Holiday Card Sites & Apps That Mail Cards for You

The season for mailing annual holiday cards is fast approaching. Of course, you want to send friends and family a unique and memorable holiday card, but finding the right one, adding a handwritten note, addressing it, stamping it and getting it to the post office may take more time than you have this busy season. 

Fortunately, you can go online for a new way to mail out custom holiday cards.

Shutterfly

Shutterfly is our favorite holiday card mailing service. You may know Shutterfly for its custom photo gifts, but the company also prints custom cards for every occasion. You'll find lots of design options, including postcard-style cards and folded cards in a range of styles (approximately 700 holiday and 700 Christmas themed cards to choose from). Upload family photos (from Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram, your phone or computer) and customize the text for a greeting card that's your unique creation. You can even make your card really fancy by selecting foil cards, glitter cards and even the option to have your personalized text raised and illuminated with gold foil. 

You can choose for Shutterfly to mail your cards directly to your recipients. You'll have no envelopes to address or stamps to lick. If you import your holiday card list from a CSV file (a save option for  Excel and Google Docs and an export option for Google Contacts and Outlook), you won't even have to type in mailing addresses to get your cards to their destination. Note that mailing is NOT an option if you choose the cheaper  Photo Paper "Type" of paper when you're designing your cards -- even though it says "stamp and mail for me" under the "Mail Options."

Pricing varies depending on the card you select, the design elements you want and how many cards you're buying. Card designs start at $0.79 per card (if you buy hundreds of cards), but expect to spend closer to $1.50 to $3.00 per card plus an extra $0.99 to send them domestically. That's more expensive than store-bought greeting cards, but it saves you the trouble of running to the post office.

Shutterfly also has free apps for iOS and Android where you can also design your card easily with the photos you've taken with your phone. And, Shutterfly is offering free unlimited 4 x 6-inch prints and a free photo book per month, but only through the app. 

Shutterfly Promotion good through 12/12/2019: ups to 50% on cards (so cards starting at $0.58), free shipping on orders over $49 with code SHIP49

Ink Cards

Sincerely's Ink Cards is only app (free on App Store and Google Play), no website. It lets you customize cards with images straight from your phone and have them mailed directly to recipients. Sincerely Ink offers fewer card options (248 holiday-theme designs) than other services, and it limits you to creating cards on your smartphone. But the pricing — starting at $2 per 5 x 7 postcard or $3 for sending internationally — can't be beat. Addressing cards is as easy as selecting them in your phone's address book. If you choose a regular card ($4 per card), you can choose to add a gift card from 30 merchants, including Microsoft (Xbox gift card), Nike, Lowes, buybuy Baby, Bed Bath & Beyond and Athleta. 

Postable

Another low-cost option with more than 900 holiday card options is Postable (only a website). They offer postcards starting at $1.99 and cards starting at $2.99. If you want Postable to send your cards, you just add postage — $0.35 for postcards ($1.15 internationally) and $0.55 for cards ($1.15 internationally). Postable can import your contacts from a spreadsheet or you can enter them manually. You can even send out a request for people to verify their addresses. Postable has a variety of fonts to choose from, including a few that look like real handwriting. 

Promotion good as of 12/12/2018: 20% off all Holiday Cards with code HOL19 (so $1.60 per postcard)

We hope one of these services will prove to be the ideal answer to your holiday card conundrum. Happy holiday card shopping!

Updated on 12/12/2019

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