Digital Invitation Platforms for Co-Hosts: Who Can Edit, Send and Manage Guests?

Two hosts, one invitation. Digital invitation platforms take noticeably different approaches to that arrangement: some document a co-host role that includes editing the invitation itself, one deliberately reserves design editing for the event owner, and the amount of detail in their help documentation varies widely.

This guide compares the documented co-host permissions on Greenvelope, Paperless Post, Evite and Punchbowl: who can edit the invitation design, who can change event details, who can add guests, send, message and view responses, and what each platform says about the owner's wider account. Greenvelope publishes this comparison, and every capability below comes from each platform's own current help documentation rather than hands-on testing.

If you are still choosing a platform on broader grounds (design range, pricing, delivery options), start with the best digital invitation platforms guide. This article covers one question that guide does not: what a second host can actually do from their own account.

At a Glance

• Greenvelope: design and details editing, guest-list changes, sending, messages and reminders, and response tracking, plus named limits on the owner's Address Book, account settings and purchases. This guide's recommendation for the example below, because its documentation addresses every item on that checklist.
• Paperless Post: no Card or Flyer editing for co-hosts, but the most granular guest permissions in the sources reviewed, including a viewing-only default.
• Evite: invitation editing, guest additions and removals, and messaging, on Evite Invitations. A registered Evite account is required; the separate Event Pages product does not support co-hosts.
• Punchbowl: design and details editing, inviting guests and messaging, when the primary host holds an eligible membership. The co-host needs an account but no membership.
• All four expect each host to use a separate account rather than a shared login.

One Invitation, Two Hosts: What the Second Host Actually Needs

Here is the hypothetical planning example this article is written around (not a customer story or a hands-on test). Two friends, Maya and Dana, are organizing a seated celebration. Maya sets up the mailing in her account and pays for it. Dana is a full co-planner: she needs to correct a misspelled name in the invitation design, add guests the two of them have approved, and help track replies as the RSVP deadline approaches. Both want to work from their own accounts. Maya wants Dana to help with the mailing without access to her full Address Book or permission to change account settings or make purchases on her behalf.

That turns the choice into a short checklist: can the second host edit the invitation design, add approved guests and see responses, from her own login, and what does the platform say about the owner's wider account?

A Name on the Card Is Not Access

Listing someone as a host in the invitation wording does not give them permission to edit the invitation or manage the guest list. Grant those permissions separately through the platform's co-host feature. The reverse holds too: a co-host with full working access does not need to be named on the card at all, so decide the wording and the permissions separately.

Management access is also distinct from ordinary guest access. Paperless Post makes the point explicitly: if a removed co-host was also invited as a guest, they keep the guest view of the invitation unless their guest entry is deleted as well.

Co-Host Permissions Compared

The tables below summarize what each platform's help documentation, reviewed on October 26, 2026, says a co-host can do. Used throughout, "Not specified in reviewed sources" means the capability is neither confirmed nor ruled out in the articles reviewed here. It is a gap in documentation, not a verdict on the product, so check with the platform before relying on it either way.

The Invitation Itself: Design, Details and Sending

Guests, Replies and Account Boundaries

Greenvelope: Shared Design Editing Plus Guest Management

Greenvelope is this guide's recommendation for the Maya-and-Dana situation because its documentation addresses every item on that checklist. Greenvelope's Add a Cohost to a Mailing article states that a cohost can make changes to the design and details, edit the guest list, send to guests, send additional messages and reminders, and track responses. The same article names three limits: a cohost cannot view the owner's full Address Book, cannot change account settings, and cannot make purchases on the owner's behalf. So Dana corrects the misspelled name, adds the approved guests and watches replies arrive from her own login, while buying the mailing stays Maya's action in Maya's account.

Setup happens inside the mailing: under the Details step, the Information section includes Notifications and Cohosts, where the owner adds the co-host's email address. The co-host receives an email, and the shared mailing appears under Shared Mailings in their own account, or they are prompted to create one with that address.

Paperless Post: The Owner Keeps the Design, Delegates Guest Tasks

Paperless Post takes the opposite position on design, and says so plainly: its co-host help article states that a co-host cannot be granted the ability to edit a Card or Flyer. If the second host's job includes fixing the invitation itself, that is a hard stop, and Dana's correction would have to go back through Maya.

Paperless Post's documentation describes the most detailed guest-management permissions among the four platforms reviewed. The default role, "Track guests," is view-only: the co-host sees the guest list and statuses but cannot edit or message anyone. From there the host can separately grant editing guest details and statuses, adding or removing guests, and sending messages and reminders, and can limit removals to guests the co-host personally added. Payment is configurable too: on Coin-paid events the host chooses whether the co-host spends the host's Coins, their own, or either, and if either the host or the co-host is a Paperless Pro subscriber, payment must come from the host's account balance. The host can change permissions and remove co-hosts. Before removing a co-host or withdrawing their permission to use their own Coins, the host must cancel any sends that co-host has scheduled using those Coins.

That suits a different division of labor than our example: an owner who wants sole control of how the invitation looks while handing a helper exactly as much guest-list work as they trust them with.

Evite: Co-Host Editing on Evite Invitations

A scope note first: co-hosting belongs to Evite Invitations. Evite's Event Pages documentation lists co-host support among the features Invitations include and Event Pages do not, so a casual Event Page has no co-host to add.

For Invitations, Evite's co-host article says a co-host gets event management access and can add and remove guests, edit the Invitation, and send messages to guests. It describes invitation editing and general event-management access without itemizing which design controls or event-detail fields that covers. The co-host is added by name and email from the event's Edit Details page and must accept before access begins, and cannot remove the primary host.

Evite's iOS co-host instructions add two planning details: the co-host needs a registered Evite account, and the notification email arrives once the Invitation is sent. The general article does not state when that email goes out, so if your plan depends on collaborating before anything is sent, as Dana's design fix would, confirm the timing on your own event. Response viewing, a separate send step and any plan requirement are not specified in the reviewed sources, in either direction.

Punchbowl: Shared Design Work on an Eligible Membership

Punchbowl's co-host help article describes a broadly collaborative role: an added host can make changes to the design and details, invite their own guests, and send messages, and the article frames the co-host's only difference as being unable to delete the invitations. Items it does not itemize, such as viewing RSVPs or removing guests, are unlisted rather than denied.

The feature is tied to the primary host's membership. The help article calls it a Premium-level feature, and Punchbowl's current membership page lists "Add co-hosts" on Premium and Platinum, with Business including those features. The co-host receives an email prompting them to create an account, and Punchbowl states plainly that co-hosts do not need a membership of their own.

Setting Up Two Hosts: A Decision Sequence

On any of these platforms, the setup takes five decisions:

1. List the permissions the second host actually needs. Dana's list is design editing, adding guests, and viewing responses. A different helper might need only the guest list, or only tracking. The list, not the brand, picks the platform.
2. Choose a platform whose documentation covers that list. Design editing rules out Paperless Post by its own documentation. Greenvelope and Punchbowl explicitly document design and details editing; Evite documents invitation editing without detailing which controls that includes. Greenvelope also confirms the rest of Dana's list in writing, response tracking and account limits included, which is why it is this guide's pick here. Where another platform's article leaves an item unaddressed, confirm it with the platform rather than reading the gap either way.
3. Grant access through the platform's co-host feature, not a shared password. Each platform adds a co-host by email address from within the event (on Greenvelope, for example, under the mailing's Details step in Notifications and Cohosts). Sharing one login bypasses whatever boundaries the platform provides and hands over the entire account.
4. Agree who sends. Where both hosts can send or message guests, settle up front that one of you presses send and the other handles follow-ups. That avoids duplicate sends and keeps it clear to guests who they are hearing from.
5. Arrange your own final review. Read the finished invitation together before it goes out. The reviewed articles do not confirm built-in approval workflows, design locks or version history, so treat the joint read-through as your own step.

When Another Option Fits Better

Paperless Post, when the owner wants to retain design control while delegating selected guest tasks. The viewing-only default and per-permission grants are the most precise delegation tools in the documentation reviewed, and the no-design-editing rule is the point rather than a gap.

Evite, when the event suits Evite Invitations and both hosts want its documented co-host editing and guest-list access.

Punchbowl, when the primary host already holds an eligible membership (Premium or Platinum, or Business) and wants shared design and details editing; the co-host needs only an account.

And if the real requirement is broader than two trusted hosts on one mailing, that decision belongs to the broader platform comparison rather than this permissions guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a co-host edit the actual invitation design?

On Greenvelope, yes: the documented cohost role includes making changes to the design and details, so a second host can correct a name or adjust wording from their own account. Punchbowl also documents design and details changes for co-hosts. Evite documents that co-hosts can edit the Invitation, without separately describing which design controls that covers. Paperless Post is the exception: its help center states that a co-host cannot be granted the ability to edit a Card or Flyer, so design changes stay with the event owner there.

Do co-hosts need their own accounts?

Yes, on all four platforms as documented. Greenvelope shows the shared mailing inside the co-host's existing account or prompts them to create one with the invited email address. Paperless Post requires the co-host to be logged in to an account tied to the invited email. Evite's iOS instructions state the co-host needs a registered Evite account, and that the notification email arrives once the Invitation is sent. Punchbowl prompts the co-host to create an account and states they do not need a membership of their own. None of the four asks two hosts to share one login.

Does adding a host's name to the invitation give them access?

No. Listing someone as a host in the invitation wording does not give them permission to edit the invitation or manage the guest list. Those permissions are granted separately, through the platform's co-host feature, by entering the second host's email address. The reverse is also true: a co-host with full working access does not need to be named on the card at all.

What stays private to the event owner when a co-host is added?

It depends on the platform, and the answer comes from what each one documents. Greenvelope names three limits: a cohost cannot view the owner's full Address Book, change account settings, or make purchases on the owner's behalf. Paperless Post describes co-host access working through the event's Tracking page, with removal revoking that access, and documents a payment permission a host can grant, allowing a co-host to spend the host's Coins on the event. Evite's and Punchbowl's co-host articles do not describe account boundaries either way, which leaves those boundaries unverified rather than absent, so ask the platform directly if the separation matters to you.

Sources and Review Date

Capabilities in this guide come from the platforms' own documentation, reviewed on October 26, 2026. This is a documentation review, not hands-on testing, and permissions can change; confirm against your own event before relying on a specific capability.

• Greenvelope: Add a Cohost to a Mailing
• Paperless Post: Add a Co-Host to help send and manage my event
• Evite: Add a Co-Host
• Evite: Add a Co-Host (iOS app instructions)
• Evite: Event Pages (co-host support listed as an Invitations feature)
• Punchbowl: Can I Add A Host to My Event? (article last updated March 28, 2024)
• Punchbowl membership plans (co-host feature listing by tier)