{
 "schema_version": "1.0",
 "id": "blinq",
 "name": "Blinq",
 "research_status": "researched",
 "vendor_domain": "blinq.me",
 "category": "IT & Productivity",
 "task": "Sales outreach, leads & CRM",
 "summary": "Digital business cards shared by QR code or link, with contacts syncing into your CRM.",
 "best_for": "teams and field-sales orgs that want consistent, branded digital cards with contacts syncing straight into the CRM — and events teams via the capture add-on",
 "skip_if": "you're an individual (the free tier honestly covers you), or your networking volume doesn't justify per-user pricing",
 "honest_knock": "The core product is honestly cheap — the cost that grows hides in event lead capture, now billed per lead at $9.99 a credit on top of the Business seats (read 7 October 2026), which is where teams that live on trade shows actually get value. And a truth about all digital cards: the wow factor works precisely because adoption is still low; the durable value is the CRM sync (contacts flowing automatically into your pipeline), so judge Business tier by that integration, not by the tap-to-share trick.",
 "pricing": {
  "status": "public",
  "entry_price": "$9.99",
  "entry_price_terms": "Premium, for individuals · billed monthly",
  "from_price_usd_month": 9.99,
  "plans": null,
  "plans_source": null,
  "notes": "(re-verified 2026-08-17 and 2026-10-07) Free forever for individuals (2 cards, unlimited QR sharing). For individuals, Premium is $9.99 a month billed monthly or $7.33 billed annually. For teams, Business is $6.99 per user a month billed monthly or $4.99 per user billed annually, with a minimum charge of five cards, adding CRM sync, templates, the admin platform and team analytics; custom reporting sits on Enterprise. Enterprise is custom. Event lead capture is no longer a separate add-on: it is part of Business and billed per lead, 1 credit at $9.99 for each lead captured and enriched (0.75 credit when Blinq adds no email or phone, none for a duplicate), invoiced monthly in arrears on top of the seats; bulk and unlimited lead packages are quote-only. In August 2026 we recorded the add-on as starting around $199 a month (historical). Note the individual plan costs more per person than the team plan — if there are five of you, the team tier is both cheaper per head and more capable.",
  "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
  "source_url": null
 },
 "free_plan": true,
 "free_plan_evidence": "(re-verified 2026-08-17 and 2026-10-07) Free forever for individuals (2 cards, unlimited QR sharing).",
 "cost_traps": [
  {
   "id": "per_seat",
   "label": "Per-seat pricing",
   "evidence": "For teams, Business is $6.99 per user a month billed monthly or $4.99 per user billed annually, with a minimum charge of five cards, adding CRM sync, templates, the admin platform and team analytics; custom reporting sits on Enterprise.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "id": "usage_metered",
   "label": "Usage-metered",
   "evidence": "Event lead capture is no longer a separate add-on: it is part of Business and billed per lead, 1 credit at $9.99 for each lead captured and enriched (0.75 credit when Blinq adds no email or phone, none for a duplicate), invoiced monthly in arrears on top of the seats; bulk and unlimited lead packages are quote-only.",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
   "source_url": null
  },
  {
   "id": "addons_extra",
   "label": "Key features are paid add-ons",
   "evidence": "In August 2026 we recorded the add-on as starting around $199 a month (historical).",
   "verified_at": "2026-10-07",
   "source_url": null
  }
 ],
 "compare_with": {
  "name": "HiHello or Mobilo",
  "why": "the digital-card peer set — compare CRM integrations and whether you need hardware (NFC cards) versus pure app"
 },
 "links": {
  "record": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/api/v1/products/blinq.json",
  "review": "https://officesoftwaremarketplace.com/blinq-review.html",
  "marketplace": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/marketplace/blinq/",
  "vendor_site": "https://blinq.me"
 },
 "purchase": {
  "seller": "the vendor",
  "how": "AIBuilder Marketplace does not sell this software. Sign up, start a trial or buy on the vendor's site.",
  "handoff_url": "https://partners.blinq.me/ohdq0uiuc8xg",
  "affiliate": true,
  "disclosure": "Where purchase.affiliate is true, purchase.handoff_url is an affiliate link: AIBuilder Marketplace may earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer. Commission never changes what a record says, and products are not ranked by commission. Where it is false the link is the vendor's plain site."
 },
 "provenance": {
  "research": "hand-researched dossier, read on the vendor's own pages",
  "researched_since": "2026-07",
  "method": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/how-we-review/",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0. Credit 'AIBuilder Marketplace' with a link to https://aibuildermarketplace.com/atlas/.",
  "note": "A rebuild is not a new measurement: pricing.verified_at is the date that matters."
 },
 "cost": {
  "status": "not_yet",
  "engine": "https://aibuildermarketplace.com/agents/#cost",
  "rules": null,
  "growth": null
 },
 "unknowns": [
  "Plan-by-plan prices are not structured in this record yet; pricing.notes has the full text.",
  "Contract terms (cancellation, data export, data location, minimum seats) are not researched as separate fields; pricing.notes mentions them only where the vendor's pricing page does.",
  "No computable price rules yet: cost at a given team size cannot be calculated for this product.",
  "Not tested hands-on by us: what the product does comes from the vendor's pages and our reading of them."
 ],
 "task_evidence": null,
 "open_questions": [
  {
   "question_id": "blinq:cancellation_terms",
   "key": "cancellation_terms",
   "question": "Can a customer cancel at any time, and what happens to an annual plan that is cancelled mid-term?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "blinq:data_export",
   "key": "data_export",
   "question": "Which data can a customer export, in which formats, on which plans?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "blinq:data_location",
   "key": "data_location",
   "question": "Where is customer data stored, and can a customer choose the region?",
   "status": "open"
  },
  {
   "question_id": "blinq:minimum_seats",
   "key": "minimum_seats",
   "question": "Is there a minimum number of seats or users on any plan?",
   "status": "open"
  }
 ],
 "vendor_answers": [],
 "agent_channels": {
  "vendor_mcp": null,
  "agent_checkout": {
   "status": "not_found",
   "detail": "No explicit support for purchases by AI agents on the vendor's own pages.",
   "checked_at": "2026-10-07",
   "method": "homepage, /pricing and the pricing page we cite, read as plain HTML (no JavaScript) and searched for explicit support of purchases by AI agents: Agentic Commerce Protocol, Instant Checkout, Agent Payments Protocol, buy in ChatGPT, agentic checkout"
  }
 }
}