Evite Alternatives

[Updated 5/30/19: More dead sites, add Guestboard and Doodle, update Shindigg]

I’m getting quite tired of Evite. The ads suck, the layout sucks, the lack of features sucks, etc. It hasn’t changed in at least the last 8 20 years, except to get slower and include bigger ads. Therefore I started looking for alternatives, and here’s what I found:

  • Guestboard: Founded in 2018, Guestboard finally seems like the no-nonsense Evite killer we’ve been looking for. Being designed as a modular platform that can be extended by partners, they seem to have a revenue strategy that doesn’t involve banner ads. I do wish it had more flexible scheduling features, like a time range, save the date, or guest voting on date and time (a la Doodle). Supports sign in with Google account or email address.
  • Punchbowl: Interesting feature where you can start out with Save the Date or Full Invitation. Cool use of AJAX to integrate with Flickr for invitation image and Google for maps. Features party store locator (i.e. revenue source) and after-party message board and photos/videos. The invitation page isn’t as themeable as some, but overall, the service does appear to be a better Evite. Supports sign in with Google, Facebook, or email.
  • Doodle: More for meeting scheduling than full-featured event organizing, but it’s great for proposing times and seeing when most guests can attend. I especially like that invitees can now say maybe/not ideal in addition to yes or no. Supports sign in with Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or email.
  • shindigg: Now seems focused on public events with ticket sales and social media marketing. I feel like I’d use Eventbrite for that…
  • Skobee [GONE]: Very nice-looking, professional, icon-driven interface. Supports fuzzy scheduling and the ability for guests to suggest times and places. Really cool email integration: create, update, and RSVP to plans just by cc’ing plans@skobee.com on your emails (check out the Screencast tour). Automatically gets location address, telephone, and map from Google. Except for RSS/ICal feeds, doesn’t have the integration features of some of the other sites. Supports public events, but doesn’t really seem to feature many.
  • Socializr [acquired by Punchbowl]: A very feature-rich clone of Evite. If you once loved Evite, but now just wish it didn’t suck, you’ll probably love Socializr. Integrates well (almost invasively) with other profile sites (MySpace, Flickr, Yelp, …), imports email addresses from all the big free services (as well as Outlook/Plaxo, OS X, and CSV), and let’s you customize your invitations and URLs. I like the way the invitation email includes both the event details and the theme image.
  • Planypus [GONE]: Shows public events and manages your social calendar in addition to letting you invite friends to both public and private events. Good presentation and use of AJAX. Offers ability to add multiple places and times and have people vote on them. Features blog/web widgets and export to Outlook, Facebook, and Google Calendar. Nice Screencast tour and FAQ. The test invitations I sent arrived at my gmail account immediately, but haven’t made it to my Hotmail account after 24 hours. However, I blame Hotmail, and the Planypus guys are actively working on resolving the issue… They seem to be very motivated to produce a great service.
  • Renkoo [GONE]: Very cute (girly, even), polished, and AJAX-y. Features notifications by IM or text message, contact import from the usual places, calendar export to Outlook/iCalender, Yahoo, and Google, while-you-type location lookup, and flexible time and location.
  • Goovite [GONE]: Very simple, no frills, no ads, no business-plan invitations with accepted / tentative / declined / unanswered tallying and option to leave a public or private comment.
  • DarkGuest [GONE]: Also simple, no frills, no ads, no business-plan invitations with image URL, accepted / declined / unanswered tallying, public note, and private response. View the sample invitation. Unfortunately, the operator plans to shut it down soon. For this reason, I’d recommend Goovite instead; it’s almost identical, though there’s no image URL.
  • WhizSpark [GONE]: Seems primarily focused on commercial event marketing and organizing. Not really what I’m looking for…

All in all, Socializr looks like the best general Evite replacement as far as features go, though the interface isn’t as polished as some. If you want simple and cute, Renkoo is pretty nice (and will match your pink Moto Razr). If you also want calendar sharing and public events, Planypus seems to better in that regard. But if you prefer to use email for your planning, Skobee seems pretty cool.

25 Comments

  1. You could give Zoji a try as well if you’re looking for a good Evite alternative. There’s groups and events planning, as well as customizable online invitations and RSVP management, calendars, event tracking, and forums among many other useful applications.

  2. This was pretty interesting, as I despise evite, but like the idea. I did the site tour of Skobee, and my favorite part is their activity choice: “Let’s get raging drunk”, and the time they select is “Today, breakfast.” Nice example for their target demographic.

  3. Hey thanks so much for trying out Planypus, hope your experience will only get better and better as unlike most of the other companies you listed we actually release updates very frequently and largely based on suggestions by people like you!

    By the way Skobee is no longer maintained by its founders – http://gigaom.com/2006/08/25/from-best-in-show-to-side-project-in-six-months/ – and they no longer fix bugs or release new features :(, shame because they were one of the few services on your list that actually had innovative features.

  4. Hi,

    Thanks for mentioning Planypus. Its a shame your hotmail invite did not come through ….Our emails are instantaneous but some of our emails get caught in the hotmail spam filter. According to studies 1 of 5 legit emails get lost in Hotmail’s spam filter. Thus Hotmail has a false positive of 20%!!!! This is not an excuse and we are trying really hard to figure out a way around this… but to be honest with you so far we have not been very successful. All other email clients work well except Hotmail :). If you have another account, we would love if you give us another try. If not we will try to keep plugging away at this Hotmail mess and see if we can finally resolve it. THanks again, Cheer!

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