Why We Switched to Klipy GIFs (RIP Tenor Free API, You Will Not Be Missed)

What Happened with Tenor

For years, Tenor was the default GIF provider for independent apps and services. Google acquired them back in 2018 — which, in hindsight, should have been a warning sign. For a while, their free API access kept working. Developers kept building. Everyone was happy.

Then, quietly, without so much as a breakup text, free API access started disappearing. No big announcement. No "hey, heads up." Just an ever-tightening grip on what you could do without paying — and API terms that made it increasingly impractical for a genuinely free service like ours to keep using.

The irony isn't lost on us. A free group ecard site, built on the principle that celebrating people together shouldn't cost money, relying on a GIF provider that was slowly moving everything behind a paywall. It wasn't a great fit. And honestly? We should have made the switch sooner.

Enter Klipy

We'd been keeping an eye on Klipy for a while. They're a GIF platform built by people who actually love GIFs — not a side project of a trillion-dollar company trying to monetize everything. Their library is genuinely good: expressive, fresh, full of personality. The kind of GIFs that make someone laugh out loud when they open a group card.

More importantly for us: Klipy offers free API access that's actually free. They're not doing the "free tier with enough restrictions to make it useless" thing. They're just... letting developers build cool stuff. Refreshing.

That alignment matters. Free for All eCards exists because we believe celebrating people shouldn't require a subscription, a credit card, or a premium tier. Klipy believes something similar about GIFs. It's a good match.

What This Means for Your Cards

When you sign a free group ecard, you can now pick from Klipy's full library of GIFs. Trending GIFs load when you open the picker. Search works exactly as you'd expect. And the GIFs themselves? More personality. More variety. More of the kind of reaction that makes a card actually memorable.

• ✓Fresh, regularly updated GIF library with real personality
• ✓Faster loading — Klipy's CDN is genuinely quick
• ✓Better search results for common card moments (birthdays, farewells, congrats)
• ✓No more stale or repeated GIFs that've been floating around since 2015

What About Existing Cards?

If you've already sent a group card with a Tenor GIF attached, don't worry — those GIF URLs are stored directly and will continue loading fine. We didn't break anything on the way out the door. New cards and new posts will use Klipy going forward.

The Bigger Picture

Free for All eCards is a one-person project. Every technical decision we make either reinforces or undermines the core promise: that organizing a group card, celebrating a colleague's last day, or signing a birthday card for a friend should be genuinely free and genuinely good.

Switching to Klipy was a small change with a big impact on that promise. Better GIFs, a provider that actually supports independent builders, and a library that keeps the fun in your cards. We're happy with it — and we think you will be too.