Zola vs The Knot: Which Site Is Better for Your Wedding Planning Needs?

They say that your wedding day should be the happiest moment of your life. And from the moment you say “yes” to the moment you say “I do,” you should have an amazing time planning your entwined future.

Nevertheless, it’s still normal to feel anxious and stressed out. There are so many details to get just right, and thankfully, there are online resources available to help.

Many couples opt for Zola and The Knot, but which one should you choose?

For a thorough Zola vs The Knot comparison, read on. You’ll learn what each website has to offer so you can pick the one best suited for your needs.

About The Knot

The Knot was founded in 1996 by Carley Roney and David Liu, who are a married couple themselves. They understood the struggles and anxieties of wedding planning, so they sought to create a space that eased couples’ minds.

On this site, you’ll find lots of great tools and advice, as well as a registry, and a venue and vendor directory. You’ll also benefit from the advice of an active online community, as there are several forum pages on The Knot.

About Zola

Zola came to a ways after The Knot—Shan-Lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi started the company in 2013 when they realized many of their friends found the digital side of wedding planning painfully lacking– especially when it comes to e-commerce. Surprisingly, the two weren’t (and aren’t) romantically involved. Instead, they’re friends and coworkers.

Like The Knot, Zola also offers tools, advice, a registry, and a venue and vendor directory. They don’t have forums, but Zola has personal wedding advisors instead.

As you can see, the two wedding planning sites are very similar. So let’s dive into our The Knot vs Zola wedding website comparison so you can pick the one that’s right for you.

The Knot vs Zola: First Impressions and Usability

You’ll have peace of mind knowing that both websites have clean-cut designs that are easy to navigate. Keep reading to see what’s available on each.

The Knot

Up top in the navigation, The Knot has links to:

Planning Tools
Vendors
Wedding Website
Invitations
Registry
Attire & Rings
Ideas & Advice
Gifts & Favors
Find a Couple

The homepage lists a good vendor selection, as well as some key steps for wedding planning. Then, The Knot shows how you can make a free wedding website. You can click on any of these things to find out more information. The page ends with a beautiful wedding compilation video and testimonials set up in a carousel.

You can also scroll to the bottom to find pages for Planning & Inspiration, The Company, and Sister Sites.

Zola

Zola’s navigation categories are simpler. There are only three options, with the first two being drop-downs: Plan your wedding, Expert advice, and Find a couple.

Underneath “Plan your wedding,” you’ll find:

Wedding websites
Venues and vendors
Registry
Invites and paper
Guest list
Budget
Boutique
Albums

The pages under “Expert advice” are:

Team Z Advisors
Expert Advice (which leads to more subpages)
Inspiration
FAQs
Contact us

If you’re curious about the Advice categories, they are:

Planning 101
Invites and Paper
Wedding party
Pre-wedding activities
First Look Report
Registry
Guests
Honeymoons
Newlywed life
COVID-19
View all

Zola’s main page has a similar structure to The Knot’s. The first section discusses the essentials you need for wedding planning, then it moves onto their free wedding website feature. Next, Zola shows off their guest list feature, venues and vendors, invites and paper, and registry.

If you weren’t sure if you should use Zola, then you’ll want to read the next section. They list their unique selling points (USPs) and reiterate that they have expert personal advisors under Team-Z.

At the bottom of the homepage, you can navigate the site through the categories of Plan your wedding, About, and Advice and Support.

The Knot vs Zola: Wedding Planning Tools

This is what every engaged person is looking for: tools that’ll make wedding planning easier and smoother.

Luckily for you, both sites have extensive wedding planning tools available. Let’s take a look at them in detail.

The Knot

On The Knot, you’ll find these tools:

Planning checklist
Budgeting tools
Wedding vision
Guest list manager

If you’re unsure of what you want your wedding to look like, then The Knot is fantastic for personalizing your big day. You can take the style quiz to find beautiful ideas that’ll work for you.

Zola

Zola has similar tools to The Knot:

Planning checklist
Budgeting tools
Guest list manager
Gift tracker

While both sites have guest list managers, The Knot has more features, as you can manage both RSVPs and thank-you notes on their tool.

The Knot vs Zola: Wedding Registry

The registry is something all your guests will ask for, so the site you use can either ease or add to your burdens.

Take a look at each site’s strengths and weaknesses here.

The Knot

If you enjoy items from large big box stores, then you’ll be happy with The Knot’s registry. You can add these things so your loved ones can purchase them for you, and if there are leftover items, some are eligible for a 20% discount after your wedding. They can give cash gifts too.

While The Knot has its own registry service, you have the freedom to use other registries if you wish.

Zola

Zola’s biggest advantages are that they have a gift-tracking feature, and all items are eligible for a post-wedding 20% discount. Also, they have both big box and small local stores on their registry.

However, the caveat is there’s a markup on their registry items. Something that lessens the sting of higher prices is that they do have price matching, although the terms are quite strict.

In addition, there are often issues with registry item purchases.

The Knot vs Zola: Wedding Websites

You want the whole world to know about your special day, and thankfully, both Zola and The Knot allow you to create free wedding websites.

Find out below what their offerings are.

The Knot

For those who are not technologically savvy, you’ll be pleased to know that The Knot has over 380 premade templates. You can easily sort through them by season, as well as color and style. No matter which you choose, it’ll let your guests RSVP and view your registry, as well as your cash fund if you wish to have one.

What’s great is by paying an extra $20, you can get a whole custom domain of your own. This will set your wedding website apart from others

Zola

Zola also has pre-made templates and themes. There are over 250 available, plus you can customize them, which makes it more likely that your website will be unique.

Like with The Knot, Zola gives site visitors the ability to RSVP and see your registry and cash honeymoon funds. You can pay extra to get a custom domain here, too.

The Knot vs Zola: Venues and Vendors

Sourcing venues and vendors is the bulk of wedding planning, so you’ll want every bit of help you can get. See how these sites stack up against one another.

The Knot

When searching for venues and vendors on The Knot, you can choose the category and the location. For the latter, you can key in a specific city or look for results by state or popular cities.

Once you’ve hit “search,” you’ll get a list of results showing photos and other vital details, such as how many guests a venue fits and how much it’ll cost. You’ll also see if the particular venue or vendor has won accolades, such as “Best of Weddings.”

You can then click on the listing for more information, such as:

About section
Amenities and services
Ceremony types
Awards and affiliations
Prior client reviews

Otherwise, you can take direct action with the “request quote” button.

Zola

Zola wins here since vendors don’t have to pay for listings. Instead, their staff carefully scrutinizes their listings to get you top-quality businesses to work with. Plus, they have a quiz you can take that’ll help you narrow down venues and vendors that fit your budget, location, and style.

If you already know what you want, then you can search by location and vendor type. Zola also has subpages for venues and vendors in top cities, but not for states.

Zola sorts results in a similar fashion to The Knot. You’ll see pictures and brief details, such as:

About section
Amenities and services
Prior client reviews

Again, you can click on the results to read more, or you can hit “get a quote” immediately.

The Knot vs. Zola: Wedding Invitations

As much as you’d like to invite your loved ones to your wedding through text or plain text email, that simply won’t do. However, this task won’t be as difficult as you thought, as both The Knot and Zola have paper suites that match their wedding website templates.

Check out the similarities and differences in the following sections.

The Knot

The Knot knows how hard it can be to pick the perfect wedding invites. This is why they let you choose 3 to try for free before purchase.

At the time of writing, there are over 670 invitation templates to browse, and they’re all made of quality Signature paper. You can sort them by format, design style, color theme, foil, season, and number of photos.

The design styles range from floral to simple, and classic to vintage, while the colors range from white to gold, purple, and multi-color. Needless to say, you won’t be short on choices.

The Knot’s invitations cost around $2 per invite. The more you buy, the more you save. They also offer a free invite if your plans change.

Zola

Zola’s invitations are a bit more special since they’re made by Zola artists. If you’re eco-conscious, then you’ll be pleased to know that a tree is planted for every paper order placed on the site.

Zola allows you to pick 5 free samples instead of 3, so this site’s better for those who are more indecisive. You can sort through 1,075 designs by style, color, shape, magnet, custom photo, foil, letterpress, reception only, orientation, and featured artist. The designs and colors are as numerous as on The Knot.

Zola’s invitations are much cheaper, though, costing around $1 per invite. However, you don’t get bulk discounts, as the price is the same no matter how many you order.

The Knot vs Zola: Mobile Accessibility

There are so many details to a wedding that you’ll probably have to plan while on the go. While you might have your laptop with you at times, it’s much easier to pull out your phone to check things off.

Luckily for you, both wedding planning websites have mobile apps.

The Knot

You can use The Knot Wedding Planner on Android and iOS. At the time of writing, only Americans can use this app. But you can count on The Knot’s team to work on providing international solutions again.

Zola

Currently, you can only use the Zola app on iOS. Their Android app shut down on January 1, 2023. Those who downloaded the Android app before this date can still use it, but new users can no longer get their hands on it.

The Knot vs Zola: Customer Support

Navigating the wedding planning process can be exciting, yet challenging and daunting. Should anything go wrong, you want a responsive team of professionals to address your concerns.

The Knot

If you have any issues, you can fill out a form on The Knot’s site. In addition, there’s a number you can call. Unfortunately, there’s no live chat feature.

You should also be aware that some couples complained that there’s a lack of professionalism from The Knot’s team.

Zola

Zola is the clear winner when it comes to customer support. As we’ve mentioned earlier, they have personal wedding advisors, and this service comes at no extra cost.

To book sessions, you can email Zola, or DM them through TikTok or Instagram. If you prefer to call, that’s possible too.

The Knot vs Zola: Cost

The good news is, the two sites are free to use. This means you can sift through the wealth of information to ensure your big day goes perfectly.

However, the downside is that both charge for cash gifts on your registry.

The Knot

If your wedding guests choose to give you cash gifts through a credit card transaction, The Knot will charge a 2.5% processing fee. You won’t be the one paying for it, though, as your guests are the ones responsible for the fee.

Otherwise, you won’t have to worry about any other fees or charges.

Zola

There’s a similar 2.5% credit card transaction fee on Zola for cash gifts. But the difference is you can either have your guests cover it, or you can pay it yourself. An alternative is to turn the cash gifts into gift cards, which will eliminate the fee.

Zola vs The Knot FAQs

It’s possible that you still might have questions, even after reading this comprehensive Zola vs The Knot wedding website analysis. Below are some FAQs that’ll hopefully answer your concerns.

Does Zola Sync With The Knot?

Yes, Zola does sync with The Knot. More specifically, you can add your Zola registry to your account on The Knot, and vice versa.

What Percentage Does Zola Take?

Zola takes 2.5% of all credit card transactions for cash gifts. They take 0% for those paid with a bank transfer, debit card, or Venmo balance.

How Long Do Wedding Websites Stay on The Knot?

Wedding websites stay on The Knot for one year. Before yours expires, the site will send you a notification or email.

At that time, you can choose to either let your wedding website expire or renew the domain if you’ve purchased a custom one. If it expires, the site will revert to a free address.

Zola vs The Knot: Choose the Site That’s Right for You

For wedding planning guides and information, the battle between Zola vs The Knot is pretty even. The two sites also allow you to create free wedding websites, which is outstanding for those on a tight budget.

Otherwise, each has its own pros and cons that you need to weigh and prioritize. From there, you can make a final decision on the site to make your dream wedding come to life.

When it comes to Zola vs The Knot, which one do you prefer?

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