Best Wedding Website Builders (2026): Picks, Costs and Catches

Short answer: most couples don't need to pay for a wedding website. The best free ones are BrideSpark (ours) for the site plus every planning tool, Joy for an app your guests can use, and Zola if the registry comes first. Pay only for something specific: Riley & Grey for privacy and a custom domain that actually works, or Squarespace or Wix if one of you already builds sites there.

Our picks by what you need

This guide is about the website. If you're also choosing a planner for the budget, checklist and seating chart, see our comparison of free wedding planning apps.

What guests notice, and how to test it

Most guests will open your site on a phone, from a text, a group chat or the QR code on a save-the-date; Statcounter put phones at 59% of all web traffic worldwide in September 2026. No builder's sales page shows you that view. A test site costs nothing on the free builders, so make one on each of your top two and run this:

1. Text yourself the link and open it with Wi-Fi off, on mobile data, the way most guests will.
2. Paste the address into PageSpeed Insights and read Largest Contentful Paint on the mobile tab. Google counts 2.5 seconds or less as good, and a full-screen video or an uncompressed hero photo is the usual reason a wedding site misses it. Run it before you add a password, or you'll only be timing the password page.
3. Add a made-up guest to your list and RSVP as them, counting the taps. Then try it the way real guests type: "Katherine" when your list says "Kate", or a misspelled surname. Go easy on Zola, whose help center says too many wrong name searches lock a guest out of the RSVP page for a few hours.
4. Time how long it takes to find the ceremony time and the hotel's group code. That's what people come back for, and it's most of our guide to what to put on a wedding website.
5. Open the site in a private window to see what a stranger sees, then type the password on a phone keyboard. Capitals count on Squarespace and BrideSpark and don't on Joy.

Template counts matter less than they look. Zola advertises over 600 and Appy Couple over 500, and each guest sees one. The "our story" page gets less attention than you'd think, too: in an r/weddingplanning thread about paying for a custom site, commenters said guests skip it and go straight to the registry and hotel details.

How each builder works from a guest's side

Taken from each company's own help pages, checked October 2026.

Two things the table can't show. On The Knot, Zola and Joy, the password and search visibility are separate settings. One of The Knot's help articles says a password "does not hide the page from search engine crawlers", and its couple search finds a site from a first name and at least two letters of a last name. And Squarespace's four-hour session means a guest who checked the shuttle time over breakfast gets asked for the password again at the reception. The setup for each builder is in how to password-protect a wedding website.

If your guests read two languages

Check accents first. Zola's help center says it's "not able to support special characters" on wedding websites, and The Knot says you can write in your own language "except for special characters". If your family is a Müller or a Peña, type the names into the editor before you fall for a template.

A switch only goes so far: Joy's changes Joy's buttons, not your story or your schedule. We'd write both languages side by side in the same section ("Our story · Notre histoire"). On BrideSpark that's the only way to do it, since guests get no switch. More in our guide to bilingual wedding websites.

The best free wedding website builders

BrideSpark

We'll start with ours, gaps included. BrideSpark is a full wedding planner with the website inside it, and all of it is free, with no premium plan. The site is one scrolling page with a sticky menu, in 24 styles shared with the printable stationery, so the site and the invitations match. The Travel & stay section holds each hotel's group code, rate and book-by date. Guests look themselves up by name or email and reply for their whole household, event by event if you've added welcome drinks or a brunch. Registry buttons link to any registry or cash fund, and BrideSpark never takes payment.

The gaps: no custom domain (the address looks like bridesparkapp.com/w/anna-and-james-7k2f, and you can change the part after /w/ under Address & privacy), a small "Made with BrideSpark" link at the bottom of guest pages that can't be switched off, no map on the site, and one language for guests. Our iPhone and Android apps are on the way, though guests never need an app. The full feature list is on the wedding website page.

Zola

The pick if the registry is the main event: a free site with over 600 templates, and the registry, cash funds and RSVPs in the same account. What the template gallery won't tell you: a paid domain (from $17.99) only forwards, so guests still end up on Zola's address; the buttons stay in English; and page animations cost extra, with Zola's iPhone app listing Website Animations at $1.99 to $9.99.

Joy

The strongest free choice if you like the idea of an app for guests. Joy makes its money when guests buy registry items that Joy sells. Its privacy settings are the most flexible of the free builders: hidden from Google by default, passwords on single pages if you want them, and pages only certain guests can see, such as a rehearsal dinner page for family. Guests RSVP in a browser without an account but need the app to upload photos. Its paid domain (around $19.99 a year) forwards only, and auto-renewal is on by default.

The Knot

Mostly worth it if you're already finding vendors on The Knot. Its domains work differently from Zola's and Joy's: The Knot's help center says a domain bought there ($19.99 for a year, $39.98 for two) "becomes the primary address" for your site, and anyone who uses the old free address gets sent on to it. It doesn't renew by itself, and if it lapses the site falls back to the free address, so anything you printed with the custom one stops leading there.

Read one warning in The Knot's help center first. It calls itself "a US-based website" and says guests in some countries may not be able to view the site, RSVP or buy gifts. With guests abroad, ask one of them to try your link while you're still choosing.

Minted

Choose Minted for the paper. Its website designs match its invitations and thank-you cards, and creating a site puts a $50 credit toward printed stationery in your account. A custom URL is $15 a year, the site stays out of search results unless you opt in, and guests RSVP with their first and last name for their whole party. Minted's wedding website page says nothing about other languages.

Paid builders: Riley & Grey and Appy Couple

Riley & Grey

This is what $299 a year buys. You design the whole site for free and pay only to publish: $39 a month or $299 a year, or $39 up front to hold your domain name and design, credited when you join. The membership includes the custom domain, every site runs on https and starts hidden from search engines, and if you leave, Riley & Grey transfers the domain to you. Built-in text, RSVP page included, comes in 14 languages, though guests can't switch between them. Cash gifts carry a 2.95% fee, which the giver or the couple can pay.

Monthly or yearly depends on how long the site is live. Seven months at $39 is $273, under the yearly price; eight months is $312, over it. So if you publish with the save-the-dates six months out and take the site down a month after the wedding, pay monthly. On r/weddingplanning, one commenter who paid about $300 said it was mainly for the privacy.

Appy Couple

One package: website, app and digital invitations. Checked from Canada, it was CA$129 a year or CA$16 a month, and the price changes by country. A custom domain is extra, and Appy's own pages disagree on the price: US$19.99 a year on the pricing page, from $30 a year in a 2024 help article. Privacy is the strong point. You can require an access code, a Guest List Match (name and email must both match your list), or both. For bilingual families the weak point is the RSVP buttons and prompts, which stay in English.

Already on Squarespace or Wix?

Either is a fair choice if one of you already builds sites there: you get full control of the layout, your own domain as the site's real address and a proper language menu. We'd only go this way if you'd enjoy the building and don't mind running replies from a spreadsheet. Otherwise you're paying to rebuild what the free wedding builders already do.

Squarespace

Squarespace's own wedding guide suggests a form block for RSVPs, with replies sent to email, Google Drive or Mailchimp. Nothing checks a reply against a guest list, so anyone with the link can reply and nobody is matched to a household; chasing late replies becomes a spreadsheet job. A Zola block can show items from a Zola registry. There's no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and yearly plans include a domain free for the first year. Weglot adds a language menu and, according to Squarespace's help center, is free for one extra language up to 2,000 words. Go over and the translations stop displaying, so count your words before you write the long version of how you met.

Wix

Wix's free plan shows a Wix banner ad and can't use your own domain. Premium plans remove the branding and connect a domain, and most yearly plans come with a free domain for the first year. A site password can be up to 15 characters with no symbols, and Wix says the feature isn't available to every account yet. We didn't check how Wix handles RSVPs, so test that on a free site first.

What a wedding website costs over 12 months

Say the site goes live with your save-the-dates ten months before the wedding and stays up two months after, for photos and thank-yous. That's twelve months. Here's the bill, checked October 2026:

Month 13 is where the surprises are: domains renew a year after you buy them, which in this timeline is right when you'd take the site down. Joy's auto-renewal is on unless you turn it off. Zola's domains come through GoDaddy and renew unless you cancel in your GoDaddy account. The Knot's don't renew by themselves, and the free domain on Squarespace and Wix covers year one only. Put a reminder in your calendar for a month after the wedding.

Card fees on cash funds sit outside the website price too: Zola and The Knot charge 2.5% on card gifts, Riley & Grey 2.95%. Our guide to a free wedding website without hidden costs puts every fee we found in one table.

Is a custom domain worth paying for?

For most couples, no. On Zola and Joy, a paid domain only forwards. Zola says it doesn't offer domain masking, so guests "still see the longer Zola web address in their browser", and Joy's help center says the withjoy.com address "will always appear" in the URL bar. You'd pay about $18 to $20 a year for an address guests type once and then never see.

Then there's https. Zola's help center says GoDaddy, its domain partner, "is no longer installing SSL certificates for forwarded domains", so your domain may not load when it's opened with https:// in front. Zola suggests http:// instead, or a free redirect service. Browsers are making that harder. Google announced in October 2025 that with Chrome 154, scheduled for October 2026, Chrome would ask permission before the first visit to any public site without https, with "Continue to site" and "Return" buttons. It saves the warning for sites a person hasn't visited recently, which describes every guest scanning your QR code for the first time.

It has happened before. In a WeddingWire forum thread that ran from 2019 to 2023, couples who'd paid for a custom domain found "Not Secure" in the address bar, and WeddingWire's support replied that its "premium URLs only support http URLs". One of them had already bought invitations with a QR code pointing at the site.

A domain is worth paying for where it becomes the site's real address: bought through The Knot, included with Riley & Grey, or your own on Squarespace or Wix. Anywhere else, we'd skip it. Wherever you buy one, type https:// and your domain into your phone, over mobile data, before anything goes to print.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best wedding website builder in 2026?

For most couples, a free one. BrideSpark (which we make) is the free pick for the website plus every planning tool, Joy if you want an app for guests, and Zola if your registry comes first. The best paid builder is Riley & Grey, at $299 a year or $39 a month (checked October 2026), for privacy and an included custom domain that runs on https.

How much does a wedding website cost?

Nothing on BrideSpark, Zola, Joy, The Knot or Minted. The last four sell optional custom domains for about $15 to $20 a year; BrideSpark doesn't offer one. Riley & Grey costs $299 a year or $39 a month. Squarespace, Appy Couple and Wix's paid plans are priced by country, and Wix's free plan carries a Wix banner ad. Checked October 2026.

Is Squarespace or Wix good for a wedding website?

Yes, if one of you already uses it and enjoys building: you get full design control and your own domain as the real address. Squarespace's RSVP is a form with no guest list behind it, so households, plus-ones and late replies end up in a spreadsheet. Squarespace has no free plan, and Wix's free plan shows a banner ad and can't use your own domain.

Is a custom domain worth it for a wedding website?

Only on some builders. On Zola and Joy a paid domain only forwards, so guests still see the builder's address, and Zola says forwarded domains may not load over https. It's worth it where the domain becomes the real address: bought through The Knot, included with Riley & Grey, or on Squarespace or Wix. Test https:// on a phone before printing.

Do guests need an account to RSVP on a wedding website?

Usually not. Joy's help center says guests can RSVP in a browser without an account, and BrideSpark guests use their name, email or personal invitation link. Zola and Minted have guests look up their own names, and Appy Couple can require a matching name and email. RSVP as a test guest before you send the link.

Which wedding website builder works in two languages?

Joy, Squarespace (with Weglot) and Wix (with Wix Multilingual) give guests a language switch, though Joy's covers only its own buttons. Riley & Grey (14 languages) and BrideSpark (7) put all built-in wording, RSVP included, in the one language you choose. Zola and The Knot are the weakest: both say special characters aren't supported.

Can I use my Zola registry with a different wedding website?

Yes. Squarespace has a Zola block that shows registry items on your page, and Minted lets you link any registry. On BrideSpark, Zola is one of the registry providers you can pick, next to Amazon, Honeyfund and others, with a cash fund link beside it. Guests click through and buy on Zola as usual.