Evite vs Paperless Post: Price, Design, and RSVPs Compared
Evite and Paperless Post both send an invitation by email, text, or link and track who is coming. They split on two things: what the invitation looks like, and how you pay for it.
The quick answer: pick Evite for a casual party where free matters more than looks, and accept the ads. Pick Paperless Post when the invitation itself is part of the occasion, and pay per guest. If you want something free to start that also runs the guest list for you (reminders to the people who haven’t replied, plus-ones, a waitlist, check-in at the door), use CarlyEvents. You can even hand it to Claude or ChatGPT and say “invite everyone from last year and remind the ones who go quiet.”
Prices below were read from Evite’s and Paperless Post’s own pricing pages on October 11, 2026.
Evite vs Paperless Post at a glance
| Evite | Paperless Post | CarlyEvents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free option | Free designs, with ads, up to 750 guests | First 50 sends free on the Free feature set | Free to start |
| Best at | Casual parties everyone recognizes | Stationery-grade design | Running the guest list, by hand or by AI |
| How guests get it | Email, text (US and Canada), link | Email, text, link | Email invitation or a public link |
| Reminders | One automatic, up to 5 scheduled, fixed wording | Broadcasts and private messages | Scheduled, and can go only to people who haven’t replied |
| Guest questions | Polls and sign-ups | Short answer and mailing address on every bundle; surveys in All Access | Custom questions on every event |
| Where you run it | Website and app | Website and app | Website, or Claude and ChatGPT over MCP |
What each one costs at 12, 30, 75, and 100 guests
Evite charges one price per event once you want Premium (no ads, envelopes, animated reveals, exclusive designs). Paperless Post charges per guest, and the per-guest rate drops as the list grows. Here is what the same party costs on each.
| Guests | Evite Premium | Paperless Post Basic | Paperless Post Premium | Paperless Post All Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | $17.99 (Silver) | $11.52 | $19.20 | $26.88 |
| 30 | $36.99 (Gold) | $19.20 | $36.00 | $50.40 |
| 75 | $68.99 (Platinum) | $36.00 | $67.50 | $96.00 |
| 100 | $99.99 (Diamond, up to 750) | $46.00 | $85.00 | $120.00 |
Two things the table hides:
- Evite’s tiers are steps, not slopes. A 31-person guest list jumps from Gold to Platinum, and every package is for one event only. You cannot carry it to the next invitation.
- Paperless Post’s free tier is only free for the first 50 sends. Past that, even a free design costs coins: 75 guests on the Free feature set is $12.00, and 100 guests is $18.50.
If you host more than a couple of events a year, both sell an annual plan. Evite Pro is $249.99 and lifts the cap to 2,500 guests per invitation. Paperless Pro starts at $250 for 250 guests a year and $400 for 500, and every invitation sent or RSVP through a shareable link counts toward that total.
Design: party flyer vs. stationery
Evite is a party invitation. Free designs are fine and widely recognized, but they come with ads and gift suggestions around them, and removing either one turns the event Premium. Uploading your own design is also Premium, and only as a JPG or PNG with the text baked in.
Paperless Post is digital stationery. The envelope, liner, stamp, and backdrop are the product, and they sit in the Premium bundle and up. It is the one people pick for weddings, galas, and milestone birthdays, where the invitation is supposed to feel like an occasion.
CarlyEvents sits between them: 48 occasions with 11 designs each, from dinner parties and bridal showers to run clubs and product launches. Change the colors, words, and details, or upload your own HTML if you want something nobody else has.
Guest list and RSVP tools
Both handle the basics: a guest list, RSVP tracking, and a way to message everyone. The differences show up when the list gets long.
Evite sends one reminder automatically, two days before the event or your RSVP deadline, and lets you schedule up to five. The reminder wording can’t be changed. You can cap capacity so RSVPs close at a set number, upload guests from Excel, and add co-hosts.
Paperless Post includes short-answer and mailing-address questions on every bundle, and saves multiple-choice surveys, guest tags, check-in, a custom URL, and password protection for All Access or the Pro subscription.
CarlyEvents includes the full guest list on every event: households and tags to keep couples and families straight, plus-ones, custom questions, a waitlist when you fill up, check-in from your phone at the door, and delivery and open activity next to each name. Guests can answer by clicking the link or by replying to the invitation in plain words, and “Count me in, plus Michael” is recorded the same as a click.
Let Claude or ChatGPT run the guest list
Every action in CarlyEvents is also available over MCP, so you can connect it to Claude or ChatGPT and describe the event instead of clicking through it:
“Duplicate last year’s holiday party, import the guest list from this spreadsheet, add a dietary question, and don’t send yet.”
“Remind only the people who haven’t replied, and tell me who’s bringing a plus-one.”
Creating an event and adding a hundred guests emails nobody. Sending invitations, reminders, and messages are separate, explicit steps, and every new event comes with a link that opens it in your own account so you can see the invitation exactly as guests will. If you want the setup walk-through, see how to create event invitations with Claude or with ChatGPT.
Pick by occasion
- Kids’ birthday or backyard party, money tight: Evite’s free designs, or CarlyEvents if you’d rather not have ads on the invitation.
- Wedding, gala, milestone birthday: Paperless Post Premium or above. The envelope is the point.
- A recurring thing (run club, monthly dinner, team offsite): CarlyEvents. Duplicate the last one, keep the guest list, and let reminders go only to the people who need them.
- Work events with check-in: Paperless Post’s All Access or Pro, or CarlyEvents, where check-in is part of every event. See corporate event invitations for the rest of that workflow.
Common questions
Is Evite or Paperless Post cheaper? For a small paid invitation, Paperless Post’s Basic bundle is cheaper at every list size we checked. Once you want Paperless Post’s Premium design elements, the two land within a few dollars of each other until about 100 guests, where Paperless Post Premium ($85.00) comes in under Evite’s Diamond package ($99.99).
Does Evite have ads? Free Evite invitations show ads and gift suggestions. Removing them is one of the upgrades that makes the event Premium.
Can you send Paperless Post for free? Yes, on the Free feature set, for the first 50 invitations sent by email or phone number. After that each guest costs coins.
Which one can an AI assistant manage? CarlyEvents connects to Claude and ChatGPT over MCP and has a REST API, so an assistant can create the event, import guests, send reminders, and tell you who’s coming. Evite and Paperless Post are built around their own websites and apps.
Related: Evite alternatives, Partiful alternative, best AI invitation makers, and guest list app.
Make the invitation in minutes
Pick an occasion, change the words and colors, and send. Guests answer from a link with no app, and the guest list, reminders, and check-in run from one place.
Get startedSee the prompt
Read https://carlyevents.com/llms.txt and connect to CarlyEvents at https://carlyevents.com/mcp, signing up yourself if you need to. Then help me plan my event and set up the invitation. Don't send anything until I say so.
