Question 1

Is SimpleCards really free? Is there a paywall or surprise charge at any point?

Accepted Answer

SimpleCards is completely free at every step — creating the card, collecting messages, viewing the finished card, and sharing it with the recipient. There is no paywall, no premium tier, and no point in the flow where a payment is required. We cover our costs through optional contributions from users who find it useful — you can buy us a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/simplecards if you'd like to help, but it's never required.

Question 2

Is SimpleCards a free online card that everyone can sign?

Accepted Answer

Yes. SimpleCards is a free online card for groups to sign — you create a group greeting card, share one link, and everyone can sign it from any device with no account or app needed. There is no limit on how many people can add a message, no per-card fee, and no contributor cap. It works for any occasion: birthdays, leaving dos, retirements, get well wishes, new babies, thank yous, and more.

Question 3

Can I view and share the finished card without paying?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely. Once your card has messages on it, you can view it and share the view link with the recipient at no cost. There is no export fee or unlock required. The view link works for anyone who has it, for free, until the card expires.

Question 4

Can I download or save the card as a PDF?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and it's free. As the organiser you can download any of your cards as a PDF at any time from your dashboard. The recipient can also download a PDF from the card view page once the card has been delivered (once signing is closed). The PDF includes the cover, every message and signer name, and the closing note — so you can keep a permanent copy or print it. The file is generated in your browser; we don't store a copy. Downloading a card is the best way to keep a record before it is automatically deleted at the 6-month mark.

Question 5

Who can edit or delete messages?

Accepted Answer

Only the card organiser (the person who created the card) can edit card details or remove messages. Signers cannot edit or delete each other's messages. Anyone viewing the card can flag a message as inappropriate, which marks it as reported for the organiser to review in their dashboard — but cannot remove it themselves.

Question 6

Can anyone with the link read the messages on the card?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Both the signing link and the view link are accessible to anyone who has them — there is no login required to read messages. Treat a card like a physical group card: once your message is on it, anyone the link is shared with can read it. Do not include sensitive or private information in your message.

Question 7

Do signers need an account?

Accepted Answer

No. Anyone with the signing link can add their message to the card. Only organisers (card creators) need to sign in.

Question 8

How do I share the card for signing?

Accepted Answer

After creating a card, you'll get a unique signing link from your dashboard. Share it via email, Slack, WhatsApp, or any messaging platform. You can also generate a QR code for printing or displaying in the office.

Question 9

Can signers see the other messages on the card?

Accepted Answer

Yes — after adding their message, signers are shown a link to view the card, where they can read all messages. There's no hidden reveal on the organiser's side either: messages are visible as they arrive.

Question 10

How long do cards stay active? Why do I see two different dates?

Accepted Answer

There are two separate dates, and it's easy to mix them up. Signing links expire 30 days after card creation — after that, no new messages can be added, and the sign page will show this as the "signing closes" or card-expiry date. Separately, the card and view link stay accessible for 6 months from creation; the view page shows this as the "auto-deletes on" date. After the 6-month mark, the card and all its data — messages, signer names, and any uploaded cover images — are permanently and automatically deleted, and this cannot be undone. If you want to keep a record, download the card as a PDF before the 6-month mark — organisers can do this anytime from the dashboard, and recipients can once the card has been delivered.

Question 11

Can I remove inappropriate messages, and can I undo a report I made by accident?

Accepted Answer

As an organiser, you can remove any message from your card at any time from your dashboard. Anyone viewing a card also has a "Report" button to flag concerning content. Reporting a message doesn't hide, delete, or change the message in any way, and it doesn't send an email to anyone — it only flags the message so the organiser sees it marked as reported the next time they open their dashboard. If you reported a message by accident, there's no harm done: nothing has changed for anyone else, and the organiser can simply clear the report flag from their dashboard (or ignore it) — there's no need to "undo" anything on your end.

Question 12

Can I schedule when the card gets delivered?

Accepted Answer

Yes. When creating a card, you can set a delivery date and time. You can also set a signing close date to stop collecting messages before the card is delivered. Neither is locked in at creation — see the entry below on changing a closing date afterwards.

Question 13

Can I change or remove the closing date on a card I have already created?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open your dashboard, choose Edit on the card, and use the "Close signing on" field to set a new date and time, or clear it entirely to keep collecting messages until the card expires. If signing on that card has already closed, choosing a date in the future re-opens it for signing until that date, so you can extend a deadline that has already passed. Everything else in that dialog — the recipient name, subtitle, cover message and closing message — can be changed at the same time. One exception: once a card has expired, 30 days after it was created, it becomes read-only and the Edit option is no longer available. You can still view an expired card and download it as a PDF until it is deleted at the 6-month mark.

Question 14

What templates are available?

Accepted Answer

We have 255+ free templates spanning all 13 occasions — birthday, leaving, retirement, work anniversary, new job, promotion, congratulations, thank you, get well, new baby, travelling, sympathy, and general. Styles range from minimal and elegant to bold, festive, floral, and our newer gradient and geometric designs. New templates are added regularly.

Question 15

Can I upload my own photo or design?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Choose the blank canvas template and upload your own cover image — a team photo, a logo, or any design you like. You can also adjust the cover text position, colour, font, and overlay so your message reads clearly on top of any image.

Question 16

I shared my card link on Facebook (or WhatsApp, Slack, etc.) and it isn't showing a preview image — and can I still view or edit my card after sharing it?

Accepted Answer

Sharing your card's link never affects your access to it — as the organiser you can always view, edit, or manage your card from your dashboard at any time, whether or not you've shared the link anywhere. If the shared link isn't showing a preview image/card thumbnail on Facebook, that's almost always the platform showing a stale cached preview from before an image was available (or from before it last re-checked the page), not a sign anything is wrong with your card. You can force a refresh using Facebook's Sharing Debugger (developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/) — paste in your card link and click "Scrape Again" — and the preview image should update within a minute or two. WhatsApp and other apps cache previews too and may need the link re-sent to pick up a fresh preview.

Question 17

The sign-in / magic link email keeps sending me back to the "enter your email" screen instead of logging me in — how do I fix this?

Accepted Answer

Sign-in links work only once and expire an hour after they are sent, and requesting a new email immediately retires the previous link — so if several sign-in emails are sitting in your inbox, only the newest one will work. Start by requesting a fresh email and using that one. Work email is the most common cause of this loop: security filters used by many companies (Microsoft Defender Safe Links, Proofpoint, Mimecast and similar) open links automatically to scan them before they reach you, which can use up a single-use sign-in link before you ever click it. To prevent that, our sign-in emails take you to a "Confirm your sign-in" page with a button rather than signing you in the moment the link is opened — a scanner opening the page does not press the button, so your link survives. If you see that page, press the button to finish signing in; it is meant to be there. Every sign-in email also includes a code you can type on the sign-in page instead, which helps if your email app has shortened or broken the link. If a fresh email still does not get you in, contact support with the address you are signing in with.

Question 18

Where do I enter the sign-in code from my email, and why does it sometimes not work?

Accepted Answer

After you ask for a sign-in email, the sign-in page shows a field beneath "Check your inbox" where you can type or paste the code from that email, instead of clicking the button. Use whichever is easier — they do the same thing. The code and the link share a single one-time token, so whichever you use first is the one that signs you in and the other stops working; the same applies if a link has already been opened by a company email filter. Codes also expire an hour after they are sent, and asking for a new email retires the previous code, so always use the code from the most recent email rather than an older one.

Question 19

What is the "Supported SimpleCards" badge on a card, and how do I add one?

Accepted Answer

If you have made an optional donation, you can add a small "Supported SimpleCards" note to the final page of any card you organised: open your dashboard, choose Edit on the card, and tick "Show a supporter badge on this card". It is entirely on trust — we do not check, and it is only a small note on that one card. SimpleCards is free whether or not you ever donate, and nothing about your card works differently either way.

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