You can either create your wedding site yourself or hire a professional for it. If you opt for the former variant, you can have great fun and decrease the level of stress thanks to dedicated software. This article will help you to select the best wedding website builder for people with no coding and designer skills. The solutions that we'll mention in this text should come in handy for couples with any budget and aesthetic preferences.
Bitrix24
It deserves to be called the best wedding website builder. Bitrix24 allows you to create any type of site and it features many templates that are suitable for weddings.
Here is the list of the basic features that you can get for free:
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Own domain name
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Hosting
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Unlimited pages
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Unlimited bandwidth
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Forms
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SSL encryption
The main drawback of the free plan consists in the fact that it offers only 5 GB of storage. And the good thing is that its number of users is unlimited. If you ever need extended functionality, you can upgrade to one of the following plans:
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The name of the plan
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Number of users
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Price per month*
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Basic
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5
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$49
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Standard
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50
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$99
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Professional
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Unlimited
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$199
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* Please note that the information may have changed since the publication. For current prices and features please visit Bitrix24 pricing page.
Even if you remain with the free plan, your website will be fully mobile-optimized and SEO-ready. Whenever you need to add a picture to the site, you can choose it from the free image bank.
The block-based editor of Bitrix24 is very easy to use. You don't need to have any coding skills to make the most of it. This solution is famous for its top-notch training courses and the highest quality of client support. You can find a lot of educational videos on its YouTube channel.
Bitrix24 is a way more than a website builder. It provides many other options that you may find useful like online shared calendar, tasks with checklists and collaboration tools.
The Knot
This free and easy-to-use solution is focused exclusively on weddings. It is integrated with The Knot App and planning tools. Here are the main reasons why so many couples love The Knot:
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It features an extensive collection of eye-catchy templates for all tastes. It should be easy for you to match your invitations and printed materials to your website design.
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It is more comfortable to build a site on a computer with a large screen. But if a brilliant idea comes to you when you're not at home, you can keep on improving the site from your smartphone.
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The setup is quick and easy.
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To customize the looks and functionality of the site, you can use a photo timeline, GIFs, Q&As, live stream information, personalized URLs and sharing features.
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You can sync The Knot Registry to your site to show all of your gifts to guests. They will be able to buy these items directly from there instead of visiting various online stores.
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You can manage and track RSVPs using The Knot app as well as receive RSVP push notifications.
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There is an online form where guests can ask questions.
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You might want to rely on the website dashboard to locate hotels in your area that have special offers.
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Your guests can check who else is invited to your event.
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The site allows you to send SMS and emails to your guests from its messaging hub.
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You can hide your site from search engines, protect it with a password and set custom privacy controls.
As for the drawbacks, a custom domain is not included in the free package — but you can purchase it for $20.
Squarespace
This software enables you to create any type of site, not necessarily a wedding one. You can add a blog, ecommerce tools and many other features. Squarespace is popular among tech-savvy couples who have basic coding skills. It's a bit more complex than all the other alternatives listed in this article. It might be wise to pay attention to this solution for the following reasons:
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It allows great customization opportunities.
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You won't need to hire a designer to make your site look highly professional.
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You'll be able to protect your site with a password.
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To save time, you can preview updates on the go as you introduce them. You won't need to preview all the site each time.
On the flip side, it might be tricky to add your registry to the site. You might need to manually upload every link, logo and photo. It might be challenging to share content items with your guests.
Besides, Squarespace might be a bit too expensive. Its cheapest plan costs $12 per month. You'll get a custom domain only if you pay annually. Otherwise, the price of the domain will start at $20. The good thing is that you won't need to share your credit card number to have a free 14-days trial.
Wix
Wix is an extremely popular website builder. Couples who are about to get married are just a small segment of its multi-million audience. With Wix, you don't need to build a site from scratch. You can choose from a large collection of professionally designed templates and easily customize them with a click-and-drag editor.
You might want to consider Wix for the following reasons:
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The layouts are sleek and stylish
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The photo uploader is incredibly user-friendly
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You can protect selected pages of your website with a password
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The site will remain hidden until you publish it
You can use this solution for free — but in this case, you won't get a custom domain. If you need the domain, you should pay $14 per month.
Now, let's talk about the shortcomings of Wix. First, your site will lack registry integration. It won't display gifts and you'll need to manually upload all the photos and links. It will lack a guest list tool and an RSVP form. At the top of the site, there will be a large Wix banner — if you want to remove it, you'll need to pay.
Riley & Grey
This software is tailor-made for creating wedding sites. It has built a solid reputation for itself thanks to its following advantages:
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Your site will look premium and unique
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All its elements are highly customizable
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Riley & Grey offers unique features that most other site builders lack — for instance, your guests can curate a playlist
The only drawback of Riley & Grey is pricing. You'll need to pay $35 per month or $240 per year to be able to use it. There is no free trial. But it seems to be a fair price for those who would like to benefit from extensive customization features. Besides, the setup of this solution might take a bit more time and effort than using, let's say, Wix.
WeddingWire
This product is available for free. But if you need a custom domain, you should be ready to pay $24 for one year or $35 for two years. You can create a wedding website at no cost and use various planning tools.
Couples like WeddingWire for the following reasons:
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You can select a custom background photo template
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The editing and customization process is very intuitive both on a computer or on the WeddingWire app
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The builder smoothly integrates with digital planning tools
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It can recommend hotels for your guests and inform you about room blocks
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You can start a countdown to your wedding date
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You can protect your site with a password, hide selected pages and prevent search engines from finding your site
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To help your guests engage with your site, you can add a contact form, quizzes and surveys
On the flip side, WeddingWire lacks matching invitation options and the selection of templates is not too creative. The functionality of this solution is a bit too basic, compared to some of its competitors.
Appy Couple
That's not exactly the best wedding website builder but one of the most noteworthy wedding app builders. Its luxury option costs $149 and the boutique one costs $49. If you need a custom domain, you should be ready to pay an extra fee of $20 or more, so it's one of the most expensive solutions on our list.
You should appreciate the following advantages of Appy Couple:
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Classy designs
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A lot of interactive features
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Guest messaging and RSVP alerts
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An opportunity to send digital save-the-dates that coordinate with your theme
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Invite selected guests to specific prewedding events
Your guests will be required to install the app. They won't be able to access its full functionality from a browser.
Minted
This solution is a firm favorite among couples who appreciate unique professional designs. The limited functionality is available for free. If you need advanced tools, you can pay a one-time fee of $15. The paid tools include customs photos, photo galleries, password protection and privacy settings. If you're planning to renew your custom URLs in 12 months, you'll also need to pay a fee.
Minted has two shortcomings:
But at the same time, it's user-friendly and its quick start guide is very comprehensive. Plus, it enables you to find matching decor and invites.
Joy
This one enables you to build a custom wedding website app for guests. That would be a more innovative approach than building the site. You can use Joy for free. Apart from the price, the solution has the following advantages:
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It enables you to send broadcast announcements, digital save-the-dates, invitations and RSVP reminders to guests
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You can create a "moments" timeline where guests will be able to upload photos and comments
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The app allows you to stream the content uploaded by your guests at the event as a real-time slideshow
To join the app, your guests will need to introduce an event code.
Joy might deserve some criticism for its limited selection of templates. Most of its designs are floral-themed and rustic. The site won't display individual gifts and you'll need to add registry links manually.
You would fail to collect all planning tools in one place. Whenever you need to update the HTML code to improve the formatting, you'll have to do it yourself (which requires certain skills and experience).
Last but not least, you might be able to reach some features only from your computer but not the app or the mobile version of the site. For instance, you can't track RSVP on your mobile.
Zola
This solution is very easy to set up. It will provide you with a lot of useful tips and guidance. If you need a custom domain, you can buy it for $14.95. Otherwise, you can use Zola for free.
You should appreciate the following benefits of Zola:
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A powerful guest list feature
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The opportunity of making selected events private (only invited members will be able to see them)
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Excellent registry (if you're not planning to use it, you might need to add external gifts manually)
At the same time, it might be not always possible to customize the templates as flexibly as you wish. Sometimes, it might be impossible to modify the pre-selected fonts or color schemes. Besides, Zola lacks integrations to enable you to add accommodation details to your site. You won't be able to check the availability of hotel rooms nearby right from the dashboard.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article came in handy and now you better understand how to select the best wedding website builder. You can choose either dedicated wedding software or a generic solution that enables you to create various types of sites. Many builders have free trials or free plans — but you might need to pay to access their full functionality. Among all the solutions that are available on the market, you might want to pay primary attention to Bitrix24. It enables you to create any type of site, including the one for your wedding. The basic functionality of Bitrix24 is available for free. You'll appreciate its ease of use and an extensive choice of features.
