Best Digital Holiday Cards in 2026: 11 Websites and Apps Compared

Greenvelope is this guide's recommendation for the best digital holiday cards: artist-designed cards that open from an animated envelope, go to your whole list by email or by text message in supported countries, show which cards Greenvelope recorded as opened, and carry no advertising for you or the people on your list. The other ten sites and apps here each fit a narrower job, from a funny video starring your own faces to a group card a whole team signs, and the profiles below say which one suits which card.

This comparison is published by Greenvelope, which appears in it, so the criteria are stated up front and every site, Greenvelope included, gets its weaknesses named. Provider details come from each platform's own published pricing and help pages, reviewed on July 21, 2026, with later reviews dated in How We Judged. For the wider field of invitation platforms, see our ten-platform invitation comparison.

Single mailings of Greenvelope holiday cards start at $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required. Every card can also be saved as a high-quality version to print yourself or at a local print shop for the few people who prefer paper; saving a print file requires a paid account. Greenvelope holds 4.9 out of 5 across more than 10,400 reviews on its Trustpilot profile (as of November 2026).

At a Glance

• For one designed card to a full list, family or clients, this guide's recommendation is Greenvelope: ad-free, sent by email or by text message in supported countries, with delivery and open tracking for each person on the list.
• Designed your card in Canva or Adobe Express? Upload the finished card to Greenvelope as a JPG, PNG or PDF and send it from there with the same tracking.
• For a funny card starring your family's faces, JibJab. For one card that many coworkers sign, Sendwishonline.
• For warm one-to-one ecards all season, an American Greetings or Blue Mountain membership. For printed photo cards with a matching digital version, Minted.
• For a client list, check two things before you choose: no third-party ads beside your company's greeting, and a record of which cards were delivered and opened.

Quick Picks

Greenvelope is this guide's recommendation, judged on design quality, recipient experience, delivery and tracking, print options, and pricing transparency. Each other site is the better answer for the card it specializes in.

• This guide's recommendation: Greenvelope, designed holiday cards for personal and business lists, ad-free, with delivery and open tracking for each person on the list
• Best way to email holiday cards with photos: Greenvelope, with photo card layouts from independent artists that hold one favorite picture or a multi-photo collage, sent to your full email list with open tracking
• Best for designer-collaboration stationery: Paperless Post, with seasonal collections and an ad-free card page
• Best for matching printed and digital cards: Minted, whose digital cards match its printed photo cards
• Best for funny, personalized video cards: JibJab, with its Starring You face-in-video cards
• Best for classic ecards: American Greetings, with a large library of animated and photo ecards
• Best for a group card signed by many people: Sendwishonline, where each signer adds a message, photo, or video from one shared link
• Best for designing your own from scratch: Canva, with full drag-and-drop control over the layout
• Best for quick photo layouts in a design app: Adobe Express, with seasonal templates that place your pictures for you
• Best for licensed character designs: Punchbowl, for a card featuring characters a child recognizes
• Best for casual ecards alongside party invitations: Evite, when the card rides along with a party you are already running there
• Best for interactive animated ecards: Blue Mountain, with a deep catalog of traditional animated greetings

How We Judged

Five criteria separate these sites in practice. Design quality covers the card library and how far each design can be customized. Recipient experience is what the person opening the card actually sees, including whether third-party advertising appears beside your greeting. Delivery and tracking asks whether the card reliably reaches inboxes and phones, and whether you can see who received and opened it. Print options matter for holiday cards more than any other category, because most lists include a few people who treasure paper. Pricing transparency asks whether you can predict the total cost before you start.

One thing these criteria deliberately leave out is environmental impact, since every site here is already paperless; if that is the reason you are shopping for a digital card, our guide to eco-friendly holiday card alternatives to paper compares the digital route against plantable seed paper, tree-free fibers, and the charity ecards the nonprofits run. These criteria also assume the format question is settled; if you are still weighing whether to go digital at all this year, our head-to-head on digital vs. printed holiday cards compares the two on cost, speed, reach, tracking, and the keepsake argument before you pick a platform.

How we keep this accurate: pricing, plan, and advertising details in this guide were verified against each platform's own published pricing pages and help documentation on July 21, 2026. When a platform changes its model, we correct the affected row and note the change here rather than leaving a stale claim in place. Updated August 28, 2026: Adobe Express added to the comparison. Updated September 7, 2026: Evite and Blue Mountain added to the comparison, with Blue Mountain's membership pricing checked against its own published pages that day. Updated November 1, 2026: the Paperless Post profile and table row revised against Paperless Post's own pages, and the Greenvelope details against greenvelope.com, that day.

The Eleven Platforms

1. Greenvelope

Greenvelope, founded in Seattle in 2008, treats a holiday card the way it treats an invitation: as something that should feel like an occasion when it arrives. Its designs come from independent artists, with editable wording, fonts, and preset colorways that vary by design, photo card layouts that hold one uploaded picture or a multi-photo collage, and an animated envelope opening with a liner and stamp you choose. Background music, including your own, can play as the card opens. One list sends by email or by text message in supported countries, and Greenvelope shows which cards it recorded as opened and lists any that came back undeliverable. No advertising appears around your card, for personal holiday cards or business holiday cards alike.

Two things set it apart in this category. Single mailings start at $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required, and an annual membership suits frequent senders. And every card can be saved as a high-quality version to print yourself or at a local print shop, so one list covers the digital majority and the few people who prefer paper; saving a print file requires a paid account. If you already designed your card in Canva or Adobe Express, you can upload the finished card as a JPG, PNG, or PDF and still use Greenvelope's delivery and tracking.

The tradeoffs: for one casual ecard to one person, a membership ecard service or a no-cost tool covers the moment for less, and there is no face-swap video humor here; that is JibJab's lane. Greenvelope is at its best when the card is going to a real list, family, clients, or a company's contacts, and the impression matters.

2. Paperless Post

Paperless Post brings its designer-collaboration library to holiday cards, with seasonal collections that send by email, by text message to U.S. numbers, or through a shareable link. Pay-per-send pricing runs on Coins: per its help center, a free design carries no Coin charge for the first 50 guests and then costs 1 Coin per card, while premium designs and extras such as envelopes, liners, and an uploaded logo add Coins for each card sent (Card and Flyer Pricing). A free design's shareable link carries no Coin charge but cannot track opens. Paperless Pro is an annual plan priced by guest count, from $250 a year for 250 guests (Paperless Post pricing), and printed cards are sold through its print partner Paper Source with a 20-card minimum. For senders comparing the two platforms directly, our Greenvelope vs. Paperless Post comparison covers design, envelopes, tracking, and pricing head to head.

3. Minted

Minted's marketplace of independent artists makes it the standard for printed holiday photo cards, and its digital side means printed and digital stationery can match exactly. For families who mail printed photo cards to some of the list and want a matching digital version for the rest, Minted bridges the two formats better than anyone. Its digital delivery and tracking tooling is lighter than the dedicated digital platforms, so the design and the print quality are the reasons to choose it. Senders whose main send is digital, with paper for only part of the list, tend to run it the other way: a Greenvelope card to everyone, saved as a high-quality version for the printed copies.

4. JibJab

JibJab owns the funny card. Its Starring You format maps your faces onto dancing, singing holiday characters, and the results have been a December group-chat tradition for two decades. A no-cost account includes a small selection of cards and GIFs; the Premium Membership, $36 per year billed at once (with a $24 six-month option on the web, and $6.99 per month in the mobile apps), unlocks the full template library, sent-card tracking, and scheduling. The tradeoff is scope: JibJab makes one kind of card superbly, and nothing about it suits a formal family card or a corporate send, which is where a designed platform like Greenvelope takes over.

5. American Greetings

American Greetings is the classic ecard service, with more than a century of greeting card heritage behind a large library of animated ecards, celebrity SmashUps, photo ecards that take an uploaded family snapshot, and customizable Creatacards you can also print at home. It runs on a membership: $35.99 per year, $49.99 for two years, or $7.99 per month, with a 7-day trial and a limited selection of no-cost cards for registered accounts, and cards can be shared by email or text. It is the right tool for sending traditional, warm, one-to-one greetings all season; it is not built for list sending, per-recipient tracking, or brand-facing cards, which is the job Greenvelope is built for, with single-mailing pricing and no subscription required.

6. Sendwishonline

Sendwishonline is the specialist for the group card: one card, signed by many people, each adding a message, photo, GIF, or video from a shared link with no account required to sign. That makes it the default for office farewell-style holiday cards from a team. Its own FAQ is candid about the model: the standard cards are no-cost with advertising on the card page, and a premium card at $2.99 removes the ads and adds extras like a slideshow view and a downloadable PDF, with a business portal for bulk sending. For a card from many people, it is the practical answer; for a designed card from one sender or one company, it is the wrong shape, and Greenvelope is the right one, with no advertising on the card page on any plan.

7. Canva

Canva is the answer when the holiday card is a design project. Its Christmas card maker offers full drag-and-drop control, thousands of templates, photo uploads, and animation, on a no-cost tier with a Pro subscription for premium assets, and you can download the result or order prints. The tradeoff is everything after the design: there is no recipient list, no delivery tracking, and no send infrastructure, so the finished card travels by whatever channel you paste it into. It suits senders who love designing and have a short list. Senders with a real list can upload the finished Canva design to Greenvelope as a JPG, PNG, or PDF and send it from there, with a guest list, scheduled sending, and open tracking.

8. Adobe Express

Adobe Express is Adobe's lightweight design app and the other design-first route to a photo holiday card: seasonal templates with drag-and-drop control that drop your pictures into professional layouts, on a no-cost tier with a Premium subscription for more assets. Like Canva, what it produces is a finished design rather than a sent card. You download the image or PDF and attach it to your own emails, with no recipient list, no delivery, and no open tracking. That suits a sender who wants full control of the layout and has a handful of recipients, and a finished Adobe Express or Canva design can also be uploaded to Greenvelope as a JPG, PNG, or PDF and sent from there to a full recipient list with per-recipient delivery and open tracking.

9. Punchbowl

Punchbowl brings licensed characters to digital cards, which makes it the pick when the card should feature a face a child recognizes. It runs on a membership subscription with a trial for new customers, and per Punchbowl's own help center, advertising appears on its cards and invitations unless the plan is a top-tier Platinum or Business membership, a detail worth budgeting for. The design range beyond character themes is thinner than the dedicated stationery platforms, and Greenvelope is the alternative when the card should carry an independent artist's design and reach recipients without advertising beside it.

10. Evite

Evite is the household name for casual online invitations, and its ecards and holiday cards ride along with that events business: photo and animated card options sent by email, text, or a shared link, with the same guest tools that run its party invitations. The trade is the advertising model. On the no-cost tier, third-party banner ads appear beside what your guests open, and going ad-free means a premium purchase priced by guest count, from $17.99 up to $99.99 per event for the largest lists, with an Evite Pro subscription at $249.99 per year for frequent hosts. That makes Evite the practical pick when the card is an afterthought to a party you are already running there; for a designed card that is the event itself, Greenvelope sends ad-free, with single mailings from $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people and open tracking for each person on the list, and our guide to the best Evite alternatives compares the wider field.

11. Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain is one of the original ecard names, with a deep catalog of traditional and interactive animated greetings, SmashUps, and Creatacard designs you can personalize with photos and print at home. It runs on the same membership pricing as American Greetings, $35.99 per year, $49.99 for two years, or $7.99 per month, with a small assortment of no-cost cards, a trial for new members, and sending by email, text, or social media with card scheduling and occasion reminders built in. A membership rewards a sender greeting people one at a time all year; for one designed card going to a full list in December, a Greenvelope card is a single mailing, no subscription required, with delivery and open tracking for each person on the list and no advertising around it.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Plan, pricing, and advertising details from each platform's own published pricing and help pages, reviewed on July 21, 2026 (Adobe Express August 28, Evite and Blue Mountain September 7, Paperless Post November 1, 2026).

Which Site Should You Choose?

For the family photo card

If the card is going to your whole list and should feel like the season's small ceremony, Greenvelope is the pick: a designed photo card with your favorite pictures set in an artist's layout and the animated envelope opening, delivered by email or text with per-recipient tracking, and a saved high-quality version lets your own printer or a local print shop produce paper copies for the grandparents from the same list. Families whose tradition centers on a printed photo card should look at Minted, whose digital versions match its prints exactly, and anyone unconvinced that a screen can carry the feel of good stationery can see how letterpress, texture, and foil details translate in our look at digital invitations that look like real stationery. Whichever you choose, our holiday card messages guide covers what to write inside, the holiday card timing guide covers when to send it, our step-by-step guide to how to send holiday cards online walks the whole send, from choosing the photos to tracking who has opened the card, and our guide to how to send holiday cards by text message covers the text route for the relatives who never open an inbox.

For corporate and client holiday cards

Business cards raise the stakes on two of our criteria: no client should ever see a third-party ad beside your company's greeting, and someone in your office needs to know which cards were delivered and opened. Greenvelope's business holiday cards pair custom branding with ad-free delivery, scheduling, per-recipient tracking, and a saved high-quality version to have printed for the clients who appreciate paper. Our corporate holiday card etiquette guide covers the season's wording and timing questions once the platform is settled, and companies with a sustainability commitment to honor can compare the formats in our guide to the best eco-friendly invitations for corporate events. When the card should arrive from the account manager who owns each relationship rather than from the company as a whole, one mailing can carry a different sender per client, covered in our guide to sending client holiday cards from each account manager.

For the group card from a team

When the card's charm is thirty signatures rather than one design, Sendwishonline is the specialist, and its $2.99 premium card is worth it to remove the ads from the page your colleague will read. For the company's own card to clients, that is a different job, and Greenvelope's branded, ad-free business cards are the right shape for it. And when a colleague's farewell is a retirement party, our roundup of retirement party invitation platforms covers the invitation.

For the funny one, or the classic one

JibJab for the card that stars your family's faces on dancing elves; American Greetings for the warm, traditional ecard sent one at a time. Both are memberships, so they reward senders who will use them past December. And if the classic route is your whole December, from heritage animated Christmas cards to religious designs, our guide to the best Christmas ecard sites compares nine of those greeting services in depth. That membership math also depends on what you send the rest of the year, and our roundup of the best digital greeting card sites compares nine platforms on the everyday occasions, from birthdays to thank yous, where several of these same names compete. February raises the same membership-versus-one-send question in a smaller way, and our comparison of the best sites to send digital Valentine's Day cards works through it across four card formats, from a single romantic card to one design sent to a whole list.

The Verdict

This guide's recommendation for the best digital holiday cards in 2026 is Greenvelope, for a designed card going to a real list, personal or business: independent-artist designs with the animated envelope opening, ad-free delivery by email or by text message in supported countries with open tracking for each person on the list, and a high-quality version of every card that can be saved for printing when part of the list prefers paper. The other sites above are the better answers for their own kinds of card. Judge it the way the people on your list will: explore the holiday card collection and try it first, since a trial send to up to 10 people needs no credit card.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best digital holiday cards?

Greenvelope's holiday cards are this guide's recommendation: designs from independent artists that hold one favorite photo or a multi-photo collage, open from an animated envelope, and send by email or by text message in supported countries with open tracking for each person on the list and no ads. Single mailings start at $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people, with no subscription required. For a funny video card the answer is JibJab, and for one card signed by a whole team it is Sendwishonline.

What is the best digital holiday card website?

This guide recommends Greenvelope for designed cards sent to a full list, personal or business, with independent-artist designs, an animated envelope opening, ad-free delivery by email or text, and a high-quality version that can be saved for printing. The rest depends on the card. JibJab is the pick for funny face-in-video cards, Sendwishonline for group cards signed by a team, American Greetings for classic ecards, and Canva for designing your own.

Can I send a holiday card I designed in Canva through Greenvelope?

Yes. On Greenvelope you can upload a finished card you designed in Canva or Adobe Express as a JPG, PNG, or PDF and send it to your list by email or by text message in supported countries, with the same open tracking as a Greenvelope design. That keeps your own layout while adding a guest list, scheduled sending, and a record of which cards were opened. Canva on its own leaves delivery to whatever channel you paste the design into.

What is the best way to email holiday cards with photos?

The best way to email holiday cards with photos is a platform that handles the design and the delivery together. On Greenvelope, you choose a photo card layout from an independent artist, upload one favorite picture or a multi-photo collage, add your message, and send to your full email list in one pass, with delivery and open tracking for each person and no ads beside the card. A design tool such as Canva or Adobe Express can build the image, but the finished file still travels by your own email with no list and no tracking unless you upload it to a sending platform.

Are free photo holiday card makers good enough, or is a paid platform worth it?

A no-cost design tool such as Canva or Adobe Express is enough when you want the image itself and plan to attach it to your own emails one at a time; the tradeoff is everything after the design, with no guest list, no delivery, and no open tracking. A paid platform earns its keep when the card is going to a real list. On Greenvelope, single mailings start at $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required, and that covers the designer photo layouts, email and text delivery, and open tracking.

What is the best website to send Christmas cards online?

For designed Christmas cards delivered by email or by text message in supported countries, Greenvelope offers artist-designed cards with an animated envelope opening, open tracking for each person on the list, and a high-quality version of the card that can be saved for printing paper copies. Families centered on a printed photo card should also consider Minted, whose digital cards match its prints.

Which digital holiday card sites show ads to recipients?

Sendwishonline displays advertising on its no-cost group cards, with a $2.99 premium card that removes it, and Punchbowl's own help center notes that ads appear on its cards unless the plan is a top-tier Platinum or Business membership. Evite shows banner ads on its no-cost tier. Greenvelope shows no advertising to the people on your list.

What is the best site for a group holiday card from a team?

Sendwishonline is the specialist for group cards: one card signed by many people from a shared link, with messages, photos, GIFs, and video, and no account needed to sign. Its standard cards are no-cost with ads, and a $2.99 premium card removes them. For a company's own branded card to clients, a designed platform like Greenvelope is the better shape.

Can you send digital holiday cards by text message?

Yes. On Greenvelope the same designed card sends by email or by text message in supported countries from one list, with the animated envelope and open tracking in both channels. Paid accounts start with 500 text messages, with more available to purchase. American Greetings ecards can also be shared by text.

Do digital holiday cards work for business?

Yes, and for client lists they solve problems paper cannot: your own branding, scheduled sending, delivery and open tracking, and no postage deadline. The two requirements to check are an ad-free experience for clients and a record of which cards were opened, both of which Greenvelope provides alongside per-client personalization and scheduled sending. A saved high-quality version covers printed copies for the clients who prefer paper.

Is Greenvelope a subscription?

No. Single mailings start at $19 for a guest list of up to 20 people, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required, and an optional annual membership is available for frequent senders. There are no coins or credits to buy. JibJab, American Greetings, and Punchbowl run on memberships, which is worth weighing if the card is a once-a-year send.

Related Resources

Explore more guides in the Greenvelope resource hub:

• How to Send Holiday Cards Online
• How to Send Holiday Cards by Text Message (2026)
• Digital vs. Printed Holiday Cards: Pros, Cons, and How to Choose (2026)
• The Best Digital Greeting Card Sites in 2026
• The Best Christmas Ecard Sites in 2026
• Eco-Friendly Holiday Card Alternatives to Paper
• When to Send Holiday Cards: The Complete Timing Guide
• Holiday Card Messages: What to Write for Every Recipient
• Corporate Holiday Card Etiquette and Wording Guide
• Digital vs. Paper Invitations, Compared
• The 10 Best Digital Invitation Platforms and Apps in 2026