Wedding Platform Comparison
GuestlistOnline vs Zola
A registry brand with a free website, paper invitations and a seating chart vs a guest list platform that runs the door.
Free up to 50 guests · Free plan: no credit card · Free events: no fees
Short answer
Zola is a registry company first, and it gives away a lot around that: a free wedding website with 600+ designs, a guest list, RSVPs, a $14.99 seating chart in the app, paper invitations from $1.79 a card and a vendor marketplace, with the lowest card fee on cash funds in this comparison at 2.5% and a zero-fee Venmo route. It is also the most US-bound tool here, English only, payouts to US banks only, US shipping and US-only SMS, the Android app shut down in 2023, there are no digital invitations, there is no check-in of any kind, and the privacy policy says Zola sells and shares identifiers with advertising partners and mailing lists. GuestlistOnline adds QR check-in with an offline scanner, seven languages, EU hosting and iDEAL, and a gift fund at 5% + 0.25 in the ticket currency, dearer than Zola on card gifts, but with no US bank account required.
Side by side
Feature comparison
An honest look at how the two platforms compare.
| Feature | GuestlistOnline | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Costs & payouts | ||
| Free plan | Free: 1 event, 50 guests, guest list, RSVP page and manual check-in, no credit card | Website, guest list and RSVPs are free, with no subscription anywhere in the product |
| What it costs | €0 free, €19.99 for one event, €29/month or €249/year on Pro | No subscription; one-off purchases instead, custom domain from $17.99, Premium Website Effects $1.99 to $9.99, seating chart $14.99, guest messaging $59.99 to $79.99, paper $1.79 to $4.49 a card |
| Cash or gift fund fees | Gift fund through your own Stripe account at 5% + 0.25 in the ticket currency, payment processing included, dearer than Zola on card gifts, but it needs no US bank account | Card contributions carry a 2.5% handling fee, paid by the guest or by you; the Venmo route is zero-fee but logged by hand, and taking the gift as store credit adds 5% |
| Selling tickets | Built in: no fees on free events; paid tickets 5% + €0.25 per ticket, payment processing included | Not available, Zola sells no tickets |
| Payments and payouts | Stripe Connect in your own name, iDEAL included, payouts on your own Stripe schedule | Cash fund payouts go to a US bank account only, and the first one can take up to ten business days; USD only |
| Guest list & RSVP | ||
| Guest import | CSV import with names, email addresses and mapped columns, on any device | CSV import with name, plus one and address, and a more flexible AI spreadsheet import that exists only in the iOS app |
| Plus-ones and households | Plus-ones with names and your own wording on the registration page | Households capped at two adults, plus-ones added as "Name Unknown", and every guest stored under a single display name |
| RSVP questions | 13 registration field types with dietary requirements built in; meal choice as a custom dropdown question, both filterable and exportable | Meal choices and open text questions per event, and nothing beyond that |
| Capacity, deadline and approval | Capacity limit that closes registration when full, plus guest approval | A closed guest list with name lookup and a lockout after wrong names, and private per-guest events; an RSVP deadline is not published |
| Seating chart | Not offered, tags group guests by table, but there is no floorplan and no auto-seating | A drag-and-drop seating chart, $14.99 in the app, exportable as a PDF |
| Check-in & door | ||
| QR check-in | QR code per guest, scanned in the browser or the PWA scanner, on every paid plan | Not available, Zola has no check-in; the QR codes it offers are printed on Zola paper products |
| Offline mode | Full offline scanning, the list syncs before the doors open, scans run locally, results sync back | Not available, there is nothing to scan |
| Several devices at once | Multiple scanner devices on the same guest list, synced live, with door-staff access tokens | Not available, Zola has no door tools, and only one partner can be invited to the account |
| Branding & communication | ||
| Wedding website | Not offered, you get a branded registration page, not a wedding website | A free wedding website with 600+ designs, at zola.com/wedding/yourname |
| Registry and paper | Not offered, the gift fund collects money, but there is no registry and no printing | Registry, paper invitations from $1.79 a card with free samples, and a vendor marketplace, all from one brand |
| Digital invitations | Email invitations, reminders and templates in your own branding | Not available, Zola offers digital save-the-dates but no digital invitations, and email is plain text |
| Custom domain | Custom branding from Per Event, full white-label on Enterprise | A custom domain from $17.99 that forwards only, with no masking |
| Text messages | Email invitations, reminders and templates, no SMS blasts | Premium Guest Messaging, $59.99 to $79.99 in the App Store, US numbers only and capped at 320 characters |
| Platform | ||
| Languages | 7 languages across the dashboard and the guest pages, Dutch included | English only, and the guest list does not accept special characters |
| Apps and devices | Runs in any browser; the check-in scanner installs as a PWA on iOS and Android with no app store | Web and iOS only, the Android app shut down in January 2023, and the seating chart and AI import live in the iPhone app |
| Where it works | Euro, dollar and pound, with guests and organisers anywhere | US only in practice: USD only, US bank for payouts, US shipping for paper and US numbers for SMS |
| Data location | Hosted in the EU, with no advertising business attached to your guest list | A US company in New York whose policy allows processing anywhere and has no GDPR section; the privacy policy of 9 October 2025 says Zola sells and shares identifiers with advertising partners and mailing lists |
| Team access | 6 roles, up to 5 team members on Per Event and 50 on Pro | One partner invite, and no login for a wedding planner |
| API & export | CSV export of guests, RSVPs, answers and check-in status; REST API and webhooks on Enterprise | CSV or Excel export of the guest list, addresses and RSVPs with meals, on desktop only, plus a seating PDF; no API |
| Best for | Private events, clubs, weddings and anything with a door | US couples with an iPhone who want registry, paper, website and RSVPs from one brand |
Facts verified on 2026-09-17. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page.
Pricing
What each one costs
GuestlistOnline
- Free €0
1 event, 50 guests, guest list, RSVP page, manual check-in
- Per Event €19.99 one-off
Unlimited guests for one event, QR check-in, templates, branding, gift fund, 5 team members
- Pro €29/month or €249/year
Unlimited events and guests, analytics, organisation settings, 50 team members, 7-day trial
- Enterprise Custom
White-label, API and webhooks, dedicated support and SLA
Free events: no fees. Paid tickets: 5% + 0.25 per ticket in the ticket currency, payment processing included.
Zola
- Website, guest list and RSVP $0
Free wedding website with 600+ designs, guest list, RSVPs and bulk email reminders, no subscription
- Custom domain from $17.99
Forwarding only, with no masking of zola.com/wedding/yourname
- Seating chart $14.99
Drag-and-drop seating chart bought in the iOS app, with a printable PDF
- Premium Guest Messaging $59.99 – $79.99
SMS tiers bought in the App Store; US numbers only, 320 characters a message
- Premium Website Effects $1.99 – $9.99
One-off visual effects for the wedding website
- Paper invitations $1.79 – $4.49 a card
Printed invitations with free samples, shipped in the US
From zola.com and the App Store listing, 17 September 2026. Zola sells no tickets, so there is nothing to compare on ticket fees. Cash funds: 2.5% handling fee on card contributions, paid by the guest or the couple, a zero-fee Venmo route logged by hand, or store credit with a 5% bonus, payouts to US bank accounts only.
Key differences
What sets them apart
The details that matter when choosing between the two.
A door, or no door
Zola has no check-in of any kind: no QR pass per guest, no scanner, no arrival list. The only QR codes in the product are the ones printed on Zola paper. On the day you are back to a list and a pen, and the account holds one partner invite with no planner login, so there is nobody to hand the list to either. GuestlistOnline gives every guest a QR code and scans it in the browser or in a PWA scanner installed from the browser on iOS or Android without an app store, it caches the list before the doors open, validates with no signal at all, syncs afterwards, and lets several phones work the same list at once with their own door-staff tokens.
One country, one phone
Zola is US-bound in almost every direction that matters. The interface is English only and the guest list rejects special characters, so an accented surname is a problem. Cash fund payouts go to a US bank account and nowhere else, in USD. Paper ships in the US, SMS reaches US numbers, and the Android app was shut down in January 2023, which leaves the seating chart and the AI spreadsheet import as iPhone-only features. GuestlistOnline runs in seven languages including Dutch, takes euros, dollars and pounds through your own Stripe account with iDEAL, and works in any browser on any phone.
What a cash gift actually costs
Zola wins this one on the headline number and we will say so. A card contribution to a Zola cash fund carries a 2.5% handling fee, which you can pass to the guest or absorb, the Venmo route costs nothing if you are willing to log gifts by hand, and taking the gift as Zola store credit adds a 5% bonus. The GuestlistOnline gift fund is 5% + 0.25 in the currency of the event, with payment processing already inside that rate. The trade is reach rather than price: our fund runs through your own Stripe Connect account with iDEAL, cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and it does not require a US bank account to receive the money.
Where Zola wins: registry, paper and the seating chart
For a US couple, the breadth is genuinely hard to match. A free wedding website with 600+ designs, a registry that is the company's actual business, paper invitations from $1.79 a card with free samples, a vendor marketplace, a drag-and-drop seating chart for $14.99 and an iOS app rated 4.9 stars, all under one login, with no subscription. The guest list side is sharper than it looks too: a closed list with name lookup that locks out wrong guesses, private per-guest events for the rehearsal dinner, a push notification on every RSVP and an AI import that reads whatever spreadsheet your mother sent you.
Fair is fair
When Zola is the better choice
If the wedding is in the US and one brand for registry, paper and the website sounds like a relief, Zola is a strong answer.
- You want the registry, the paper invitations and the website from the same company
- A drag-and-drop seating chart for $14.99 matters more to you than a door scanner
- Cash gifts arrive on cards at 2.5%, or through Venmo for nothing, into a US bank account
- Everyone involved reads English and the organisers are on iPhones
Migration
Switching from Zola
Zola exports the guest list, the addresses and the RSVPs with meal choices as CSV or Excel, from the desktop site rather than the app, and the seating chart as a PDF. Import the spreadsheet with the guest import and map the columns you want to keep. There is no API, so the export is the route.
- Guest names and postal addresses, with plus-ones and households flattened into individual guests
- RSVP status and meal choices, if you map the columns on import
- Open text answers guests gave with their RSVP, as notes
- The Zola wedding website, its design and the registry itself
- Cash fund balances, store credit and anything already contributed
- The seating chart, export it as a PDF from Zola and use tags to group guests by table here
Common questions
Frequently asked questions about GuestlistOnline vs Zola.
Is Zola free?
The wedding website, the guest list and the RSVPs are, with no subscription anywhere in the product, Zola earns from the registry, the paper and add-ons. The add-ons are one-off purchases: a custom domain from $17.99, Premium Website Effects at $1.99 to $9.99, the seating chart at $14.99 in the iOS app, Premium Guest Messaging for SMS at $59.99 to $79.99 in the App Store, and paper invitations at $1.79 to $4.49 a card. Nothing recurs, which for a one-off wedding is a fair model.
What does a Zola cash fund cost?
Card contributions carry a 2.5% handling fee, and you choose whether the guest pays it or you do, the lowest card rate in this comparison. Venmo is a zero-fee route, though Zola asks you to log those gifts by hand, and taking the gift as Zola store credit adds a 5% bonus. The catch is where the money lands: payouts go to a US bank account only, in USD, and the first one can take up to ten business days. The GuestlistOnline gift fund costs more per card gift, 5% + 0.25 in the event currency, payment processing included, and pays out through your own Stripe Connect account anywhere Stripe operates, iDEAL included, with no US bank account involved.
Does Zola work on Android?
Only in a browser. Zola shut its Android app down in January 2023, so Android users get the website and nothing else, while several features are iPhone-only, the seating chart is bought and built in the app, and the AI spreadsheet import launched there in April 2026. If one of you has an Android phone, you are splitting the work between two people. GuestlistOnline runs entirely in the browser on either platform, and the check-in scanner installs as a PWA on both iOS and Android without going near an app store.
Can Zola check guests in at the door?
No. Zola has no check-in, no QR pass per guest and no scanner; the QR codes in the product are printed on Zola paper goods. It also has no digital invitations at all, save-the-dates yes, invitations no, and its email is plain text. GuestlistOnline issues a QR code to every guest, scans it in the browser or in an offline PWA scanner that caches the list and works with no signal, shows arrivals in real time, and lets several door staff scan at once on their own tokens. For a reception with one entrance and 150 people arriving in twenty minutes, that is the whole difference.
How do I move my Zola guest list?
Export from the desktop site, Zola gives you the guest list, the addresses and the RSVPs with meal choices as CSV or Excel, and import that spreadsheet into GuestlistOnline, mapping the columns you want. Names, addresses, RSVP status, meal choices and open text answers carry over; because Zola stores each guest under one display name and caps households at two adults, check the names as you map them. The website, the registry, the cash fund balance and the seating chart stay behind. Export the seating chart as a PDF from Zola first, then use tags here to group guests by table.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- zola.com Zola wedding website and pricing
- zola.com Zola guest list and RSVPs
- zola.com Zola FAQ, who covers the 2.5% card fee on cash gifts
- zola.com Zola FAQ, international shipping
- zola.com Zola FAQ, exporting or printing the guest list
- zola.com Zola FAQ, translating the website
- zola.com Zola FAQ, Premium Guest Messaging
- zola.com Zola FAQ, digital invitations
- zola.com Zola, an update on the Zola Android app
- apps.apple.com Zola on the App Store, seating chart and guest messaging prices
- zola.com Zola privacy policy (9 October 2025)
Spotted something out of date? Email go@guestlistonline.com and we will correct it.
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