Wedding website: free, paid, or none at all?
Almost every wedding website is free. That means you pay some other way. How each one makes money, and what that means for you.
· 5 min read
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Key figureshown almost everywhere. The real question is who pays, and how.
There are a dozen ways to make a wedding website, and nearly all of them are free. That isn’t generosity: it’s a business model, and it’s worth knowing which one before you hand over your guest list.
The three ways they make money
A cut of your gift fund. The site is free but takes a percentage of the money your family and friends give you, often around 1.5% plus fees. On a £4,000 honeymoon fund, that’s £60 or more you’ll never see.
Supplier advertising. The site is free and sells visibility to caterers, photographers and venues. Your pages become advertising space, and the recommendations you see there are paid for.
Selling the audience. Your details and your guests’ are worth something to a whole industry. It’s the least visible model, and the one to check in the terms and conditions.
The right questions to ask
- Who takes a cut of my gift fund, and how much?
- Will there be advertising on the pages my guests see?
- What happens to my guests’ email addresses after the wedding?
- Where is the data stored, and can I delete it?
- Does the site stay online after the day, and for how long?
What a free site rarely does
The day itself. Almost every option stops at the RSVP: it helps you invite, not host. A timeline that follows the clock, live announcements, a seating plan that works without signal: that’s where free stops, everywhere.
And doing nothing?
It’s a fair choice for a wedding of forty people who all know each other. Beyond that, having no page costs you in messages: you’ll answer the same five questions a hundred times, often in the evening, often twice to the same people.