Dawat vs Joy
Short answer: both are free to use. The difference is what you get: Joy gives you genuinely free core: website, registry, rsvp, mobile app and unlimited guests, while Dawat gives you asking your own questions, a personally addressed link per guest, seeing who opened the invitation.
Dawat is free at every guest count: 53 card designs, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking with your own questions, and a personally addressed link for each guest. The only paid item is a Dawat Signature cinematic experience at $89 once per event.
Free wedding website, app, registry and RSVP platform with optional paid domains, SMS messaging and premium digital or printed cards. This page compares it with Dawat on what the free tier actually covers, on how invitations reach guests, and on which parts of the wedding stack you would still be paying for.
Joy pricing checked 2026-09-16 against its own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
| Dawat | Joy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Free tier, paid upgrades |
| What the free tier gives you | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. | Website, planning dashboard, registry, mobile app, unlimited guests, online RSVP, and hundreds of free digital invite designs. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free | Free |
| Charges per recipient | No | Partial |
| Guests need an account | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
Where Dawat is different
- Per-guest fees. Joy does this in some cases. Dawat never does.
- Custom RSVP questions. Dawat includes asking your own questions. Joy does not publish whether it supports this.
- Per-guest personal links. Dawat includes a personally addressed link per guest. Joy does not publish whether it supports this.
- Open tracking. Dawat includes seeing who opened the invitation. Joy does not publish whether it supports this.
- Animated envelope. Dawat includes an animated envelope opening. Joy does not publish whether it supports this.
- Ads shown to guests. Dawat never does this. Joy does not publish whether it does.
- Calendar file. Dawat includes adding the event to a calendar. Joy does not publish whether it supports this.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
When Joy is the better choice
Dawat covers the invitation, not the whole wedding. Joy covers more of the planning, and for some couples that settles it: Couples who want a free, well-designed website, app and RSVP system with unlimited guests and optional paid stationery.
- Genuinely free core: website, registry, RSVP, mobile app and unlimited guests
- Hundreds of free digital invitation and save the date designs sent by email
- Guests do not need an account; signup is offered only after RSVP
- Multi-language support including English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese
- Paper invitations from $1.39 each with free recipient and return address printing
Where Dawat does not compete with it:
- Digital only: Dawat does not print or mail paper stationery
- A smaller design catalogue than the largest stationery marketplaces
And where Joy will cost you something:
- Premium digital cards carry a 50-card minimum order and are sold in fixed bundles
- SMS delivery of premium cards is a paid add-on, US and Canada numbers only
- Messaging Plus, which unlocks text blasts and RSVP reminders, is a separate purchase
- Prices for Messaging Plus and premium digital cards are not published on help pages
- Custom domain costs extra, quoted at roughly $19.99 per year
What Joy costs, in dollars
As of September 2026: Joy states the core product is $0/month with unlimited guests; paid extras are a custom domain (about $19.99/year), Messaging Plus SMS, premium digital cards (50-card minimum) and paper from $1.39 each.
18 of the 33 platforms tracked here can send an invitation without payment. Joy is one of them, and Dawat is another.
| Dawat | Joy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Free tier, paid upgrades |
| 100 guests | Free | Free |
| 250 guests | Free | Free |
| How that is worked out | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. | Free basic digital cards and RSVP carry no per-guest fee; premium cards and SMS bundles are priced only at checkout. |
Dawat is free to send. Joy can also be used without paying; the differences are in what each free tier includes, which the table below sets out.
The guest experience compared
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.
| Feature | Dawat | Joy |
|---|---|---|
| Guest account required | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Animated envelope | Yes | Not published |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Not published |
| Calendar file | Yes | Not published |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Partial |
On Dawat, the link is addressed to the person holding it. The envelope opens with their name on it, their RSVP is already prefilled, and answering is one tap. Joy does not publish whether it addresses each guest individually.
What happens as the list grows
Guest count is not the axis here — Joy does not bill per recipient. The thing that changes as the list grows is administration: chasing replies, keeping a headcount honest, and knowing who never opened the thing. Dawat gives every guest their own link, so the dashboard shows sent, opened and answered per person instead of a pile of replies you have to reconcile.
Switching, or running both
Running both is normal. Keep Joy for the registry and the planning tools, and use Dawat for the invitation itself and the guest list, which is the part that has to work on a phone.
If you are moving across, the fastest route is Dawat's import: paste the link to your existing invitation and Dawat reads the wording, date, venue and colour mood off the page and rebuilds it as a prefilled draft you can edit. Guest lists come in from your phone's contacts, a .vcf file, or pasted text.
What does not come across: Joy's designs, and any replies already collected there. Export your RSVPs before you switch, and send the Dawat invitation only to the people who have not answered.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Dawat | Joy |
|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | No | Partial |
| Unlimited guests | Yes | Yes |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Yes | Not published |
| Email delivery | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Partial | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Not published |
| Animated envelope | Yes | Not published |
| Printed cards | No | Yes |
| Guest account required | No | No |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Event website | Partial | Yes |
| Registry links | Yes | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Partial | Not published |
| Calendar file | Yes | Not published |
| AI wording help | Yes | Not published |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Yes | Not published |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Partial |
"Not published" means no vendor documentation could be found either way, not that the feature is missing. How this grid is built →
Questions
Is Joy (withjoy.com) really free?
Yes for the core product. Joy's pricing page states 'Joy is free to use. $0/mo', covering the planning dashboard, wedding website, registry, mobile app, unlimited guests, online RSVP and hundreds of free digital invites. Joy earns revenue from registry purchases and optional upgrades such as domains, SMS and premium stationery.
How much does Joy cost for 100 guests?
Nothing if you use basic digital cards and the free website, because Joy advertises unlimited guests with no per-guest fee. Costs appear only if you choose premium digital cards, which have a 50-card minimum and bundle sizes of 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000, or add SMS delivery. Joy does not publish those bundle prices.
Do guests need an account to RSVP on Joy?
No. Joy's FAQ states that creating an account is 'totally optional' and the prompt only appears after a guest completes their RSVP. Guests can be reached by emailed invitation or by a link shared via text, WhatsApp, Messenger or social media.
Does Joy charge for text message invitations?
Yes. Text delivery of premium digital cards is a paid add-on available for US and Canadian numbers only. Separately, Messaging Plus is a one-time purchase that unlocks text blasts, RSVP reminders, hotel reminders and scheduled sending, but it does not cover premium card delivery. Neither price is published.
Is Dawat free?
Yes. All 53 card designs and every party-page theme, unlimited guests, unlimited sends, RSVP tracking, custom questions and the per-guest analytics cost nothing, and no card is required. The only paid item is a Dawat Signature cinematic experience at $89 once for that event, and it is labelled as paid before you publish.
Does Dawat have designs as good as Joy?
Dawat's 53 designs are animated card experiences with an envelope opening, plus 8 long-scroll Signature experiences. Whether that beats Joy depends on whether you want a designed occasion or a quick notice.
Can I send printed invitations from Dawat?
No. Dawat is digital only. Joy does print and mail stationery, and if a physical card matters to you that is a genuine reason to use it.
Create your invitation — free →Takes about ten minutes. Sign in only when you publish.
Other comparisons
Joy alternatives
Eight products that do what Joy does, ranked and priced.
Wedding platforms
Every product in Joy's category, side by side.
Joy against the rest:
Dawat against the rest:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Joy'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. Joy does not publish one.
Sources
- Joy pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy FAQ — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: Designing and sending Premium Digital Cards — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: Send text messages with Messaging Plus — checked 2026-09-16
- Joy help: General FAQs, custom domains — checked 2026-09-16