Most web designers spend a lot of time thinking about how to get new clients. Far fewer think seriously about how to keep the ones they already have.

That gap is expensive. A client who comes back for a redesign, an ongoing retainer, or a referral is worth multiples of what it costs to acquire them. And in a field where the work is largely invisible to the end client — they see the finished website, not the decisions and hours behind it — the relationship around the work matters as much as the work itself.

Handwritten notes are one of the simplest ways to build that relationship. They land on a desk, not in a spam folder. They take two minutes to read and stay in the mind for weeks. For web designers, who already compete on craft and communication, a well-timed card can be the difference between a one-off project and a long-term client.

Two names come up most often in this space: Handwrytten and Simply Noted. Here’s an honest look at both.

What both services do

Both use robots fitted with real ballpoint pens to produce notes that look genuinely handwritten. You write your message, pick a card, provide an address, and the service handles production and mailing. Neither prints text — the writing is physical, which is the whole point.

That shared foundation aside, the two services have diverged considerably — and not in a direction that favours Simply Noted.

Handwrytten

Handwrytten is the more established service by a wide margin, with over 800 verified G2 reviews at a 4.7/5 rating. For a web designer evaluating tools, that volume of real-world feedback matters more than any feature list.

Card quality and handwriting

Handwrytten uses thick paper and thick envelopes. The difference in hand is noticeable — both to the person writing and, more importantly, to the person receiving. A card that feels considered signals that the sender thought beyond the minimum. That matters when you’re trying to distinguish yourself from every other designer your client has worked with.

The handwriting style catalogue is wide. For designers who work with varied clients — a corporate consultancy one month, an independent florist the next — being able to match the tone of a note to the nature of the relationship is a practical advantage.

One detail worth knowing: Handwrytten cards carry no visible tracking barcode. Simply Noted embeds a 2D barcode on their cards for internal order tracking, which is a visible mark on a card that’s supposed to feel personal. It’s a small thing, but in a product where authenticity is everything, it’s the wrong tradeoff.

Integrations and automation

This is where the comparison stops being close. Handwrytten has native integrations with Salesforce (listed on the Salesforce AppExchange), HubSpot (listed in the HubSpot marketplace), Shopify, Make.com, n8n, Blackbaud, Zapier, Integrately, and Claude by Anthropic. It also has Python and JavaScript SDKs for developers who want to build note-sending into their own tools.

For a web designer using a CRM to manage client relationships, that means a card can go out automatically when a project is marked complete — without adding anything to a post-launch checklist that’s already long.

Beyond individual card sending, Handwrytten supports birthday and anniversary automations, multi-step outreach campaigns, and map-based prospecting for cold outreach. These are not features most web designers will use on day one, but they matter when you’re thinking about the tool as a long-term part of how you run your business.

Support

The customer service team is US-based and sits in the same facility where the notes are written. When something goes wrong with an order — wrong address, card damage in transit — you’re talking to someone who can physically see the operation. That’s a meaningful difference from a ticket queue served by overseas agents.

Pricing

Cards start at around $3 to $4 depending on type and size, with subscription plans that reduce the per-card cost for anyone sending at volume. For a designer sending five to ten cards a month after project completions, the cost is trivial against the relationship value. For a studio managing dozens of clients, the business plan pricing makes systematic appreciation genuinely affordable.

Simply Noted

Simply Noted was, until recently, a reasonable alternative — particularly for designers who wanted something simpler and were price-sensitive. That picture has changed.

Platform problems

Simply Noted recently overhauled its web app and API, and the transition has not gone smoothly. The new web app is widely reported as bare-bones and difficult to use. The API switch broke existing client integrations, leaving businesses that had built workflows around the old system without a working solution and, in many cases, without clear support to fix it.

Their current web app only accepts US addresses — meaning if you have any clients in Canada or elsewhere, Simply Noted cannot serve them without manual team involvement.

Integrations: the reality

Simply Noted claims Salesforce and HubSpot integrations. In practice, neither exists as a native app in the respective stores. What they have is Zapier — which requires its own subscription and adds a layer of configuration between you and the tool. For a web designer who values clean, reliable automation, that distinction matters.

There is no Make.com integration, no n8n integration, no SDKs, and no Claude or AI integrations. The automation capability is a fraction of what Handwrytten offers.

Card quality

The paper stock and envelopes are thinner than Handwrytten’s. The visible barcode on every card is a further quality concern. For designers whose clients judge presentation, that’s a problem.

Support

Customer service runs through overseas agents removed from the production facility. Response times and resolution quality have been a consistent complaint among users who have moved to other services.

Side by side

	Handwrytten	Simply Noted
Verified reviews	800+ at 4.7/5	~100 at 4.5/5
Paper quality	Thick paper, thick envelope	Thin paper, thin envelope
Visible barcode on cards	No	Yes
Salesforce integration	Native (AppExchange)	Zapier only
HubSpot integration	Native (marketplace app)	No
Make.com / n8n	Native	No
Claude / AI integration	Yes	No
SDKs	Python + JavaScript	No
Birthday / campaign automations	Yes	No
International delivery	Yes, incl. Canadian postage	US only (web app)
SOC2 compliance	Yes	No
Support	US-based, in-facility	Overseas
Upload your own handwriting	Yes	No longer offered

Who should use which

There is no longer a strong case for Simply Noted. The one argument that existed — price — has been closed by Handwrytten’s business plans. The platform instability, the broken integrations, and the support issues remove most of the reasons to take the tradeoff.

For a web designer sending occasional thank-you notes and wanting a clean, reliable tool, Handwrytten is the straightforward choice. For a designer or studio that wants note-sending wired into their CRM workflow — cards going out on project completion, client anniversaries, referral acknowledgements — Handwrytten is the only option that actually supports that.

The more pointed question is not which service to choose, but whether handwritten notes belong in your client retention system at all. For web designers whose best work comes from long-term relationships, the answer is yes. A $4 card sent the week after a website launches, with a line referencing something specific about the project, costs almost nothing and lands in a way that no email can replicate.

Get that habit in place first. Handwrytten makes it easy to keep it going.