Zola

Zola is one of the easiest ways for couples to run a wedding website, registry, guest list, RSVPs, and matching paper from a single dashboard. That convenience is real, but it comes with platform lock-in, an iOS-only mobile experience, and a seating-chart workflow that stops being fully free once you move past 15 guests.

Event Planning & Management Digital Invitations Registration & Ticketing Freemium

Free core suite; save the dates from $0.99 each; invitations from $1.79 each; cash funds 2.5% card fee or $0 via Venmo

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Tool Nutrition Label

Founded 2013

Headquarters New York, NY

Company Size 101-250 employees

Funding Venture-backed; Series D; roughly $140M total funding

Pricing Model Free planning suite plus pay-per-piece stationery, cash-fund processing fees, and an in-app seating premium unlock after 15 guests

Free Trial No trial needed; core planning tools are free

Contract No contract for couples; optional paper purchases only

Attendee Capacity Broad guest-list support across the wedding suite, but the free seating chart experience caps at 15 guests before a premium unlock

Mobile App Yes, iOS only

Offline Capability No

Data & Compliance US-based

Expertise Level Beginner

Event Types

WeddingsEngagement PartiesBridal ShowersBachelor and Bachelorette PartiesRehearsal DinnersWedding Weekends

Key Integrations

Venmo (Native)

Support Channels

EmailPhoneChatHelp Center

Best For

+ Couples who want one dashboard for website, registry, RSVPs, guest messaging, and wedding paper
+ Beginner planners who value a guided, free setup over deep customization
+ US-based weddings where matching save the dates, invitations, and registry tools are a priority
+ Couples who want cash-fund flexibility with either 2.5% credit-card fees or a no-fee Venmo option

Not For

− Android-first couples who expect a full-featured native planning app
− Non-wedding planners managing corporate, nonprofit, or multi-format events
− Users who want vendor-neutral workflows without pressure toward Zola paper and store products
− Teams needing advanced seating, floor-plan modeling, or planner-client collaboration tools

Key Capabilities

✓ Launch a free wedding website with matching design options tied to registry and paper workflows

✓ Collect addresses, manage guest lists, and track RSVPs from one planning dashboard

✓ Build a universal registry with physical gifts, experiences, cash funds, and third-party items

✓ Offer cash funds with either a 2.5% credit-card processing path or no-fee Venmo contributions

✓ Order coordinated save the dates, invitations, day-of paper, and envelopes with guest addressing

✓ Browse and contact wedding venues and vendors through Zola's marketplace

✓ Use built-in wedding checklist, budget, and planning to-dos to keep timelines organized

✓ Create a drag-and-drop seating chart in the iOS app and export it as PDF or Excel

Honest Limitations

iOS-Only App and Seating Chart

Zola's app is only available on iOS, and the seating chart workflow lives there. Android users and desktop-first couples lose a meaningful part of the product experience.

Free Seating Tops Out at 15 Guests

The seating chart starts free, but official documentation says you need to unlock the premium version to go beyond 15 guests. That makes the 'free suite' message less straightforward for larger weddings.

Monetization Pulls You Into the Ecosystem

Zola's convenience comes from bundling website, registry, guest list, and paper together, but that same bundling nudges couples toward Zola stationery, store products, and vendor flows.

Seating Premium Pricing Is Opaque

Paper pricing is public and easy to inspect, but the in-app seating premium unlock is not clearly priced on the public web experience. You discover the constraint before you see clear pricing.

Wedding-Only Focus

Zola is built for consumer weddings and wedding-adjacent events. It is not a flexible event platform for conferences, fundraisers, or general-purpose RSVP workflows.

Pricing Breakdown

Plan	Price	Details
Core planning suite	Free	Wedding website, registry, checklist, guest list, and baseline planning tools
Save the dates	From $0.99 each	Published starting price for paper save the dates; premium finishes and shipping cost extra
Invitations	From $1.79 each	Published starting price for invitations; upgraded paper, foil, and extras cost more
Cash funds by credit card	2.5% processing fee	Processing fee applies to credit-card-funded cash gifts; Zola says it does not profit from the fee
Cash funds by Venmo	$0 fee	No-fee contribution path when guests contribute directly via Venmo
Seating Chart Premium	In-app unlock required after 15 guests	Official FAQ confirms the premium unlock threshold, but public web pricing is not clearly surfaced

Cost at Common Event Sizes

100

attendees

$0 software; about $99 for save the dates or $179 for invitations

Uses published starting paper prices only; excludes upgrades, foil, shipping, tax, and any seating premium unlock

500

attendees

$0 software; about $495 for save the dates or $895 for invitations

Uses published starting paper prices only; excludes upgrades, foil, shipping, tax, and any seating premium unlock

1000

attendees

$0 software; about $990 for save the dates or $1,790 for invitations

Uses published starting paper prices only; excludes upgrades, foil, shipping, tax, and any seating premium unlock

Hidden Costs to Watch

! Premium paper stocks, foil, magnets, custom finishes, shipping, and tax can push stationery costs above the headline starting price
! Credit-card-funded cash gifts carry a 2.5% processing fee unless couples route contributions through Venmo
! Seating-chart premium pricing is not clearly published on the web, so couples cannot easily estimate total spend upfront
! Using Zola's ecosystem heavily can make later migration of guest, registry, and paper workflows more cumbersome

Zola is a consumer wedding platform built around one core promise: you should be able to manage your website, registry, guest list, RSVPs, checklist, and paper suite without stitching together five different tools. That all-in-one positioning is why so many couples start here, especially when the core planning dashboard is free and easy to set up.

Where Zola genuinely works well is orchestration. The wedding website connects naturally to the registry, the guest list flows into paper orders, and the broader planning dashboard gives beginner couples a clear path through the usual wedding admin. If you want a guided, mainstream US wedding workflow and you are comfortable living inside one ecosystem, the product is legitimately convenient.

The tradeoff is that Zola becomes less compelling as soon as you want flexibility. The mobile app is iOS-only, the seating chart stops being fully free after 15 guests, and the best experience increasingly assumes you will buy paper products and stay inside Zola’s commerce stack. Couples who care more about invitation design, advanced seating tools, or platform-neutral workflows will usually end up pairing Zola with narrower specialist tools or replacing parts of it altogether.

Comparing this with other event tools?

Get a shortlist of the best-fit options for your event workflow.

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Pairs Well With

Paperless Post

The gold standard for elegant digital invitations — stunning designs, seamless RSVPs, but the coin pricing can sting at scale.

Digital Invitations Registration & Ticketing Freemium

Use Zola for the planning dashboard and registry, then switch to Paperless Post when invitation design polish matters more than ecosystem convenience.

Canva

The fastest way for most event teams to produce polished promo assets and decks, though it is still a design platform rather than a true event-ops tool.

Event Marketing Freemium

Canva fills the gap for signage, seating displays, welcome boards, and other day-of print assets Zola does not specialize in.

MagicTablePlanner

The most affordable drag-and-drop table planner on the market — free for up to 30 guests, just £14.99/year for unlimited seating, with Excel import, PDF export, and check-in mode.

Event Planning & Management Freemium

If Zola's iOS-only seating chart feels too limited, MagicTablePlanner gives you a richer standalone table-planning workflow at a predictable price.

Alternatives

WithJoy

Free wedding website, guest list, RSVP, registry, cash fund, invitation, and mobile app platform with a strong guest-facing planning experience.

Event Planning & Management Registration & Ticketing Freemium

WithJoy is the cleaner wedding-suite alternative for couples who care more about guest-facing website and communication experience than paper-product cross-sells.

RSVPify

A polished event registration and ticketing platform with drag-and-drop seating charts, QR check-in, and industry-low ticketing fees — genuinely usable free tier, but non-ticketed business plans escalate fast.

Registration & Ticketing Freemium

RSVPify is better when registration logic, seating control, and event operations matter more than wedding registry and website bundling.

Greenvelope

Premium digital invitations with polished designs, email/SMS delivery, RSVP tracking, and per-mailing or annual pricing.

Digital Invitations Paid

Greenvelope is the stronger choice for premium digital invitations with more straightforward event-based pricing and less ecosystem lock-in.

Evite

Consumer-friendly digital invitation and RSVP platform with free ad-supported invites, Premium designs, text invites, and annual Pro access.

Registration & Ticketing Freemium

Evite is more casual and mainstream for simple invitations and RSVPs, but it lacks Zola's wedding-specific registry, website, and planning stack.

Questions to Ask the Vendor

1
What does the seating chart premium unlock actually cost once we need to seat more than 15 guests?
2
Do you have a real Android roadmap for the planning app and seating chart, or is iOS-only support the long-term plan?
3
What guest-list, RSVP, registry, and seating data can we export cleanly if we need to move part of the workflow off Zola?
4
How are vendor listings vetted, and how do you moderate or remove negative reviews on vendor profiles?
5
What support response times should couples expect during save-the-date, invitation, or wedding-week delivery issues?

How we research tools

We research each tool by reviewing official documentation, pricing pages, and user feedback from Trustpilot, G2, and Capterra. If something's out of date or inaccurate, use the link below to flag it.

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