Bringalong and Evite, compared row by row

This is a comparison for someone choosing, so it is written flat. Evite is the larger product by every measure that can be checked: it has apps, a design gallery, published price tiers and a set of features around the invitation that Bringalong has no answer to. Bringalong is free with no tiers, carries no advertising, and asks nobody to register.

Both agree on one thing hosts often assume is the difference. Guests need no account on either one. Evite's support page is direct about it: "No. The link the host sent you is all you need, open it, answer, done." On Bringalong a guest taps the link and picks a reply.

So the decision sits in four places: what the invitation costs, whether advertising on it bothers you, whether you need the tool to send messages, and what the host will sign up for. The sections below take those one at a time, with Evite's own figures.

What each one is

Evite is an invitation service with accounts, and its terms say an email address is the unique identifier for yours. It has apps on iOS and Android, each with its own support section, a design gallery where every design is labeled Free or Premium, and five published price tiers.

Bringalong is a single invitation page you build in about a minute with no account and no card. You get a public invite link to share and a private manage link you keep, and the manage link holds replies, edits, cancellation and a CSV export. Twelve themes, drawn in code.

The feature sets overlap less than the category suggests. Bringalong adds a bring list, a dietary line only the host sees, a calendar file with a day-before alert and a Secret Santa draw. Evite documents wishlists and registries, event sign-ups, polls, cost sharing and SignUp Sheets. Neither list is a subset of the other.

Price, with the published figures

Evite's premium page says "Pricing is based on the size of your guest list", and its support page on invitation pricing lists the bands: Silver at $17.99 for up to 12 guests, Gold at $36.99 for up to 30, Platinum at $68.99 for up to 75, Diamond at $99.99 for up to 750, and Evite Pro at $249.99 a year for up to 2,500 guests per invitation. Individual upgrades are priced on their own, including envelope and stamp, sticker, background, backside text, ad removal and gifting suggestions removal.

Because the bands are hard edges, the cost per guest swings. Platinum at 75 guests is about 92 cents a head, and Diamond at 750 is about 13 cents. Worth checking before you add the office to a family party.

Bringalong has no tier and nothing priced per guest, and the second half of that is the part to weigh: with nothing to sell, there is no premium design to buy, no envelope and no paid support queue. Free here means one version of everything.

• Silver, $17.99, up to 12 guests.
• Gold, $36.99, up to 30 guests.
• Platinum, $68.99, up to 75 guests.
• Diamond, $99.99, up to 750 guests.
• Evite Pro, $249.99 a year, up to 2,500 guests per invitation.

Advertising on the invitation

Evite documents this across three pages. The premium page says "Premium experiences are advertisement-free, and include a matching envelope, stamps, and additional photo and text cards." The Free versus Premium support table lists "No ads" as a Premium row. The pricing page lists "Ad removal" as a paid upgrade, next to "Gifting suggestions removal".

For a host, the question is whether advertising on a page guests look at for a few seconds is worth a tier. For a work event, some will pay to take it off. For a Sunday potluck, most will not notice.

Bringalong carries no ads on the site and has no gifting suggestions, so there is nothing to remove and no tier that removes it. On data, read both privacy policies in full. Evite's says "These disclosures may be considered a 'sale' or the processing/sharing of personal information for targeted advertising purposes under applicable law", and also that "We do not sell or share your phone number with third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent."

What the guest experience is on each

This is closer to a tie than most comparisons admit. Evite says a guest needs nothing but the link, that an account is optional and is what "lets you RSVP from the app", and that a shareable link "lets people view and RSVP without a personal Invitation". Its mobile pages say "Guests can RSVP from any device."

Bringalong asks the same of guests, which is a name and a reply. What differs is what else is attached to it: a plus-one, a free-text note, a dietary line that stays with the host, a line claimed on the bring list, and a calendar file with an alert set for the day before. A QR code covers guests you can only reach on paper. On these two products, the account question is a host question rather than a guest one.

What the host signs up for, and what each model costs

Evite's terms describe registration like this: "In order to register with Evite you may be required to supply a valid email address, which will be used as a unique identifier for your account, and your first name, last name, birthday, gender, country of residence and ZIP code", and "You will also be asked to set a password." Note the hedge in their own wording: it says may be required. What an account buys is real. Your events sit somewhere you can sign into from a new phone, and a forgotten password is a reset rather than a dead end.

Bringalong has no account, so there is nothing to supply and nothing to reset, and the whole cost lands on the manage link. It is the only route back into your event, nobody can look you up to restore it, and losing it means losing control of a page that carries on working.

So spend two minutes on this before you share anything. Invitations and replies are deleted ninety days after the event date, and anything you want to keep has to leave before then.

• Email the manage link to yourself with the event name in the subject.
• Paste it into a note and pin the note.
• Send it to a co-host so two people can edit the event or cancel it.
• Keep the public invite link somewhere separate, so you never paste the wrong one.
• Export replies to CSV while the event is live if you want the list next year.

Where Evite is the stronger choice

Several rows go to Evite, and two are absolute: Bringalong cannot do them at any price.

Sending is the first. Evite's support page says: "Yes, add guests by phone number and send the Invitation as a text, from desktop, mobile browser, or the app." Bringalong sends no email and no text, so distribution is your job. If you were counting on the tool to deliver fifty invitations, that row decides it.

The second is everything that sits around an invitation. Evite documents wishlists and registries, event sign-ups, polls, cost sharing and SignUp Sheets. For a group trip with shared costs, or a shower with a registry, those are the features doing the work. Add the apps and the labeled gallery and the gap is wide for anybody who wants a polished card and a tool that posts it.

• Sending the invitation as a text to guests added by phone number.
• Apps on iOS and Android, each with its own support section.
• A design gallery with free and premium designs.
• Wishlists, registries, sign-ups, polls and cost sharing.
• An account you can sign back into from any device.
• Paid upgrades including an envelope and stamp.

Where Bringalong is the stronger choice

The case is narrower: cost, one feature, and the start. If your guest list is 30 people and you want an invitation with no advertising on it, that is Gold at $36.99 on the published Evite list. On Bringalong it is free, because there is no version with advertising to upgrade away from.

The feature is the gift exchange. Bringalong runs a Secret Santa draw from the same place as the invitation: type the names, run the draw, and each person gets a private link showing one name. It takes exclusions so two named people never draw each other, a spending limit, a date and per-person wishlists, and the organizer cannot see the full pairing. Evite's documented list covers wishlists, registries, polls, cost sharing and sign-up sheets, which are different things.

The start is the third. With no registration, the time from opening the page to holding a shareable link is about a minute, and a host doing this once in December is not left with an account to maintain.

• No ads and no paid tier, at any guest count.
• A Secret Santa draw with exclusions, a budget and wishlists.
• No registration for the host and no account for guests.
• A dietary line that reaches the host without appearing on the invite.
• A bring list guests claim lines on, plus a QR code you can print.

Moving a guest list, and chasing the replies by hand

If your list lives in an Evite address book, there is nothing here to import it into, because Bringalong collects no addresses or phone numbers. Treat the move as routing rather than data. Write the names out, put the channel you reach each person on next to them, and fifty names usually resolve into four or five routes in about ten minutes.

Then the chasing, which is the job that no sending leaves you. There is no reminder email and no push notification, and the only automatic prompt is the alert inside the calendar file, set for the day before.

A schedule that works for a party three weeks out: post the link in each group chat and pin it, send personal messages to the ten guests you most want there, then at ten days out write a one-to-one line to everyone who has not replied. "No stress either way, I'm shopping Thursday, so a yes or no by Wednesday helps" closes most open replies. At four days out, post parking and buzzer details for the people who said yes.

Choosing in two minutes

Count the guest list first, because on the Evite side it sets the price band, and 13 guests costs a band more than 12. Then ask whether the design is doing real work: a labeled gallery beats twelve code-drawn themes for an engagement party, and for a game night nobody remembers either one.

• Need text sending, apps or a registry: Evite.
• Need a polished card from a gallery: Evite.
• Want an ad-free invitation without paying a tier: Bringalong.
• Want no account for yourself and none for guests: Bringalong.
• Want a Secret Santa draw alongside the invitation: Bringalong.
• Need to collect money or split costs: Evite, since Bringalong does neither.