Evite vs Punchbowl: Which Free Platform Is Actually Free?

I had two family events a month apart this year: a birthday dinner for my aunt and a neighborhood cookout. Both needed invitations, and I didn't want to spend much on either. That put me in front of the two names everybody mentions for free invites, so I priced out Evite vs Punchbowl properly, using each company's own help center and pricing page.

Punchbowl vs Evite: the short answer

Evite has a free tier you can use indefinitely. Your guests see ads on it.

Punchbowl (or Punch Bowl, as half my group chat spells it) is free for seven days. Its help center answers "Is Punchbowl free?" by saying you can send invitations for free during your trial period, and that your subscription begins when the trial ends. Even then, only the top two membership tiers remove ads.

So if "free" is the requirement, Evite is the only one of the two that meets it. If "no ads" is the requirement, both will charge you. Lemonvite charges a flat $5 per event with no ads.

Evite vs Punchbowl, side by side

Here is what each one costs and includes for the same event, with Lemonvite in the last column.

Punchbowl's upgrade page shows two "from" prices for Platinum, $11.99 a month crossed out and $5.99 a month beside it, without saying who pays which, so the table names the plan and not a price. The Lemonvite $5 includes 50 guests invited by phone number, and each further batch of 50 phone guests is another $5, so 150 guests all invited by phone come to $15. Guests invited by email only don't add to the price. Evite Pro raises the cap to 2,500 guests and Punchbowl Business to 5,000.

Evite: free for good, with ads

A free Evite invitation covers the basics. You can invite up to 750 guests and track their RSVPs. Invitations go by email, or by text to US and Canadian phone numbers. Evite also has a poll feature: you put a question on the invitation and guests answer it when they RSVP.

The cost is on your guests' side of the screen. Evite's terms state that ads appear on a free invitation until the Premium fee is paid, and the help center says free invitations automatically include links to suggested gifts. So every guest you invite on the free tier gets both.

What Evite Premium costs

Premium removes the ads and unlocks the nicer designs, along with envelopes and stamps. It's sold per event, by guest count:

• Up to 12 guests: $17.99
• Up to 30 guests: $36.99
• Up to 75 guests: $68.99
• Up to 750 guests: $99.99

Those are the prices on Evite's help center. Each purchase covers one event. An annual plan, Evite Pro, is $249.99 and covers unlimited invitations of up to 2,500 guests each.

My aunt's dinner had 22 guests, so ad-free would have been $36.99. The same 22 guests cost $5 on Lemonvite, which has no ads at any guest count up to its 150-guest cap. I wrote up the whole free tier, including what triggers the upgrade, in is Evite free?.

Punchbowl: a membership with a free trial

Punchbowl usually gets listed next to Evite as the other free option. The current model is a subscription. Punchbowl's help center puts it in one line: "For new events, you must have a paid membership." New customers get a 7-day free trial, limited to one per account. You enter payment details to start it, and the subscription begins when the week is up unless you cancel. There's also a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The upgrade page lists four tiers:

• Plus covers up to 50 guests per event.
• Premium covers up to 100 guests and adds co-hosts and polls.
• Platinum covers up to 500 guests and is the first tier marked advertising-free.
• Business covers up to 5,000 guests.

Each tier shows two "from" prices: $5.99 and $2.99 a month for Plus, $9.99 and $4.99 for Premium, $11.99 and $5.99 for Platinum. The higher number in each pair is crossed out, and the page doesn't say what the lower one requires. Its FAQ tells repeat customers to sign in to unlock discounted pricing, so the lower number may not be the one a new customer pays. Check the total at checkout before you commit.

The part I'd want to know before subscribing is the ads. Punchbowl's help center says removing ads from invitations requires a Platinum or Business membership. On Plus or Premium you're a paying member and your guests still see advertising. Cancel Platinum, and the ads come back on your invitations. Lemonvite has no ad-supported tier, so there's nothing to upgrade out of.

A guest counts as anyone on the list, including partners and kids in a family. A cookout with 40 adults can pass the 50-guest Plus cap once their children are counted. The longer version is in is Punchbowl free?.

Where Punchbowl is strong

Punchbowl is strongest for kids' parties. All three consumer tiers include what the upgrade page calls exclusive characters from Disney and more, and that's a good reason to pick it. If your five-year-old wants a specific character on the invitation, Punchbowl is where I'd look first. (Our kids' party planning guide covers the rest of that day.)

Every tier also includes unlimited events and delivery by text or email. If you host something every month, the cost per event gets low.

What my two events would have cost without ads

The birthday dinner, 22 guests: $36.99 on Evite. The cookout, about 60 people once kids were counted: $68.99 on Evite, or a Punchbowl Platinum membership, listed from $5.99 or $11.99 a month, since Plus and Premium both leave the ads on.

I didn't pay either. I used Lemonvite for both, which is the product this blog belongs to, so I'm not a neutral party. Publishing an event there is $5, and guests don't see ads. The $5 covers up to 150 guests, with no guest-count tiers below that. Designing the invitation is free, so I had both finished before I paid anything.

Lemonvite has two limits. The $5 includes 50 guests invited by phone number, and events with larger phone guest lists may need additional credits to cover texting costs: each further batch of 50 phone guests is another $5. Guests invited by email only don't count toward that. And Lemonvite has no Disney characters, so the character-party case still goes to Punchbowl.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Evite if you host a couple of casual events a year and ads don't bother you or your guests. It's the only one of the two that's free past the first week.

Pick Punchbowl if you host often enough for a membership to pay off, or you need a licensed character. Budget for Platinum if ads matter to you, and count children when you check the guest cap.

Both start you in a gallery of designs that other hosts also pick from, unless you upload your own artwork. On Lemonvite you describe the party and the design engine makes the invitation, with five free designs on a new account.

Pick Lemonvite if what you wanted from "free" was a low price and no ads. It's $5 per event, and the invitation is designed for that event. Guests get it by text or email and RSVP from the link without creating an account. You can start one here and see the design before spending anything.

Keep Reading

• The detail on each free tier: is Evite free? and is Punchbowl free?
• What each Evite package costs by guest count: Evite pricing.
• More options, ranked: the best Evite alternatives and the best free online invitation makers.
• Wondering why so many invitations get ignored? Read the psychology of RSVPs.
• Here's when to send party invitations for every kind of event.
• Planning a birthday? Browse birthday invitations.