Hobnob vs Shutterfly
Short answer: Hobnob is the cheaper of the two. Hobnob does not charge by guest count. 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 Hobnob 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.
Hobnob and Shutterfly 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. 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 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.
| Hobnob | Shutterfly | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Priced per printed card | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Unlimited email invites (no credit cost), free social/link sharing, and 10 text-invite credits per month. | 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 by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Yes | Yes | 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 letting guests reply without an account, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Free to send. Hobnob supports sending invitations without paying; Shutterfly does not.
- RSVP tracking. Hobnob supports tracking who has replied; Shutterfly does not.
- Email delivery. Hobnob supports sending by email; Shutterfly does not.
- SMS or WhatsApp. Hobnob supports sending by text or WhatsApp; Shutterfly does not.
- Open tracking. Hobnob supports seeing who opened the invitation; Shutterfly does not.
- Printed cards. Shutterfly supports ordering printed stationery. Hobnob does not publish whether it does, so treat it as unavailable until you have confirmed it.
- Event website. Hobnob supports a full event website. Shutterfly 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 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
7 of the 33 platforms tracked in this dataset charge per guest or per printed card. Hobnob and Shutterfly are both among them.
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 | Shutterfly | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Priced per printed card | Free |
| 100 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | $135 (100 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | Free |
| 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | ~$338 (250 wedding invitations at the $1.35 starting per-card price) | 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. | 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 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). 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: neither of them is free at 250 guests
Both Hobnob and Shutterfly price by the head, which means the number that decides your bill is the one thing you cannot control: how many people you love. Hobnob does not charge by guest count. 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.
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 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 | Shutterfly | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | No | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Yes | Yes | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | No | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Not published | No | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | No | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Yes | No | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | No | Yes |
| Open tracking | Yes | No | Yes |
| Animated envelope | Not published | No | Yes |
| Printed cards | Not published | Yes | No |
| Guest account required | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Event website | Yes | Not published | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Not published | 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
A printed card is a wonderful thing to receive and a terrible thing to reply to. Whatever the envelope looks like, the reply has to happen somewhere, and that somewhere is what this section is about.
| What your guest gets | Hobnob | Shutterfly | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Not published | No |
| Animated opening | Not published | 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 Hobnob or Shutterfly cheaper?
Hobnob does not charge by guest count. 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, Hobnob or Shutterfly?
Hobnob suits hosts who want text-message invites and fast mobile RSVPs for casual gatherings and can live with credit limits. 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 Hobnob or Shutterfly?
Hobnob does not require guests to have 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 Hobnob 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 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 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?
Hobnob'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 Hobnob
The full head-to-head, including where Hobnob is genuinely better.
Dawat vs Shutterfly
The full head-to-head, including where Shutterfly is genuinely better.
Hobnob alternatives
Eight products that do what Hobnob 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 Hobnob 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. 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
- 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