A Wave Connect alternative built for the follow-up.
A free Wallet card with no app for either side: one scan brings their details back, and Pro drafts the follow-up and reminds you.
Free forever · No card details · About a minute
cardr.co/kai
The short answer: Wave Connect and Cardr both make a digital business card, and both are good at it. Both put a real pass in Apple Wallet and in Google Wallet. The difference is what happens after the handshake. Wave is strongest at a generous free tier with both wallets, widgets and CRM sync. Cardr is built for the follow-up you keep meaning to send.
Last updated 12 October 2026, when every Wave fact on this page was re-read from Wave’s own pages.
Why anyone searches for a Wave alternative.
Almost always one specific thing rather than a general dissatisfaction. If it is not this one, we are probably not your answer either.
Wave’s free tier is one of the most generous in the category, so people rarely leave over price. They look elsewhere for one of two reasons. The paper-card and badge scanning with enrichment is paid by the credit, at “$2.50 per credit”, on top of the plan. Or they want the follow-up written from what was actually said, rather than a template triggered “the moment you connect”.
Everything else about Wave is fine, and on the points below they beat us. So the useful question is not “which is better” but whether the thing that sent you looking is a thing we actually fix. On the follow-up: Cardr keeps what was said against the name, reminds you on the day they gave you, and drafts from your note rather than a template.
Nothing for them to download.
Tap through what Tom sees when he scans your card.
KaiNo app, no account, no sign-up for the people you meet.
Cardr vs Wave Connect, with their prices as they publish them.
| Feature | Cardr | Wave Connect |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, the full card, forever, no card details taken | Yes, $0: “Save unlimited contacts”, “Lead capture form”, “Add to Google or Apple Wallet” |
| Paid price | £12 a month, or £9 a month billed annually (£108 a year) | Pro $7 per month, billed annually. Teams $5 per user a month, minimum 3, billed annually. Enterprise is a custom quote. No monthly price was shown. Shown in US dollars on 12 October 2026, from a US connection and from a UK one. |
| Apple Wallet pass | Yes, a signed .pkpass on the free tier | Yes, on Free: “Add to Google or Apple Wallet” |
| Google Wallet | Yes, on the free tier | Yes, on Free |
| Their details come back to you | Yes, two-way exchange on the free tier | See their site |
| Follow-up drafted for you | Yes, on Pro, from the note you kept about the meeting | “Automated follow-ups”: “Trigger personalized email follow-ups or SMS reminders the moment you connect” (homepage) |
| CRM integrations | None | “Sync contacts to your CRM” on Teams |
| Physical NFC cards | We do not sell any; bring your own tag. Our metal cards, Cardr Metal, use a QR | Yes: Wave NFC Business Card $23, Metal NFC Business Card $52 |
Prices checked on 12 October 2026. Every figure in this table was read from https://wavecnct.com/pricing and the pages quoted below that day and is reproduced without editing. Prices are in the currency their page showed us; ours are in GBP. Where a cell says “see their site”, the published page did not state it clearly enough for us to summarise honestly, so we have not guessed. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Try Cardr before you pay Wave.
The free tier is the whole card, with no expiry and no card details. If it is not better for you, you have lost a minute.
What Wave Connect publishes, and when we read it.
Reproduced rather than summarised. Our previous site described a competitor's capabilities from memory and got it wrong in our own favour, so this page shows you the source and the date instead of asking you to trust the summary.
Pro $7 per month, billed annually. Teams $5 per user a month, minimum 3, billed annually. Enterprise is a custom quote. No monthly price was shown. Shown in US dollars on 12 October 2026, from a US connection and from a UK one.
Free tier: Yes, $0: “Save unlimited contacts”, “Lead capture form”, “Add to Google or Apple Wallet”. Apple Wallet: Yes, on Free: “Add to Google or Apple Wallet”. Where a cell elsewhere on this page says “see their site”, their published page did not state it clearly enough for us to summarise honestly, so we have not guessed.
Add notes and follow-up reminders to every new connection, or sync them to your CRM to ensure no lead is left behind.
Wave NFC Business Card $23.00 · Metal NFC Business Card $52.00
What Wave Connect does better than us.
A comparison page that only flatters the people who wrote it is an advert. Here is the honest half.
Wave gives away more on its free tier than anyone else here: both wallets, unlimited contacts, a lead capture form, a personal email signature and ten free credits of AI lead capture. It has an iPhone home-screen widget, CRM sync on Teams, team admin from three seats, badge and paper-card scanning for events, and its own NFC cards. It also publishes a great deal more than we do, which is worth knowing when you are searching.
If you need a home-screen widget, CRM sync, NFC hardware from the same company or a team of three or more managed from one admin, Wave does all of them and Cardr does none. Wave Pro is also cheaper than Cardr Pro.
Pick on what breaks for you.
The choice between Cardr and Wave is not close once you know which of these you are. Read down the left column and stop at the first line that is you.
- You already run a CRM and want cards feeding it Blinq Blinq lists native connections to 20+ CRMs. Cardr has none at all.
- You want the most on a free tier, both wallets included Wave Connect Unlimited contacts, a lead form and both wallets for $0, as published.
- You run events with a team and a stand Popl Built for badge scanning at scale, sold through a sales conversation rather than a signup page.
- You want a physical NFC card in your hand Any NFC vendor Cardr sells no NFC cards. Buy a tag from anyone and point it at your cardr.co address.
- You meet enough people and never send the follow-up Cardr The exchange returns their details, the context is kept against the name, and the message is drafted and then chased.
Nobody loses a deal because the card was ugly.
Cardr is for the follow-up after the conversation, not the capture at it. You remember someone in one sentence — who, where, what they need and when to come back — and Cardr reminds you on the day they named and drafts the message from what you wrote. The card itself is a signed Apple Wallet pass, and on the Engraved designs the artwork is generated from your name rather than picked from a template.
The other comparisons.
Paid plans from $9.99/mo. Checked 12 October 2026.
Alternative HiHello alternativePaid plans from $6/mo. Checked 12 October 2026.
Alternative Popl alternativePaid plans from £5.99/mo. Checked 14 October 2026.
Alternative Mobilo alternativePaid plans from $3/mo. Checked 12 October 2026.
Alternative Linq alternativePricing not published. Checked 12 October 2026.
Round-up The best digital business cardsSide by side, including the ones that beat us.
Cardr and Wave Connect, answered.
Checked against Wave Connect’s published pages on 12 October 2026.
Is Cardr cheaper than Wave Connect?
No. Both are free at the entry point, and Wave Pro at $7 a month, billed annually, is cheaper than Cardr Pro at £12 a month, or £9 billed annually (£108 a year). The two paid tiers sell different things: Wave Pro is branding and AI lead capture, Cardr Pro is the follow-up done for you.
Does Wave Connect do Apple Wallet passes?
Yes, and Google Wallet as well, as Cardr does. Wave Connect ships an Apple Wallet pass, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something. The pass itself is not the difference between these products.
Can I move from Wave Connect to Cardr?
Export your contacts from Wave as a CSV before you cancel anything; Cardr does not import from Wave directly. If your Wave NFC card can be re-pointed, write your cardr.co address to it, update the link in your email signature, and run both for a week or two: a free Wave card costs nothing to keep while you try. Everything in Cardr exports to CSV or vCard on the free plan.
Is there a free alternative to Wave Connect?
Cardr’s free plan is the complete digital business card: a signed Apple Wallet pass, your page at cardr.co/yourname, a QR code, unlimited scans and shares, live updates to your pass and your page, and the two-way exchange that returns their details to you. No expiry, no card details taken and no scan cap. Wave Connect also publishes a free tier, so compare where each one is capped rather than whether a free plan exists.
Should I pick Wave Connect instead?
If you need a home-screen widget, CRM sync, NFC hardware from the same company or a team of three or more managed from one admin, Wave does all of them and Cardr does none. Wave Pro is also cheaper than Cardr Pro.
Try the free one before you pay anybody.
The Cardr free tier is the whole card and it does not expire. If it is not better for you than what you are on, you have lost a minute.