Smilebox alternatives: photo cards, group videos, or a drawn film

Smilebox is built around your photos. You pick a design, drop in pictures from your phone, computer or social accounts, add a few words, and you have a card, a slideshow, an invitation or a collage. It offers 1,000+ designs, and you can email the result, post it, or save it to your computer (as listed on their site in September 2026).

If that's what you want, it does the job. People look for Smilebox alternatives when they want a different kind of greeting: one with more animation, one with friends joining in, or one that doesn't depend on having good photos. Prices below are as listed on their site in September 2026.

What is Smilebox best at?

Turning a pile of photos into something giftable, quickly. Slideshows for a party, a photo collage for a grandparent, an invitation with the birthday girl on it. Smilebox has Premium and Pro subscriptions, and Pro adds business touches like your logo and brand details on templates (per their help center). Check their site for current prices.

If your best material is photos, use a photo tool. If your best material is a story, use a story tool.

Smilebox 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.

What is a good Smilebox alternative for photo ecards?

American Greetings. Its Creatacard lets you add up to six photos or a video, write your own message, sign your name and add music, and members can schedule cards up to a year ahead. Membership is listed as low as $1.99 a month, with a 7-day trial (as listed on their site in September 2026). Blue Mountain works similarly, and members can personalize SmashUps with names and photos.

What if you want everyone to join in?

Then you want a group video. VidDay collects video messages and photos from friends, family or coworkers and combines them into one video. Making the project is free, and you pay when you finish: $5 for a video up to 3 minutes, rising with length (as listed on their site in September 2026). It's a lovely gift for a retirement or a big birthday, as long as people actually send their clips. We compare this route in group video vs animated video gift.

What if you don't have good photos?

It happens more than people admit. The only photo of your dad from this year is him squinting at a parking meter. Or the person is new in your life, or private about pictures. That's where a drawn card or film shines: it needs a story, not a camera roll.

• Write the hobby "He's spent eleven Saturdays building a birdhouse no bird has visited."
• Write the habit "She waters every plant in the office, including the plastic one."
• Write the wish "This year: fewer meetings, more naps, one perfect croissant."
• Write the memory "The summer we got lost on purpose and found the best ice cream in the county."

When is a photo slideshow still the best choice?

More often than drawn-film fans like to admit. A retirement party with thirty years of team photos, a memorial where faces matter, a grandparent's 90th with a shoebox of prints: those are photo stories, and a slideshow honors them. Keep it tight. Pick the twenty best, put them in order of time, and let one song carry it. If you want a drawn opening or closing card around the slideshow, that can live alongside it.

How to choose the right one

1. Step 1

   Look at what you have. Great photos: Smilebox or a photo ecard. Friends ready to film: a group video. A story and no photos: a drawn film.

2. Step 2

   Check the deadline. A group video needs days for people to reply. A card or a film can be made today.

3. Step 3

   Think about the screen. Most people open greetings on a phone. Check it looks good there.

4. Step 4

   Pick one special touch. A song they love, a line only they'd understand, their name in the right place.

More help: how to make a birthday video, a last minute birthday gift video and how to send a video card by text.

A drawn film instead: Nine

Nine makes a short drawn film from words, not photos. Start from a simple template with a name and one line, type one sentence about the person, or record your voice and let the film run as long as you talk. The crew makes it while you watch, with a voice, music and sound effects, and checks it before you see it. No photograph needed, though you can upload a picture or a voice recording on any paid plan.

Change it in plain words ("more balloons", "slower ending") or open the chamber, a simple editor that works on a phone. You get a video file in wide, tall and square and send it yourself. Nine never posts or sends anything.

Where Smilebox wins: turning many photos into a slideshow. Nine's Film plan is $29 a month for films up to 20 seconds, excluding VAT. See pricing or try it.