How To Develop An e-Card Maker App & How Much It Costs?

Everyone has different ways to express themselves. While some like to do it face-to-face, there are some who prefer other mediums to express, either through a letter, a card, or maybe through SMS, or an email. However, there sure is an enticing charm in letters and cards as they tend to be really touching and have a personal touch to them. It involves the conveyer to actually think about what they are feeling to write and this makes the letter way more effective to truly touch the receiver.

Now even though this way of expression seems bit conventional and it has become a rarity when people used to send the handmade cards to their family & friends on special occasions. However, wasn’t this entire process of making cards, writing wishes, and sending it via courier way too hectic? There are still people who like this conventional method and still use it, but there is no denying that it has reduced drastically due to too much effort being involved. Digitalization has certainly taken over and this is the era for online e-card creating mobile apps.

Today there are a number of online e-card maker apps out there which makes it easy for the people to create their own cards, be it seasonal greetings, birthday wishes, valentine cards, anniversary cards, or for just any occasion. With the help of these apps, Android & iOS mobile app users can easily and quickly create their own e-cards.

What Are eCard Maker Apps and Why Are They So Popular?

e-Card makers are the apt need in this era of digitalization where people can send digital greeting cards. These apps help people to create personalized greeting cards and send them to their dear ones on several occasions. It has a myriad of images/graphics to beautify the cards. So it doesn’t matter whether you desire for a simplistic design or a more fancy style, these apps have a lot to offer with wide-ranging typography & graphics.

Now talking in terms of popularity, e-cards makers allow its users to create cards using digital services. It is mainly designed to help people create cards and they offer a lot of functionalities which enables people to work on the design, customize content and the images just as they desire. These apps also allow the users to personalize the content in a stylish manner, which most users appreciate. Each and every detail can be altered in a very little time as per the message the users intend to send to the receivers. Because of this fast and easy way to create greetings, e-Card maker apps are absolutely adored by the people.

Why Is It A Right Move To Invest In An e-Card Maker App?

Few decades back, it was a trend to send or exchange physical cards on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Then that trend started to diminish with time and slowly it entirely lost its charm and delight. However, with digitalization arrived e-Cards and they have brought the much-old tradition back in a much modern and stylized manner. A “Greeting Cards – Global Strategic” business report conducted by Research and Markets and which offers comprehensive analytics for Canada, Japan, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, and the USA, states the annual forecast of greeting card businesses from the year 2016 to 2024. At the same time, it also provides a five-year historical analysis for these markets.

US citizens purchase approx 6.5 bn greeting cards each year. And the most popular card-sending is for birthday wishes, followed by a number of other occasions that include Sympathy, Thank You, Wedding, Thinking of You, Get Well, New Baby, and Congratulations.

Popular eCard Maker Apps

Felt, Handwrytte‪n, Ink, Postable, Punkpost, & Thankster are some of the mobile apps and services for e-card making.

Steps To Create An e-Card Making App

Creating an e-card-making app involves several key steps, covering aspects from initial conception to final deployment. Here’s a breakdown of the process:

1. Conceptualization and Planning

• Identify Purpose: Determine the core functionality of your app. Will it specialize in holiday cards, birthday cards, or offer a wide range?
• Target Audience: Define your target audience. Consider their age, interests, and tech-savviness.
• Competitive Analysis: Research existing e-card apps to identify what they offer and how you can differentiate your app.

2. Design

• User Interface (UI) Design: Plan the look and feel of the app. This includes layout, color schemes, and graphics.
• User Experience (UX) Design: Focus on how users will interact with your app. Ensure the app is intuitive and user-friendly.
• Features and Functionalities: Decide on features such as card customization, sharing options, templates, etc.

3. Technology Selection

• Platform Choice: Decide whether your app will be for iOS, Android, or both.
• Development Tools and Frameworks: Choose appropriate tools and frameworks based on your platform choice, like React Native, Flutter, or native development kits.

4. Development

• Front-end Development: Develop the client side of your app, focusing on UI/UX implementation.
• Back-end Development: Set up servers, databases, and APIs if your app requires user accounts, saving designs, etc.
• Integrate Third-Party Services: If using services like social media sharing, payment gateways, or cloud storage, integrate these into your app.

5. Testing

• Unit Testing: Test individual components for functionality.
• Integration Testing: Ensure different parts of the app work together seamlessly.
• User Testing: Conduct testing with potential users to gather feedback and make necessary adjustments.

6. Launch

• Deployment: Release the app on the appropriate platforms (App Store for iOS, Google Play for Android).
• Marketing and Promotion: Use digital marketing, social media, and possibly influencer partnerships to promote your app.

7. Post-Launch

• Maintenance and Updates: Regularly update the app for new features, bug fixes, and to keep up with OS updates.
• User Feedback: Continuously gather user feedback for improvements.
• Performance Monitoring: Use analytics to monitor app performance and user engagement.

Basic Features of an E-Card Maker App

Admin Panel Features

• Register via email & social media
• Manage e-Cards Library
• Create Membership Plans
• Manage Advertisements
• Push Notifications about updates & feaures
• 24/7 Support

User Panel Features

• Login
• Select An Occasion
• Choose e-Card Template
• Add Photos & Text
• Save and Share
• Refer To Friends

Advanced Features To Create eCard Maker App

Image/Graphics Gallery

This is a vital functionality for an e-Card make app as the gallery offer a plethora of graphics & images to beautify the card being made by the app users. The app makers can use this functionality of integrating library on the app so users can pick wide-ranging items.

Typography

It is a good idea for e-card makers to have free & highly used fonts in a wide-range.

Themes

Generally users lack time to create things from scratch and having some basic themes where they can customize a bit can be very helpful for them.

Custom Music

This feature will enhance the user experience as the users can add sounds & graphics during the card making process. Users can be provided with some tunes and allow them to use music of their liking.

Multi-occasion

This feature enable the users to select from the many occasions for which a card is needed, like for anniversary, Diwali, or Christmas, so the related graphics would show.

Multi-Language

Users all across the world can be targeted with the introduction of multiple languages across the platform.

Video Cards

These are way impressive as compared to the static ones and they also look pretty cool to share.

Social Sharing

This is one crucial feature that allows the users to share cards via their social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., once they have been created.

Typography

Using this functionality, the users can pick a large number of font sizes & styles. It is vital for the app to have various style fonts that suits each and every occasion and is not just restricted to popular ones. This way the overall appearance of the card can be enhanced.

Imagery

In the app offer graphics & pictures library as this allows users to choose from wide-ranging media available. Offer this option to use pictures from their own devices or from Google storage with the use of uploading functionality.

Themes

Often users lack this time to start things from the scratch and hence the responsibility comes on the app designer to blend finest layouts, fonts & colors so the users enjoy this journey of cardmaking.

Speedy UI

It gets easier for the users to use the app when the User Interface (UI) is fast & simple. A speedy UI ensures that mobility doesn’t restrict the designing process, which is one of the biggest contributing factor in the success of the app.

Large Storage

For an e-card maker app it is important that it has an unlimited storage. This allows proper allotment of space for the users to save their creative work and without capable storage, an e-card maker app doesn’t stand a chance to succeed.

Business Signature

This is a great way to promote the brand, as in this option the app requires user to include a business signature in their card. Hence, this will enable the brand to gain popularity and captivate the attention of more and more users.

Different Monetization Strategies For E-Card Maker Apps

Advertisements

This revenue model works great for apps with huge number of users as it allows the online businesses to make huge sum of revenue from the advertisements. The model allows other businesses to advertise their products & services on your app platform so they can garner the attention of your users or can choose AdWords.

Subscription Model

In this model, the app is offered for free for a few days, like for a week, or a month, and once users are acquainted with the app functionalities, they need to pay a subscription fee to continue using the app.

Freemium

This model allows the users to use some of the basic features and graphics for free, however to have access to more features or graphics, a fee is charged from them.

What Technology Stack To Choose For e-Card Maker App?

What Is The Team Structure Required To Develop An E-Card Maker Mobile App?

Creation of a mobile app is a time-consuming process and it requires a team of proficient and seasoned developed, designers, and testers. It is vital that the app development team consists of the following, such as:

• Project Manager
• Android/iOS Developers
• Back-end Developers
• Quality Analysts
• Delivery Manager

It is best to seek the help of an app development company instead of a freelancer for the making of e-card maker app, as with the development firm comes an entire team, which is not only skilled, adept, but also seasoned in the app making business. Now once the team is taken care of, let’s find about the cost.

Cost To Develop An E-Card Maker Mobile App

Today more and more people to keen on getting an app developed, hence it doesn’t come as a surprise that most of them are curious to find about the making cost of an app. Now, the cost of app creation is different for every app category but the basic factors that determine the cost are:

• Type of app & Number of Platforms (Android or iOS, or both
• Features & Technologies Integrated into the app
• Designing of the app (Basic, Individual, or Customized)
• Hourly Rates of app development (differ from region-to-region)

Keeping all these features in mind, a rough estimate of app development cost can be determined. However, to give you an idea, the cost to create an e-card maker app with basic features and for a single platform should cost around $25000-$35000. And when the app is created with advanced functionalities and for more than one platform, then the cost also doubles and can go up to $50000-$70000.