I sent myself a test Evite last month. When I opened my own invitation, the first thing I saw wasn’t my party details. It was a banner ad for a meal-kit delivery service.
That’s the moment most people start searching for Evite alternatives. The good news: the options in 2026 are genuinely great. Some are completely free. Some have designer-quality templates. And the best ones never show a single ad to your guests.
Full disclosure: I write for Mixily, so I have a horse in this race. But we’ve tested every major invitation platform for our comparison guides, with real events and real guest lists. In this post I’ll give you the exact prices, where each platform wins, and which one to pick for your next party.
Quick verdict: Mixily is the best Evite alternative for most hosts. The free plan covers 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event, never shows ads to your guests, and stays free forever. Partiful is the pick for casual text-first parties, and Paperless Post wins on pure design if you’re willing to pay. Start free on Mixily →
Key takeaways:
- Evite’s free tier shows banner ads to your guests. Removing them costs $17.99 to $99.99 per event.
- Mixily (#1) is free forever with no ads: 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event on the free plan.
- Partiful (#2) is 100% free with no ads, but it’s text-first and heavily iPhone-centric.
- Paperless Post (#3) has the prettiest designs. Expect $35 to $58 in Coins for 50 premium invitations.
- Punchbowl (#4) charges $3.99 to $15.99 per month, and some paid tiers still show ads.
- Luma (#5) is free for organizers but built for professional events. It takes 5% of paid ticket sales.
Why People Look for Evite Alternatives (It’s the Ads)
Evite’s free tier shows third-party banner ads right next to your event details, and removing them costs $17.99 to $99.99 per event depending on your guest count. That one pricing decision is the reason most hosts eventually leave.
To be fair, the platform works. The free tier gives you thousands of templates, RSVP tracking, guest messaging, and support for up to 750 guests. It’s the default for a reason.
But the business model depends on those ads. When your aunt opens your birthday invitation, she sees promotions for products that have nothing to do with your party. And the only way out is steep:
- $17.99 per event for ad-free invitations with up to 15 guests
- Up to $99.99 per event as your guest list grows toward 750
- $249.99 per year for Evite Pro with unlimited premium invitations
There’s nothing in between “free with ads” and “pay for every single event.” In 2026, you shouldn’t have to choose between those two options just to invite friends to a party. Here are five platforms that prove you don’t.
The 5 Best Evite Alternatives in 2026, Ranked
The best Evite alternative for most hosts is Mixily, which is free forever with no ads and no per-event charges. The right pick for you depends on how you invite people, how many guests you have, and whether you’d rather pay nothing, pay per send, or pay monthly. All prices below are each platform’s published rates as of August 2026. Here’s the whole field at a glance:
| Platform | Free tier | Paid pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Mixily | 50 invites + 40 RSVPs per event, no ads, free forever | Lite $19, Pro $29, Plus $79/month | Most hosts |
| 2. Partiful | Everything. 100% free, no ads | None | Casual, text-first parties |
| 3. Paperless Post | Basic Flyers and Cards, no ads | Coins from $12 (pay per send) | Formal, design-first events |
| 4. Punchbowl | Limited; ads unless you pay for Platinum | $3.99 to $15.99/month | Frequent hosts who want a subscription |
| 5. Luma | Unlimited events and guests, no ads | Plus $59/month + 5% ticket fee | Professional and ticketed events |
1. Mixily: Best Evite Alternative Overall
Mixily gives you 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event on the free plan, with 2 active events at a time and 200 emails per week. No ads, ever. Not on the free plan, not anywhere.
That free tier covers the way most of us actually host: a birthday dinner, a housewarming, a game night with 25 people. You get email invitations, RSVP tracking, guest messaging, and automatic reminders. Your guests don’t need to download an app or create an account to RSVP.
I’ve sent every kind of invitation on Mixily, from a 12-person dinner to a community meetup. The thing I appreciate most is the speed: you can go from “I should throw a party” to “invitations sent” in under five minutes.
If you outgrow the free plan, the paid plans are monthly subscriptions, not per-event charges: Lite is $19/month (100 invites and 100 RSVPs per event), Pro is $29/month (250 each), and Plus is $79/month (1,500 each, unlimited active events). Compare that to Evite’s model, where one big ad-free party can cost $99.99 all by itself.
Here’s a real example from that plans guide. Marcus in Chicago threw a 200-person 40th birthday party on Mixily. He needed save-the-dates, invitations, reminders, and day-of messages for all 200 guests. He upgraded to Pro for $29, ran the whole event, and could cancel afterward while keeping access through the end of his billing month. One month of Pro cost less than a third of Evite’s large-event price.
Weaknesses? Mixily’s template library is smaller than Evite’s thousands of designs, and the free plan caps you at 40 RSVPs per event. If you’re inviting 300 people for free, Partiful is your platform.
Ready to see the difference an ad-free invitation makes? Start free on Mixily →
2. Partiful: Best Free Option for Casual Parties
Partiful is 100% free with no ads. No premium tier, no coins to buy, no per-event charges. If your guest list is young and lives on their phones, it’s a fantastic Evite alternative.
Partiful is text-based and social-first. Invitations go out by text message, guests RSVP with a tap, and the whole aesthetic is playful: animated backgrounds, meme-friendly titles, emoji reactions. It’s built for people who plan parties from their phone in the group chat.
The catch is that text-first design cuts both ways. Partiful falls apart for mixed-age groups, professional events, or anyone who wants email invitations. Your college friends will love it. Your uncle will text you asking what this link is. And with roughly 95% of Partiful’s downloads on iOS (per app-analytics firm Appfigures), Android guests get a second-class experience. We break this down in our full Evite vs Partiful comparison.
3. Paperless Post: Best Designer Templates
Paperless Post is the Evite alternative with nicer templates and no ads. It offers true designer-quality stationery, including collaborations with real fashion and stationery brands. The trade-off is a confusing Coin pricing system.
Here’s how Coins work: you buy them in packs, from 25 Coins for $12 up to 1,000 Coins for $115. Premium Cards typically cost 2 or more Coins per guest, plus extra for envelope liners, custom stamps, and backdrops. Sending 50 premium invitations with the works runs 200+ Coins, which is $35 to $58 depending on your pack size. For 100 guests, you’re looking at $58 to $115.
The free Flyers are actually good for casual events, and Paperless Post supports up to 15,000 guests per event. But the moment you want the designs everyone associates with the brand, you’re doing Coin math. See our Evite vs Paperless Post breakdown for the full pricing table.
4. Punchbowl: Subscription Pricing, With a Catch
Punchbowl swaps Evite’s per-event charges for a subscription: $3.99 to $15.99 per month after a 7-day trial. The Plus plan (up to 50 guests) starts at $3.99/month promotional, and Platinum (up to 500 guests) runs $7.99 to $15.99/month.
Now the catch, and it’s a big one: only the Platinum and Business plans remove ads. If you’re paying $3.99 or $7.99 a month on a lower tier, your guests still see ads on your invitations. Paying for a product that still shows ads to your guests is hard to defend.
Punchbowl’s template library is strong, especially for kids’ birthdays, and a 12-month ad-free Platinum subscription ($95.88 to $191.88 per year) can beat Evite’s per-event pricing if you host constantly. The details are in our Evite vs Punchbowl comparison.
5. Luma: Best for Professional Events
Luma is free for organizers, with unlimited events and guests, QR check-in, Zoom integration, event chat, and analytics. It makes money two ways: a 5% platform fee on paid ticket sales (on top of Stripe’s processing fees) and a Plus plan at $59/month.
If you run a meetup, a workshop series, or ticketed community events, Luma is excellent. But it’s the wrong tool for a birthday party. There are no festive invitation templates, the vibe is professional, and your grandmother does not want a QR check-in code. Our Evite vs Luma guide covers when each makes sense.
Free Evite Alternatives: What “Free” Actually Means
Only two platforms on this list are truly free for personal events, with no ads and no per-event charges: Mixily and Partiful. The others are free with an asterisk.
- Free, no ads, no catch: Mixily (up to 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event) and Partiful (everything, but text-first).
- Free until you want the good stuff: Paperless Post. Flyers cost nothing, premium designs cost Coins.
- Free until you sell tickets: Luma. Free events cost nothing, paid tickets cost 5% plus processing.
- Not really free: Punchbowl. The useful tiers are subscriptions, and cheap tiers still show ads.
My rule of thumb: if a platform’s free tier covers your real guest list without ads, use it and never look back. Most parties have fewer than 40 guests, which is exactly why Mixily’s free plan is sized the way it is.
How to Choose the Right Platform for Your Party
Pick based on your guests, not on features. The best invitation platform is the one your specific guest list will open and respond to.
- Mixed ages, family events, most parties: Mixily. Email invitations everyone can open, no app required, no ads.
- Under-35 crowd that lives in the group chat: Partiful.
- Formal events where the invitation IS the statement: Paperless Post, budget permitting.
- You host kids’ parties monthly: Punchbowl Platinum, if you’ll use the subscription enough.
- Meetups, workshops, ticketed events: Luma.
Do: Audit your last guest list before choosing. If half your invitees are over 50, pick a platform with email invitations and simple one-click RSVPs. Deciding who to invite comes before deciding how to invite them.
Don’t: Pay per event before you’ve tested the free tiers. Between Mixily and Partiful, most hosts never need to spend a dollar on invitations again.
One more thing: if you’re comparing platforms for a wedding, that’s a different decision with different stakes. We wrote a separate guide to Evite alternatives for weddings that covers formality, guest list scale, and RSVP collection for the big day.
How to Switch from Evite in 10 Minutes
Switching platforms sounds like a chore. It isn’t. Here’s the whole process:
- Export your guest list. Copy your contacts’ emails out of Evite (or your phone) into a simple list.
- Create your event on the new platform. Title, date, location, a short description. Five minutes, tops.
- Send yourself a test invitation. Open it the way your guests will. Check that it looks good and, yes, check for ads.
- Send the real invitations and watch the RSVPs come in.
- Schedule a reminder for 2 to 3 days before the event. A good reminder message is the single biggest driver of actual attendance.
Do: Send your first invitation on the new platform for a low-stakes event, like a game night, so you learn the tool before your big party.
Don’t: Assume your guests will create accounts or download an app. The best platforms let guests RSVP straight from the invitation with one click.
And if you want the full playbook for what happens after the invitations go out, Nick Gray’s 2-hour party formula is the best free resource I know.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free alternative to Evite?
Mixily is the best free alternative to Evite for most hosts: the free plan includes 50 invites and 40 RSVPs per event with zero ads, and it stays free forever. Partiful is also completely free and great for casual text-first parties, but it’s weaker for email invitations and mixed-age guest lists.
Which Evite alternatives have no ads?
Mixily, Partiful, Paperless Post, and Luma never show ads on your invitations. Punchbowl is the exception among paid options: only its Platinum and Business tiers are ad-free, so lower paid plans still show ads to your guests.
Is there an Evite alternative with nicer templates and no ads?
Paperless Post has the most polished designer templates and shows no ads, but premium designs cost Coins (roughly $35 to $58 to send 50 premium invitations). If you want clean, modern invitations without paying per send, Mixily is free with no ads.
How much does it cost to remove ads on Evite?
Evite charges per event to remove ads: $17.99 for up to 15 guests, scaling to $99.99 for up to 750 guests. Evite Pro costs $249.99 per year for unlimited premium invitations. Most Evite alternatives on this list remove that cost entirely.
The Bottom Line
Evite earned its spot as the default, but “free” shouldn’t mean your guests see ads next to your party details, and ad-free shouldn’t cost $17.99 to $99.99 every single time you host.
Of all the Evite alternatives here, pick Partiful if your crowd lives in the group chat, and pick Paperless Post if the design is the point. But for most parties, most hosts, and most guest lists, Mixily gives you ad-free invitations, RSVP tracking, and reminders for exactly $0.
Your next party deserves an invitation without a meal-kit ad on it. Start free on Mixily →
Related reading: Mixily vs Evite | Mixily Subscription Plans Explained
