Wedding websites compared: the criteria that tell providers apart
A useful comparison crowns no winner, it names criteria. Here are the points where offers for wedding websites genuinely differ — each with the question you can ask, and our own answer beside it. What another provider costs or does is not here: that changes constantly, and an outdated detail would be worse than none at all.
A checklist to take along
Criteria, not winners
Six points you can settle before signing up
They stand in this order because the first one shapes all the others: once you know what a provider earns on, you also understand why its offer is cut the way it is.
The payment model
The price rarely stands alone. What matters is what a provider earns on: your payment, a running subscription, or whatever passes through the site.
The question for the provider
What do you earn on if we book nothing beyond the site itself?
Our answer
On a single payment for one year, and on nothing else. Building and designing costs nothing, there is no commission and no gift list that money flows through.
Data ownership and server location
Your site carries the names, addresses and replies of people who trusted you with them. Where that data sits and who else sees it is in the privacy policy — almost never in the offer.
The question for the provider
Which servers hold our data, and who receives it besides us?
Our answer
Hosting in Germany, encrypted transmission, no sharing with third parties, no advertising on your site.
The term and what happens afterwards
A wedding is a date, not a permanent state. The interesting question is therefore not what the first period costs, but what happens once you simply do nothing after the party.
The question for the provider
Does anything renew by itself, and would we have to cancel it?
Our answer
The single payment covers one year and ends automatically. There is nothing to cancel; we remind you by email before it runs out.
Guest details and what you take with you
Replies, meal choices, allergies: that list is the practical value of your site. Check what form you get it in on the wedding day — in the bustle, a screen is of little help.
The question for the provider
In what form can we pass the guest list on, to the caterer for instance?
Our answer
The seating planner produces three PDFs: floor plan, place cards and an overview for the caterer. There is no spreadsheet export here — we would rather write that down than leave it open.
The address printed on the invitation
Some offers give you a subpage inside the provider's own site, others an address that belongs to you alone. The difference shows at the latest when the address goes to print.
The question for the provider
What exactly is the finished address — with whose provider name in it?
Our answer
An address of your own belongs to the package with the domain, not to the free designing. How it comes about is on our domain page.
Image rights to your photos
Photos are the part you can least easily take back. Whether a provider grants itself a licence to them as you upload is in the terms and conditions, and practically never in the offer.
The question for the provider
Does uploading grant you a licence to our photos?
Our answer
Our terms contain no such licence — your photos stay your photos. The gallery that guests may upload to as well is a package feature.
All six points can be settled before you sign up. If a provider gives no clear answer to one of them, that is an answer too. How an address of your own comes about
How to tell which model is in front of you
Almost every offer for a wedding website follows one of three models. Which one it is can be read off a few traits — and each of them asks for a different calculation before the amounts can be compared at all.
Subscription
How you recognise it
The price is given per month or per year, usually with a discount for paying annually.
What you work out
Do not count the first month, count the whole stretch from planning to the day the site disappears again — and settle whether that day arrives by itself.
Commission
How you recognise it
The site itself is strikingly cheap or free, and in return there is a gift list, payouts or brokered suppliers.
What you work out
Look for the place where a percentage or a fee is named. It is rarely on the price page, but it is somewhere in the conditions.
One-off payment
How you recognise it
There is an amount and a period, and afterwards the matter ends without anyone having to cancel.
What you work out
Settle what happens to the site and to the data after that period, and whether renewing is a decision or something automatic.
We describe models here, not individual providers. Prices and conditions change constantly — always check them with the provider itself.
The checklist for talking to a provider
Eight questions that can be answered in a few minutes — ideally before you create an account anywhere.
- What does it cost to build and design the site before guests ever see it?
- What does the provider earn on besides our payment?
- Does the paid period renew by itself?
- Where does our guests' data sit, and who is allowed to see it?
- In what form do we get the replies back out again?
- What exactly is the finished address that would go on the invitation?
- Do the terms grant a licence to our photos?
- Does advertising appear on our site — and whose?
Copy them down and ask them twice. The answers differ more than the prices do.
Our own details live elsewhere
So that this page stays a checklist and does not turn into a sales page, our own details sit where they belong: the amounts on the cost page, the reasoning for our payment model on the page without a subscription, the feature set on the features page. On this page you find only the answers that belong to the criteria above.
Questions about comparing wedding websites
Three articles from our magazine
One belongs to this decision, two belong to the day itself — which comes after the choice and is the real reason for the whole exercise.
Test us against your own list
Build your site and work through the points above. It costs nothing and asks for no payment details.
Start for freeBuilding and designing costs nothing — no subscription, no commission, no time limit.