How Much Does a Digital Name Card Cost in Malaysia? Free Profile vs Physical NFC Card

The honest answer to “how much does a digital name card cost” is that there isn't one price — there are two separate costs that get bundled together in most people's minds. One is the subscription that runs the digital profile itself; the other is the optional physical card used to share it by tap. Knowing which is which makes the actual decision much simpler than it first looks, and avoids either overpaying for capacity that isn't needed or being caught out by a cost that wasn't budgeted for. This guide walks through both layers in full, how to read the usage limits that actually drive an upgrade, a simple way to estimate a total cost for your own situation, and the budgeting mistakes that catch people out.

The short answer

The rest of this guide breaks both layers down in full, then puts them back together into a handful of realistic combinations so the total cost of an actual setup is clear rather than something pieced together from two separate price lists.

A digital name card can genuinely cost nothing: the Free subscription plan is RM0, and the Digital Only — Self Setup physical card option is also RM0, together giving a shareable digital profile with no ongoing fee and no physical card at all. From there, costs scale in two independent directions — upgrading the subscription for more profiles and higher usage limits, and separately choosing a physical NFC card if tapping to share matters. Neither purchase requires the other.

Subscription plans: what's actually running the profile

These figures run on the share2.io digital profile platform, and they're the actual published prices — not a starting point for negotiation:

• Free — RM0. 3 profiles, 27 card widgets, 3 QR codes, 3 short links, 20 card scans.
• Pro — RM39/month (RM2.60/profile), or RM368/year. 15 profiles, 49 card widgets, 30 QR codes, 30 short links, 150 card scans.
• Team — RM104/month (RM2.08/profile), or RM1,088/year. 50 profiles, 49 card widgets, 100 QR codes, 100 short links, 10,000 card scans.

The jump from Pro to Team isn't really about individual usage — it's about profile count and scan volume for an actual team, not one person hitting a wall on Free. Laid out side by side, the three tiers look like this:

Physical NFC card options: the optional tap-to-share card

NFC cards start from RM48 for a digital-only profile we design for you, RM118 for a ready-made design template with a printed physical card, or RM338 for a fully custom card design, in gold or silver. Each of these is a one-off cost per card, separate from whichever subscription tier is running behind it — ordering a card doesn't require upgrading the subscription, and upgrading the subscription doesn't require ordering a card.

Cards are available in gold or silver across the paid physical options. Ordering one is a one-off purchase — there's no recurring fee for the physical card itself, only for whichever subscription is running the profile behind it.

What the subscription limits actually mean day to day

The numbers on each plan — profiles, card widgets, QR codes, short links, card scans — can read as abstract until they're translated into what actually happens. A “profile” is one person's card; a business with 5 staff needing their own card needs 5 profiles, which the Free plan's 3 doesn't cover. A “card widget” is one building block on that profile — a phone number, a WhatsApp button, a social link, a map location — so 27 on Free is enough for the basics, while 49 on Pro or Team leaves room for a fuller profile with several contact methods and links laid out. “Card scans” count how many times someone actually views the card after scanning or tapping — 20 on Free is fine for testing, but a single busy trade-show booth can burn through that in an afternoon, which is exactly the kind of moment that makes Pro or Team worth it rather than a nice-to-have.

A simple way to work out your own total cost

• 1. Count the profiles you actually need. Today's headcount needing a card, plus hires expected in the next 12 months, points to Free (up to 3), Pro (up to 15) or Team (up to 50).
• 2. Estimate monthly scans from how the team actually networks. A founder meeting a handful of contacts a month rarely nears 20; a team doing regular events or trade shows can clear that in a single afternoon.
• 3. Decide per role whether a physical card is worth it. Staff who regularly hand over a card in person benefit most; back-office roles can usually share by QR code or link alone at no extra cost.
• 4. Check annual versus monthly pricing once a tier is chosen, using the savings worked out below.
• 5. Add the two totals together — the subscription (monthly or annual) plus the physical card cost multiplied by however many people need one — to get the actual number for your situation, rather than a single headline price.

When upgrading from Free actually pays for itself

Free is a genuinely usable plan, not a crippled trial, so the right moment to upgrade is when an actual limit is being hit, not on a fixed schedule. Two triggers matter in practice: needing a fourth profile for a new hire (Free caps at 3), or running out of the 20 monthly card scans before the month ends, which happens faster than it sounds once a card is shared at even one event. Hitting either one regularly, not occasionally, is the signal to move to Pro.

Once upgrading makes sense, billing frequency is worth a second look. Pro paid annually works out to RM368/year versus RM39 × 12 = RM468/year paid monthly — a RM100/year saving. Team paid annually works out to RM1,088/year versus RM104 × 12 = RM1,248/year monthly — a RM160/year saving. Annual billing only makes sense for a business confident it'll stay on the plan for the full year; a business still unsure which tier fits is better off on a monthly cycle until usage settles.

Putting the two together: what a real setup actually costs

A few realistic combinations, to make the two layers concrete:

• Solo, digital-only, testing the idea: Free subscription + Digital Only Self Setup card = RM0 total.
• Solo, wants a physical card, doesn't need extra profiles: Free subscription + Design-Ready card = RM118 one-off, no ongoing fee.
• Small team of a few people, physical cards for everyone: Pro subscription (RM368/year) + a Design-Ready or Custom-Design card per person.
• Full sales team, high scan volume, professional cards: Team subscription (RM1,088/year) + Custom-Design cards per person.
• Growing team, mixed needs: Pro subscription for now, some staff on Design-Ready cards and others on the free Self Setup option until it's clear who actually needs the physical card day to day.

The subscription cost is ongoing (monthly or annual); the card cost is a one-off per physical card ordered. A business isn't locked into matching tiers — a Free subscription with a Custom-Design card, or a Team subscription with everyone on the Self Setup digital-only option, are both entirely normal combinations depending on what actually matters to that business.

How this compares to the ongoing cost of paper cards

A box of printed paper business cards isn't a one-off cost the way it feels — it's a recurring one, repeated every time details change or a box runs out, and most of them end up thrown away within days of being handed over regardless of print quality. A digital name card flips that: the one-off physical NFC card cost (if chosen at all) covers a card that never goes out of date, since the profile behind it can be edited any time, and the subscription is the only recurring cost, scaling with actual usage rather than box size. A changed phone number or job title on a paper card means reprinting and redistributing a whole new box; the same change on a digital name card is an edit to the profile, live the moment it's saved, with the same physical card still in someone's wallet.

Where to actually buy one

Subscriptions and physical cards both run on the share2.io platform and are ordered directly through the share2.io shop. For a single person deciding between plans, that's usually enough to browse and choose directly. For a small team wanting consistent design and centralised set-up, it's worth getting help first — see our guide on setting up a digital name card for a whole sales team for what that actually involves.

Common mistakes

• Assuming a physical card is required. It isn't — the Free subscription plus the Digital Only Self Setup option costs nothing and shares fine by QR code or link alone.
• Assuming the subscription price already includes a physical card. The two are priced and ordered completely separately, so it's worth deciding on both deliberately rather than being surprised by a second charge later.
• Paying monthly out of habit. Annual billing saves RM100/year on Pro and RM160/year on Team for anyone confident they'll stay on the plan for the full year.
• Sizing the subscription around headcount only. A small team that scans heavily at events can hit Free's 20-scan monthly limit long before it hits the 3-profile limit.
• Ordering the most expensive card tier for every role. Custom-Design cards suit staff who regularly hand cards to new contacts; desk-based roles rarely need more than the free Self Setup option.
• Treating the listed prices as a starting quote. Every plan and card option above is the actual published price, not a figure that changes once someone asks for a proposal.

Where Gotka Technologies fits

Gotka's digital name card service covers exactly this — cards shared by QR code or NFC tap, editable any time, hosted on Gotka's own cloud. For anyone weighing NFC against QR before deciding on a physical card at all, our guide on NFC vs QR business cards covers that decision directly. Gotka can help with choosing the right plan or setting up a team of cards consistently — get in touch first if that's useful, before ordering through share2.io.

None of the figures above require guessing or waiting on a quote — every plan and card option is priced and listed publicly, which is unusual enough for a business tool that it's worth stating plainly: what's on this page is the actual price, not a starting estimate that changes once someone asks for a proposal.

Key terms used in this guide

• Profile: one person's digital card; a subscription plan holds a fixed number of these.
• Card widget: one block of content or a link on a profile, such as a phone number, social link or payment button.
• Card scan: one opening of a profile by QR code, short link or NFC tap; plans share one combined monthly allowance across all three.
• QR code: a scannable image that opens a profile when read by a phone camera.
• Short link: a brief, typeable web address that opens the same profile as a QR code.
• NFC tap: holding a physical card with an embedded chip against a phone to open the profile without scanning anything.
• Subscription tier: Free, Pro or Team — the plan that fixes a profile's limits on profiles, widgets, codes, links and scans.
• share2.io: the digital profile platform Gotka's digital name cards run on, where subscriptions and physical cards are ordered.