Riley & Grey alternative: Crivando vs Riley & Grey
Couples looking for a Riley & Grey alternative are almost always looking at the price. Riley & Grey is the most expensive wedding website builder in this category at $39 a month or $299 a year, and it's expensive for a defensible reason: the design work is genuinely the best around and it includes a real registry. Crivando is €9 to €23 a month, roughly a third of the cost, with different priorities. Here's what you gain and what you give up.
Last checked August 2026 · Every Riley & Grey claim on this page links to a public source · Crivando is our own product, and we’ve said where it loses
The short version
Riley & Grey is the premium pick: the best design work in this category, a real registry with gift and cash collection, premium paper invitations, and an unlimited trial where you only pay to publish. It's also $299/yr with a 2.95% cash-gift fee. Crivando is a third of the price with EU hosting and no fee on gifts.
Why couples leave Riley & Grey.
The price, and then the maths. $299 a year, or $39 a month, for a website you'll actively use for about eighteen months. That's a large number to justify, and the justification has to be the design, because the feature list isn't dramatically ahead of platforms charging nothing.
Then the 2.95% on monetary gifts, which is the highest cash-gift fee in this category, above The Knot's and Zola's 2.5%. Either party can pay it, which is fairer than The Knot's arrangement where the guest always does, but it's still the top rate. On €5,000 of cash gifts that's €147.50.
Paper invitations run roughly $2.80 each on top. For 100 guests that's another $280, so the membership isn't the whole cost. Worth knowing before you treat $299 as the total.
Where Riley & Grey beats us.
Design, and the registry. Riley & Grey's websites are the most polished in this category and it isn't particularly close. That's their entire proposition and they deliver on it. They include a real registry with both gift and cash fund collection, plus premium paper invitations, neither of which we offer. And their unlimited free trial, where you build the whole site and only pay when you're ready to publish, is a fairer way to sell software than most of this industry manages. If you want the best-looking wedding website money can buy, that's them.
Visit Riley & GreyCrivando vs Riley & Grey, row by row
Rows marked with a dash are ones where Riley & Grey wins. There are several. A comparison table without them would be an advert.
Swipe to see the full table
| Feature | Crivando | Riley & Grey |
|---|---|---|
| Website cost | €9–23/mo | $39/mo or $299/yr |
| Free trial | No free tier | Unlimited, pay only to publish |
| Cash-gift fee | 0%, guests transfer to your bank directly | 2.95%, either party can pay |
| Physical gift registry | External links only | Yes, gifts and cash funds |
| Paper invitations | Not offered | Yes, around $2.80 per invite |
| Design quality | 8 templates, editable | The most polished in the category |
| Custom domain | Connect your own domain: €29 one-time + €5/mo, includes free SSL | Included |
| Guest photo upload by QR | Yes, with an approval queue | Not a core feature |
| DJ song wishlist | Yes | Not offered |
| Hosting and data | GDPR-compliant EU hosting | US company |
Pricing and features checked August 2026. Riley & Grey pricing is shown in the currency they publish, not converted. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page.
What Crivando does differently
The things worth paying for, if you’re going to pay. If none of these matter to your wedding, Riley & Grey is the sensible choice and we’d rather you made it.
Pay for the add-ons you use, not all of them
The base site is €9 a month. Each group of add-ons steps it up, to a maximum of €23 with all 11 unlocked. If you don't want a countdown or a wedding ABC, you don't pay for them.
Learn moreNothing taken off your cash gifts
Guests reserve a fund and transfer directly to your bank, PayPal or Venmo. We don't process the payment, so there's no percentage to take. Less slick than tapping a card, and you keep 100%.
Learn moreGuest photos by QR code, with an approval queue
Print a card for the tables. Guests scan it and upload straight from their camera roll: no app, no account. Nothing appears on your site until you approve it, and you keep the original high-resolution files.
Learn moreA DJ song wishlist
Guests submit the songs they want to hear. You get a clean list of titles and artists to hand to the DJ, instead of fourteen separate text messages on the morning of the wedding.
Learn moreHosted in the EU, under GDPR
Your guest list, their dietary requirements and their photos sit on EU infrastructure under European data protection rules, rather than on a US platform that also sells them things.
Learn moreA moderated digital guestbook
Guests write messages from their phone during the reception or the morning after, when they've actually got something to say. You approve each entry before it goes live, and you can export the lot afterwards.
Learn moreMoving from Riley & Grey to Crivando.
There's no export button on Riley & Grey, or on most platforms in this category, so this is a copy-paste job rather than a migration. Budget an evening, not a weekend.
Take the guest list out first: names, emails, and any RSVP responses already in. Then the text of each page: your story, the schedule, the FAQ answers you've already written. Those are the bits that took you the longest and they move across unchanged.
Build the new site, check it on a phone, and only then send the new link. Don't take the old site down the same day. Leave it up for a fortnight with a line at the top pointing at the new address, so anyone who bookmarked it isn't stranded.
Which one you should pick
The visual language of the wedding matters to you, you'd otherwise pay a designer, and you want paper invitations from the same place. Use their free trial and decide with the thing built.
You want the guest tooling rather than the art direction, at roughly a third of the price, with nothing taken off your cash gifts and your data in the EU.
Build your siteStraight answers
How much does Riley & Grey cost?
$39 a month or $299 a year, making it the most expensive builder in this category. There's also a $39 one-time Reserve plan to hold your domain and design before committing. Monetary gifts carry a 2.95% fee, and paper invitations run roughly $2.80 each.
Does Riley & Grey have a free trial?
Yes, and an unusually generous one: an unlimited free trial where you design the whole website and invitations, and only pay when you're ready to publish. If you're weighing whether the design justifies the price, build it first and decide with it in front of you.
What is the best alternative to Riley & Grey?
If the price is the problem rather than the product, Crivando is €9 to €23 a month, roughly a third, with RSVPs and dietary tracking, a cash fund at 0%, QR guest photo collection, a moderated guestbook and EU hosting. You give up the custom design work and the paper invitations.
Is Riley & Grey worth the price?
If the visual language of the wedding matters to you and you'd otherwise hire a designer, probably yes. If you mainly need to tell guests where to park and collect RSVPs with meal choices, you're paying $299 a year for art direction you don't need.
Does Crivando have a free plan?
No, there's no free tier. Plans run from €9 a month for the base site to €23 a month with all 11 add-ons unlocked, which is less than Riley & Grey charges, but it isn't nothing.
How do I move my wedding website from Riley & Grey?
Copy and paste, mostly, since there's no export button on Riley & Grey. Take your guest list and RSVP responses out first, then the text of each page. Build the new site, check it on a phone, then send the new link and leave the old site up for a fortnight pointing at the new address.
Do I need a wedding website at all?
Not always. Thirty guests, one venue, everyone local: a group message does the job and a website is admin you invented for yourself. Websites start earning their place once guests are travelling, or when there are enough of them that you'd otherwise answer the same parking question forty times.
Where these numbers come from
Everything claimed about Riley & Grey here comes from pages published by Riley & Grey or by another platform in this category, checked August 2026. Platforms change their pricing without telling us. If you’re deciding based on a number on this page, spend thirty seconds checking it at the source.