Which chip suits a digital business card?
A basic Type 2 chip covers it, because a card should hold a link rather than your details. The specification changes only if you write a vCard directly, which needs noticeably more memory and freezes your details into every card you hand out.
A card should hold a link
A short address on a domain you control fits on any Type 2 chip with room to spare, and it lets you change what people see without collecting cards you have already given away.
That decision, taken at the content level, resolves the chip question almost entirely. If the tag holds a link, memory stops being a constraint and the cheapest compliant chip is adequate.
The card can still add the contact in one tap, by offering a contact file from the page. You lose nothing the recipient cares about.
If you insist on a vCard
Writing contact details directly is the right choice in one situation: cards handed over where there is no network, which is a real place rather than a hypothetical one.
Then memory matters. A vCard with a name, two numbers, an email and a company is substantially larger than a link, and it will not fit on the smallest chips.
Size against the free space with the actual content, not the advertised capacity, and keep the fields minimal. Every field is more to become wrong when something changes.
Features worth considering
Mirroring, if you are producing cards for a team and want each card distinguishable without encoding them individually. The chip appends its own identifier, so one identical write serves the whole batch and your server still knows whose card was tapped.
That is the one feature that genuinely earns its place on a business card, and it is worth asking about before ordering for more than a handful of people.
Password protection is not needed. A card lives in your pocket rather than on a wall, so the substitution threat that justifies a password does not apply.
What not to overspecify
Memory beyond what a link needs, which is money spent on capacity that will sit empty.
Write endurance, since you will rewrite a card a handful of times in its life.
Authentication, which is a serious feature for proving a product is genuine and has no role on a business card.
And read distance claims, which follow the antenna. A card sized antenna is already close to the best a phone can use, so the form factor has done the work before the chip is chosen.
Frequently asked questions
Should I lock my business card tag?
Not if it holds your details, since those change. If it holds a redirect address you control, locking is harmless and adds a little tamper resistance.
Do I need a special chip for a metal card?
The chip is not the issue, the construction is. Metal cards need a design that isolates the antenna from the metal, which is a product property rather than a chip choice.
Can one card serve a whole team?
Each person needs their own card, and mirroring lets every card be written identically while still identifying whose was tapped. That is the efficient way to equip a team.
How much memory does a vCard need?
More than a link and less than people fear, with the exact figure depending on how many fields you include. Read the free space on a sample and compare against your actual card.