You create a board on a Monday for someone leaving on Friday. You post the link. Messages come in. On Wednesday morning somebody messages you to say the board would not let them post, and you discover the free tier stopped at five.

Now you are choosing a plan under time pressure, with people already having written things you cannot see, and the choice is no longer about what fits your company. It is about what unblocks the board today.

This article exists so that does not happen. Here is what every free option actually allows, where the caps sit, and how to pick before you start rather than halfway through.

Verified against each vendor's own site on 14 September 2026.

What free usually means

Four patterns, roughly in order of how often they catch people out.

A contribution cap. The board accepts a fixed number of posts and then refuses more. This is the big one, because it fails silently for the organiser: you do not find out, the person who was blocked does, and they may not tell you.

No delivery. The board exists and can be built, but sending it to the recipient requires paying. You can do all the work and none of the point.

Advertising. The board carries ads. Fine for a birthday among friends, a harder sell for a company farewell.

Time limits. The board expires, or the link stops working after a period. Worth checking if the recipient is meant to keep it.

None of these are dishonest. They are how a free tier works. They are just rarely on the pricing page in the size that matters.

The free options, one by one

Kudoboard: 5 posts, and it cannot be delivered

The most important number in this article. A free Kudoboard takes five posts and cannot be delivered to the recipient through Kudoboard. It is a demo of the product rather than a usable free board.

This is easy to miss because their pricing page does not advertise a free tier at all. The limit is documented in their support articles rather than on the page where you would look for it.

For a team of any size, treat a free Kudoboard as a preview. Paid boards start at $6.99 for 20 posts, $9.99 for 100, and $19.99 for unlimited.

Sendwishonline: 30 signatures, with ads

The most generous free tier in the category by a distance. A free card takes 30 signatures, carries advertising, and delivers without anyone paying.

For a team of 30 or fewer this genuinely works. Removing the ads, adding your logo, and lifting the signature cap costs $2.99 per card. Video messages are $5.99.

The trade is the advertising. Whether that reads as acceptable on a farewell card for a colleague of six years is a judgement call, and it is the main reason people upgrade.

GroupGreeting: no free plan

Unlimited signers on every card, which removes the cap problem completely, but there is no free tier to reach it from. Cards are bought individually or in annual bundles.

Their own pricing page and support documentation currently quote different per-card prices, so get a number in writing before buying a bundle.

Matter and Bonusly: free plans, but no group card

Both are recognition platforms with real free tiers. Matter's free plan covers kudos and a template library. Bonusly is free for up to eight users.

Neither has a group card. Matter's Celebrations posts an automated individual message on a stored date. Bonusly's creates a single post that colleagues comment on, which is nearer but is still a comment thread rather than something delivered as one object at a chosen moment.

They are listed here because they come up in searches for free options, and it saves you the trial.

Flaree: company-wide boards, free forever

Our product, so weigh this accordingly.

Boards for the whole company are included in the Free Forever plan, with no cap on contributors or messages. Boards for one person or one department are part of Advance at $2 per user per month billed annually, and everything is open during the 90-day trial with no card. The full pricing and the Flareeboard feature page have the detail.

The constraint is real and worth stating plainly: contributors need a Flaree account, so this works for boards inside your company and does not work if clients, alumni or family should be posting. It is also not a per-board purchase, so it only makes sense if you want a recognition platform anyway.

The hidden cost is the cap you hit halfway

Nobody budgets for this and it is the actual cost of choosing wrong.

A board that stops at five posts on Wednesday morning has already spent your goodwill. The people who posted did so, the people who were blocked have moved on, and the ones who saw the request and meant to get to it are now being asked a second time. Boards do not recover well from a second ask.

There is also a version of this that costs more than money. A message someone wrote for a colleague of six years, refused by a tool because a counter hit a limit, is a small thing that lands badly. Boards for people leaving are emotionally loaded in a way birthday cards are not.

So the practical rule: count the people who might reasonably post, then pick a tool whose limit is comfortably above it. Not close to it. Above it. A board for a team of 18 should not be built on a tier that stops at 20, because the adjacent team will hear about it and want in, and they should.

No contributor cap, no card required. Try Flaree free.

Try for free Schedule Demo

When paying is the right call

Three cases where free is the wrong economy.

The board is for a departure. Someone leaving after years is the wrong moment to discover a limit. Ten dollars is not a real cost against that.

More than about twenty people might post. Above that, free tiers get unreliable and the organiser spends more time managing the tool than collecting messages.

You are doing this more than a few times a year. At four or more boards, per-board pricing stops being obviously cheaper than including the capability in something you already run. This is worth actually working out rather than assuming, in both directions. If budget is the binding constraint generally, free employee recognition ideas and low-cost appreciation ideas cover what works without spending.

And the honest inverse: if this is one board, once, for a team of twelve, a free tier from a tool that allows thirty signatures is the correct answer and you should not buy anything.

Conclusion

Kudoboard's free board is 5 posts and cannot be delivered.* Treat it as a preview.
Sendwishonline's free card takes 30 signatures*, with ads. Genuinely usable for a small team.
GroupGreeting has no free plan*, and their published prices disagree with each other.
Matter and Bonusly have free plans and no group card.* They will not solve this.
Count your contributors first.* Pick a limit comfortably above that number, not near it.
If you are making more than a few boards a year, work out whether it belongs in the recognition platform instead.

Flaree includes company-wide boards on the free plan with no contributor cap, and opens everything else for 90 days without a card. Start one free.

More on Group Cards and Team Boards

Choosing a tool, writing the messages, or organising one for a team that is not all in one office:

Flaree includes group boards for the whole company on the free plan, with no cap on contributors. Start free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Free group cards typically impose contribution caps, delivery paywalls, advertising, or time limits that are rarely displayed prominently on pricing pages. The most disruptive pattern is a post cap that silently blocks new contributors after a fixed number, leaving the organizer unaware until someone reports the failure. Other limits include requiring payment to deliver the finished board or embedding ads that can feel inappropriate for workplace farewells.

A free Kudoboard is limited to five posts and cannot be delivered to the recipient, functioning essentially as a product preview rather than a usable board. Because this restriction is documented in support articles rather than advertised on the pricing page, organizers often miss it until contributors are blocked. For any real team use, a paid plan starting at $6.99 is necessary.

Sendwishonline offers the most generous free tier reviewed, allowing up to 30 signatures and full delivery, though the board carries advertising. For a team of 30 or fewer, this is genuinely usable, but the ads may feel unprofessional on a colleague’s farewell card after several years. Removing ads and branding costs $2.99 per card.

Flaree’s Free Forever plan includes company-wide boards with no cap on contributors or messages, making it a solid option for internal use. The constraint is that every contributor needs a Flaree account, so it works well for employees but not for external clients, alumni, or family members. Boards for an individual or a specific department require the Advance plan at $2 per user per month billed annually.

Count the people who might reasonably post and choose a tool whose limit is comfortably above that number, not close to it. Free tiers are the wrong economy for departures, expected audiences above roughly twenty, or organizations creating more than a few boards per year. In those cases, paying for a per-board upgrade or bundling the capability into a recognition platform like Flaree saves more time and goodwill than it costs.