Basic Invite vs Canva
Short answer: Canva is the cheaper of the two. Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Basic Invite works out to $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 100 guests and $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 250. Basic Invite earns the difference if you need among the lowest advertised per-card rates, from 72 cents for wedding invitations.
If neither answer fits, Dawat does the same job free at any guest count: 53 card designs, unlimited guests, per-guest personal links and RSVP tracking, with no per-recipient charge.
Basic Invite and Canva are not really competitors: one puts a card in someone's hand, the other puts a link in their phone. The question is which medium your event needs, and whether you need a live guest list.
Basic Invite and Canva pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
Online stationery printer offering customisable invitations with extensive colour control, plus a free wedding website with RSVP management. General-purpose design platform with invitation templates, printing and website publishing; it is a design tool, not an RSVP system. Dawat is shown as a third column for the part these two share with it: getting the invitation to people and getting an answer back. It does not print, so on the physical card it is not a substitute.
| Basic Invite | Canva | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Priced per printed card | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Free wedding website that collects mailing addresses and manages RSVPs, plus 150+ free custom colours on designs. | Full editor, a large free template and element library, 5GB storage, sharing by link, and free downloads. | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. |
| Cost for 100 guests | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Yes | No | No |
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | No | No |
"Not published" means no vendor documentation could be found either way, not that the feature is missing. How this grid is built →
Where they actually differ
Both give you ordering printed stationery, letting guests reply without an account and a full event website, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Per-guest fees. Basic Invite does this; Canva does not. If no per-recipient charge matters to you, that is a point for Canva.
- RSVP tracking. Basic Invite supports tracking who has replied; Canva does not.
- Ads shown to guests. Canva does not do this. Basic Invite does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
- AI wording help. Canva supports writing the wording with AI. Basic Invite does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Works inside ChatGPT / Claude. Canva supports being driven from an AI assistant. Basic Invite does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
When Basic Invite is the better choice
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 it costs you:
- 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
When Canva is the better choice
Design-confident hosts who want full creative control over the artwork and will collect RSVPs somewhere else.
- Enormous free template library and a genuinely capable editor at $0
- Canva Print produces professionally printed invitations with paper and finish choices
- Designs can be published as a one-page website or shared as a live link
- Strong AI generation via Magic Studio, plus an official AI Connector for Claude and other assistants
- Same subscription covers every other design need, not just invitations
Where it costs you:
- No RSVP tracking, guest list or attendance dashboard of any kind
- No custom RSVP questions; responses have to be collected by a separate tool
- No invitation sending system: you share a file or link yourself
- No delivery, open or view tracking per guest
- Premium templates, elements and brand features require Pro at $15/month
What each one costs, in dollars
Basic Invite is one of the 7 platforms in this dataset that charge per guest or per printed card. Canva is not.
Published prices, converted into what you would actually pay for a real guest list. Credits, coins and per-card pricing are translated into dollars because that is the number you are deciding with.
| Basic Invite | Canva | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Priced per printed card | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| 100 guests | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | Free |
| 250 guests | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | Free |
| How that is worked out | Based on Basic Invite's advertised starting rate for its wedding invitation line; envelopes, upgrades and postage are extra. | Canva charges per designer, not per guest, so guest count does not affect cost; printing is ordered separately. | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. |
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. Canva Free is $0; Canva Pro is $15 per person per month or $120 per person per year; Canva Business is $20 per person per month.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Basic Invite nor Canva is trying to make the moment of opening feel like anything. They collect the answer. For a birthday drinks thread that is exactly right; for a wedding, a nikkah or a milestone, the invitation is part of the event.
Dawat is free at every guest count. All 53 card designs, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking and the per-guest analytics cost nothing, and no card is required to create or send. Each guest gets their own link, the envelope opens addressed to them by name, and their reply is one tap. It also covers an animated envelope opening — which neither Basic Invite nor Canva does.
The practical difference shows up the week before the event. Instead of counting replies across a group chat, you open one page and see who was sent it, who opened it, and who answered.
The honest caveats: Dawat is digital only, so it will not print and mail stationery, and it does not sell tickets. The optional Dawat Signature experiences are $89 once per event, and they are labelled as paid before you publish — nothing else is.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Basic Invite | Canva | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | No | Partial | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Yes | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | No | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Not published | No | Yes |
| Email delivery | Not published | Partial | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Not published | Partial | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | No | Yes |
| Open tracking | Not published | No | Yes |
| Animated envelope | No | No | Yes |
| Printed cards | Yes | Yes | No |
| Guest account required | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | No | No |
| Event website | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | Partial | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Not published | No | Partial |
| Calendar file | Not published | No | Yes |
| AI wording help | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Not published | Not published | Yes |
"Not published" means no vendor documentation could be found either way, not that the feature is missing. How this grid is built →
What your guests experience
Whatever you design, the guest receives a file or a link you sent yourself. The experience is only as good as the channel you chose, and nothing about the reply is handled for you.
| What your guest gets | Basic Invite | Canva | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | No | No |
| Animated opening | No | No | Yes |
| Personally addressed link | Not published | No | Yes |
| Add to calendar | Not published | No | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Basic Invite or Canva cheaper?
Basic Invite works out to $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 100 guests and $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) for 250. Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Because at least one of them bills per recipient, the gap widens as the guest list grows: what looks like a few dollars at 20 guests is a real decision at 250. Both were checked on 2026-09-16.
Which is better for a wedding, Basic Invite or Canva?
Basic Invite suits budget-conscious hosts who want printed invitations matched to exact wedding colours, with a free website for online RSVPs. Canva suits design-confident hosts who want full creative control over the artwork and will collect RSVPs somewhere else. For a wedding specifically, the questions that matter are whether the invitation feels like an occasion, whether you can collect meal choices, and whether the price moves with the guest list.
Do guests need an account to reply on Basic Invite or Canva?
Basic Invite does not require guests to have an account. Canva does not require guests to have an account. Anything that makes a guest sign up before replying costs you responses, particularly from older relatives.
Is there a free alternative to Basic Invite and Canva?
Yes. Dawat is free at every guest count: all 53 card designs, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking with your own questions, and a personally addressed link for each guest. There is no per-recipient charge and no card required to send. The only paid item is a Dawat Signature cinematic experience at $89 once per event.
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 Canva have RSVP tracking?
No. Canva has no built-in RSVP tracking, guest list or response dashboard. You can hyperlink a button in a design to an external RSVP form, and third-party Canva Apps such as Pinvite RSVP and Coteri Invitations add RSVP collection, but Canva itself does not record or report who is coming.
How current is this comparison?
Basic Invite's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Canva's on 2026-09-16. Every figure on this page links to the vendor page it came from, so you can verify it yourself rather than trusting a comparison written by one of the competitors.
Other comparisons
Every comparison below is built from the same checked pricing data.
Dawat vs Basic Invite
The full head-to-head, including where Basic Invite is genuinely better.
Dawat vs Canva
The full head-to-head, including where Canva is genuinely better.
Basic Invite alternatives
Eight products that do what Basic Invite does, ranked.
Canva alternatives
Eight products that do what Canva does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Basic Invite and Canva'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
- Canva pricing (Free, Pro, Business) — checked 2026-09-16
- Canva in-app purchase prices (Apple App Store listing) — checked 2026-09-16
- Canva invitations: design, print or post online — checked 2026-09-16
- Connect AI assistants to Canva with the AI Connector — checked 2026-09-16
- Canva newsroom: Canva in Claude Design — checked 2026-09-16