Jacquie Lawson alternatives: animated ecards you can make your own

Jacquie Lawson cards have a following for good reason. The animations are gentle and detailed, full of English landscapes and playful animals, and opening one feels like a small treat. So if you're looking for alternatives, it's probably not because the cards are bad. It's because you want something different: a lower price, your own photos, or a card that is about the person instead of about a garden.

Here are the honest options. Prices are as listed on their site in September 2026.

What does a Jacquie Lawson membership cost?

A Jacquie Lawson membership is $8 for one month, $36 for a year or $50 for two years, and there's a one-year bundle with Blue Mountain for $54 (as listed on their site in September 2026). Members can send as many cards as they like to as many people as they like, with an address book and birthday reminders included. You can write your own message in each card.

For someone who sends a card to every cousin, neighbor and old colleague, that is excellent value. Their own site makes the point: a year costs about the same as three or four paper cards.

Jacquie Lawson alternatives compared

Competitor prices are the vendors' own, as listed on their site in September 2026. Nine's price is filled in for today and excludes VAT.

Is Blue Mountain cheaper than Jacquie Lawson?

Very slightly, on a yearly plan. Blue Mountain is $35.99 a year against Jacquie Lawson's $36, and Blue Mountain offers a free trial (as listed on their site in September 2026). The real difference is style. Blue Mountain leans bolder and funnier, with celebrity SmashUps and cards you can personalize with names and photos. Jacquie Lawson leans quiet and pretty. If you love both, the bundle covers the pair.

We go deeper in our Blue Mountain ecards alternatives guide.

Which ecard site lets you add your own photos?

American Greetings' Creatacard lets you add up to six photos or a video, write your own message, sign your name and add music. Blue Mountain members can personalize some cards with photos too. Smilebox is built around your photos, turning them into cards, slideshows and collages you can email or post (as listed on their site in September 2026).

What about scheduling cards ahead?

If you forget birthdays (no judgment, we have all been that person), scheduling matters. Blue Mountain members can schedule cards in advance and set reminders, and American Greetings lets members schedule cards up to a year ahead (as listed on their site in September 2026). Jacquie Lawson includes birthday reminders. Nine does not send anything for you: you get a file and send it when you choose.

What if you want a card about the person, not a pretty scene?

This is the gap most ecard sites share. You choose from a library, so the card is beautiful but general. The message inside is yours, but the story on screen belongs to everyone who picked the same card.

If you'd like a greeting that could only be for one person, write it around a detail. Here are starting points.

• The running joke "Happy birthday to the only person who still owns a fax machine, and uses it."
• The small ritual Sunday phone calls, the same cookie tin, the way they always sing the wrong words.
• The year in one line "This was the year you learned to swim at 71. Next year: the high dive."
• The thank-you One thing they did that you never properly thanked them for.
• The place Their vegetable patch, their kitchen, their bench by the harbor.

How to choose, in three questions

1. Step 1

   How many cards a year? Dozens: take a membership. Jacquie Lawson, Blue Mountain and American Greetings are all built for that.

2. Step 2

   How personal does it need to be? A kind message in a lovely card is plenty for most occasions. A milestone might deserve more.

3. Step 3

   Who is it for? Grandparents often love a gentle illustrated card. A friend with a sense of humor might prefer a film about the time they got locked in the garden shed.

More ideas for words: what to say in a birthday video and Christmas video greeting ideas. Weighing paper against screen? See video card vs paper card.

A film instead of a card: Nine

Nine isn't an ecard library. It makes one short drawn film, with a voice, music and sound effects, from your words. Start from a simple template (a name and one line, or a card that holds still), type one sentence like "my mum's 70th, she swims in the sea every morning, even in January", or record your own voice and let the film run as long as you talk.

The crew makes it while you watch and checks it before you see it. Then you can say "warmer" or "bigger name" and get a new version. You get a video file in wide, tall and square, and you send it yourself, by email, text or WhatsApp. No photograph needed.

Be fair to the ecard sites: if you send many cards a year, a membership costs far less. Nine's Film plan is $29 a month, for films up to 20 seconds, excluding VAT. It's for the card that needs to be about them. See pricing or try it.