DawatCompareEvite vs Paperless Post

Comparison

Evite vs Paperless Post

Short answer: Evite is the cheaper of the two. Evite works out to $0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium at both 100 and 250 guests. Paperless Post works out to $105 (Premium feature set) for 100 guests and $263 (Premium feature set) for 250. Paperless Post earns the difference if you need large free design library sendable to the first 50 recipients at no cost.

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.

The decision between Evite and Paperless Post is mostly a pricing decision. They overlap heavily on what they do; they differ on what they charge you to do it.

Evite and Paperless Post pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method

On this page

  1. Side by side
  2. Where they actually differ
  3. When Evite is the better choice
  4. When Paperless Post is the better choice
  5. What each one costs, in dollars
  6. The third option: something that feels like an invitation
  7. Feature by feature
  8. What your guests experience
  9. Questions
  10. Other comparisons
  11. How these figures were checked

Side by side

Long-running digital invitation service offering free ad-supported invitations plus paid Premium packages priced by guest count. Design-led online invitation and card service that charges virtual Coins per recipient for premium designs and features. Dawat is shown as a third column because it answers the same question at no cost, which is the relevant fact for most people reading this page.

EvitePaperless PostDawat
Pricing modelFree tier, paid upgradesCharged per recipientFree
What the free tier gives youFree designs, up to 750 guests, RSVP tracking, read receipts and shareable link, with third-party ads shown.Free-feature-set designs sent to your first 50 recipients, plus unlimited distribution by shareable link.Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics.
Cost for 100 guests$0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium$105 (Premium feature set)Free
Cost for 250 guests$0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium$263 (Premium feature set)Free
Charges per recipientPartialYesNo
Guests need an accountNoNot publishedNo
Ads shown to guestsPartialNot publishedNo

"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, sending by email, seeing who opened the invitation, linking a gift registry and adding the event to a calendar, so those are not the thing to decide on.

When Evite is the better choice

Hosts of large casual gatherings who want a free, high-capacity invitation and can tolerate advertising beside their event details.

Where it costs you:

When Paperless Post is the better choice

Hosts of formal or design-sensitive events with modest guest lists who will pay per recipient for a polished, ad-free invitation.

Where it costs you:

What each one costs, in dollars

Paperless Post is one of the 7 platforms in this dataset that charge per guest or per printed card. Evite 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.

EvitePaperless PostDawat
Pricing modelFree tier, paid upgradesCharged per recipientFree
100 guests$0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium$105 (Premium feature set)Free
250 guests$0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium$263 (Premium feature set)Free
How that is worked outPremium is banded by guest count; both 100 and 250 guests fall in the $99.99 Diamond band (up to 750 guests), charged per event.Guest count multiplied by the published $1.05 Premium per-guest rate; Paperless Post states the per-guest price falls at higher volumes, so treat these as upper bounds.Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price.

As of September 2026: Free invitations carry ads and support up to 750 guests; Premium packages are $17.99 (12 guests), $36.99 (30), $68.99 (75) and $99.99 (750) per event. Evite Pro is $249.99/year. Paperless Post publishes per-guest rates of $0.00 (Free), $0.50 (Basic), $1.05 (Premium) and $1.44 (All Access), charged in Coins. Paperless Pro subscriptions start at $250/year for 250 annual guests.

The third option: something that feels like an invitation

Neither Evite nor Paperless Post 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.

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.

Three Dawat invitation designs shown side by side, in burgundy, blush and midnight blue.
Three of the 53 Dawat card designs. Every one is free to send, at any guest count. Browse them all →

Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.

Feature by feature

FeatureEvitePaperless PostDawat
Free to sendYesPartialYes
Per-guest feesPartialYesNo
Unlimited guestsPartialPartialYes
RSVP trackingYesYesYes
Custom RSVP questionsPartialYesYes
Email deliveryYesYesYes
SMS or WhatsAppPartialPartialPartial
Per-guest personal linksNot publishedNot publishedYes
Open trackingYesYesYes
Animated envelopePartialPartialYes
Printed cardsNoPartialNo
Guest account requiredNoNot publishedNo
Ads shown to guestsPartialNot publishedNo
Event websitePartialYesPartial
Registry linksYesYesYes
Meal choice or seatingPartialPartialPartial
Calendar fileYesYesYes
AI wording helpNot publishedPartialYes
Works inside ChatGPT / ClaudeNot publishedNot publishedYes
Multilingual & right-to-leftNot publishedNot publishedYes

"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

Hosts compare dashboards. Guests get one link, once, usually on a phone, often while doing something else. Everything standing between that tap and an answer costs you replies.

What your guest getsEvitePaperless PostDawat
Guests need an accountNoNot publishedNo
Ads shown to guestsPartialNot publishedNo
Animated openingPartialPartialYes
Personally addressed linkNot publishedNot publishedYes
Add to calendarYesYesYes
Right-to-left and multilingualNot publishedNot publishedYes

Questions

Is Evite or Paperless Post cheaper?

Evite works out to $0 free with ads, or $99.99 Premium at both 100 and 250 guests. Paperless Post works out to $105 (Premium feature set) for 100 guests and $263 (Premium feature set) 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, Evite or Paperless Post?

Evite suits hosts of large casual gatherings who want a free, high-capacity invitation and can tolerate advertising beside their event details. Paperless Post suits hosts of formal or design-sensitive events with modest guest lists who will pay per recipient for a polished, ad-free invitation. 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 Evite or Paperless Post?

Evite does not require guests to have an account. Paperless Post 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 Evite and Paperless Post?

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 Evite free?

Yes. Evite publishes free designs that cost nothing to send, and free invitations support up to 750 guests. The trade-off is that free invitations display third-party ads to your guests. Removing ads, or adding envelopes, stickers, backgrounds or animated effects, converts the invitation to a paid Premium send.

Is Paperless Post free?

Partly. Designs on the Free feature set can be sent to your first 50 recipients at no charge, and can be distributed to unlimited people via a shareable link. Adding envelopes, liners, backgrounds, stamps or logos moves the design to a paid feature set. Paid card designs start at 2 Coins per recipient.

How current is this comparison?

Evite's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and Paperless Post'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 Evite

The full head-to-head, including where Evite is genuinely better.

Dawat vs Paperless Post

The full head-to-head, including where Paperless Post is genuinely better.

Evite alternatives

Eight products that do what Evite does, ranked.

Paperless Post alternatives

Eight products that do what Paperless Post does, ranked.

More head-to-heads:

Evite vs PunchbowlEvite vs GreenvelopeEvite vs PartifulEvite vs SmileboxEvite vs Greetings Island

All comparisons →

How these figures were checked

Every figure above was read from Evite and Paperless Post'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. Evite does not publish one.

Sources