RSVora vs Basic Invite
Basic Invite is a printer with an unusually good online editor attached. Its selling point is colour: you can change effectively every element of a design to any shade you like and then order a printed sample to check it before committing, which no other stationery company in this comparison offers as standard. Cards start around 72 cents each. RSVora does not print anything, costs nothing, and exists to get an invitation in front of people and record who is coming. This page is about which half of the job you actually need done.
Basic Invite details checked 2026-08-25. Pricing and plans change, so verify anything that matters to you on their site before deciding.
Side by side
| Feature | RSVora | Basic Invite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free at every guest count | Per printed card, from around 72 cents, plus envelopes, postage and any extras |
| Digital or printed | Digital only | Print first, with digital and website options alongside |
| Colour customisation | Text colour and design options in the studio | Effectively unlimited colour control on almost every element, with 150 or more custom colours |
| Printed sample before ordering | Not applicable | Yes, you can order a real printed sample of your own design |
| Ads shown to your guests | None | None |
| Guest cap | No cap | No cap, but every card costs money |
| Cost for 100 guests | $0 | Roughly $72 or more in cards alone, before envelopes and postage |
| Postage | None. Nothing is posted | Yours to pay, on top of the cards |
| Address collection and printing | No | Yes, including free recipient address printing on many products |
| RSVP tracking | Built in, free, with counts and reminders | Available through their wedding website product |
| Adults and children counted separately | Yes | Not published |
| Headcount cap with automatic cut-off | Yes, per event and per invitation | Not published |
| Automatic reminders | Yes, by email or text | Not applicable to printed cards |
| Languages | 99 | Not published |
| Turnaround | Immediate. The link works as soon as you send it | Printing and delivery time |
| Envelope options | Digital envelope with 20 opening effects | Real coloured envelopes, including seals and liners |
Where RSVora is different
- Basic Invite is a printer. Its output is physical cards from around 72 cents each, plus envelopes and postage. RSVora produces nothing physical and costs nothing. (source, checked 2026-08-25)
- Basic Invite lets you change the colour of almost every element of a design, with 150 or more custom colours, which is more control than any digital invitation product in this comparison offers. (source, checked 2026-08-25)
- You can order a printed sample of your own design from Basic Invite before committing to the full order, which removes the main risk of buying stationery online. (source, checked 2026-08-25)
- Basic Invite offers a wedding website for collecting addresses, managing RSVPs and sharing details. That is a wedding-shaped product, where RSVora is event-shaped and works for any occasion. (source, checked 2026-08-25)
- A printed invitation cannot be changed after it is posted. A RSVora invitation can be corrected after sending, and every guest sees the corrected version. (source, checked 2026-08-25)
When Basic Invite is the better choice
They genuinely do these better
- Colour control that genuinely has no equal: almost every element of a design can be set to any shade, with 150 or more custom colours available.
- Printed samples of your own design before you order, which is the single best answer to the risk of buying stationery from a screen.
- Real envelopes in matching colours, with liners and seals, which is a large part of why paper invitations still feel like an occasion.
- Recipient address printing, often included, which saves hours of handwriting on a big list.
- Per-card prices from around 72 cents are competitive for custom printing at that level of flexibility.
Choose Basic Invite when you want paper, particularly when you have a colour scheme you need the stationery to match exactly, and when the ability to hold a printed sample before ordering matters to you. Nothing digital replaces an envelope arriving. Choose RSVora when the invitation needs to go out today, when the guest list is too large or too informal for postage to make sense, or when the part you care about is knowing how many adults and children are coming and being able to remind the people who have not answered.
Try it without signing up
Pick a design and customize it first. You only make an account when you are ready to send.
Browse 1,332 free designsThese are not really competitors, and that is the useful part
Basic Invite prints. RSVora does not. A comparison between them is mostly a question about the event rather than about the products.
A wedding, a formal anniversary or a christening in a family that keeps things in a drawer wants paper, and paper has properties a link does not: it arrives, it sits on a mantelpiece, it is a small physical act of respect.
A birthday, a barbecue, a fundraiser, a leaving do or a class party wants speed and a headcount, and posting eighty cards for a Saturday in three weeks is neither.
Plenty of people want both, which is easy: print for the twenty people who care about paper, share a link with the other sixty, and track all of them in one place.
What printing actually costs, end to end
Card prices from around 72 cents are the headline, and they are genuinely competitive. The number people underestimate is everything else.
For 100 guests you are looking at the cards themselves, envelopes, any liners or seals you want, postage at whatever your national rate is, and the time to address, stuff and post them. It is straightforward to spend well over $200 on a 100-guest send once postage is in.
Then there is the reply half. A printed invitation with a reply card means waiting for post to come back, chasing people by phone, and keeping the count in a spreadsheet. Basic Invite's wedding website helps here if you use it.
RSVora's equivalent is zero dollars, immediate delivery, and a dashboard that already knows the answer.
Colour, which is Basic Invite's real trick
It is worth dwelling on this because it is genuinely distinctive. Most stationery sites let you pick from a handful of colourways. Basic Invite lets you change almost every element of a design independently, across 150 or more colours, and then order a printed sample of the result.
For anyone matching a wedding palette, that is the difference between approximately right and right. Screens lie about colour, and a printed sample is the only honest test.
RSVora's studio is not competing at that level. You can change text colour, fonts, layer position and the design you started from, and you can upload your own artwork entirely. It is enough to make an invitation yours; it is not a colour matching system.
The correction problem
One practical advantage of digital that rarely makes it into comparisons: you can fix a mistake.
A printed invitation with the wrong start time is a hundred wrong invitations, and the only remedy is a phone call to everyone. A digital invitation is one edit, and every guest who opens the link, including the ones who opened it yesterday, sees the corrected version.
RSVora also lets you send an update message to all guests, or only to the ones who have not replied, which is the honest way to make sure a change is actually seen rather than merely published.
Running both for one event
The hybrid is simple and common. Order paper from Basic Invite for the guests who expect it. Create the same event on RSVora and put the link on the card, or send it separately to everyone else.
Guests who received paper can be added to the guest list manually and their replies recorded as they arrive by post or phone, so the headcount in the dashboard covers everybody rather than only the digital half.
If you want the two to match visually, upload the artwork you designed at Basic Invite as the RSVora invitation image. It detects existing text on uploads and keeps its own text layers off, so the date does not appear twice.
Questions
Does Basic Invite do digital invitations?
Basic Invite is print-first, with digital and wedding website options alongside. Its strength is custom printed stationery with unusually deep colour control.
How much does Basic Invite cost?
Cards start around 72 cents each, before envelopes, extras and postage. A 100-guest send is realistically well over $200 all in. Checked 2026-08-25.
Can I get a printed sample of my design?
Yes, that is one of Basic Invite's best features: you can order a real printed sample of your own design before committing to the full order.
Does RSVora print anything?
No. RSVora is digital only. If you want paper, use a printer like Basic Invite and run the replies on RSVora.
Can I match my printed invitation with a digital one?
Yes. Upload the artwork as a PNG, JPG or WebP and it becomes the RSVora invitation. Existing text on the image is detected so nothing gets printed twice.
How do I track replies from paper invitations?
Add those guests to the RSVora guest list manually and record their replies as they come in by post or phone, so your headcount covers everyone.
What if I need to change the time after sending?
On RSVora, edit the event and every guest sees the correction, then send an update to everyone or only the non-responders. Printed invitations cannot be corrected.
How current is this comparison?
Basic Invite's published pricing and customisation claims were checked on 2026-08-25. Card prices vary by product and quantity, so check basicinvite.com.