Dawat vs Basic Invite
Short answer: as of September 2026, Basic Invite charges by the head — $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 100 guests, $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 250. Dawat charges nothing at any guest count. Basic Invite is still the better pick if you need among the lowest advertised per-card rates, from 72 cents for wedding invitations.
Dawat is free at every guest count: 53 card designs, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking with your own questions, and a personally addressed link for each guest. The only paid item is a Dawat Signature cinematic experience at $89 once per event.
Online stationery printer offering customisable invitations with extensive colour control, plus a free wedding website with RSVP management. This page compares it with Dawat on cost per guest, on what happens after the cards are in the post, and on the part printed stationery cannot do: tell you who is coming.
Basic Invite pricing checked 2026-09-16 against its own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
| Dawat | Basic Invite | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Priced per printed card |
| What the free tier gives you | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. | Free wedding website that collects mailing addresses and manages RSVPs, plus 150+ free custom colours on designs. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) |
| Charges per recipient | No | Yes |
| Guests need an account | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
Where Dawat is different
- What the guest list costs. On Basic Invite, every additional guest has a price. On Dawat the hundredth guest costs what the first one did: nothing.
- Free to send. Dawat includes sending invitations without paying. Basic Invite does not.
- Per-guest fees. Basic Invite does this. Dawat never does.
- Unlimited guests. Dawat includes an uncapped guest list in the free product. On Basic Invite it is limited or sits behind a paid tier.
- Custom RSVP questions. Dawat includes asking your own questions. Basic Invite does not publish whether it supports this.
- Email delivery. Dawat includes sending by email. Basic Invite does not publish whether it supports this.
- Per-guest personal links. Dawat includes a personally addressed link per guest. Basic Invite does not publish whether it supports this.
- Open tracking. Dawat includes seeing who opened the invitation. Basic Invite does not publish whether it supports this.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
When Basic Invite is the better choice
Dawat does not print anything, so this section is not a close-run thing. Where Basic Invite is better, it is comprehensively better: Budget-conscious hosts who want printed invitations matched to exact wedding colours, with a free website for online RSVPs.
- Among the lowest advertised per-card rates, from 72 cents for wedding invitations
- 150+ free custom colours, with colour control on nearly every design element
- Custom printed sample of your actual design available before ordering
- Free wedding website collects mailing addresses and manages RSVPs online
- Over 1,000 wedding designs customisable instantly in the browser
Where Dawat does not compete with it:
- Digital only: Dawat does not print or mail paper stationery
- A smaller design catalogue than the largest stationery marketplaces
And where Basic Invite will cost you something:
- Priced per printed card, so cost rises directly with guest count
- Postage is not included and is paid separately
- Advertised 72-cent rate is a starting price; upgrades and finishes cost more
- Envelope and enclosure-card options such as RSVP cards are priced separately
- Quantity price breaks are not published as a public table
What Basic Invite costs, in dollars
As of September 2026: Printed wedding invitations advertised as low as 72 cents per card, with save-the-dates as low as 45 cents per card; custom printed samples available per design.
7 of the 33 invitation, stationery and event platforms tracked in this dataset charge per guest or per printed card. Basic Invite is one of them.
| Dawat | Basic Invite | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Priced per printed card |
| 100 guests | Free | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) |
| 250 guests | Free | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) |
| How that is worked out | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. | Based on Basic Invite's advertised starting rate for its wedding invitation line; envelopes, upgrades and postage are extra. |
Dawat is free to send. Basic Invite has no equivalent free path at a real guest count.
The guest experience compared
A printed card is a wonderful thing to receive and a terrible thing to reply to. Whatever the envelope looks like, the reply has to happen somewhere, and that somewhere is what this section is about.
| Feature | Dawat | Basic Invite |
|---|---|---|
| Guest account required | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Animated envelope | Yes | No |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Not published |
| Calendar file | Yes | Not published |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Not published |
On Dawat, the link is addressed to the person holding it. The envelope opens with their name on it, their RSVP is already prefilled, and answering is one tap. Basic Invite does not publish whether it addresses each guest individually.
What happens as the list grows
At 20 guests, the difference between Basic Invite and Dawat is a few dollars and a matter of taste. At 250 guests it is $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) against nothing, and it stops being a matter of taste.
This lands hardest on exactly the people with the biggest lists: extended families, community organisations, mosques and nonprofits, and anyone whose wedding invitation list has three hundred names on it because that is simply how many people there are. Per-recipient pricing quietly asks those hosts to shorten the list.
| Guest list | Basic Invite | Dawat |
|---|---|---|
| 50 guests | about $36 | Free |
| 100 guests | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free |
| 250 guests | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free |
Based on Basic Invite's advertised starting rate for its wedding invitation line; envelopes, upgrades and postage are extra.
Switching, or running both
Running both is the common answer here, and a good one: post the printed card to the people for whom the object matters, and send the Dawat link to everyone, so the replies land in one place regardless of which they respond to.
If you are moving across, the fastest route is Dawat's import: paste the link to your existing invitation and Dawat reads the wording, date, venue and colour mood off the page and rebuilds it as a prefilled draft you can edit. Guest lists come in from your phone's contacts, a .vcf file, or pasted text.
What does not come across: Basic Invite's designs, and any replies already collected there. Export your RSVPs before you switch, and send the Dawat invitation only to the people who have not answered.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Dawat | Basic Invite |
|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | No |
| Per-guest fees | No | Yes |
| Unlimited guests | Yes | Partial |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Yes | Not published |
| Email delivery | Yes | Not published |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Partial | Not published |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Not published |
| Animated envelope | Yes | No |
| Printed cards | No | Yes |
| Guest account required | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Event website | Partial | Yes |
| Registry links | Yes | Not published |
| Meal choice or seating | Partial | Not published |
| Calendar file | Yes | Not published |
| AI wording help | Yes | Not published |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Yes | Not published |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Not published |
"Not published" means no vendor documentation could be found either way, not that the feature is missing. How this grid is built →
Questions
How much are Basic Invite wedding invitations?
Basic Invite advertises wedding invitations as low as 72 cents per card, and save-the-dates as low as 45 cents per card. At that starting rate 100 invitations is about $72 and 250 is about $180, before envelopes, upgrades and postage.
Does Basic Invite have a free wedding website?
Yes. Basic Invite promotes free, mobile-friendly wedding websites where you can collect mailing addresses, manage your RSVPs, and share event details. It is offered alongside the printed stationery rather than as a paid add-on.
Can you order a sample from Basic Invite?
Yes. Every card has an order-a-sample option, so you can receive a custom printed sample of your own design before committing to a full order.
Does Basic Invite let you change invitation colours?
Yes. Basic Invite offers more than 150 free custom colours across its wedding invitation range, and over 160 colour options on each save-the-date design, so the card can be matched to a specific palette.
Is Dawat free?
Yes. All 53 card designs and every party-page theme, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking, custom questions and the per-guest analytics cost nothing, and no card is required. The only paid item is a Dawat Signature cinematic experience at $89 once for that event, and it is labelled as paid before you publish.
Does Dawat have designs as good as Basic Invite?
Basic Invite has the larger catalogue, and on breadth of artwork it wins. Dawat's 53 designs are animated rather than static: the envelope opens, the card settles, the type is set for the occasion. Different thing, honestly judged.
Can I send printed invitations from Dawat?
No. Dawat is digital only. Basic Invite does print and mail stationery, and if a physical card matters to you that is a genuine reason to use it.
Create your invitation — free →Takes about ten minutes. Sign in only when you publish.
Other comparisons
Basic Invite alternatives
Eight products that do what Basic Invite does, ranked and priced.
Stationery and print
Every product in Basic Invite's category, side by side.
Basic Invite against the rest:
Dawat against the rest:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Basic Invite's own published pricing or help pages on 16 September 2026, and each source is linked below. Coins, credits and per-card rates are converted into dollars at a real guest count, because that is the number you are deciding with. Full methodology and the open dataset →
Reading this through an AI assistant? Dawat runs an MCP server, so ChatGPT or Claude can choose the design, write the wording, add your guest list, publish the invitation and send it without you leaving the conversation. Basic Invite does not publish one.
Sources
- Basic Invite wedding invitations — checked 2026-09-16
- Basic Invite save the dates — checked 2026-09-16
- Basic Invite custom sample — checked 2026-09-16
- Basic Invite affordable wedding invitations — checked 2026-09-16