By event
Best free option by event type
The overall ranking rewards tools that do everything. Your event may need only some of it: a birthday doesn't need tickets, a workshop doesn't need a pretty card. Here is what each kind of event needs, and which free options fit it best.
Birthdays
Birthday guests are friends and family who already message each other. What matters is a link that opens on any phone, a quick yes or no, and a reminder the day before.
- Partiful: One link in the chat, guests reply without an app, and text blasts replace the group chat for updates.
- Evite: Card-style designs (including free ones) with reply tracking and scheduled reminders, popular for kids' parties.
- Canva + a group chat: For ten guests in a family chat, a free Canva design is enough. Ask people to reply in the chat.
Skip: Eventbrite and similar ticketing tools: a checkout page is the wrong feel for a party.
Dinners
A dinner has a fixed number of seats and a menu to plan, so you need firm replies and dietary needs before you shop.
- Partiful: Ask guests a dietary question as part of the reply, and remind everyone by text.
- Evite: Set a reply deadline and remind people who haven't answered.
- Google Forms + your own messages: For a larger dinner (a club or work dinner), a form with menu choices puts every answer in one sheet.
Skip: Facebook Events: “Interested” is not an answer you can cook for.
Work events
Work invitations go to inboxes, need a clear guest list you can share with a venue or caterer, and often need approval or a cap on numbers.
- Luma: Free for unlimited guests, with approval, co-hosts, check-in and CSV export; reminders by email and messaging.
- Google Forms + your own messages: If your company already works in Google, a form and a shared sheet is simple and familiar.
- Evite: Has business invitation designs if the event should look less like a registration page.
Skip: Tools that need guests to have a personal social account to reply.
Workshops
Workshops have limited places, sometimes charge, and need to know something about each person (level, materials, access needs).
- Luma: Registration questions, approval and tickets; 5% platform fee on paid tickets on the free plan.
- Eventbrite: Free for free workshops, with waitlists and a marketplace that helps strangers find you.
- Google Forms + your own messages: For a free workshop among people you know, a form handles questions; you send reminders yourself.
Skip: Design-only tools such as a Canva image: you'll lose track of who has a place.
Larger ticketed events
For a gala, fundraiser or launch, the invitation is also a ticket. The questions are what the platform takes per ticket, who pays it, and how check-in works at the door.
- Eventbrite: Free events cost nothing; paid tickets carry a published per-ticket fee that you can pass to buyers. Has a check-in app.
- Luma: Ticket types, coupons and check-in; 5% platform fee on the free plan, 0% on Luma Plus.
- Partiful: Can sell tickets for social events; check its ticketing page for current fees.
Skip: Collecting money by bank transfer and tracking it in a spreadsheet: it is free, but it is the most work and the easiest to get wrong.