Canva vs Greetings Island
Short answer: pick Canva for design-confident hosts who want full creative control over the artwork and will collect rsvps somewhere else. Pick Greetings Island for budget hosts who want a free, unlimited-guest rsvp page and are happy to print or share a template design themselves.
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.
Canva and Greetings Island are built for different jobs, so the comparison is less about features and more about which job you are actually doing.
Canva and Greetings Island pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
- Side by side
- Where they actually differ
- When Canva is the better choice
- When Greetings Island is the better choice
- What each one costs, in dollars
- The third option: something that feels like an invitation
- Feature by feature
- What your guests experience
- Questions
- Other comparisons
- How these figures were checked
Side by side
General-purpose design platform with invitation templates, printing and website publishing; it is a design tool, not an RSVP system. Template-driven invitation and greeting card maker with free downloads, a free RSVP tool, and a premium design subscription. 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.
| Canva | Greetings Island | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Full editor, a large free template and element library, 5GB storage, sharing by link, and free downloads. | Most templates, editing, download, sharing and unlimited-guest online RSVP with no signup; free designs carry a watermark. | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | Free |
| Charges per recipient | No | No | No |
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | 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 no per-recipient charge and letting guests reply without an account, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Free to send. Greetings Island includes sending invitations without paying outright; on Canva it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Unlimited guests. Greetings Island includes an uncapped guest list outright; on Canva it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- RSVP tracking. Greetings Island supports tracking who has replied; Canva does not.
- Custom RSVP questions. Greetings Island supports asking your own questions; Canva does not.
- Printed cards. Canva includes ordering printed stationery outright; on Greetings Island it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Ads shown to guests. Canva does not do this. Greetings Island does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
- Event website. Canva includes a full event website outright; on Greetings Island it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Registry links. Greetings Island includes linking a gift registry outright; on Canva it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
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
When Greetings Island is the better choice
Budget hosts who want a free, unlimited-guest RSVP page and are happy to print or share a template design themselves.
- Free online RSVP tool advertised with unlimited guests and no signup
- No per-guest or per-recipient charge at any tier
- Custom RSVP questions, deadlines, guest limits and automatic reminders
- Designs can be downloaded and printed, or shared by link or QR code
- Single premium design purchase ($8.99 invitation) avoids a subscription
Where it costs you:
- Free downloads carry a watermark; removing it requires premium
- Premium designs are gated behind a subscription or single purchase
- Unlimited email invites and scheduled sending are premium features
- RSVP by text message to a phone number is a premium feature
- A single premium design purchase does not include other premium features
What each one costs, in dollars
Neither Canva nor Greetings Island bills by guest count, which puts them among the 26 platforms in this dataset that do 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.
| Canva | Greetings Island | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| 100 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | Free |
| 250 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $0 free, or $26.99/year premium | Free |
| How that is worked out | Canva charges per designer, not per guest, so guest count does not affect cost; printing is ordered separately. | Greetings Island charges by design and subscription, not by guest; its RSVP tool advertises unlimited guests, so headcount does not change the price. | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. |
As of September 2026: 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. 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.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Canva nor Greetings Island 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.
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 | Canva | Greetings Island | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | No | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | No | Yes | Yes |
| Email delivery | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | No | Not published | Yes |
| Open tracking | No | Not published | Yes |
| Animated envelope | No | Not published | Yes |
| Printed cards | Yes | Partial | No |
| Guest account required | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published | No |
| Event website | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Registry links | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | No | Partial | Partial |
| Calendar file | No | Not published | Yes |
| AI wording help | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Yes | 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
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 | Canva | Greetings Island | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published | No |
| Animated opening | No | Not published | Yes |
| Personally addressed link | No | Not published | Yes |
| Add to calendar | No | Not published | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Canva or Greetings Island cheaper?
Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Greetings Island works out to $0 free, or $26.99/year premium at both 100 and 250 guests. Neither charges by guest count, so the difference does not grow with the list. Both were checked on 2026-09-16.
Which is better for a wedding, Canva or Greetings Island?
Canva suits design-confident hosts who want full creative control over the artwork and will collect RSVPs somewhere else. Greetings Island suits budget hosts who want a free, unlimited-guest RSVP page and are happy to print or share a template design themselves. 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 Canva or Greetings Island?
Canva does not require guests to have an account. Greetings Island 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 Canva and Greetings Island?
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.
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 Greetings Island free?
Largely yes. Greetings Island says most features are free with no sign-up required, and its online RSVP tool is free for every invitation with unlimited guests and no credit card. Free downloads carry a watermark, and premium designs require a purchase or subscription.
How current is this comparison?
Canva's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Greetings Island'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 Canva
The full head-to-head, including where Canva is genuinely better.
Dawat vs Greetings Island
The full head-to-head, including where Greetings Island is genuinely better.
Canva alternatives
Eight products that do what Canva does, ranked.
Greetings Island alternatives
Eight products that do what Greetings Island does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Canva and Greetings Island'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
- 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