Canva alternatives
Short answer: the closest free replacement for Canva is Dawat — 53 card designs, unlimited guests, per-guest personal links and RSVP tracking, free at any guest count. The next closest are Adobe Express, Luma and Partiful.
Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Below, 9 alternatives with their published prices and what each one gives up.
This page is published by Dawat, which is one of the products listed. Every price is linked to the vendor's own page and dated, so you can check the ones that matter rather than take our word for it. Canva pricing was checked on 2026-09-16.
On this page
Why people look for a Canva alternative
18 of the 33 platforms tracked here can send an invitation without payment. Canva is one of them, and Dawat is another.
The usual trigger is the bill. 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 limitations people run into:
- 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
All alternatives, priced
| Alternative | Type | 100 guests | 250 guests | Charges per guest | RSVP tracking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dawat | Online invitation makers | Free | Free | No | Yes |
| Adobe Express | Design tools | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | No | No |
| Luma | Event and ticketing platforms | Free (RSVP event); $125 platform fee on 100 paid $25 tickets | Free (RSVP event); $312.50 platform fee on 250 paid $25 tickets | No | Yes |
| Partiful | Online invitation makers | Free | Free | No | Yes |
| Greenvelope | Online invitation makers | $99 (single mailing, up to 100 guests) | $249 (single mailing, up to 250 guests) | Partial | Yes |
| Joy | Wedding platforms | Free | Free | Partial | Yes |
| Mixily | Online invitation makers | $19 (one month of Lite) | $29 (one month of Pro) | No | Yes |
| Zola | Wedding platforms | Free | Free | No | Yes |
| Greetings Island | Online invitation makers | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | No | Yes |
Dawat — the free option
Cinematic digital invitations with per-guest personal links and built-in RSVP, free at any guest count. Everything in the core product is free: all 53 card designs, every party-page theme, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking with up to five custom questions, and a per-guest funnel showing who was sent the invitation, who opened it and who answered. No card is required to create or send.
Better than Canva at: free at every guest count, with no per-recipient charge and no card required, every guest gets a personally addressed link with their rsvp prefilled and open tracking shows who has actually seen the invitation, not just who replied.
Worse at: digital only: dawat does not print or mail paper stationery and no ticket sales, payments from guests or door scanning.
The paid part: Dawat Signature, a long-scroll cinematic invitation, is $89 once for that event. Nothing else costs anything, and Signature is labelled as paid before you publish.
Dawat vs Canva, side by side →
Create your invitation — free →Sign in only when you publish.
The alternatives in detail
1. Adobe Express
Adobe's template-based design app for social posts, flyers and invitations, with Firefly AI generation and an optional print service.
Price: Adobe Express Free is $0 with 5GB storage; Premium is $9.99/month; Teams is $4.99 per licence per month for year one, then $7.99.
Better than Canva at: substantial free tier: 100,000+ templates, 1m+ stock assets and 4,000+ fonts at $0, firefly generative ai built in, with 250 monthly credits on the $9.99 premium plan and printed invitations can be ordered in the us, uk, australia and canada.
Worse at: no rsvp tracking, guest list or attendance reporting and no custom rsvp questions or per-guest data collection.
Pick it if: People already in the Adobe ecosystem who want polished invitation artwork and will handle RSVPs separately.
Canva vs Adobe Express, side by side →
2. Luma
Event pages and calendars with RSVP, invites, ticketing, and check-in, popular with tech meetups and community organizers.
Price: Free forever plan with unlimited events and guests and a 5% platform fee on paid events; Luma Plus is $59/month billed annually and drops the platform fee to 0%.
Better than Canva at: free plan covers unlimited events and unlimited guests per event, guests do not need a luma account or sign-in to register and invites go out by email plus sms, whatsapp, and push.
Worse at: free plan takes a 5% platform fee on paid events and free plan capped at 500 invites or newsletters per week.
Pick it if: Community, meetup, and startup organizers who want a fast, free event page with invites and light ticketing.
3. Partiful
Free, mobile-first event page and invitation tool built around phone-number RSVPs, text blasts and shared photo albums.
Price: Partiful states its platform is "100% free, no paywalls" with no per-event or per-guest charge; only paid ticketing carries a fee, and free tickets have no fees.
Better than Canva at: genuinely free with no paid tier, per-event fee or per-recipient charge, text blasts let hosts message confirmed guests without a group chat and custom questionnaire collects arbitrary information at rsvp time.
Worse at: guests must verify a phone number by sms code to rsvp and ticketing fees apply to paid tickets and are not published as a rate.
Pick it if: Social hosts running casual gatherings for a phone-native guest list who want zero cost and fast, mobile RSVP collection.
Canva vs Partiful, side by side →
4. Greenvelope
Digital-only invitation service with animated envelope opening, email and text delivery, and RSVP tracking, priced per mailing.
Price: Flat one-time fee per mailing set by guest-list size: $19 up to 20 guests, $59 up to 60, $99 up to 100, $249 up to 250. Annual memberships from $125.
Better than Canva at: flat per-mailing price, not per-recipient credits, so cost is known up front, custom rsvp questions, meal preferences and dietary notes included at every paid tier and email, sms and whatsapp delivery, with open and delivery tracking.
Worse at: price is tiered by guest count, so larger lists cost more per mailing and digital only; greenvelope does not print or mail paper invitations.
Pick it if: Hosts of a single sizeable event who want polished digital invitations and detailed RSVP data for one predictable flat fee.
Canva vs Greenvelope, side by side →
5. Joy
Free wedding website, app, registry and RSVP platform with optional paid domains, SMS messaging and premium digital or printed cards.
Price: Joy states the core product is $0/month with unlimited guests; paid extras are a custom domain (about $19.99/year), Messaging Plus SMS, premium digital cards (50-card minimum) and paper from $1.39 each.
Better than Canva at: genuinely free core: website, registry, rsvp, mobile app and unlimited guests, hundreds of free digital invitation and save the date designs sent by email and guests do not need an account; signup is offered only after rsvp.
Worse at: premium digital cards carry a 50-card minimum order and are sold in fixed bundles and sms delivery of premium cards is a paid add-on, us and canada numbers only.
Pick it if: Couples who want a free, well-designed website, app and RSVP system with unlimited guests and optional paid stationery.
6. Mixily
Web-based event invitation and RSVP tool with ad-free event pages, custom RSVP questions and automatic reminders.
Price: Free plan covers 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event; Lite $19/month (100/100), Pro $29/month (250/250), Plus $79/month (1,500/1,500).
Better than Canva at: no ads on event pages on any plan, including the free plan, guests rsvp with name and email; no guest account or app download and custom rsvp questions for meal choice, dietary needs or song requests.
Worse at: free plan is capped at 50 invites and 40 rsvps per event and free plan allows only 2 active events and 200 emails per week.
Pick it if: Hosts who want ad-free, no-account RSVP collection with custom questions and will pay a single month's subscription.
Canva vs Mixily, side by side →
7. Zola
Wedding planning suite with free websites, RSVP and guest list tools, a universal registry, and paid printed stationery.
Price: Website, RSVP, guest list and registry are free; a custom URL starts at $17.99, printed save the dates from $0.99 each and invitations from $1.79 each.
Better than Canva at: website, rsvp tracking and guest list manager are free with no guest-count charge, custom rsvp questions including meal choice and song requests on the free tier and universal registry and cash funds integrate directly into the website.
Worse at: does not offer digital invitations; only digital save the dates and digital save the dates are shared as a link or image, not sent by zola.
Pick it if: US couples who want a free website, registry and RSVP tracking in one place and will buy printed paper.
8. Greetings Island
Template-driven invitation and greeting card maker with free downloads, a free RSVP tool, and a premium design subscription.
Price: Most designs and the online RSVP tool are free; premium unlocks 10,000+ designs and removes watermarks for $26.99/year, or $8.99 for a single premium invitation and $4.49 for a single card.
Better than Canva at: free online rsvp tool advertised with unlimited guests and no signup, no per-guest or per-recipient charge at any tier and custom rsvp questions, deadlines, guest limits and automatic reminders.
Worse at: free downloads carry a watermark; removing it requires premium and premium designs are gated behind a subscription or single purchase.
Pick it if: Budget hosts who want a free, unlimited-guest RSVP page and are happy to print or share a template design themselves.
Canva vs Greetings Island, side by side →
What to check before you switch
- Price at your actual guest count, not the headline. Multiply the per-recipient rate by the real number of people on your list.
- Whether guests need an account. Every sign-up screen between the link and the reply costs you responses, mostly from the relatives you most want there.
- Whether you can ask your own questions. Meal choice, plus-ones, which nights they are coming — if the product cannot ask, you will be asking by text.
- Whether you can see who opened it. Chasing the people who never opened it is a different job from chasing the people who did and have not decided.
- What happens to replies you already have. Export from Canva before you move, and invite only the people who have not answered.
Questions
What is the best free alternative to Canva?
Dawat. It 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 per guest — with no per-recipient charge and no card required. Luma, Partiful, Joy, Mixily, Zola and Greetings Island are also free to use, with the trade-offs listed above. This page is published by Dawat, so weigh that and check the sources at the bottom.
Why do people switch away from Canva?
Most often because of a specific limitation rather than price. The recurring complaints are: 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 and premium templates, elements and brand features require pro at $15/month.
Is Canva still worth using?
For the right event, yes — and it is worth saying so on a page like this. 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. The alternatives above matter when your situation is different, not because Canva is bad.
How much does Canva cost for 100 guests?
Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Canva charges per designer, not per guest, so guest count does not affect cost; printing is ordered separately. Checked against Canva's own published pricing on 2026-09-16.
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.
Is Canva free for invitations?
Yes, for designing. Canva Free includes the editor, a large free template library, 5GB of storage and free downloads, so you can make and share an invitation for $0. Canva Pro is $15 per person per month or $120 per year and unlocks premium templates and content. Printing is charged separately.
More comparisons
Dawat vs Canva
The full head-to-head, including where Canva wins.
Design tools
Everything in Canva's category, compared.
Head-to-heads with Canva:
Other alternatives guides:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from 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. Canva also offers an assistant integration.
Sources
- 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
- Adobe Express pricing: compare free and premium plans — checked 2026-09-16
- Adobe Express invitation maker — checked 2026-09-16
- Adobe Express Free plan (help) — checked 2026-09-16
- Adobe for creativity connector in Claude (Adobe blog) — checked 2026-09-16
- Adobe for Creativity developer docs — checked 2026-09-16
- Luma pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Luma Plus overview — checked 2026-09-16
- Event registration process — checked 2026-09-16
- Setting your event visibility — checked 2026-09-16
- Inviting and adding guests to your event — checked 2026-09-16
- Partiful homepage — checked 2026-09-16
- What fees does Partiful charge? — checked 2026-09-16
- How do I RSVP to an event on Partiful? — checked 2026-09-16
- Where can I add a link in my event? — checked 2026-09-16
- Partiful (Wikipedia) — checked 2026-09-16
- Greenvelope pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Greenvelope: How much does Greenvelope cost — checked 2026-09-16
- Greenvelope homepage (features) — checked 2026-09-16
- Greenvelope vs Paperless Post (vendor comparison) — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy FAQ — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: Designing and sending Premium Digital Cards — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: Send text messages with Messaging Plus — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: General FAQs, custom domains — checked 2026-09-16
- Mixily plans and pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Mixily vs Evite (ads policy, free-tier limits, guest accounts) — checked 2026-09-16
- How to create an event on Mixily (delivery, reminders, co-hosts, calendar sync) — checked 2026-09-16
- Mixily homepage — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola wedding websites (pricing and custom URL) — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola wedding paper (per-card prices) — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: Does Zola offer digital invitations? — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: Can I send digital save the dates through Zola? — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: How do I edit or add questions to RSVPs? — checked 2026-09-16
- Greetings Island homepage — checked 2026-09-16
- Greetings Island online RSVP — checked 2026-09-16
- How much does a premium subscription cost? — checked 2026-09-16
- How much does a single design cost? — checked 2026-09-16
- About premium membership & benefits — checked 2026-09-16