Metal, wood or PVC business cards: which should you choose?

Here is the short version. Choose PVC if you want your exact brand artwork printed in full colour, or you are ordering for a large team. Choose wood if you want something warm and natural, with a grain that makes every card slightly different. Choose metal if you want the card itself to make an impression: it is brushed, laser-engraved and more than three times the weight of PVC.

Whichever you choose, the card works the same way. Tap it on a modern iPhone or Android phone and your profile opens in the browser, with a QR code on the back for older phones. The rest of this guide goes through the differences that do matter, using the real finishes and specifications.

The three materials at a glance

Full-colour print or laser engraving

This is the most important difference, and the one people often overlook. It decides what your design can and cannot include.

If your logo depends on colour, or your brand guidelines call for a specific background, PVC is the only one of the three that reproduces it faithfully. If your logo works in a single tone, engraving on wood or metal gives a quieter, more crafted look. On wood the engraving darkens the grain; on metal it cuts through the brushed finish to show a contrasting tone underneath.

PVC: the flexible choice

PVC is the material most people picture when they think of a card. It is light, durable and printed digitally in full colour, so the design can be anything from a minimal Graphite or White house style to your own artwork, full bleed. At 0.76 mm it is the thickness of a typical bank card, which means it slips into any wallet and card holder.

PVC suits companies whose brand is built on colour, people who want to change the look of their card to match a campaign, and large teams where consistency and flexibility matter more than weight in the hand. It is also the easiest material to order in volume for a whole company. More on the PVC cards page.

Wood: warm and a little different every time

Wood cards come in four species, each with its own character. Bamboo is light with a straight grain. Walnut is deep brown with a rich figure. Cherry is a warm red-brown. Maple is pale and fine-grained. Your name and logo are laser-engraved into the surface, and because every piece of wood has its own grain, no two cards look quite the same.

Wood is the card people turn over in their hands. Metal is the card they weigh in their palm.

At 0.9 mm wood is the thickest of the three and just a little heavier than PVC. It suits designers, architects, hospitality and food businesses, and any brand that wants to feel natural and considered. As with any natural material, keep it dry and away from long spells in direct sun. See the finishes on the wood cards page.

Metal: the one people remember holding

Metal cards have a brushed finish in Black, Silver, Gold or Rose gold, and are laser-engraved for crisp, permanent detail. At around 18 g they weigh more than three times as much as a PVC card, and that weight is the first thing people notice. They feel cool and solid, and they make a quiet sound when set down on a table.

Metal suits founders, partners, senior leaders and anyone in a role where first impressions carry weight: private banking, property, law, consulting and luxury retail. Black and Silver are understated; Gold and Rose gold are more noticeable. The metal cards page shows each finish up close.

How to choose for yourself

If you are still undecided, these questions usually settle it.

• Does your design need colour? Choose PVC.
• Do you want the card to start a conversation on its own? Choose metal.
• Does your brand lean natural, crafted or sustainable? Choose wood.
• Will you hand out a lot of cards at events? Remember you only need one: the card stays with you and the profile goes to them.
• Will your details change? It does not matter. Every material opens a live profile you can edit at any time.

Choosing materials for a team

Companies rarely choose a single material for everyone. A common pattern is metal for leadership and client-facing roles, PVC with full brand artwork for the wider company, and sometimes wood for a particular office or brand. Because every card opens a profile built on the same company template, the experience after the tap is identical whatever the material.

On the Teams plan, cards for the whole company are ordered into a shared pool and assigned to people from the dashboard. When someone leaves, their card can be reassigned rather than thrown away, which makes the more durable materials even better value over time. Our playbook on rolling out digital business cards across a company covers the full process.