Dawat vs Zola
Short answer: both are free to use. The difference is what you get: Zola gives you website, rsvp tracking and guest list manager are free with no guest-count charge, while Dawat gives you an uncapped guest list, sending by email, a personally addressed link per guest.
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.
Wedding planning suite with free websites, RSVP and guest list tools, a universal registry, and paid printed stationery. 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.
Zola pricing checked 2026-09-16 against its own published pages. Sources · Method
On this page
Side by side
| Dawat | Zola | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Wedding website, RSVP collection, guest list manager, registry, password protection, and digital save the dates. |
| Cost for 100 guests | Free | Free |
| Cost for 250 guests | Free | Free |
| Charges per recipient | No | No |
| Guests need an account | No | Not published |
| Ads shown to guests | No | Not published |
Where Dawat is different
- Unlimited guests. Dawat includes an uncapped guest list. Zola does not publish whether it supports this.
- Email delivery. Dawat includes sending by email in the free product. On Zola it is limited or sits behind a paid tier.
- Per-guest personal links. Dawat includes a personally addressed link per guest. Zola does not publish whether it supports this.
- Open tracking. Dawat includes seeing who opened the invitation. Zola does not publish whether it supports this.
- Animated envelope. Dawat includes an animated envelope opening. Zola does not publish whether it supports this.
- Guest account required. Dawat never does this. Zola does not publish whether it does.
- Ads shown to guests. Dawat never does this. Zola does not publish whether it does.
Create your invitation — free →No card required. Unlimited guests. 53 designs.
When Zola is the better choice
Dawat covers the invitation, not the whole wedding. Zola covers more of the planning, and for some couples that settles it: US couples who want a free website, registry and RSVP tracking in one place and will buy printed paper.
- Website, RSVP tracking and guest list manager are free with no guest-count charge
- Custom RSVP questions including meal choice and song requests on the free tier
- Universal registry and cash funds integrate directly into the website
- Printed stationery from $0.99 per save the date with free envelope addressing
- Free digital save the dates shareable by email, text or DM
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 Zola will cost you something:
- Does not offer digital invitations; only digital save the dates
- Digital save the dates are shared as a link or image, not sent by Zola
- Custom domain is a paid add-on starting at $17.99
- Business model depends on registry and print revenue from your guests
- Published guest-count limits for the free website are not stated
What Zola costs, in dollars
As of September 2026: Website, RSVP, guest list and registry are free; a custom URL starts at $17.99, printed save the dates from $0.99 each and invitations from $1.79 each.
18 of the 33 platforms tracked here can send an invitation without payment. Zola is one of them, and Dawat is another.
| Dawat | Zola | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Website, RSVP and digital save the dates are free at any guest count; only a custom URL or printed paper adds cost. |
Dawat is free to send. Zola 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 | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Guest account required | No | Not published |
| 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 | 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. Zola does not publish whether it addresses each guest individually.
What happens as the list grows
Guest count is not the axis here — Zola 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 Zola 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: Zola'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 | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Free to send | Yes | Yes |
| Per-guest fees | No | No |
| Unlimited guests | Yes | Not published |
| RSVP tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Custom RSVP questions | Yes | Yes |
| Email delivery | Yes | Partial |
| 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 | 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 | Not published |
| AI wording help | Yes | Not published |
| 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 Zola's wedding website free?
Yes. Zola states its wedding websites are free to create and publish, with no fee for RSVP collection, the guest list manager, registry or password protection. The only website-related upsell is a custom URL, which starts at $17.99. Zola earns revenue from registry purchases and printed stationery.
How much does Zola cost for 100 guests?
The website and RSVP tools cost $0 regardless of guest count, so 100 guests is free. Printed stationery is the variable cost: save the dates start at $0.99 each and invitations at $1.79 each, so 100 printed invitations start around $179 before postage.
Does Zola offer digital invitations?
No. Zola's help centre states plainly that it does not offer digital invitations, and suggests customising a digital save the date instead. Digital save the dates are shared by copying a link or downloading the image and sending it yourself by email, text or DM.
How much is a Zola custom domain?
Zola lists custom URLs as starting at $17.99. You can also redirect a domain bought elsewhere to your Zola website at no extra Zola charge. Without a custom domain the site stays on a free zola.com address.
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 Zola?
Dawat's 53 designs are animated card experiences with an envelope opening, plus 8 long-scroll Signature experiences. Whether that beats Zola depends on whether you want a designed occasion or a quick notice.
Can I send printed invitations from Dawat?
No. Dawat is digital only. Zola 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
Zola alternatives
Eight products that do what Zola does, ranked and priced.
Wedding platforms
Every product in Zola's category, side by side.
Zola against the rest:
Dawat against the rest:
How these figures were checked
Every figure above was read from Zola'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. Zola does not publish one.
Sources
- Zola wedding websites (pricing and custom URL) — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola wedding paper (per-card prices) — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: Does Zola offer digital invitations? — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: Can I send digital save the dates through Zola? — checked 2026-09-16
- Zola help: How do I edit or add questions to RSVPs? — checked 2026-09-16