# Easy Vite vs Punchbowl > Punchbowl dropped its free plan and ads still show unless you pay for Platinum. Easy Vite is free with no ads at any tier. Checked 2026-08-25. Source: https://easyevite.com/compare/punchbowl Publisher: Easy Vite (https://easyevite.com) Compared with: Punchbowl (https://www.punchbowl.com) All claims checked: 2026-08-25 --- Punchbowl built its reputation on licensed designs, Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Sesame Street among them, which is a real advantage when you are inviting eight-year-olds. What changed is the business model: Punchbowl now runs on a membership subscription with a seven-day trial that asks for a card up front, and advertising still shows to you and your guests unless you are on the top Platinum tier. Easy Vite is free, has no tiers and has no advertising to remove. This page lays out the current Punchbowl plans, quotes their own upgrade page, and is honest about what Punchbowl does better. ## Side by side | Feature | Easy Vite | Punchbowl | | --- | --- | --- | | Price to send | Free at every guest count | Membership subscription. Plus from $5.99 a month, Premium from $9.99, Platinum from $11.99, Business from $79.99, with promotional rates often shown lower | | Permanent free plan | That is the only plan | No. New customers get a 7-day free trial and then pay | | Card required to start | No | Yes. The free trial requires a credit card up front | | Ads shown to your guests | None on any plan, because there are no plans | Yes, unless you are on Platinum. Punchbowl's upgrade page states that removing advertising for you and your guests requires a Platinum membership | | Annual billing refunds | Nothing to refund | Annual memberships run a full year and are not partially refundable after a month | | Guest cap | No cap | Not published per plan | | Guest needs an account to RSVP | No | No | | Designs | %%DESIGNS%% free designs across 22 categories | A strong catalogue including licensed character designs that competitors cannot license | | Licensed character designs | None | Yes, a genuine differentiator for children's parties | | Languages | 99 | Not published | | 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 | Yes | | Digital greeting cards | No | Yes, a separate membership covers digital cards | | Money-back guarantee | Nothing to guarantee | 30-day money-back guarantee advertised | | Co-hosts | Yes | Yes | ## Where Easy Vite is different - Punchbowl no longer offers a permanent free plan. New customers get a seven-day free trial that requires a credit card, and then a membership charge begins. Easy Vite has no trial because it has no paid tier. (source: https://www.punchbowl.com/upgrade, checked 2026-08-25) - Advertising is shown to you and your guests on every Punchbowl membership except Platinum. Their upgrade page states that removing advertising for you and your guests requires a Platinum plan. Easy Vite has no advertising on any page. (source: https://www.punchbowl.com/upgrade, checked 2026-08-25) - Punchbowl memberships are listed from $5.99 a month for Plus, $9.99 for Premium, $11.99 for Platinum and $79.99 for Business, with promotional rates frequently displayed lower. Easy Vite costs nothing whether you send once a year or once a week. (source: https://www.punchbowl.com/upgrade, checked 2026-08-25) - Punchbowl's help centre states that an annual membership runs the full year and cannot be partially refunded after a month. A subscription is therefore a year-long commitment for what may be one party. (source: https://help.punchbowl.com/article/337-what-are-the-membership-subscription-plans, checked 2026-08-25) - Because the trial takes a card up front, the default outcome of forgetting to cancel is a charge. Easy Vite never holds a payment method, so there is nothing to forget. (source: https://www.punchbowl.com/upgrade, checked 2026-08-25) ## What Punchbowl does better - Licensed designs. Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Sesame Street and similar properties are genuinely exclusive, and for a child's birthday that is often the deciding factor. - A polished, long-running product with reliable delivery and a well-worked guest list and reminder system. - Digital greeting cards alongside invitations, so one subscription covers birthdays you are not hosting as well as ones you are. - A 30-day money-back guarantee, which is more generous than most subscription products in this category. - The Business tier is a sensible fit for a small organisation that sends regularly and wants everything ad-free under one account. ## When Punchbowl is the better choice Choose Punchbowl if your child has asked for a specific licensed character and that is the end of the conversation, or if you send invitations and greeting cards often enough that a monthly membership is genuinely cheaper than the alternatives. Be clear-eyed about two things first: the trial takes a card, and unless you are on Platinum your guests are still being shown advertising on a plan you are paying for. If neither of those sits well, Easy Vite gives you unlimited free invitations with no advertising at any tier, and no card anywhere in the flow. ## The model changed, and the comparison changed with it For years the honest summary of Punchbowl was free with ads, pay to remove them. That is no longer accurate. Punchbowl now runs on a membership: a seven-day trial that requires a card, then a monthly or annual charge depending on the tier you picked. The tiers published on their upgrade page are Plus from $5.99 a month, Premium from $9.99, Platinum from $11.99 and Business from $79.99, with promotional rates often displayed alongside. Annual memberships are billed for the full year and their help centre is explicit that they are not partially refundable after a month. The detail that surprises people most is that paying does not necessarily remove the advertising. Punchbowl states that removing advertising for you and your guests requires a Platinum membership, which means Plus and Premium subscribers are paying a monthly fee and still showing their guests adverts. ## What a single party actually costs on each Most people sending an invitation are sending one invitation. They are not buying an annual invitation habit. Subscription pricing is a poor fit for that shape of need, and it is why so many hosts end up on a trial they meant to cancel. On Punchbowl, one ad-free party means at least one month of Platinum, and if you took the annual rate to make it cheaper you have committed to a year. On Easy Vite, one party costs nothing, and so does the next one, and there is no payment method on file to leave behind. This is not an argument that subscriptions are wrong. If you host constantly, a membership can be good value and Punchbowl's greeting card range genuinely adds to it. It is an argument that the shape of the pricing should match the shape of your use. ## Licensed designs are the real reason to choose Punchbowl It is worth saying plainly: Easy Vite cannot compete on licensed characters and never will. Punchbowl has Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Sesame Street designs under licence, and a five-year-old who wants a specific character on their invitation is not going to be talked into a tasteful alternative. What Easy Vite has instead is %%DESIGNS%% free designs across 22 categories, including a large children's birthday range, plus an invitation studio where you can put your own text on any of them, change fonts, and pick one of 20 opening effects. You can also upload your own artwork, which is how most people solve the character problem: a photo of the birthday child, or an image the parent already has. If the licensed design is the point, choose Punchbowl. If it is a nice-to-have, the free catalogue plus your own photo usually wins on both cost and sentiment. ## Guest-facing differences Neither product asks your guests to create an account, which is the most important thing and both get it right. The difference is what sits around your invitation on the page your guest opens. On Easy Vite there is nothing but your invitation and the reply buttons. On Punchbowl, unless you are on Platinum, there is advertising, and your guest has no way to tell that you are paying for the product. On the reply itself, Easy Vite records adults and children separately, supports a headcount cap per event and per invitation so an event with a fixed capacity stops accepting yeses when it is full, and lets you message everyone or just the non-responders. ## If you are on a Punchbowl trial right now Two practical notes. First, the trial is seven days and it took your card, so set a reminder to cancel if you do not intend to continue. Second, cancelling does not remove an invitation you have already sent, but it does end the ad-free status if you were on Platinum. If you want to move the event, it takes about a minute: pick a design on Easy Vite, fill in the title, date and place, and share one link into the same group chat. You do not need an account until you are ready to send, and you never need a card. If your list is already collected somewhere, add guests individually and send each a private link, or import from Google Contacts on the web. ## Common questions ### Is Punchbowl still free? No. Punchbowl now runs on a membership subscription. New customers get a seven-day free trial that requires a credit card up front, after which a charge begins. Checked 2026-08-25. ### Do Punchbowl guests still see ads if I pay? Yes, unless you are on Platinum. Punchbowl's upgrade page states that removing advertising for you and your guests requires a Platinum membership, so Plus and Premium subscribers still show guests adverts. ### How much does Punchbowl cost a month? Plus is listed from $5.99, Premium from $9.99, Platinum from $11.99 and Business from $79.99, with promotional rates often shown lower. Prices checked 2026-08-25 on punchbowl.com/upgrade. ### Can I get a refund on a Punchbowl annual membership? Punchbowl advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee, but their help centre also states that annual memberships run the full year and cannot be partially refunded after a month. Read both before committing. ### Does Easy Vite have Disney or licensed character invitations? No. Licensed characters are exclusive to the platforms that hold the licence. Easy Vite has a large free children's birthday range and lets you upload your own artwork instead. ### Does Easy Vite ever ask for a card? No. There is no paid tier, no trial and no payment method stored anywhere in the product. ### Can I move an event I already sent on Punchbowl? Yes, though replies do not transfer. The usual approach is to create the event on Easy Vite, share the new link in the same group chat, and let replies start clean. ### How current is this comparison? Punchbowl's plans and advertising policy were checked on 2026-08-25 against their own upgrade page and help centre. Subscription pricing changes often, so verify on punchbowl.com before deciding. --- Punchbowl is a trademark of its owner. Easy Vite is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Punchbowl.