Canva vs Riley & Grey
Short answer: Canva is the cheaper of the two. Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Riley & Grey works out to $299 (12-month membership) at both 100 and 250 guests. Riley & Grey earns the difference if you need custom domain is included in the membership rather than an extra charge.
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 Riley & Grey are built for different jobs, so the comparison is less about features and more about which job you are actually doing.
Canva and Riley & Grey pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
General-purpose design platform with invitation templates, printing and website publishing; it is a design tool, not an RSVP system. Premium subscription wedding website platform with designer templates, custom domain, digital invitations, RSVP modes and cash registry. 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 | Riley & Grey | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Subscription | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Full editor, a large free template and element library, 5GB storage, sharing by link, and free downloads. | Build a site, pick a design, draft invitations and set up a registry; publishing requires a paid membership. | 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) | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $299 (12-month membership) | 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, letting guests reply without an account and a full event website, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- RSVP tracking. Riley & Grey supports tracking who has replied; Canva does not.
- Email delivery. Riley & Grey includes sending by email outright; on Canva it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Printed cards. Canva supports ordering printed stationery; Riley & Grey does not.
- Ads shown to guests. Canva does not do this. Riley & Grey does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
- Registry links. Riley & Grey includes linking a gift registry outright; on Canva it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- AI wording help. Canva supports writing the wording with AI. Riley & Grey 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. Riley & Grey does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
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 Riley & Grey is the better choice
Design-led couples wanting a premium, ad-free site with an included custom domain and unlimited digital invitations.
- Custom domain is included in the membership rather than an extra charge
- Unlimited digital invitation sending with no per-recipient fee
- Free to build and preview; payment only required to publish
- Simple and Advanced RSVP modes, with guest email addresses optional
- Print-ready high-resolution invitation files can be exported for outside printing
Where it costs you:
- No free publishing tier; the site stays unpublished until you pay
- $39 per month or $299 per year is materially above free competitors
- Monetary gifts carry a 2.95% transaction fee, paid by giver or couple
- Post-wedding PDF archive of the site is a separate $39 purchase
- Does not print or mail physical stationery; you export files and print elsewhere
What each one costs, in dollars
Neither Canva nor Riley & Grey 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 | Riley & Grey | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Subscription | Free |
| 100 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| 250 guests | Free (design only; no sending or RSVP) | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| How that is worked out | Canva charges per designer, not per guest, so guest count does not affect cost; printing is ordered separately. | Membership price is flat and Riley & Grey states there is no cost to send as many invitations as you like. | 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. Free to design; publishing costs $39 per month or $299 for twelve months, including a custom domain and unlimited invitation sending. Optional $39 domain reserve and $39 post-wedding PDF archive.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Canva nor Riley & Grey 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 | Riley & Grey | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Partial | No | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | No | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Not published | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | No | Not published | Yes |
| Email delivery | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Partial | Not published | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | No | Partial | Yes |
| Open tracking | No | Not published | Yes |
| Animated envelope | No | Not published | Yes |
| Printed cards | Yes | No | No |
| Guest account required | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published | No |
| Event website | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Registry links | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | No | Not published | Partial |
| Calendar file | No | Not published | Yes |
| AI wording help | Yes | Not published | 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 | Riley & Grey | 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 | Partial | Yes |
| Add to calendar | No | Not published | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Canva or Riley & Grey cheaper?
Canva costs nothing at either guest count (design only; no sending or RSVP). Riley & Grey works out to $299 (12-month membership) 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 Riley & Grey?
Canva suits design-confident hosts who want full creative control over the artwork and will collect RSVPs somewhere else. Riley & Grey suits design-led couples wanting a premium, ad-free site with an included custom domain and unlimited digital invitations. 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 Riley & Grey?
Canva does not require guests to have an account. Riley & Grey 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 Riley & Grey?
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.
How much does Riley & Grey cost?
Signing up and building a site is free; publishing costs $39 per month or $299 for a twelve-month package, which Riley & Grey describes as 36% savings. A $39 reserve option holds your domain and design, and that $39 is credited toward your future publishing cost.
How current is this comparison?
Canva's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Riley & Grey'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 Riley & Grey
The full head-to-head, including where Riley & Grey is genuinely better.
Canva alternatives
Eight products that do what Canva does, ranked.
Riley & Grey alternatives
Eight products that do what Riley & Grey does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Canva and Riley & Grey'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
- Riley & Grey pricing and plans — checked 2026-09-16
- Riley & Grey FAQ — checked 2026-09-16
- Riley & Grey homepage — checked 2026-09-16