Zola alternative: what to compare before you switch

What Zola does

Zola’s Help Center describes the company as, first and foremost, a store, one that carries gifts and experiences for couples to register for. Its registry also takes cash funds. Around the registry, Zola’s public pages list a free wedding website with RSVPs, a guest list, a budget tool, a checklist, a seating chart, a venue and vendor search, and invitations and paper. There’s an app on the App Store too.

The tools connect. The guest list collects addresses through a form you text or email to guests, tracks RSVPs, plus-ones, and meal choices, and exports as a spreadsheet. The checklist builds its deadlines from your wedding date. The seating chart pulls in your confirmed guests and downloads as a PDF. If the registry and the free website are what you came for, Zola covers both in one account.

What’s free, and what isn’t

Zola’s Help Center says it’s free for couples to use. It also explains how it pays for that: it makes money on the products and experiences it sells through its store, and on stationery. On the vendor side, a listing is free and vendors pay to connect with couples, using credits or an unlimited plan.

Some features carry a charge, according to Zola’s own pages. The seating chart is free for up to 15 guests, and beyond that there’s a Premium version. Premium Guest Messaging, which sends texts, needs a paid plan to reach your whole guest list. A custom domain for your wedding website costs extra, though the website itself is free. Zola’s App Store listing also shows a Seating Chart among its in-app purchases.

None of that makes the free tools less useful. It means “free” describes the core, and it’s worth checking what you’ll need before you build on it. A wedding with more than 15 guests will want the full seating chart, so that’s the one to check first.

When Zola is the better fit

MyWedding Planner doesn’t try to do everything Zola does. Zola is the better fit if:

• You want your registry in the same account as your wedding website. MyWedding Planner has no registry.
• You want to search for venues and vendors and contact them inside the tool. MyWedding Planner has no vendor directory.
• You want to publish your wedding website at no cost. In MyWedding Planner, publishing it comes with the one-time payment.
• You want your save-the-dates, invitations, and other stationery from the same place as your website.
• You want the tool to message your guests for you. Zola’s guest list can email them, and texting is available through Premium Guest Messaging. MyWedding Planner sends no emails or texts.

What MyWedding Planner does differently

MyWedding Planner is built for the planning itself. You can try it free without a credit card (the trial has limits on guests, vendors, budget lines, and tasks), then pay once for lifetime access. No subscription, no ads in the app, and nothing sold separately.

The wedding website is where the pieces connect. Your guests RSVP there: whether they’re coming, which events they’ll attend, their meal choice, and any dietary needs. Their replies fill in your guest list, and that list feeds the caterer view, which counts each dish, and the seating chart. You build the chart by dragging guests onto round or rectangular tables, or by asking for a suggested layout, and it prints on A4 or Letter with place cards and table numbers.

The wedding day itself gets a day-of timeline, hour by hour, with who does what and a run sheet you can print for each helper. The Don’t-forget list lets you browse easy-to-miss items by theme and add the ones that apply to your tasks with a click. And you can invite your partner as a co-planner, so you each sign in to the same wedding. Everything opens in your browser, with nothing to install.

Here’s what it doesn’t do. It has no registry and no vendor directory: you add the vendors you found yourself and track each one from contacted to booked. It doesn’t send emails or texts to your guests, so you share the wedding website link yourself. It doesn’t sell invitations or stationery, though you can print place cards, table numbers, and a wedding day program from it. And publishing the wedding website, along with the photo gallery, comes with the one-time payment rather than the trial.

You can use both

Nothing says you have to pick one. You could keep a Zola registry, link it from your MyWedding Planner wedding website, and run the rest of your planning in MyWedding Planner. The wedding website editor even has a field for a registry link, with Zola as one of its examples.

The thing to decide early is where your guests RSVP. Replies land on whichever wedding website you send people to, and only the ones on your MyWedding Planner site fill in your MyWedding Planner guest list. If you’ve already shared your Zola website, keep it until you’re ready to send guests a new link. If you’re weighing a spreadsheet instead of any app, our wedding planning spreadsheet guide covers what to track and where it starts to strain.