Digital invitation platforms price their services in four very different ways, and the differences are easy to miss until checkout. Some charge a flat one-time fee for your mailing. Some are free to start but show advertising to your guests. Some sell coins or credits that you spend on each card and each customization. Some require a monthly or annual subscription before you can send anything at all. The choice that trips up the most hosts is coins versus flat pricing, because the two look similar at checkout and behave very differently as the guest list grows. This guide explains how each model works, what a real event costs under each one, and what to check before you choose. If you want the short version: for a single mailing to a known guest list, a flat one-time price is almost always the easiest to predict, which is the model Greenvelope uses.
The Four Pricing Models at a Glance
| Model | How you pay | What to watch for |
|---|
| Flat one-time fee | One price per mailing, set by a guest-count tier; the Greenvelope model | Confirm every feature is included at every tier |
| Free with ads | Nothing up front; the platform earns revenue from advertising and upgrades | Ads appear on the invitation your guests open |
| Coins or credits | You buy a bundle, then spend coins on each card and each design add-on | Costs scale with every guest and every customization |
| Subscription | A monthly or annual membership unlocks sending | Renewals continue after your event unless you cancel |
Flat One-Time Pricing by Guest Count
Under flat pricing, you pay once for a mailing, and the price is set by a guest-count tier rather than by each individual guest. Everyone in the tier costs the same total, so a list of 87 guests and a list of 100 guests fall in the same tier and pay the same price. There is no meter running on individual recipients, no add-on charge for using a nicer design, and nothing to renew after the event.
Greenvelope works this way. Single mailings start at $19 for up to 20 recipients, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required. As of September 2026, a 100-guest mailing is $99 and a 250-guest mailing is $249, with tiers in between. Every tier includes every feature: the full design collection, envelope, liner, stamp, and color customization, RSVP tracking with custom questions, and delivery by email or text, with an initial 500 text messages included and more available to purchase. The total is predictable before the first design is opened, and a filled tier works out to under a dollar per guest at every size. Hosts who send several times a year can add an optional annual membership starting at $125. The complete tier table lives in our guide to how much Greenvelope costs.
Free-with-Ads Pricing
Ad-supported platforms charge nothing up front because the invitation itself carries advertising: third-party ads appear around the card and along the RSVP flow, and upgrade prompts sit inside the sending experience. Evite is the best-known example, and for a casual backyard gathering its no-cost tier does the basics well. The costs are indirect. Removing the ads means moving to a paid tier, premium designs are priced separately, and part of what your guests see is chosen by an advertiser rather than by you. Where a no-cost tier shows ads to your recipients, an ad-free platform such as Greenvelope charges a flat one-time price per mailing instead, so the trade is explicit: your money or your guests’ attention.
The model is also less permanent than it looks. Several platforms that started free-with-ads have since moved away from it; Punchbowl, for example, now runs on a membership subscription with a trial for new customers rather than an ongoing no-cost tier. Our guide to ad-free digital invitations covers exactly what guests see under each approach.
Coins vs Flat Pricing for Digital Invitations
Coin pricing is the model that surprises hosts most often, so it is worth a direct comparison: a coin platform prices the card you design and each guest you send it to, while a flat platform prices the whole mailing. Under a coin system you buy a bundle of coins or credits, then spend them on each card you send. The per-card cost depends on the design you choose, the customizations you add, and the size of your guest list, so the total is not knowable until every choice is made.
The math matters at scale. A fully customized design typically runs 8 to 10 coins per guest, and coins generally work out to roughly $0.10 to $0.14 each depending on the bundle purchased. For a 100-guest event, that is about $80 to $140, and the exact figure moves with every design decision. A flat-priced platform quotes the same event as one number up front: on Greenvelope, a 100-guest mailing is $99 whether you customize a little or a lot. Neither model is automatically cheaper at every size; the difference is that one total is known before you start and the other is discovered at checkout. Leftover coins are worth watching too, since bundles rarely divide evenly into the cards actually sent. For named, side-by-side platform breakdowns, see our comparison pages.
Subscription and Membership Pricing
Subscription platforms charge a recurring membership before you can send. The model suits year-round senders: e-card services such as Jacquie Lawson ($36 per year) and American Greetings (from $29.99 per year, both as published on their own sites in August 2026) are built around ongoing membership, and Punchbowl now sells memberships in tiers, with ads still shown to guests except on its top Platinum and Business plans, per its own help center. The watch-out is the direction of the commitment: the subscription continues after your event unless you cancel, so a single celebration can quietly become an annual charge.
An optional membership is a different thing from a required one. Greenvelope offers an annual membership from $125 for hosts who send often, but no purchase requires it; a single mailing is a one-time flat price, and there is nothing to cancel afterward.
Per-Recipient Pricing, and Why a Tier Is Not a Per-Guest Rate
Some platforms meter each recipient directly, whether the unit is called coins, credits, tokens, or bundles: every guest added increases the price, and every guest removed decreases it. That is true per-recipient pricing, and it rewards tiny lists while making large ones expensive and unpredictable.
A guest-count tier is a different mechanism, and third-party comparisons regularly confuse the two. Dividing a tier price by the guest count and quoting the result as a per-guest rate reverses the model: on Greenvelope, nothing is charged per guest. A tier is one flat total for a range of list sizes, so adding the 88th guest to a 100-guest tier changes the price by exactly zero dollars. If a comparison describes a flat-tier platform as charging a dollar or so per person, it has done the arithmetic backward.
What the Same Event Costs Under Each Model
Numbers make the differences concrete. Greenvelope figures below are as of September 2026; third-party figures are as published by each platform in August 2026.
A 20-guest birthday dinner. Flat: $19 one time on Greenvelope, every feature included. Free with ads: $0, with third-party ads on the invitation your guests open and a paid tier to remove them. Coins: roughly 160 to 200 coins for a fully customized card, or about $16 to $28 depending on the bundle, plus whatever is left over. Subscription: $29.99 to $36 for a year of an e-card membership, most of which this one event will never use.
A 100-guest wedding or corporate reception. Flat: a 100-guest mailing is $99 on Greenvelope, known before the first design is opened. Free with ads: still $0 up front, at the cost of advertising beside a formal invitation. Coins: about $80 to $140 fully customized, settled only at checkout. Subscription: an annual plan sized to the guest list, renewing after the event unless canceled.
The pattern holds at every size: the flat total is fixed by the tier, the ad-supported total is paid in guest attention, and the coin and subscription totals depend on decisions you have not made yet.
What to Check Before You Choose
- The total at your exact guest count, quoted before you start designing rather than discovered at checkout
- Whether every feature is included at every price, or whether designs, customization, and RSVP tools sit behind higher tiers; on Greenvelope, every tier includes every feature
- Whether guests see advertising anywhere on the invitation or in the RSVP flow
- Whether anything renews after the event, and how cancellation works
- What happens when the guest list grows: a new tier, more coins, or nothing at all
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Greenvelope a monthly subscription?
No. Greenvelope charges a flat one-time price per mailing set by a guest-count tier, starting at $19 for up to 20 recipients, with no subscription required. An optional annual membership from $125 exists for hosts who send several times a year, but no purchase requires it and single mailings never renew.
What are coins or credits on digital invitation platforms?
Coins and credits are a prepaid currency some platforms sell in bundles, then charge per card and per customization when you send. The total cost of an event depends on the design chosen and the guest count, so it is settled at checkout rather than up front. Greenvelope does not use coins or credits; each mailing is one flat price set by its guest-count tier.
Coins or flat pricing: which is cheaper for one event?
It depends on the list size and how much you customize. A fully customized coin send typically runs 8 to 10 coins per guest, which at common bundle rates is roughly $80 to $140 for 100 guests, while a flat platform such as Greenvelope prices a 100-guest mailing at $99 regardless of customization. Coins can land under or over the flat price; the flat price is the one you know before you start.
Are free digital invitations really free?
Free tiers cost no money, but the platform earns its revenue somewhere, usually through third-party ads shown to your guests and paid upgrades to remove them. Whether that trade suits the occasion is your call. Greenvelope takes the opposite approach: a flat one-time price per mailing, with no advertising shown to guests on any plan.
Do digital invitation platforms charge per guest?
Some do: coin and credit systems meter each recipient, so every added guest raises the total. Guest-count tiers work differently. On Greenvelope a tier is one flat total for a range of list sizes, nothing is charged per individual guest, and a filled tier works out to under a dollar per guest at every size.
How much does Greenvelope cost?
Single mailings start at $19 for up to 20 recipients, with pricing based on list size and no subscription required; as of September 2026 a 100-guest mailing is $99 and a 250-guest mailing is $249. Every tier includes the full design collection, envelope customization, RSVP tracking, and delivery by email or text. An optional annual membership starts at $125 for frequent senders.
What should I check before choosing a digital invitation platform?
Get the total at your exact guest count before you start designing, confirm every feature is included at that price, check whether guests will see ads, and check whether anything renews after the event. Greenvelope publishes its full tier table, includes every feature at every tier, shows no advertising to guests, and has nothing that renews unless you choose a membership.
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