Hobnob vs SignUpGenius
Short answer: price will not decide this one — both can be used without paying. Choose Hobnob if hosts who want text-message invites and fast mobile RSVPs for casual gatherings and can live with credit limits. Choose SignUpGenius if schools, sports teams, churches and volunteer coordinators filling time slots or item lists who can live with ads on a free account.
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 SignUpGenius are built for different jobs, so the comparison is less about features and more about which job you are actually doing.
Hobnob and SignUpGenius 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. Sign-up sheet and volunteer scheduling tool for schools, churches, nonprofits and teams, with slots, reminders and payment collection. 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 | SignUpGenius | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| What the free tier gives you | Unlimited email invites (no credit cost), free social/link sharing, and 10 text-invite credits per month. | Unlimited sign-up pages, email invites and reminders, duplicate/transfer sign ups, Google Maps — with third-party ads shown. | 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 | Free (ads shown) | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | Free (ads shown) | Free |
| Charges per recipient | Yes | No | No |
| Guests need an account | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Yes | 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 sending invitations without paying, tracking who has replied and sending by email, so those are not the thing to decide on.
- Per-guest fees. Hobnob does this; SignUpGenius does not. If no per-recipient charge matters to you, that is a point for SignUpGenius.
- SMS or WhatsApp. Hobnob includes sending by text or WhatsApp outright; on SignUpGenius it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Open tracking. Hobnob includes seeing who opened the invitation outright; on SignUpGenius it is limited or tied to a paid tier.
- Guest account required. Hobnob does not do this. SignUpGenius does not publish whether it does, so it is worth checking before you send.
- Event website. Hobnob supports a full event website; SignUpGenius does not.
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 SignUpGenius is the better choice
Schools, sports teams, churches and volunteer coordinators filling time slots or item lists who can live with ads on a free account.
- Free tier has no published cap on sign-up pages or participants
- Purpose-built slot logic: dates, times, quantities, wish lists, volunteer hours reports
- Email invites and automatic reminders included at no cost
- Collects payments with no monthly fee, at 5% plus $0.50 per transaction
Where it costs you:
- Free accounts show third-party ads on sign-up pages and in the emails sent
- Ad-free is licensed per sign up: 1 on Silver, 10 on Gold, unlimited on Platinum
- Custom questions are capped at 2 (Silver), 5 (Gold) and 10 (Platinum)
- No invitation design or animation; output is a sign-up sheet page
- Text invites are paid-only: 150, 500 or 1,500 per month by tier
What each one costs, in dollars
Hobnob is one of the 7 platforms in this dataset that charge per guest or per printed card. SignUpGenius 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 | SignUpGenius | Dawat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free tier, paid upgrades | Free |
| 100 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | Free (ads shown) | Free |
| 250 guests | Free by email; $59.99/year if sent by text | Free (ads shown) | 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. | Sign-up pages are unlimited and free at any participant count; the cost is ads, and removing them on one sign up starts at Silver, $11.99/month. | 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 plan with unlimited ad-supported sign-up pages; Silver $11.99/month ($107.89/year), Gold $29.99/month ($269.89/year), Platinum $59.99/month ($539.89/year). Payments collected cost 5% plus $0.50 per transaction.
The third option: something that feels like an invitation
Neither Hobnob nor SignUpGenius 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 | SignUpGenius | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | Yes | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Partial | Not published | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Not published | Partial | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Open tracking | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Animated envelope | Not published | No | Yes |
| Printed cards | Not published | No | No |
| Guest account required | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Yes | No |
| Event website | Yes | No | Partial |
| Registry links | Not published | No | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Not published | Partial | Partial |
| Calendar file | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| AI wording help | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Not published | No | 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 form asks a question. An invitation makes someone want to answer it. Your guest experiences whichever one you sent, and the response rate follows.
| What your guest gets | Hobnob | SignUpGenius | Dawat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guests need an account | No | Not published | No |
| Ads shown to guests | Not published | Yes | No |
| Animated opening | Not published | No | Yes |
| Personally addressed link | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Add to calendar | Not published | Not published | Yes |
| Right-to-left and multilingual | Not published | Not published | Yes |
Questions
Is Hobnob or SignUpGenius cheaper?
Hobnob does not charge by guest count. SignUpGenius costs nothing at either guest count (ads shown). 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 SignUpGenius?
Hobnob suits hosts who want text-message invites and fast mobile RSVPs for casual gatherings and can live with credit limits. SignUpGenius suits schools, sports teams, churches and volunteer coordinators filling time slots or item lists who can live with ads on a free account. 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 SignUpGenius?
Hobnob does not require guests to have an account. SignUpGenius 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 Hobnob and SignUpGenius?
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.
Is SignUpGenius free?
Yes. The free plan includes unlimited sign-up pages, email invites and reminders, duplicate and transfer of sign ups, and admin tools. SignUpGenius states that ads may be visible to people signing up through a free account, and that ads fund the free tier.
How current is this comparison?
Hobnob's published pricing was checked on 2026-09-16 and SignUpGenius'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 SignUpGenius
The full head-to-head, including where SignUpGenius is genuinely better.
Hobnob alternatives
Eight products that do what Hobnob does, ranked.
SignUpGenius alternatives
Eight products that do what SignUpGenius does, ranked.
More head-to-heads:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Hobnob and SignUpGenius'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
- SignUpGenius printable pricing and feature sheet (PDF) — checked 2026-09-16
- SignUpGenius — about advertising — checked 2026-09-16
- Why SignUpGenius has ads and how to remove them — checked 2026-09-16
- How to choose the right SignUpGenius plan — checked 2026-09-16