Basic Invite vs Cvent
Short answer: pick Basic Invite for budget-conscious hosts who want printed invitations matched to exact wedding colours, with a free website for online rsvps. Pick Cvent for enterprise and association event teams running large, compliance-sensitive event programmes with dedicated planners.
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 Cvent 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 Cvent 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. Enterprise event management platform covering registration, attendee engagement, check-in and badging, and event reporting. Dawat is shown as a third column for the guest-list half of the job. It does not sell tickets or take payment from guests, so for a paid public event it is not a substitute.
| Basic Invite | Cvent | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Priced per printed card | Subscription | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Free wedding website that collects mailing addresses and manages RSVPs, plus 150+ free custom colours on designs. | None published. Cvent's site offers a demo and quote request rather than a free plan. | 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) | Unknown | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Unknown | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Yes | Not published | No |
| Guests need an account | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | 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 tracking who has replied and a full event website, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Email delivery. Cvent supports sending by email. Basic Invite does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Printed cards. Basic Invite supports ordering printed stationery. Cvent does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Guest account required. Basic Invite does not do this. Cvent does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
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 Cvent is the better choice
Enterprise and association event teams running large, compliance-sensitive event programmes with dedicated planners.
- Deep enterprise feature set: registration, attendee hub, check-in, badging, reporting
- Enterprise tier includes API access, SSO, MFA, and budget management
- Unlimited user logins on Enterprise; Professional includes 15 logins
- Special rates extended to non-profit organisations
- Handles in-person, virtual, and hybrid event formats
Where it costs you:
- No published pricing; every price requires a sales quote
- No free plan advertised on the pricing page
- Solutions are licensed separately on the Professional tier
- Implementation and consulting are sold as paid add-ons
- Aimed at event programmes, not one-off personal invitations
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. Cvent 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 | Cvent | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Priced per printed card | Subscription | Free |
| 100 guests | $72 (100 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Unknown | Free |
| 250 guests | $180 (250 cards at the published 72-cent starting rate) | Unknown | 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. | Cvent does not publish list prices or per-registration fees; all pricing requires a sales quote. | 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. Unknown. Cvent publishes no prices: its pricing page lists Professional and Enterprise tiers and a 'Get a free quote' form, with special rates for non-profits.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Basic Invite nor Cvent 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 tracks replies the same way both of these do, and costs nothing to do it. All 53 card designs, unlimited guests and unlimited sends are free, with no card required. What the other two do not do is address each guest personally: the envelope opens with that guest's name on it and their reply is one tap. It also covers an animated envelope opening — which neither Basic Invite nor Cvent 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 | Cvent | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | No | Not published | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Yes | Not published | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Not published | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Email delivery | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Not published | Not published | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Open tracking | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Animated envelope | No | No | Yes |
| Printed cards | Yes | Not published | No |
| Guest account required | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Event website | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Not published | Not published | Partial |
| Calendar file | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| AI wording help | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Not published | Not published | 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
Ticketing platforms are built around a stranger buying entry. A guest you already know is a different person with a different tolerance, and an account-creation screen is where that difference shows up.
| What your guest gets | Basic Invite | Cvent | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Animated opening | No | No | Yes |
| Personally addressed link | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Add to calendar | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Basic Invite or Cvent 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. Cvent does not publish a price you can check before you commit: unknown. Cvent publishes no prices: its pricing page lists Professional and Enterprise tiers and a 'Get a free quote' form, with special rates for non-profits. 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 Cvent?
Basic Invite suits budget-conscious hosts who want printed invitations matched to exact wedding colours, with a free website for online RSVPs. Cvent suits enterprise and association event teams running large, compliance-sensitive event programmes with dedicated planners. 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 Cvent?
Basic Invite does not require guests to have an account. Cvent does not publish whether guests need 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 Cvent?
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.
How much does Cvent cost?
Cvent does not publish prices. Its pricing page describes Professional and Enterprise tiers and asks visitors to 'Get a free quote' by submitting business details. Cvent also says it extends special rates to non-profit organisations.
How current is this comparison?
Basic Invite's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Cvent'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 Cvent
The full head-to-head, including where Cvent is genuinely better.
Basic Invite alternatives
Eight products that do what Basic Invite does, ranked.
Cvent alternatives
Eight products that do what Cvent does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Basic Invite and Cvent's own published pricing or help pages on 16 September 2026, and each source is linked below. Cvent publishes no checkable price, so this page says so rather than estimating one. 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
- Cvent pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Cvent event management software — checked 2026-09-16
- Cvent event management software pricing overview — checked 2026-09-16