Every way to send an invitation, compared.
Ten services people actually use, what each of them charges for, and which one fits the day you are planning.
Almost nobody comparing wedding invitation services does it more than once. You hear one name from a friend, find a second in a search, and then have to work out from two pricing pages whether the difference between them is worth anything. These pages do that reading for you.
The ten below are not the same kind of thing, and that is the most useful thing to know before you start. Two charge by the guest. Three are whole planning suites where the invitation is one feature next to a registry and a vendor search. One is a printer with a free website attached. One is free and pays for itself with adverts. Two run on a subscription, and one is a design tool that makes a picture and leaves the sending entirely to you.
All of it is written by the people who make one of them, and every page says so at the top. Each one also names what the other service does better, because there is always something, and a comparison that finds nothing good to say about the competition is an advertisement with a table in it. On two of these pages the honest answer is that the other one is cheaper, and both say so.
Ten services.
What each one is, how it charges and who it suits. Open any of them for the whole comparison.
- Paperless PostDigital invitations, paid for in coins and spent per recipient.How it chargesThe first 50 sends are free. After that it is per recipient, from $0.50 to $1.44 a guest depending on the tier.Best forA specific designed card, sent by email, to a list small enough that per recipient pricing stays cheap.
- GreenvelopeOnline invitations for weddings, priced by the size of the guest list.How it chargesTiered by guest count. Their own figures are $19 for up to 20 guests, $99 for up to 100 and $249 for up to 250.Best forA formal wedding with a manageable list and a couple who want the guest management tools alongside it.
- EviteFree party invitations supported by advertising, with paid tiers to remove it.How it chargesFree with advertising, for up to 750 guests. Removing the adverts for a hundred guests means their $99.99 package.Best forA birthday, a barbecue or anything where the invitation is a piece of admin rather than a keepsake.
- ZolaA whole wedding planning suite, with a free website and a registry at the centre of it.How it chargesThe website and planning tools are free. Zola earns from the registry, the shop and the paper.Best forCouples who want a registry, a planning checklist and a vendor search in the same place as the website.
- JoyA free wedding website, guest app and digital invitations, funded by paper and the registry.How it chargesFree, with unlimited guests and hundreds of digital invitations included. Paper, the registry and a domain are the paid parts.Best forCouples who want the most complete free package there is, plus an app their guests can use on the day.
- The KnotA wedding marketplace and planning suite, with a free website inside it.How it chargesFree website and planning tools, with a custom domain at $19.99 a year. The business is the vendor marketplace.Best forFinding and booking vendors, and running the planning from a single free account.
- MintedA print shop with a designer marketplace, and a free website alongside it.How it chargesPer printed card. Their own figures start near $2.34 each at a hundred, before envelopes, postage and any reprint.Best forCouples who want a physical card, and who have the weeks and the budget the printed route needs.
- Appy CoupleA wedding website and native guest app, charged by the year or the month.How it chargesA subscription. Their own page shows €100 a year or €12 a month, cancel at any time, with a domain about $19.99 a year on top.Best forMulti day weddings where guests need a schedule, a map and updates in their pocket.
- PunchbowlSubscription online invitations and cards, aimed at parties rather than weddings.How it chargesA monthly subscription. Their tiers run from $2.99 to $5.99, and only the top one is free of advertising.Best forHouseholds that send a lot: birthdays, holidays, showers and the greetings cards in between.
- CanvaA design tool. It makes a picture of an invitation and leaves the sending to you.How it chargesFree to use, with a paid tier for the premium assets and the extras.Best forAnybody who wants total design freedom and is happy to handle the sending and the replies themselves.
The rules these pages follow.
A comparison written by one of the two things being compared is only worth reading if it says how it was written.
Every page names what they do better
It is a required section rather than a courtesy. Every service here is genuinely better than this one at something, and if a page could not name it, the page would not be published.
No number is guessed
Every figure quoted was read off their own pricing pages, on the date printed under the table. Where a price could not be confirmed, the page says how the charging works instead of inventing a number, because a made up price is worse than none at all.
Every page carries the date it was checked
Their prices are theirs to change and they do. The day their public pricing was last read is printed under every table, and if it is old, trust their page over this one.
The verdict sends people away
Each page ends by naming the couple who should buy the other one. A wedding that needs a registry, a vendor marketplace or a printed card on a mantelpiece is not a wedding this product is right for, and saying so is cheaper than a refund.
No scores, no stars, no rankings
Giving another company a score in our own words would be worth exactly nothing to you. What is here instead is what each of them charges for and what each of them is for, and the judgement is left where it belongs.
Tell us if any of this is wrong.
Their prices are theirs to change, and a page quoting them is only as good as the day it was read.
If a price has moved, a feature has been added or dropped, or something here reads as unfair, write and say so. It gets checked against their own pages and corrected, and the date printed under the table moves with it. A note from the service being written about is as welcome as one from a couple.
Contact usNothing on these pages is paid for. No service here has paid to be included, written about or left out.
$100, once.
One payment for one invitation, and the link stays online permanently with the replies behind it.
Publish it free for 24 hours first, and pay only if you keep it.
Asked and answered.
The ones that come up whichever two services somebody is weighing against each other.
For one small gathering, Evite, because it is free. For a wedding of any real size the answer is whichever one does not multiply by your guest list, and that is the difference the tables on these pages are drawing.
Read it with that in mind, which is why it is said at the top of every page. What can be checked is the shape: each page names what the other one does better, prints the date their pricing was read, and ends by naming the couple who should buy theirs instead.
Only if there is a lot to look up. Travel, accommodation, a registry and a multi day schedule all justify one. If there is not, the invitation carries the order of the day, what to wear and how to get there by itself.
Yes, and it is common. A free wedding website for the registry and the travel notes, and the invitation from here as the thing you actually send. Just take the replies in one place and one place only.
Very little, as long as you have not printed anything. Digital invitations are sent in one message, so changing your mind before you send costs nothing but an evening.