The answers decide whether it lasts a year, can be reused, and knows which counter it was tapped at.
Plenty of suppliers sell a card, a plaque, or a tag for collecting Google reviews. From the outside they mostly look alike: plastic or wood, a QR code, an NFC sticker. The differences sit inside, and only show up after a few hundred cards are in the world, when the chip will not rewrite, every card shares one code, or the card stops working on a metal counter.
This page is a list of questions worth asking whoever you buy from, even someone unconnected to this product. The answers decide whether the card lasts a year, can be reused, and knows which counter it was scanned at.
One thing most guides skip: a card bought entirely correctly still cannot do certain things by itself. That is the last section, and the reason this page does not stop at four questions about a supplier.
A card carries two things doing the same job. A QR code opens with any phone's camera, on any device. NFC just needs a tap, but only works where it is turned on: always on for an iPhone, a toggle most Android users leave on.
Whoever has NFC off, or lacks it, uses the QR code and never notices a difference. That is why a card needs both. A card with only NFC turns away a share of guests, and none will tell you.
Google will generate both the link and the QR code for your listing, inside your own Business Profile, at no charge. There is one catch:
"Currently, review QR codes can only be generated using a browser on a computer, not on mobile devices."
Google Business Profile Help, read September 14, 2026
Anyone trying from a phone will not see a code and will assume it does not exist. From a computer it takes minutes, and the whole process is on the free QR code page. A physical card makes sense once you want a code on the counter itself, not a sheet behind the register, and want to know who is scanning it.
This is experience rather than a rule, but it holds almost everywhere: a card belongs where a guest stands and waits a moment, at a height they can look down at.
It does not work in a window display, on a door, behind staff, or in a flyer rack, all places people only walk past.
One physical fact almost nobody expects: metal. NFC does not work when the chip sits directly on metal, since the signal scrambles and a phone cannot read the card. A spacer under the card, or moving it a couple of inches away, fixes it. A QR code in the same spot keeps reading fine, since metal only affects NFC.
1. Real NTAG, or a clone? The standard is NTAG213 or NTAG215. Cheaper cards sometimes carry a Fudan F08 clone that does not get along with some phones. Ask for the chip type in writing, not a verbal answer.
2. Is the chip locked? A chip can be locked into read-only mode after writing, and a locked chip never rewrites again. Ask for an unlocked one; it saves the whole batch if the link or supplier changes.
3. Different code on every card? A printed code cannot be rewritten. If every card shares one code, a server cannot tell which card or counter a scan came from. Variable printing is worth paying extra for.
4. Where does the QR code point? Straight at the review form and the card is unchangeable, even through a move or rename. At the supplier's own address, the destination can be redirected later, only if the supplier allows it after payment.
One more fact on question two: NTAG213 and NTAG215 chips both rewrite free, using the NFC Tools app. Tap the phone, write the address, ten seconds a card. You need a supplier who ships a real, unlocked chip and prints the code, nothing more. Ink cannot be rewritten, which is why the third question matters most.
Do not inspect the whole batch, or zero cards. Five is enough to catch almost everything that can go wrong.
Ten minutes, and it saves an argument nobody wants six months from now.
The four questions above make sure the card works and can be reused. They do not fix three things that have nothing to do with the supplier, and depend on what is on the other end of the link, worth saying plainly.
A card cannot tell you where it was tapped by itself. Even with a different code on every piece, you need something that reads and records those codes, or all you know is that the card exists, not that anyone noticed.
A card cannot offer an unhappy guest anywhere besides a public review. Someone who does not want to leave one star everyone can read has nowhere else, so writes nothing. A card also cannot count itself: a tap records nowhere on its own.
This is true of any card, including one from us. It is a property of the object, not a supplier's mistake, worth knowing before expecting plastic to do what only a system behind it can.
We do exactly what is described above and add the parts a card cannot do by itself. Cards ship with a real, unlocked NTAG chip and variable printing, we write the chips ourselves, and the QR code points at our own address rather than Google, so the destination can change later. Every card carries its own code, so we know which counter it was scanned at.
A tap is counted, and the screen behind the code offers two things side by side, equally: a public Google review and a private message to the owner. Nothing is known about a guest until they choose one.
Buying cards elsewhere does not change the questions above. We have nothing to gain from what you buy somewhere else, and the answers save you money regardless of where the card comes from.
A card is not sold on its own here, it comes with a licence: $599 a year, on the pricing page. If a printed code is still all you need, read how to build one free. How a card fits into the rest of collecting reviews is on the review card page, and whether wording next to a code breaks Google's rules is on the review policy page.
Every citation on this page comes from one of these pages. The link goes to the original source, not to our summary of it.
$599a year, plus $79 for each extra card. See the full price.