Cardkive vs. Plum Print: Which Makes the Best Card Book?

You just got home from the honeymoon. The suitcases are half unpacked, there's still cake in the freezer, and on the kitchen counter sits a tower of wedding cards you can't bring yourself to deal with. You've read every single one (some of them twice), and the thought of tossing them feels wrong. But keeping them in a shoebox forever? That doesn't feel right either.

This is exactly where card book services come in. Turning cards into books has become one of the most popular ways to preserve those heartfelt messages without the clutter. Two services leading the space are Cardkive and Plum Print. Both promise to transform your stack of cards into a beautiful, lasting keepsake book. But they do differ in price, process, availability, and the final product.

Here's a closer look at both, so you can decide which one deserves your precious cards.

Cardkive: The Award-Winning Greeting Card Solution

Cardkive is a concierge card book service, and a proven one at that. Cardkive recently earned The Knot's 2025 Registry Award, with its wedding card box named both "Most-Loved" and "Most-Added" registry gift. That kind of recognition speaks for itself.

The process is simple: a card box arrives at your door, you fill it with your wedding cards, birthday cards, holiday cards, or any paper keepsakes, and send it back with the pre-paid label. That's it. Once they receive your box, Cardkive's team gets to work, professionally photographing every card inside and out. Then they craft a hardcover memory book for your approval. Think of it as a coffee table book, but filled with love notes from the people who matter most.

Plum Print Card Books

Plum Print is better known for transforming kids' artwork into books and other products. More recently, they've expanded into the greeting card memory book space with a similar format.

Plum Print's process involves mailing in your cards, which their team then photographs and arranges into a book layout. Like Cardkive, they handle the production side, giving you a hands-off experience with a sentimental result.

Cardkive vs. Plum Print: The Side-by-Side

Ease of Use

Both services follow the same general flow: order a card box, fill it, ship it back, and approve a proof. Both options are hands-off. You don't need any design experience or to do much work yourself.

Where Cardkive pulls ahead is in its Book Builder tool. This easy-to-use proofing platform lets you rearrange pages, add captions, and tweak the layout before the book goes to print. You're not just approving a finished product. You're collaborating on it.

As one Cardkive customer, Tori, put it: "When the preview was ready, I was able to choose my own cover, title, and reorder the pages if I wanted to! There were even options to add text to the pages."

Plum Print's editing options are more limited by comparison. Customers can request a few small tweaks, but bigger changes will cost extra. For something as personal as a wedding keepsake book or memorial book, that level of control matters.

Advantage: Cardkive

Pricing

Let's talk numbers, because they tell quite a story.

Plum Print's card book starts with a $49.99 deposit to receive your card box. You'll receive this amount back as a credit on your final invoice. Card book pricing starts at $199 for up to 20 cards, and scales up from there. Keep in mind that 20 cards is a fairly small capacity. Most couples walk away from a wedding with far more cards than that.

Cardkive's pricing is more generous. The standard greeting card book is $119, all-in, including the shipping kit, processing, and print. A standard card box holds approximately 50 cards, depending on size and thickness. As long as your cards fit securely in the box, they'll all make it into your memory book. No counting, no 20-card limit.

For weddings specifically, the Cardkive wedding card book is $139 and includes the option to add up to 20 wedding photos to your book. A photo-inclusive wedding book, with room for roughly 50 cards, for $60 less than Plum Print's base card book. That's a meaningful difference.

Advantage: Cardkive

Need Twice the Size? Try Cardkive's "Double Box"!

If you have more cards than a single box can hold (and many families do, especially after decades of birthdays, holidays, and milestones), Cardkive offers a Double Cards Box option for those larger collections.

Double Cards Box | CARDKIVE

Shipping Availability

Plum Print's card book service is still limited. Not all U.S. customers will be able to access it. At present, their shipping kit is only available to residents of the contiguous US. If you live in Alaska, Hawaii, or are ordering from outside the country, you'll need to provide your own shipping.

Cardkive, by contrast, ships its card box to all 50 states, as well as Cardkive Canada and Cardkive U.K. They also accept other international orders if you're willing to provide your own box for shipping. For couples and families around the world, that makes Cardkive the more accessible option.

Advantage: Cardkive

So, Which Card Book Service Should You Choose?

When you weigh the features side by side, Cardkive is the clear standout. It offers more flexibility in what you can include, a professional photography process, a customizable proofing experience, better pricing, and broader availability. This isn't just a greeting card organizer. It's a keepsake book built to last.

As Brittany, a Cardkive customer, shared: "I've had boxes and drawers full of cards for years. The clutter bothered me, but the cards meant a lot to me. Cards by Artkive provided a way to organize my cards, reduce clutter, and provide a keepsake of priceless memories."

Plum Print is a reliable company with a solid track record in the kids' art space. But when it comes to turning cards into books (whether they're wedding cards, anniversary cards, birthday cards, or holiday cards), Cardkive is your best option for preserving what matters most.

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