Hobnob vs Riley & Grey
Short answer: Hobnob is the cheaper of the two. Hobnob does not charge by guest count. 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.
Hobnob and Riley & Grey are built for different jobs, so the comparison is less about features and more about which job you are actually doing.
Hobnob and Riley & Grey pricing checked 2026-09-16 against their own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
Mobile-first invitation app, now Zazzle Events, that sends photo or video invites by text or email and tracks RSVPs. Premium subscription wedding website platform with designer templates, custom domain, digital invitations, RSVP modes and cash registry. 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.
| Hobnob | Riley & Grey | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Subscription | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Unlimited email invites (no credit cost), free social/link sharing, and 10 text-invite credits per month. | 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 by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Yes | No | No |
| Guests need an account | No | 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
Both give you tracking who has replied, sending by email, letting guests reply without an account and a full event website, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Free to send. Hobnob supports sending invitations without paying; Riley & Grey does not.
- Per-guest fees. Hobnob does this; Riley & Grey does not. If no per-recipient charge matters to you, that is a point for Riley & Grey.
- SMS or WhatsApp. Hobnob supports sending by text or WhatsApp. Riley & Grey does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Open tracking. Hobnob supports seeing who opened the invitation. Riley & Grey does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Registry links. Riley & Grey supports linking a gift registry. Hobnob does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
When Hobnob is the better choice
Hosts who want text-message invites and fast mobile RSVPs for casual gatherings and can live with credit limits.
- Email invites cost no credits, so email-only sends are free at any guest count
- Sends real SMS invitations; guests reply by text with no app download
- Delivery and viewed-status tracking plus automated RSVP reminders on paid plans
- Paid plans include event ticketing and payment collection, polls and sign-up lists
- Annual pricing is low: $19.99 or $59.99 a year rather than per event
Where it costs you:
- Text invites are metered per recipient as credits, not unlimited
- Free members get only 10 text-invite credits per month
- Premium's 310 credits per year cap how many texts you can send annually
- Premium designs, reminders and ticketing require a paid membership
- Primarily a phone app; there is no full desktop invitation editor documented
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
Hobnob is one of the 7 platforms in this dataset that charge per guest or per printed card. Riley & Grey 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.
| Hobnob | Riley & Grey | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Subscription | Free |
| 100 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $299 (12-month membership) | Free |
| How that is worked out | Email invites consume no credits at any guest count; text invites consume one credit each, and Premium's 310 credits cover 250 texts. | 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: Free members get 10 text-invite credits a month and unlimited email invites; Essentials is $19.99/year (70 credits) and Premium $59.99/year (310 credits). 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 Hobnob 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 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.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Hobnob | Riley & Grey | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | No | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Yes | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Not published | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Yes | Not published | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | Partial | Yes |
| Open tracking | Yes | Not published | Yes |
| Animated envelope | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Printed cards | Not published | No | No |
| Guest account required | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Event website | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | Yes | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Not published | Not published | Partial |
| Calendar file | Not published | Not published | 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
A wedding guest is usually being asked to do three things at once: read the details, reply, and find the registry. How many taps that takes is the difference between a finished guest list and six weeks of chasing.
| What your guest gets | Hobnob | Riley & Grey | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Animated opening | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Personally addressed link | Not published | Partial | Yes |
| Add to calendar | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Hobnob or Riley & Grey cheaper?
Hobnob does not charge by guest count. Riley & Grey works out to $299 (12-month membership) at both 100 and 250 guests. 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, Hobnob or Riley & Grey?
Hobnob suits hosts who want text-message invites and fast mobile RSVPs for casual gatherings and can live with credit limits. 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 Hobnob or Riley & Grey?
Hobnob 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 Hobnob 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.
Is Hobnob free?
Partly. Hobnob's help centre states that email invites do not cost a credit to send and that sharing an event link on social media is free. Free members also receive 10 text-invite credits a month. Text invites beyond that, premium designs and RSVP reminders require a paid membership.
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?
Hobnob'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 Hobnob
The full head-to-head, including where Hobnob is genuinely better.
Dawat vs Riley & Grey
The full head-to-head, including where Riley & Grey is genuinely better.
Hobnob alternatives
Eight products that do what Hobnob 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 Hobnob 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. Hobnob does not publish one.
Sources
- Hobnob memberships: Essentials vs Premium — checked 2026-09-16
- How can I send invites for free? (credit rules) — checked 2026-09-16
- Zazzle Events product page — checked 2026-09-16
- Hobnob homepage — 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