Evite vs Paperless Post: An Honest Comparison (2026)
I've planned a lot of events over the years. Birthday dinners, a baby shower, more backyard hangs than I can count. Almost every time, I end up with two browser tabs open, weighing Evite vs Paperless Post and trying to remember which one annoyed me less last time.
So I went back through both companies' current pricing and help pages and wrote down what each one costs and does in 2026. Some of it has changed since the last time I looked. Paperless Post now publishes a per-guest price, for one.
Paperless Post vs Evite: the short answer
Pick Evite when the event is casual and the budget is zero. A free Evite invitation can go to as many as 750 guests, and your guests see ads on it.
Pick Paperless Post when the card itself is part of the occasion. Its Flyer format is free for your first 50 invites. The stationery-style Cards that most people come for cost Coins, which works out to between $0.50 and $1.44 per guest for a list of 50 on the current pricing page.
If you want no ads and you'd also like to skip the per-guest math, there's a third route. Lemonvite charges $5 to publish an event, whatever design you choose. Guests never see an ad.
Pricing: free with ads vs Coins per guest
Evite has two modes. Free invitations cost nothing to send. Evite's help center lists ad removal and removal of gifting suggestions as paid upgrades, so a free invitation carries both.
Premium removes the ads and is priced per event by guest count. Evite's help center lists four packages: $17.99 for up to 12 guests, $36.99 for up to 30, $68.99 for up to 75, and $99.99 for up to 750. If you start with a free design and add any single Premium upgrade (an envelope or stamp, a sticker, a background), the whole invitation becomes Premium at those prices. Frequent hosts can buy Evite Pro instead at $249.99 a year. I went through the free tier line by line in is Evite free?.
Paperless Post runs on Coins, but the pricing page now translates them into dollars. There are four feature sets: Free, Basic at $0.50 per guest, Premium at $1.05 per guest, and All Access at $1.44 per guest. The page's calculator shows a Premium card at 5 Coins each, $1.05 per guest, for a total of $52.50, which is 50 guests. Those rates are for a list of 50. A shorter list pays more per guest, and at 40 guests the calculator shows Premium at $1.15. Unused Coins can be used for future events.
The free part is narrow. Your first 50 Flyer invites are free by text or email, and each additional one costs a Coin. There's a subscription too, Paperless Pro, at $250 a year for 250 guests. The details are in is Paperless Post free?.
Here's the same 40-person birthday on each:
| Evite | Paperless Post | Lemonvite | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free option | Yes, with ads | Yes, as a Flyer | Designing is free |
| 40 guests, no ads, the nicer design | $68.99 (Premium, up to 75) | $46.00 (Premium, $1.15 each) | $5 |
| Price changes with guest count | Yes, four tiers | Yes, per guest | Flat up to 150 guests |
The Lemonvite number needs one footnote. The $5 covers up to 150 guests, 50 of whom can be invited by phone number. Events with larger phone guest lists may need additional credits to cover texting costs: each extra batch of 50 phone guests is another $5.
Design quality
Evite's library is huge and uneven. Some of the free designs look current. Plenty look like they've been in the catalog a long time, and the better ones tend to be Premium.
Paperless Post is the stronger of the two here, and it isn't close. The company works with Oscar de la Renta, kate spade new york and Rifle Paper Co., and the Card designs look like stationery someone paid for.
Both are still catalogs. You pick a design that other hosts are picking too. Lemonvite works the other way around: you describe the party and the design engine makes an invitation for it, with five free designs on a new account so you can see the result before paying anything. You can also upload your own artwork or bring in a Canva design.
Sending by email and by text
Evite sends by email, or by text if you add guests by phone number. Its help center limits text invitations to US and Canadian numbers.
Paperless Post also sends by email or text. The first 50 free Flyer invites can go to an email address or a phone number.
So texting is no longer a reason to pick one over the other. I'd still check how your own guests behave. An invitation email competes with everything else in the inbox, and that's a big part of why no one is RSVPing to your events.
Lemonvite sends each guest a personal link by text or email, and guests outside the US and Canada get the same invitation over WhatsApp. Nobody needs an account or an app to reply.
RSVP tracking and extras
Both platforms track who said yes and who hasn't answered.
Evite adds two things I've used at casual parties. A poll lets you ask guests a question when they RSVP. The What to Bring list lets guests claim items for a potluck, though the host can't assign an item to a specific person.
Paperless Post has Guest Questions. You can add short-answer, multiple-choice or checkbox questions, and guests answer them after they RSVP.
Lemonvite also lets you add your own RSVP questions, like a meal choice or allergies. They're included in the $5, and the answers show next to each guest in your guest list.
Do people still use Evite?
Yes. Evite still sends free invitations, and still sells Premium ones. It's the name my relatives recognize without an explanation, which counts for something when half the guest list is over sixty.
What's changed is the competition. Hosts who dislike the ads now have ad-free options that cost a few dollars, and hosts who want a nicer card go to Paperless Post. Evite is still a reasonable answer for a school picnic or a neighborhood potluck. It's rarely my first choice for anything I'd dress up for.
Which is better, Evite or Paperless Post?
It depends on the event, so here's how I'd split it.
Use Evite for:
- Kids' birthday parties and class events
- Potlucks, where guests can claim items on the What to Bring list
- Big casual guest lists where free matters more than polish
Use Paperless Post for:
- Weddings and engagement parties
- Showers and formal dinners
- Any event where the card should look expensive, and the per-guest cost is fine with you
If you want one overall answer: Paperless Post makes the better invitation and Evite makes the cheaper one. I wouldn't put a 100-person wedding shower on free Evite, and I wouldn't pay a dollar a head on Paperless Post for a backyard barbecue.
Where Lemonvite fits as a third option
Each one has a cost. On Evite your guests see ads, or you pay up to $99.99 to remove them. On Paperless Post a Card is priced per guest, so every name you add costs more.
Lemonvite is our product, so weigh this accordingly. It's $5 to publish an event, with no ads on any plan because there's only one plan. Designing is free until you publish. The invitation is made for your event, and it goes out by text and email. Guests RSVP from a link without signing up for anything. Co-hosts, custom RSVP questions and broadcast messages to your guests by text and email are included in the $5.
It doesn't do everything these two do. The standard guest cap is 150 against Evite's 750, and there's no designer catalog to browse. If you need a 400-person list or a kate spade card, use one of the others.
For the full three-way breakdown, read Evite vs Paperless Post vs Lemonvite. Or design your invitation on Lemonvite first and decide once you've seen it. That part costs nothing.
Keep Reading
- For a three-way comparison with Punchbowl, read Punchbowl vs Evite vs Lemonvite, or compare the two premium options in Paperless Post vs Greenvelope.
- Shopping around? Here's the full list of Evite alternatives.
- The full price lists: Evite pricing and Paperless Post pricing.
- Considering a newer option? Read Partiful vs Evite.
- If your last invitation got no replies, read why static invites fail.
- Get the timing right with our guide on when to send party invitations.
- Or skip the research and browse invitation styles by event type.