Wave Connect vs V1CE: Honest Comparison (2026)

George El-Hage 🔗 LinkedIn

Founder, Wave Connect | Tested 15+ platforms over 6 years

I've tested V1CE's full product line - cards, platform, and team features - alongside every major competitor in the space. This comparison is based on hands-on use, verified pricing, and Trustpilot review analysis as of February 2026.

If you're looking for a V1CE review, you've probably seen their gold NFC cards all over social media and wondered whether the hype matches reality. V1CE (pronounced "Vice") started as an NFC card company in the UK. Wave Connect started as a digital business card platform. That difference shapes everything about how these two products work.

I'm George, founder of Wave Connect. I'll be upfront about the bias. But I've also purchased V1CE cards, tested their platform, dug through over 1,000 Trustpilot reviews, and compared pricing and features page by page. This is an honest look at where V1CE genuinely wins, where Wave is the better fit, and some billing practices you should know about before signing up.

At a Glance: Wave Connect vs V1CE (2026)

V1CE sells you premium hardware and bundles platform access with it. Wave gives you the platform free and sells hardware optionally. That fundamental difference shows up in every feature, every pricing tier, and every decision about what's free vs. paywalled.

Prices and features verified on v1ce.co and v1ce.co/pricing as of February 2026. I personally tested both platforms' features in the same month.

How I Tested This

Where V1CE Wins (Honest Assessment)

V1CE makes the widest range of NFC business card hardware in the industry, and it's not close. I'll be straight with you: if premium physical cards are your top priority, V1CE has earned their position. Here's where they genuinely shine:

NFC Hardware Variety (Best in the Market)

V1CE offers 24K gold-plated cards ($450), metal cards in 11 color variants ($145), bamboo cards in 5 wood finishes ($110), and standard PVC cards ($79). Nobody else gives you this many material choices. If you want a gold business card or a cherry wood NFC card, V1CE is literally the only option. For a broader look at NFC card options across the industry, check out our best NFC business cards guide.

Free Card Design Service

Every V1CE card purchase includes a free design service. Their team creates your card layout for you at no extra charge, with a claimed 72-hour turnaround from design to shipping. If you're not a designer and don't want to mess around with templates, that's genuinely valuable.

Lifetime Card Guarantee

V1CE offers free replacement forever if your card breaks, fades, or gets lost. I haven't seen any other NFC card company match this. Most competitors give you a standard 30-day return window and that's it.

Flat-Rate Unlimited Teams Plan

Here's one that caught my attention. V1CE's Plus Unlimited plan is a flat rate of roughly $149/month for unlimited users. No per-seat charges. For a company with 50+ people, that math gets interesting fast. At $149/month you're paying the same whether you have 50 users or 500. Most competitors (including Wave) use per-seat pricing, so V1CE's model is genuinely attractive for larger teams that want predictable costs.

Sustainability Angle

V1CE has planted over 103,000 trees via Ecologi and offers bamboo card options for environmentally conscious buyers. It's a nice touch, and it's more than most competitors are doing on the sustainability front.

Where Wave Wins

Wave's advantages are everything that happens after you share your card: analytics you keep forever, contacts you can export for free, CRM sync that works out of the box, and enterprise security that V1CE can't match. Here's the breakdown:

Free Analytics (V1CE Deletes Yours After 30 Days)

This is V1CE's strangest limitation. On their free plan, your analytics data is only stored for 30 days. After that, it's gone. Deleted. You can't see who tapped your card two months ago because V1CE wiped the data. I've tested a lot of platforms, and I've never seen another company delete your analytics on a timer like this. Wave keeps your analytics forever, on every plan, including free.

Free Contact Enrichment + Scanning + Export

Wave includes contact enrichment (automatically finding email, phone, and company data for your connections), badge and card scanning, and full contact export on the free plan. V1CE paywalls all three. If you're networking at events and want to actually do something with the contacts you make, you shouldn't have to pay extra for basic tools. For more on how this fits into a broader lead capture workflow, see our best tools for lead capture at trade shows.

No Credit Card Trial (vs. V1CE's Annual Billing Trap)

Wave's free trial requires no credit card. Period. V1CE requires a credit card for their 7-day trial, and it auto-converts to annual billing if you don't cancel in time. I'll get into the Trustpilot data on this in the next section, but this alone is a trust issue. You should be able to try a product without worrying about a surprise annual charge.

SOC 2 Type II Certification

For any enterprise buyer, regulated industry, or IT team doing a security review, SOC 2 Type II is table stakes. Wave has it. V1CE does not. No mention of SOC 2 anywhere on their site. If your procurement team requires SOC 2 compliance, V1CE is automatically disqualified. For a deeper look at what enterprise security means for digital business cards, read our enterprise security guide.

SCIM/SAML Provisioning

If you're deploying digital business cards to 100+ employees, you need automated user provisioning through your identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, etc.). Wave supports SCIM and SAML. V1CE doesn't mention either. For IT administrators, this means manual user management at scale, and that's a non-starter.

No App Dependency

V1CE's Android app was removed from Google Play in January 2025. Before removal, it had a 2.88/5 rating. Their iOS app is still listed but sits at version 1.1 with poor reviews. Wave is fully browser-based with no app to download, install, or update. Your card just works in any browser on any device.

Zero Recipient Solicitation

When someone receives your Wave Connect digital business card, they see your info. That's it. No "Powered by Wave" badge, no "Download our app" popup, no ads. V1CE doesn't explicitly confirm that their free tier is branding-free, and given that branding removal is a paid feature on their Plus plan, the default likely includes V1CE branding on your profile.

The Billing Transparency Issue

V1CE has a 4.2/5 rating on Trustpilot with over 1,000 reviews, and many customers love the product. But there's a recurring pattern in the negative reviews that you should know about before signing up.

Here's what multiple reviewers report:

• Trial-to-annual surprise: The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. If you don't cancel before it ends, you're charged for a full annual subscription, not a monthly one. Multiple reviewers say the conversion terms weren't clear.
• Refund difficulties: Several reviewers report requesting refunds after accidental conversion and being told annual subscriptions are non-refundable.
• Price changes without notice: Some existing customers report monthly pricing switching to annual-only without advance warning.
• Unauthorized charges: A pattern of reviewers reporting unexpected charges and difficulty cancelling through normal channels.

I want to be fair here. V1CE has plenty of happy customers, and their 4.2 stars reflect that. But these billing complaints aren't isolated incidents - they're a consistent theme across dozens of reviews. You can read V1CE's Trustpilot reviews yourself and filter by rating to see the pattern.

Wave's approach: transparent pricing on our website, free trial with no credit card, and no auto-conversions. If you decide to upgrade, you choose to upgrade. Nobody gets surprised.

Pricing Breakdown (February 2026)

V1CE's total cost includes hardware (one-time) plus a subscription (recurring), while Wave separates software from hardware entirely. The sticker prices look different, but what matters is what you're paying over a year for the features you actually need.

V1CE Pricing

Wave Connect Pricing

The real cost comparison: A V1CE metal card ($145) plus a year of their Plus plan (~$60/year) puts you at $205 in year one. Wave Pro costs $84/year and includes features V1CE paywalls (analytics, export, enrichment). And if you don't need branding removal, Wave gives you analytics, export, scanning, and enrichment for $0. For a broader look at what different platforms charge, check out our best digital business card roundup.

Who Should Choose What

V1CE and Wave are built for different priorities. Here's my honest take:

Choose V1CE If You:

• Want premium NFC hardware: Gold, bamboo, metal - V1CE has the widest selection of physical card materials. Period. Nobody else comes close.
• Value free card design: Their in-house design team creates your card at no extra cost. If you're not a designer, that's a real time-saver.
• Need flat-rate unlimited pricing: If you have 50+ team members and want predictable costs without per-seat math, V1CE's ~$149/month unlimited plan is worth considering.
• Want a lifetime hardware guarantee: Free replacement forever. That's unique in the industry.

Choose Wave Connect If You:

• Want free analytics and export: Don't pay for features that should be included. V1CE deletes your data after 30 days on free. Wave keeps it forever.
• Need enterprise security: SOC 2 Type II, SCIM, SAML. If your IT team is involved in the decision, Wave is the only choice here.
• Don't want billing surprises: Free trial with no credit card. No auto-conversions. No annual billing traps.
• Manage a team: Bulk Excel import, admin dashboard, team management features that deploy hundreds of cards in minutes.
• Want to start free, no hardware required: Create your card in minutes and share it digitally. Add NFC hardware later if you want it.
• Need CRM sync with Zoho: Both platforms integrate with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, but Wave also supports Zoho.

Bottom line: V1CE is a hardware company that built a platform. Wave is a platform that also sells hardware. If your priority is a beautiful physical card in premium materials, V1CE delivers. If your priority is what happens after someone taps your card - tracking, exporting, syncing, and managing contacts across a team - Wave is built for that. For more on how Wave compares with other platforms, see our Wave vs Blinq comparison.

Looking at other comparisons? Former Linq users can find a full breakdown in our best Linq alternative roundup.