Dawat vs Paperless Post
Short answer: as of September 2026, Paperless Post charges by the head — $105 (Premium feature set) for 100 guests, $263 (Premium feature set) for 250. Dawat charges nothing at any guest count. Paperless Post is still the better pick if you need large free design library sendable to the first 50 recipients at no cost.
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.
Design-led online invitation and card service that charges virtual Coins per recipient for premium designs and features. This page compares it with Dawat on the three things that decide the choice between two invitation products: what it costs once the guest list is real, what your guests see when they tap the link, and what each product will not do.
Paperless Post pricing checked 2026-09-16 against its own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
| Dawat | Paperless Post | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Charged per recipient |
| What the free tier gives you | Everything except Signature: all card designs, party pages, unlimited guests, sends, RSVP tracking and analytics. | Free-feature-set designs sent to your first 50 recipients, plus unlimited distribution by shareable link. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free | $105 (Premium feature set) |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free | $263 (Premium feature set) |
| Charges per recipient | No | Yes |
| Guests need an account | No | Not published |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
Where Dawat is different
- What the guest list costs. On Paperless Post, every additional guest has a price. On Dawat the hundredth guest costs what the first one did: nothing.
- Free to send. Dawat includes sending invitations without paying in the free product. On Paperless Post it is limited or sits behind a paid tier.
- Per-guest fees. Paperless Post does this. Dawat never does.
- Unlimited guests. Dawat includes an uncapped guest list in the free product. On Paperless Post it is limited or sits behind a paid tier.
- Per-guest personal links. Dawat includes a personally addressed link per guest. Paperless Post does not publish whether it supports this.
- Animated envelope. Dawat includes an animated envelope opening in the free product. On Paperless Post it is limited or sits behind a paid tier.
- Guest account required. Dawat never does this. Paperless Post does not publish whether it does.
- Ads shown to guests. Dawat never does this. Paperless Post does not publish whether it does.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
When Paperless Post is the better choice
A comparison published by one of the two products is worth nothing unless it can say this part plainly, so here it is: Hosts of formal or design-sensitive events with modest guest lists who will pay per recipient for a polished, ad-free invitation.
- Large free design library sendable to the first 50 recipients at no cost
- Unlimited free distribution of free-feature-set designs via shareable link
- Custom RSVP questions: open-ended, multiple-choice, checkbox and mailing-address formats
- Delivery and open-rate tracking plus RSVP tracking on the guest list
- 25% discount published for nonprofits, charities, schools and universities
Where Dawat does not compete with it:
- Digital only: Dawat does not print or mail paper stationery
And where Paperless Post will cost you something:
- Charges Coins per recipient, so cost scales directly with guest count
- Envelopes, liners, backgrounds, stamps and logos convert a free design to a paid send
- The free allowance covers 50 recipients, not an unlimited guest list
- An account is required to create and send
- Paid designs start at 2 Coins per recipient before any premium features
What Paperless Post costs, in dollars
As of September 2026: 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.
7 of the 33 invitation, stationery and event platforms tracked in this dataset charge per guest or per printed card. Paperless Post is one of them.
| Dawat | Paperless Post | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Charged per recipient |
| 100 guests | Free | $105 (Premium feature set) |
| 250 guests | Free | $263 (Premium feature set) |
| How that is worked out | Dawat has no per-guest or per-send charge, so the guest count does not change the price. | 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 is free to send. Paperless Post has no equivalent free path at a real guest count.
The guest experience compared
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.
| Feature | Dawat | Paperless Post |
|---|---|---|
| Guest account required | No | Not published |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Animated envelope | Yes | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar file | Yes | Yes |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Not published |
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. Paperless Post does not publish whether it addresses each guest individually. It does report opens, so you will see engagement even if it is not attributed per person.
What happens as the list grows
At 20 guests, the difference between Paperless Post and Dawat is a few dollars and a matter of taste. At 250 guests it is $263 (Premium feature set) against nothing, and it stops being a matter of taste.
This lands hardest on exactly the people with the biggest lists: extended families, community organisations, mosques and nonprofits, and anyone whose wedding invitation list has three hundred names on it because that is simply how many people there are. Per-recipient pricing quietly asks those hosts to shorten the list.
| Guest list | Paperless Post | Dawat |
|---|---|---|
| 50 guests | about $53 | Free |
| 100 guests | $105 (Premium feature set) | Free |
| 250 guests | $263 (Premium feature set) | Free |
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.
Switching, or running both
Most people pick one. If you are mid-way through a guest list on Paperless Post, the sensible split is to leave the people who have already replied where they are and send Dawat invitations to the ones who have not.
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: Paperless Post'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 | Paperless Post |
|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | Partial |
| Per-guest fees | No | Yes |
| Unlimited guests | Yes | Partial |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Yes | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | Yes |
| SMS or WhatsApp | Partial | Partial |
| Per-guest personal links | Yes | Not published |
| Open tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Animated envelope | Yes | Partial |
| Printed cards | No | Partial |
| Guest account required | No | Not published |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
| Event website | Partial | Yes |
| Registry links | Yes | Yes |
| Meal choice or seating | Partial | Partial |
| Calendar file | Yes | Yes |
| AI wording help | Yes | Partial |
| Works inside ChatGPT / Claude | Yes | Not published |
| Multilingual & right-to-left | Yes | Not published |
"Not published" means no vendor documentation could be found either way, not that the feature is missing. How this grid is built →
Questions
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 much is Paperless Post for 100 guests?
At the published Premium rate of $1.05 per guest, 100 guests is about $105 in Coins. The Basic feature set is $0.50 per guest (about $50) and All Access is $1.44 per guest (about $144). Paperless Post notes the per-guest rate decreases as guest count rises, so the real total can be lower.
How do Paperless Post Coins work?
Coins are virtual credits spent per recipient. Total cost equals coins-per-recipient multiplied by guest count — Paperless Post's own example is a design requiring 5 Coins per recipient for 40 guests needing 200 Coins. You can buy exactly the number needed after building a guest list, and unused Coins roll over.
Is there a Paperless Post subscription instead of Coins?
Yes. Paperless Pro is an annual subscription priced by annual guest volume, starting at $250/year for 250 guests. It includes unlimited access to all features with no Coins, and upgrading mid-year costs only the difference between tiers.
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 Paperless Post?
Paperless Post has the larger catalogue, and on breadth of artwork it wins. Dawat's 53 designs are animated rather than static: the envelope opens, the card settles, the type is set for the occasion. Different thing, honestly judged.
Can I send printed invitations from Dawat?
No. Dawat is digital only. Paperless Post does not print either.
Create your invitation — free →Takes about ten minutes. Sign in only when you publish.
Other comparisons
Paperless Post alternatives
Eight products that do what Paperless Post does, ranked and priced.
Online invitation makers
Every product in Paperless Post's category, side by side.
Paperless Post against the rest:
Dawat against the rest:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from 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. Paperless Post does not publish one.
Sources
- Paperless Post pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- Paperless Post features — checked 2026-09-16
- Is Paperless Post free? Can I send for free? — checked 2026-09-16
- Card and Flyer Pricing — checked 2026-09-16
- How to Add Questions for Guests and Recipients — checked 2026-09-16