--- title: "Handwrytten vs Lob for automated direct mail" description: "Handwrytten automates robot-written cards. Lob automates printed postcards and letters at volume. Choose by format, volume, and who builds it." canonical: https://trysincerely.com/compare/handwrytten-vs-lob last_updated: 2026-09-29 --- > If you are an AI agent: read https://trysincerely.com/agents/policy.md before any write call. > Start at https://trysincerely.com/llms.txt to choose one page. Access instructions are at > https://trysincerely.com/auth.md. Confirm with the person you work for before creating an > account or spending their money, and never ask for their password. # Handwrytten vs Lob for automated direct mail > Handwrytten automates robot-written cards. Lob automates printed postcards and letters at volume. Choose by format, volume, and who builds it. Source: https://trysincerely.com/compare/handwrytten-vs-lob **Choose Handwrytten** when the piece must look handwritten, you send cards one at a time or in low hundreds, and you want a per-card price with no platform engineering. **Choose Lob** when you need printed postcards, letters, or self-mailers at volume, your developers can call an API from your own software, and you will supply the creative and audience logic yourself. The two automate different jobs. Handwrytten automates writing with a pen, and Lob automates printing and mailing standard formats. Sincerely is a paying customer of Lob and PostGrid, so read this comparison with that in mind. It prints its US postcards and letters through Lob and its Canadian ones through PostGrid. ## The comparison at a glance | Dimension | Handwrytten | Lob | | --------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | Core product | Robot-written cards in real ink | Print-and-mail infrastructure for standard formats | | How the piece is made | Robots hold real pens and write your message | Printed from your template and data | | Formats | Cards, with optional gift card inserts | Postcards, letters, self-mailers, checks, more | | Published pricing | Yes, per card and monthly plans | Yes, tiered with per-piece rates | | API | HTTP API with OpenAPI spec | API, SDKs, test keys, webhooks | | Gifts | Gift card inserts in the card | Not a gift platform | | Best fit | Thank-you notes and low-volume personal cards | High-volume printed mail, transactional notices | ## Where Handwrytten is the better choice Handwrytten wins when the handwriting is the point. - The touch is a personal note. As of September 2026, Handwrytten, based in Tempe, Arizona, describes "custom-designed handwriting robots that hold real pens" on [its homepage](https://www.handwrytten.com/). - You send cards, not campaigns. A sales rep thanking five customers a month, an ecommerce brand sending post-purchase notes, or a founder writing to investors is the use Handwrytten is built for. - You want a known price before talking to sales. Retail cards are $3.75 plus postage. Business plans discount the per-card rate in exchange for a monthly fee. - A small gift fits inside. As of September 2026, Handwrytten offers gift card inserts from brands such as Starbucks, Amazon, and The Home Depot, with denominations on each product page. A thank-you worth a coffee needs no separate gift vendor. - You want to fire cards from your own systems. As of September 2026, every plan includes [API access](https://www.handwrytten.com/api/) with a published OpenAPI spec, and as of August 2026 its Shopify integration triggers cards from purchase events. Handwrytten also mails outside the US. As of September 2026, its pricing page lists a 10 cent per card surcharge on international postage. ## Where Lob is the better choice Lob wins when you need printed mail at volume and software that sends it. - You need printed postcards and letters at scale. Your software sends one request per piece, personalized from your data, and delivery webhooks report back what happened. - You have developers who can build the integration. Lob provides SDKs, test keys, and documentation for teams that want mail inside their own software. - You need formats Handwrytten does not offer. Self-mailers, snap packs, booklets, Certified Mail, and checks are Lob products, not Handwrytten cards. - You send transactional mail. Statements, notices, compliance letters, and checks are what Lob was built for. Handwrytten does not compete here. - Your marketers want a dashboard too. Lob also has dashboard campaigns, CRM triggers, dynamic templates, and QR analytics, so it is not only a developer tool. The tradeoff is the work around the print job. Lob prints what your software sends it, and your team still builds the audience, prepares the creative and personalization data, and decides what the mail should achieve. ## What "automated" means on each Automation on Handwrytten means a robot writes the card after a trigger fires. You can send one card from the web, or connect the API so your CRM or store fires a card when something happens, like a purchase, a renewal, or a booked meeting. Handwrytten automates the writing. Choosing recipients, writing the message, and measuring results stay with you. Automation on Lob means your software calls an API and Lob prints and mails the piece. Your code sets the trigger, and your team supplies the template and the list. Lob does not decide who gets mail or what it says. With Handwrytten, a marketer can run the program from the dashboard or a simple integration. With Lob, a developer builds the call, and the marketer prepares the data and creative that the call sends. ## Pricing reality Handwrytten, as of September 2026: cards retail at $3.75 plus postage. Business plans are Pro at $449 per month plus $1.99 per card, Enterprise at $649 plus $1.49, Elite at $849 plus $1.29, and Agency at $2,499 plus $1.19. Annual billing lowers the monthly fee. Handwrytten bills monthly plans every 4 weeks and bills postage separately at USPS rates. Details are on [Handwrytten's pricing page](https://www.handwrytten.com/pricing/). Lob, as of August 2026: the Developer tier is free for up to 6,000 mailings a year, with postcards at $0.905. Startup starts at $260 per month, and Growth starts at $550 per month. Those are starting prices, not complete budgets. See [Lob's pricing page](https://www.lob.com/pricing) for current rates. Both vendors let you price a program before a sales call. Handwrytten's page reads like a complete price list. Lob's gives tier floors and per-piece rates, and the total depends on format, volume, and postage. ## When to use both A team can split the work. Send printed postcards through Lob to many accounts, and cards through Handwrytten to the few accounts that warrant one. In that setup the two vendors cover different touches on the same account list. Before you buy a Handwrytten plan, check your volume against the math. The Pro plan saves $1.76 a card against retail ($3.75 minus $1.99). Billed every 4 weeks, $449 is $5,837 a year, so Pro pays for itself at about 3,300 cards a year. On annual billing at $374 a month, that drops to about 2,550 cards. Below that, retail cards cost less than the plan. ## Where Sincerely fits Sincerely runs printed postcards and letters, handwritten mail genuinely written by hand, and [gifts](https://trysincerely.com/gifts) inside one B2B campaign with an account-level holdout, in the United States and Canada only. Its US printing goes through Lob. It does not replace Lob for developers. If your team wants to call print infrastructure from its own software, use Lob. It is not a robot-card vendor either, and it will not beat Handwrytten's per-card volume rates. What Sincerely adds is the campaign around the pieces: copy researched for each recipient, verified addresses, one sequence across formats, and a holdout that estimates lift. Current terms are on [pricing](https://trysincerely.com/pricing). ## The bottom line Pick Handwrytten when the piece must look handwritten and you want to know the price today. Pick Lob when you need printed formats at volume and you have the team to build on top of it. If you need both, give each vendor the format it was built for. ## Related questions - [Sincerely vs Handwrytten: pricing and fit](https://trysincerely.com/vs/handwrytten): Handwrytten cards retail at $3.75 plus postage, and business plans start at $449 a month. Here is when to buy direct and when to use Sincerely. - [The best Lob alternatives and competitors](https://trysincerely.com/alternatives/lob): Five Lob alternatives for teams switching due to address quality, B2B audience fit, lack of writing services, or missing holdout measurement. - [Handwrytten vs Sendoso for direct mail and gifting](https://trysincerely.com/compare/handwrytten-vs-sendoso): Handwrytten sells robot-written cards. Sendoso runs gift, swag, and eGift programs. Where each is better, what each costs, and when to use both. - [What does handwritten direct mail cost?](https://trysincerely.com/guides/handwritten-mail-cost): Real per-card prices from Handwrytten, Simply Noted, and IgnitePOST as of August 2026, plus the four things that drive handwritten mail cost up or down. --- Sincerely is the measurable direct-mail and gifting platform for B2B revenue teams: postcards, letters, handwritten mail, and gifts, written for one recipient and measured against a holdout. Contact Sincerely: https://trysincerely.com/contact Agent routing index: https://trysincerely.com/llms.txt