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PenPals Zapier integrationAutomate PenPals with Zapier.

The PenPals Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers, 4 actions and 0 searches. The actions add a contact, put a handwritten card in your cart, send one or schedule one for later. Another app always starts the Zap. Here is what each costs and where it trips.

See the 4 operations

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Overview

What the PenPals Zapier integration actually does

The PenPals Zapier integration lets your other tools order handwritten cards from PenPals without anyone opening it. PenPals writes and posts real cards to clients and prospects. On Zapier it only receives: a moment happens in your CRM, shop or calendar, and the Zap tells PenPals who gets which card.

Three results you can build. A thank-you card after every signed deal: a deal won in your CRM starts the Zap, and Send Handwritten Card posts a card with your message to the buyer. A birthday or anniversary card, on the right day: Schedule Handwritten Card takes a send date from your client file, so the card leaves when it should rather than when you remember. A batch you check before paying: Add Handwritten Card to Cart drops each card in your PenPals cart, and you review and send the lot yourself inside PenPals.

Now the part the app page does not spell out. PenPals has no trigger on Zapier, so a Zap cannot react to a card being delivered or a contact being added in PenPals. There is no search either, so a Zap cannot check whether someone is already in your address book. And both sending actions require a payment method already active in your PenPals account. If what you need goes beyond these four actions, look at the Zapier alternatives first.

Vocabulary

The Zapier words, in plain English

Seven terms come back on this page. Each one is explained once, here.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. PenPals has none, so your Zap starts in another app, such as a CRM or a shop.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something. PenPals has four, all about cards and contacts.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Each card sent through the Zap is one task on Zapier's side.
Polling vs instant
Polling: Zapier checks the trigger app on a timer. Instant: that app tells Zapier itself. It depends on the app that starts your Zap.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets a condition you set, and stops the run otherwise.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A filter or a second action makes it one, and it then needs a paid plan.
Cost

What a PenPals Zap costs you on Zapier

PenPals is not a premium app on Zapier, so it works on the free plan. This block covers Zapier's side only; what PenPals charges for a card is its own matter.

  • Free plan100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps
  • One card sentOne task, only if it succeeds
  • PenPals premium?No, available on the free plan
  • Zap size on freeOne trigger and one action

The trigger in the other app never costs a task, and Zapier's checks on it are free however often they run. Each PenPals action that completes is one task, and one that fails is not counted. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and Zaps of two steps. Adding a contact and then sending a card is two actions, so the Zap is multi-step and needs a paid plan; a filter in front of the card has the same effect. How fast the Zap starts depends on the trigger app, not on PenPals.

Connect

Connect your PenPals account in 3 steps

  1. 01

    Open the connections page

    In your Zapier account, open Apps and click + Add connection. You need a PenPals account, plus access to anything in it you do not own but want the Zap to use.

  2. 02

    Pick PenPals

    Type PenPals in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new tab opens on the PenPals side so you can sign in there.

    Keep the tab open until you finish.

  3. 03

    Sign in and grant access

    Log in to PenPals in that tab and give Zapier access to the account. The connection is saved once, then all four PenPals actions reuse it in every Zap.

First Zap

Your first Zap: a card for every new client

GoalEach new client contact in the CRM receives a handwritten welcome card from PenPals.

  1. 01

    Build: pick the trigger app

    Create a Zap and pick the app and event that start it, here a new contact in your CRM. PenPals has no trigger, so the start always sits in another app.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent items of the connected account, so you map the card on a real contact with a real postal address.

  3. 03

    Add a filter

    Set the filter's three boxes: the field to look at, the rule and the value that marks a customer. It keeps prospects out, and it makes the Zap multi-step, so a paid plan is required.

  4. 04

    Add Send Handwritten Card

    Add PenPals with Send Handwritten Card. Pick the card, write the message, map the recipient's name and address from the CRM, fill your sender details and choose the payment method.

  5. 05

    Test, then publish

    Test the card step on your own address first, since it sends a real card. Then publish the Zap to switch it on; each new customer contact then gets a card.

Actions

PenPals actions on Zapier

PenPals gives you 4 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Handwritten Card to Cart

Action

In Zapier“Creates a handwritten card & adds to your cart. Use when you want to finalize & send your orders directly in PenPals.”

Writes up a handwritten card and places it in your PenPals cart instead of sending it. You finish the order and send it yourself inside PenPals.

When to use it
you want a human to read every message before anything leaves, or to send cards in batches.
Watch out
nothing goes out until someone completes the order in PenPals, so the cart can fill up unnoticed.
2

Add Contact

Action

In Zapier“Adds a recipient to your address book.”

Saves a recipient in your PenPals address book from the details an earlier step carries: a first name and a full postal address at the least.

When to use it
every new client should be ready in PenPals for the day you want to write to them.
Watch out
no search exists to check for an existing contact first, so the same person can be added twice.
3

Schedule Handwritten Card

Action

In Zapier“Schedules a handwritten card to send at a future date. Note: requires active payment method in your PenPals account.”

Books a handwritten card for a future send date, taken from your Zap, with the same card, message and addresses as an immediate send.

When to use it
a contract start date or a client anniversary is known in advance and the card should land on time.
Watch out
the Send Date and an active PenPals payment method are both required.
4

Send Handwritten Card

Action

In Zapier“Sends a handwritten card. Note: requires active payment method in your PenPals account.”

Orders a handwritten card straight away, with the card design, your message, the recipient's address and yours as the sender.

When to use it
a deal closes or an order ships and a thank-you card should follow without anyone deciding.
Watch out
it needs an active payment method in your PenPals account; test it on your own address, since the card is real.
When it breaks

When a PenPals Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article to PenPals, and no limit specific to the app is documented. What breaks is what breaks on any Zap, except that here a mistake ends up in someone's mailbox.

  • Existing clients get no card

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you switch it on. Clients already in your CRM before that get nothing; sending them cards is a separate job.

  • A loop that sends card after card

    If a step writes back into the very place the trigger watches, the Zap sets itself off again and again, and each pass can mean another real card.

  • A bulk import is held back

    Import a full contact list into the trigger app and it returns a huge batch at once. Zapier's flood protection can hold that run back, which here is a good thing.

  • The same contact only fires once

    On a polling trigger, Zapier remembers what it has already seen, so the same contact does not start the Zap twice.
Need help

Need help automating PenPals with Zapier?

A person reads every message.

FAQ

PenPals Zapier integration: common questions

01Is the PenPals Zapier integration free?
On Zapier's side, yes. PenPals is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan, with 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps. The limit is the shape of the Zap: one trigger and one action. A CRM trigger followed by Send Handwritten Card fits. Adding a contact and then sending a card is two actions, which makes the Zap multi-step and needs a paid plan. What PenPals charges for the cards themselves is outside Zapier.
02How many tasks does a PenPals Zap use?
One task per PenPals action that completes. The trigger in the other app never costs a task, and Zapier's checks on it are free. Sending one card is one task; adding a contact and then sending a card is two. An action that fails, for example because the payment method is missing, is not counted. With 100 tasks a month on the free plan, a one-action Zap covers at most 100 cards a month through Zapier.
03Does PenPals send cards in real time?
That depends on the trigger app, because PenPals has no trigger on Zapier. If the app that starts your Zap uses an instant trigger, the Zap starts straight away whatever your plan. If it uses a polling trigger, Zapier checks it on your plan's interval: every 15 minutes on Free, every 2 minutes on Professional, every minute on Team and Enterprise. And with Schedule Handwritten Card, the send date you set decides, not the Zap.
04What does it take to connect PenPals to Zapier?
A PenPals account, plus access to anything in it you do not own but want the Zap to use. The connection goes through the Apps page of your Zapier account: add a connection, search for PenPals, sign in on the tab that opens and grant access. Before building a Zap that sends or schedules cards, add an active payment method in PenPals, since both actions require you to pick one.
05Why can Send Handwritten Card not find a payment method?
Because the Payment Method setting lists what is already in your PenPals account, and both Send Handwritten Card and Schedule Handwritten Card require it. If no active payment method is saved in PenPals, the list is empty and the step cannot run. Add one in PenPals, come back to the Zap and pick it. If you prefer to pay manually, use Add Handwritten Card to Cart instead and finish the order inside PenPals.
06What if the PenPals operation you want is not on Zapier?
Then it is not available through this integration, and the editor will not offer it. On Zapier, PenPals has four actions: Add Contact, Add Handwritten Card to Cart, Send Handwritten Card and Schedule Handwritten Card. There is no trigger and no search. A Zap cannot react to a delivered card, look up a contact or cancel a scheduled card. Anything outside those four actions stays a manual step inside PenPals.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for PenPals?
Decide on criteria, not on brand. On Zapier, PenPals offers four actions to add contacts and send, schedule or queue handwritten cards, works on the free plan, and needs a paid plan once a Zap has two actions or a filter. If your need is turning CRM or shop events into cards, that covers it. If you need to react to what happens inside PenPals or look up contacts, Zapier does not offer it here, so check the other tool covers that gap.
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