Short answer: pick a birthday design, type the wording straight onto the card, add the date, time and address, set an RSVP-by date and share the link. On RSVora that is free at any guest count, nothing is watermarked, and guests reply without an account, an app or a phone number. It takes about a minute.
1. Pick the design
Start from the occasion rather than a blank canvas — the wording, the layout and the artwork are already pointed the right way:
- Kids birthday invitations
- Adult birthday invitations
- 1st birthday invitations
- Milestone birthday invitations — 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th and up
- Quinceañera and Sweet 16 invitations
Or upload your own photo. If the photo already has wording on it — a lot of downloaded templates do — leave the text layers switched off so the details are not printed twice.
2. Write on the card, not in a form
The wording goes directly onto the design: type it, drag it where you want it, change the font, change the size. What you see is what the guest sees.
Two small things that make a birthday invitation read well:
- Put the name and the number first. "Maya is 5!" does more work than "You're invited".
- Keep the card short and let the page carry the detail. The address, map link and RSVP form live below the invitation, so the artwork does not have to hold everything.
3. Say the things people will otherwise message you about
Every host fields the same four questions afterwards. Answer them on the invitation and you field none.
- Is it a meal or cake? "Cake and drinks at 3pm" and "dinner at 3pm" produce very differently prepared guests. This is the single most common follow-up question.
- Are siblings welcome? For a child's party, parents will bring or not bring a younger sibling based on nothing but a guess unless you say.
- Should parents stay? Say "drop-off welcome" or "parents please stay" in plain words. It is the second most common question and the most awkward to ask.
- When does it end? An open house with no end time can run four hours past what you planned.
For adult birthdays, the equivalents are dress code, whether there is parking, and whether "no gifts" means it.
4. Set an RSVP-by date
Pick a deadline a few days before you actually need the number — ask your venue or caterer what their cutoff is and set yours three days earlier. An automatic reminder goes out on the date, so you are not the one chasing.
5. Share it
One link into the group chat. For a class WhatsApp or a family thread, paste the public link and let anyone who opens it reply. No guest list to build, and the link unfurls into a preview card with the party name rather than a bare URL.
A private link each. If you want to know exactly who has not answered — and for a child's party you usually do, because the class list is the guest list — add guests individually. Each gets their own link, and the dashboard shows who opened it and who did not.
You can do both on the same party.
6. Get a real headcount
The dashboard gives you the two numbers that matter separately: adults and children. That is what decides how much food, how many party bags, how many chairs and whether you need a bigger cake. "Yes" from twelve families is anywhere between twelve and forty-five people, and the difference is the whole budget.
You also get sent-and-opened per guest, a free-text note field — which is where you will find out about the nut allergy — and CSV export for the venue.
Timing
- Casual adult party: two to three weeks ahead.
- Child's party in term time: three to four weeks, so you get in before the other parties.
- Milestone birthday: six to eight weeks, or a save-the-date earlier if people are travelling.
What it costs
Nothing. No paid tier, no guest cap, no price band, no watermark, and no advertising or gift guides shown to the people you invited. More on that in is it really free and the best free Evite alternatives.
If you want the wording done for you, birthday invitation wording for every age has copy-paste examples from first birthdays to 80ths.