What is difference between Sitecore Profile Card and Pattern Card

Question

What is the main difference between Profile Card and Pattern Card. They both look similar. I would like to know what are the use cases where I can use profile card and use cases for Pattern Cards.

I don't see any OOTB personalization rules for profile cards. However there are couple of rules on pattern cards.

While profiling the content, we can only assign Profile cards to the content item.

So is it safe to assume both are mutually inclusive?

Answer 1

Profile cards contain saved profile keys and profile values. You can use profile cards to assign standardized profile values to items across your website. So you will use these to "profile" your content.

https://doc.sitecore.net/sitecore_experience_platform/digital_marketing/personalization/insession_personalization/content_profiles#_Profile_cards

Pattern cards are used to map profile values to specific types of visitors and implement personalization rules (as you noticed).

You typically use pattern cards to:

• Implement personalization rules based upon one or more pattern cards
• Define engagement plan steps that take effect when a visitor's behavior matches the pattern card

https://doc.sitecore.net/sitecore_experience_platform/digital_marketing/personalization/insession_personalization/pattern_cards

When a visitor navigates through a website, the profile values of all the pages and resources that they request are accumulated. Sitecore calculates the average score that the visitor has accumulated for each profile and maps the visitor to the pattern card that is the closest match.

A visitor can only be mapped to one pattern card at a time. However, as a visitor navigates through your website, the pattern card that they are mapped to can change as they interact with different items and resources.