, 2024
Hello,
We are sorry you feel misled, but we are very upfront about our pricing, and anyone can navigate to our pricing page to see exactly how we charge for our products. Additionally, we do offer a no-subscription option. When a customer purchases a credit pack, it is a one-time purchase and they will not be charged again - thus it is not a subscription fee. You correctly identified so many of the great features we uniquely offer our customers - the ability to add photos, videos, personalized messages, and more to our cards, the ability to invite others to sign your card, the ability to add music, custom backgrounds and confetti, and finally the ability to send the card(s) by text and email. These are not features that are easy to make, and we do not sell or share your data, so the only way for us to offer a premium product is to charge for it. We believe that our $10 base credit pack, which lets you create up to 5 cards is a fair price for all of the features we offer. Having said that, our goal is to come across as anything but dishonest, and we are sorry you had a poor experience so if you reach out to us we are happy to discuss further.
SU
Susan
Very, very slick product!
Very, very slick product and outstanding customer support!
HA
Harriet
Got billed twice after transaction apparently failed!
Tried to finish but the website just kept hanging up and could not complete the transaction. Then two hours later, got notifications from PayPal…Ella Cards billed me twice??!!
And I had already sent an e-card using a different company.
Edit: Ella Cards responded promptly and issued refund.
NM
Nicole M.
Deceptive Checkout Experience
Ellacard is peak "we designed our check out experience for maximum revenue versus actual customer experience" design. Look, I work in tech and I understand you want people to "get to the end" but this feels deceptive. You pick your card, entire a little note, enter the email address. It's digital, how expensive could it be, right? $6.99 CAD?! LOL. WHAT? Why is sending a DIGITAL CARD more expensive than me getting an actual card, postage, and sending it in the mail? Of course they're going to bet that you've put too much work in to turn back now and ultimately checkout with your purchase. Zing!
Look, if you're a business, and you're going to send a bunch of emails to your colleagues throughout the year for various occasions, need a bulk signing capability, and want a little pizzazz in the process, maybe the subscription makes sense.
But if you're just an average person looking to sending a one-off card (from one person to one person), you're better off finding an alternative or even just sending an email.
Response from EllacardSep 11, 2023
Hi Nicole,
You are absolutely correct in your observation that our subscription plans make more sense from an economics standpoint. Having said that, we do not want to force customers into a subscription like most e-card services do, and so we offer one-time payment options as well. For those customers who do subscribe, we have focused heavily on building a whole suite of tools and products, including cards, videos, and invitations, in order to create as much value to our subscribers as possible.
I do think it’s a bit disingenuous to compare our service to a simple email or even a traditional paper card, when you can use the Ellacard form factor to include photos, videos, gift cards, and GIFs in addition to text on as many pages as you want, not to mention the remote group-signing aspect or that you can send / resend to multiple recipients and verify delivery. There are no comparable services that offer the same level of customization as Ellacard, and I hope as someone who works in tech, you can appreciate the complexity that goes into building these features.
All that said, I definitely appreciate your complaint, and frankly you’re right - we do prominently feature our multimedia card editor and push users towards it to demonstrate our customization tools that differentiate us from other e-card services. As a relatively young company with little public awareness of our product outside of clicking on an ad, we need that user experience to be front and center.
It may also interest you to know that we make no money on the majority of our users, and we do not share any user data unlike most tech companies, which our customers appreciate immensely. As the saying goes: “if you are not paying for the product you are the product”.
Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you’d like to continue the conversation.
NA
Natalie
Tried using PayPal for 2 days
Tried using PayPal for 2 days, I believe the problem is your end. PayPal was my only option. Gave up in the end.
DP
Donald P.
I would go less for a rating but that…
I would go less for a rating but that is not an option. The "service" is a joke and not as advertised. I knew from the start that I would design my own card. I am so glad I did as the selection is mundane at best and uncreative. The site unfortunately does not provide a horizontal format nor informative instructions. My card supposedly was sent to the named collaborators, who I supposed to be those to sign the card, per the "details" for the order but 24 hours after it was supposedly sent none received it. Well, except for the bereaved, who was not to have received it until later in the week AFTER his colleagues had signed it. As others mentioned imagine my surprise when at the end there was a charge as NOWHERE was it mentioned. The charge was not significant and for the convenience it might have been worth it in this time of hybrid schedules had the "service" actually worked as advertised. I already have one email submitted with questions to which 24 hours later I have not gotten a response. I submitted another email a few minutes ago asking how I can be sure the collaborators don't receive the silly card now that the intended individual has already received it. I cannot recommend this "service" and would like to speak to those leaving 5-star reviews to see if they were written by the owners family.
Response from EllacardAug 8, 2023
Hi Donald,
That's definitely a harsh review and we're deeply sorry you had such a bad experience with Ellacard, especially considering your card was for such a serious occasion.
From your correspondence, it's clear that you mixed up the "contributors" (those signing a card) vs. the "recipient" (the person for whom the card was intended, the bereaved in this case). We've tried to make the language as clear as possible, though it's clear we have failed you, and we will be making updates to improve that based on your experience.
We don't have any record of you contacting us on any channel until one full day after you placed your order. When you did, we sent a detailed response to your email within one hour. We take great pride in our rapid support, and that's one of the key reasons we DO have so many glowing reviews across all review sites.
I wish you had expressed your frustration over the correspondence with our support email rather than trying to shame us publicly as we DO take a lot of pride in having the most feature-rich product in this space and we DO work closely with our customers to A) assist as soon as possible, B) refund where we're unable to assist, and C) continually improve our product, hence why the vast majority of our customers are extremely satisfied.
I understand you're frustrated, but please don't make assumptions about us or the effort we put into our product, and please don't disparage the integrity of our hard-earned, satisfied customers.
We had already refunded your order as Ellacard credit as you had expressed interest in trying our product again in the future, though as your review clearly expresses the opposite, I’ve processed it in cash instead.
Please do feel free to reach out again. We are definitely open to feedback and work hard to make things right.
Thanks,
Alex from Ellacard
