ID Cards, NFC Cards, MIFARE Cards: What’s the Difference

ID Card, NFC Card, MIFARE Cards Explained: What’s the Real Difference?

For those who are new to smart cards, it is easy to get confused by the various terms on the market. What is an ID card? What are IC cards, RFID cards, NFC cards, and MIFARE cards? What is the relationship between them? Don’t worry, this article will help you sort it out.

A Table to Understand Their Relationship

Differences Between ID Card and IC Card

• ID Card: Can only read fixed card number, cannot write content, has no encryption function, and is easy to be copied.

• IC Card: Supports data reading and writing, requires password verification before data transmission, and has high security. Different permissions can be set for each storage area, suitable for hierarchical management.

So to put it simply:
ID card is “read-only”, while IC card is “readable and writable”.

The Difference Between IC Card and RFID Card

• IC card is a general term, including contact and contactless. Contact cards are common in bank cards, and contactless cards are common in access control cards and bus cards.

• RFID card is a general term for contactless electronic cards, including ID card, IC card, NFC card, etc., mainly classified according to frequency band, such as:

  • Low frequency: 125KHz, such as ID card

  • High frequency: 13.56MHz, such as MIFARE card, NFC card

  • Ultra-high frequency: 860~960MHz, such as logistics tracking tags

The Difference Between RFID Card and NFC Card

NFC is an upgraded version of RFID, and it is also a contactless communication technology in the 13.56MHz frequency band.

But the differences are as follows:

So, NFC card can be understood as “smarter RFID card”, it can not only be read, but also interact with other devices, such as mobile phone one-touch payment, one-touch adding friends, etc.

What Are the MIFARE Series Cards?

MIFARE is a series of high-frequency (13.56MHz) RFID chips launched by NXP, which are widely used in campus cards, access control cards, membership cards and other fields. Common types are as follows:

Difference Between MIFARE S50 and S70

The main difference lies in capacity and structure:

• S50: 1KB data, 16 sectors in total, 4 blocks per sector, 16 bytes per block

• S70: 4KB data, the first 32 sectors have the same structure as S50, and the last 8 sectors have 16 blocks each, a total of 256 blocks, with a larger capacity

Application Scenario Examples

MIFARE Cards are commonly used for their high security and large capacity, including:

• Campus card

• Subway/bus card

• Hotel room card

• Membership card / Points card

• Access control system

• Social media business card (e.g., customizable electronic business card with NFC)

Some Products Also Support:

• PVC / PETG / PLA environmentally friendly materials

• Customized printing, hot stamping, QR code, laser coding

• 13.56MHz standard frequency

• Optional chip: MIFARE S50, S70, Ultralight, NTAG213, etc.

• Service life up to 100,000 read and write times

Written at the End

In general, just remember:

• ID card is the most basic, only reads the number

• IC card has more powerful functions, can write data, and supports encryption

• RFID card is a large category, NFC is its upgraded version

• MIFARE card is a mainstream product with wide application and strong compatibility among RFID cards

Next time when choosing a card, you may wish to choose the right card type according to the actual application needs. Security, capacity, read and write distance, cost — everything is important!

If you need to understand or customize high-quality MIFARE Cards, you can contact us for free samples and customized solutions. We support full-color printing, chip encoding, laser engraving, barcode/QR code and other processes to adapt to the use needs of various industries.