Eventzilla vs Shutterfly
Short answer: Eventzilla is the cheaper of the two. Eventzilla works out to Free (free event); $150 for 100 paid registrations on Basic for 100 guests and Free (free event); $375 for 250 paid registrations on Basic for 250. Shutterfly works out to $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) for 100 guests and ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) for 250. Shutterfly earns the difference if you need free recipient address printing and a saved online address book.
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.
Shutterfly and Eventzilla 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.
Eventzilla and Shutterfly pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
Event registration and ticketing platform with forms, agendas, seating, check-in, and email invitations for conferences and classes. Consumer photo-printing company whose stationery arm prints personalised invitations, with free address printing and a mail-for-me service. 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.
| Eventzilla | Shutterfly | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fee per ticket or registration | Priced per printed card | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Completely free for events that charge attendees nothing, with unlimited free registration types. | None for sending. Free extras on paid orders: address printing, an online address book, and design tools. | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free (free event); $150 for 100 paid registrations on Basic | $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free (free event); $375 for 250 paid registrations on Basic | ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Partial | Yes | No |
| Guests need an account | Not published | No | 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
There is very little the two have in common, which is usually a sign you are comparing the wrong two products.
- Free to send. Eventzilla supports sending invitations without paying; Shutterfly does not.
- Unlimited guests. Eventzilla includes an uncapped guest list outright; on Shutterfly it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- RSVP tracking. Eventzilla supports tracking who has replied; Shutterfly does not.
- Email delivery. Eventzilla supports sending by email; Shutterfly does not.
- Printed cards. Shutterfly supports ordering printed stationery; Eventzilla does not.
- Guest account required. Shutterfly does not do this. Eventzilla does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
When Eventzilla is the better choice
Conference, workshop, and training organisers who want low flat per-registration pricing and detailed registration forms.
- Free events are explicitly free, with no setup or monthly fee
- Flat $1.50 per registration on Basic does not scale with price
- Email invitations to imported contact lists with personalised placeholders
- Seating designer, discount codes, and custom forms on paid tiers
- Supports USD, GBP, AUD, CAD, and EUR
Where it costs you:
- Basic plan allows only one paid ticket type
- Payment processing fees are charged separately on top of platform fees
- White-labelled registration requires the higher-priced Plus plan
- Per-registration pricing means costs grow with attendee count
- The $1,999/year plan includes only 500 registrations before extra cost
When Shutterfly is the better choice
Hosts who want photo-led printed invitations and value having Shutterfly address, stamp and mail the whole batch.
- Free recipient address printing and a saved online address book
- Mail For Me service stamps, seals and mails invitations directly to guests
- Wide format range including flat, gate fold, tri-fold, foil and glitter
- Hundreds of wedding designs with custom colour palettes on selected styles
- Strong photo personalisation, reflecting the core photo-printing product
Where it costs you:
- Priced per printed card, so cost scales directly with guest count
- Postage is not included even when using the mail-for-me service
- No native digital invitation or online RSVP product documented
- RSVP is handled by printed reply cards, sold as a separate enclosure
- Upgrades such as foil push per-card prices toward the $6.51 upper end
What each one costs, in dollars
Shutterfly is one of the 7 platforms in this dataset that charge per guest or per printed card. Eventzilla 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.
| Eventzilla | Shutterfly | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fee per ticket or registration | Priced per printed card | Free |
| 100 guests | Free (free event); $150 for 100 paid registrations on Basic | $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| 250 guests | Free (free event); $375 for 250 paid registrations on Basic | ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| How that is worked out | Basic plan's published $1.50 per paid registration multiplied by volume; payment processing is billed separately by the provider. | Based on Shutterfly's published starting per-card price for its wedding invitation line; upgrades and postage are extra. | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. |
As of September 2026: Free events are free. Paid registrations cost $1.50 each on Basic, 1.9% + $1.50 on Pro, and 2.9% + $1.50 on Plus; an annual plan is $1,999/year including 500 registrations. Printed wedding invitations start at $1.35 per card and run to about $6.51 per card depending on format, paper and finishes such as foil.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Eventzilla nor Shutterfly 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 Eventzilla nor Shutterfly 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 | Eventzilla | Shutterfly | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | No | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Partial | Yes | No |
| Unlimited guests | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | No | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Partial | No | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | No | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Not published | No | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | No | Yes |
| Open tracking | Not published | No | Yes |
| Animated envelope | No | No | Yes |
| Printed cards | No | Yes | No |
| Guest account required | Not published | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Event website | Partial | Not published | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Partial | No | Partial |
| Calendar file | Not published | No | 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 | Eventzilla | Shutterfly | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | Not published | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | 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 Eventzilla or Shutterfly cheaper?
Eventzilla works out to Free (free event); $150 for 100 paid registrations on Basic for 100 guests and Free (free event); $375 for 250 paid registrations on Basic for 250. Shutterfly works out to $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) for 100 guests and ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) for 250. 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, Eventzilla or Shutterfly?
Eventzilla suits conference, workshop, and training organisers who want low flat per-registration pricing and detailed registration forms. Shutterfly suits hosts who want photo-led printed invitations and value having Shutterfly address, stamp and mail the whole batch. 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 Eventzilla or Shutterfly?
Eventzilla does not publish whether guests need an account. Shutterfly 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 Eventzilla and Shutterfly?
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.
Is Eventzilla free?
For free events, yes. Eventzilla's support documentation says it is completely free for simple events such as social gatherings and meetups where attendees are not charged. Paid events are billed per registration according to the plan you choose.
How much are Shutterfly wedding invitations?
Shutterfly lists wedding invitations starting at $1.35 per card, with prices running up to about $6.51 per card for larger formats and finishes such as foil. At the starting rate that is roughly $135 for 100 cards and $338 for 250, before postage.
How current is this comparison?
Eventzilla's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Shutterfly'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 Eventzilla
The full head-to-head, including where Eventzilla is genuinely better.
Dawat vs Shutterfly
The full head-to-head, including where Shutterfly is genuinely better.
Eventzilla alternatives
Eight products that do what Eventzilla does, ranked.
Shutterfly alternatives
Eight products that do what Shutterfly does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Eventzilla and Shutterfly's own published pricing or help pages on 16 September 2026, and each source is linked below. Where a vendor publishes a rate at one quantity and not another, the published rate is multiplied out and marked as an upper bound rather than presented as a quote. 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. Eventzilla does not publish one.
Sources
- Eventzilla pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- How does the ticket fee work? (Eventzilla Support) — checked 2026-09-16
- How to send customized invitation emails (Eventzilla Support) — checked 2026-09-16
- Shutterfly wedding invitations — checked 2026-09-16
- Shutterfly party RSVP cards — checked 2026-09-16
- Shutterfly wedding RSVP cards — checked 2026-09-16
- Shutterfly wedding cards and stationery — checked 2026-09-16