October 16, 2026
You already have a WordPress site, or you are willing to run one. You need a private guest list, a way for each household to reply, and a meal note the caterer can actually use. A contact form will not do that. A ticket shop will not do that either.
This is a comparison of five plugins listed on WordPress.org, checked on October 15, 2026. Install counts are the ranges WordPress.org showed that day, not a ranking we measured ourselves. Prices and feature lists change. If a plugin page disagrees with this article later, trust the plugin page.
Here is the short answer
- Wedding Party RSVP if the guest list is closed, households reply with a Party ID, and you want meals, a waitlist, and a CSV export in the free plugin.
- RSVP and Event Management if you want the older, widely installed RSVP plugin and you are fine styling a plain form. Its own page puts a waiting list, reminders, and QR check-in in the paid version.
- Simple RSVP if you want guests to find themselves by name and you only need one event. It is new. WordPress.org listed 30+ active installations.
- RSVPMaker if you also need a calendar, open registration, PayPal or Stripe, and email newsletters. It is an events tool that can be used for a wedding, not a wedding guest list.
- Event Tickets if you are selling tickets or collecting public RSVPs for many events. It is the wrong shape for a private wedding list.
How this comparison was made
Each plugin below was read from its WordPress.org listing, and from the vendor’s own page when that page is linked from the listing. Nothing here is a lab test of someone else’s checkout. Where a feature is described as paid, or as still being built, that is how the vendor described it on October 15, 2026.
Wedding Party RSVP is ours. The free plugin is Wedding Party RSVP on WordPress.org. The notes about what it does, and what it does not do, come from the plugin we ship, not from a slogan.
Active installations, as WordPress.org listed them that day:
- Event Tickets: 90,000+
- RSVP and Event Management: 3,000+
- RSVPMaker: 200+
- Wedding Party RSVP: 100+
- Simple RSVP: 30+
A larger number means more sites have it installed. It does not mean the plugin is a better wedding guest list. Event Tickets is large because it sells tickets for all kinds of events.
What a wedding list actually needs
A wedding list is closed. You invited these people. A stranger should not be able to add a row by filling out a public form, unless you deliberately want that.
Replies come in households. One person answers for two adults and a child. The caterer needs a count of plates, not a count of form submissions.
You will export the list. The venue, the caterer, and the person making place cards will ask for a spreadsheet. If the only copy of the list lives in a form plugin’s entries screen, you will be copying it by hand the week of the wedding.
You may hit a room cap. Extra yes replies have to go somewhere that is not “accepted,” and a decline still has to go through when the room is full. Someone you trust should be able to offer a freed seat. That offer should be a click a person makes, not something the software does while you are asleep.
Comparison
| Plugin | Use it for | How a guest gets in | Waitlist in the free plugin | WordPress.org installs on Oct 15, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wedding Party RSVP | A private wedding guest list on your own site | A Party ID you give the household | Yes. Extra yes replies wait. A coordinator offers a seat. | 100+ |
| RSVP and Event Management | One event RSVP, including weddings, with a plain form | Invited guests, or open registration if you turn that on | No. The listing puts “Setup a Waiting list” in the paid version. | 3,000+ |
| Simple RSVP | One event, looked up by guest name | The guest types the name on your list | Not listed | 30+ |
| RSVPMaker | Events, calendars, payments, and email | The guest registers and can add other names | Not listed as a wedding waitlist | 200+ |
| Event Tickets | Tickets and public RSVPs | The guest RSVPs or buys a ticket | Ticket stock, not a wedding waitlist | 90,000+ |
Wedding Party RSVP
This is the plugin we build. WordPress.org listed 100+ active installations on October 15, 2026. That is a small number next to Event Tickets. If you want a plugin with a decade of wedding case studies from other companies, this is not that plugin.
The free plugin keeps the guest list in your WordPress database. You add the guests, or you paste them in. Each household gets a Party ID, a short code such as SMITH-001. The guest opens your page, types that code, and answers for the people in the household. There is no guest account and no password.
The free list includes adult meal choices, dietary notes, CSV import and export, a moderated guestbook, itinerary and travel pages, a thank-you tracker, and read-only links you can hand a caterer or a client. Those links are long random URLs. Treat them like passwords. There is a coordinator role so a planner or a family member can help without being a site administrator. There are six blocks and six shortcodes, so the form can sit in a page you already designed.
Event capacity is in the free plugin. You set a number. Accepted guests count toward it. A household that is already accepted and sends the form again stays accepted. A decline always goes through, including when you are full, and a decline frees a seat. A new yes after the cap is stored as Waitlist. A coordinator can offer that seat in one click from the guest list. The seat is not offered by itself when someone declines. The dashboard has a waitlist count.
Reminder emails are also in the free plugin. They go through your site’s own mail, on a daily schedule, to guests who have an email address. WordPress runs that schedule when someone visits the site, so a very quiet site can send late. This is not a text-message product. Batch invitations and SMS are in the paid Pro plugin. On a hosted weddingrsvp.pro site, SMS is limited to United States numbers and to one text segment.
The Wedding RSVP Companion app is free on the App Store and on Google Play, and it works with the free plugin. The app is English only. The website can be shown in English, Spanish, and French. Coordinators sign in on the website. Guests use the Party ID.
Pro is a separate paid plugin. It adds child guests, fuller menus, seating notes, batch email, the SMS path above, a guest photo gallery, and a registry wizard. Some of those stay off until you connect the service they need. Wedding Guest Bingo comes with Pro and with hosted sites. Guests scan a printed QR code and tick a card of first names in the phone browser. The plugin does not decide who won. You call the winner at the table. Bingo is not in the free plugin.
There is a hosted option if you do not want to run WordPress yourself. This article’s recommendation, if you already have WordPress, is the free plugin. A longer look at what stays free and what is paid is in WordPress Wedding RSVP Plugin: Free vs Pro Features for Your Wedding Site.
Choose this if you have a closed list, you can put a Party ID on the invitation, and you want the waitlist and the export without paying first.
Skip it if guests must find themselves by typing a last name, or you need a public calendar of many unrelated events. Also skip it if you were hoping for a large existing review base. One hundred active sites is not that.
RSVP and Event Management
RSVP and Event Management is the plugin many people mean when they search “RSVP plugin.” WordPress.org listed 3,000+ active installations, version 2.7.18, last updated about two months before this article. A public review on that page describes using it for a wedding, including one guest answering for a family and an import of guest details. The same review says the interface is basic and that styling it took custom CSS.
The free version is described as basic tools for one event. The listing’s paid features include multiple events, sub-events, calendar invites, reminder emails, QR codes, check-in, a front-end attendee list, and a waiting list. Open registration is available if you want people who are not on the list to sign up.
That waiting-list line matters. If the room has a hard cap, the free version of this plugin is not where that vendor says the waiting list lives.
Choose this if you want the plugin with the longer public track record, you have one event, and you or your designer can restyle a plain form.
Skip it if you need the waiting list, reminders, or check-in and you do not want the paid upgrade. Also skip it if you want a wedding-specific guest hub rather than a general event form.
Simple RSVP
Simple RSVP is the smallest plugin in this list. WordPress.org listed version 0.2.2, updated about a month before this article, and 30+ active installations. Two reviews were on the page. Treat it as new.
The listing and the vendor site at simplersvp.io describe one event, unlimited guests, lookup by name, meal and dietary fields, plus-ones, email confirmations, CSV export, a countdown, and blocks for Gutenberg and Elementor. Guests type the name as it appears on the list. They do not create an account. The vendor’s site says the free version is not a trial.
The same site describes a Pro add-on as still being built. Invitation codes, household RSVP, a seating chart, and an email scheduler are marked as forthcoming there, not as features you can use today. Do not plan a wedding on a feature that the vendor has not shipped.
Name lookup is the real difference from Wedding Party RSVP. It is easier for a guest who lost the card. It is also easier for the wrong person to open a row, because a name is not a secret. A Party ID is not a strong secret either, but it is not the guest’s public name.
Choose this if you have one party, you want guests to search by name, and you have read the version number and accepted that the project is young.
Skip it if you need households to reply as a group, a waitlist, or a plugin you can point a nervous parent at with thousands of other installations.
RSVPMaker
RSVPMaker has been in the directory since 2010. WordPress.org listed version 12.3.1, updated the day this article was written, 200+ active installations, and a 4.6 star rating from 11 reviews. The author still ships updates. That maintenance record is a point in its favor.
The listing describes it as an event and email tool. You create events in the editor, turn on RSVP, collect whatever fields you ask for, and download a spreadsheet. PayPal and Stripe are there if you charge for the event. There is a calendar, recurring events, timezone display, QR codes, and a mailer that can send through your server, an SMTP plugin, Postmark, or Mailchimp. The author also offers pre-configured hosting at RSVPMaker.com.
People do use it for weddings. The listing names parties and weddings among the events it can run. The shape is still “someone registers,” including adding the names of their guests, rather than “this household was invited and here is their code.” That is the right shape for a class, a club, or a fundraiser. It is an awkward shape for a seated dinner with a fixed invite list, unless you are willing to build that discipline yourself.
Choose this if the wedding site is also your event calendar, you may charge for something, or you want the email tools in the same plugin.
Skip it if you want a closed household list and you do not want to learn an event-and-newsletter product to collect chicken or fish.
Event Tickets
Event Tickets, from the team behind The Events Calendar, showed 90,000+ active installations and an update two days before this article. It collects RSVPs and it sells tickets, including free tickets, with PayPal or Stripe. It works on posts and pages, with or without the calendar plugin. Confirmation emails and attendee reports are part of the free description.
The listing is honest about the paid layer. Event Tickets Plus adds custom registration fields, WooCommerce, and what the page calls their mobile ticketing app. Those are not in the free plugin.
None of that is a wedding guest list. A ticket is a public object. A wedding reply is a private one. You can abuse a ticket type into “chicken” and “fish,” and people do. You will still be missing the household, the invitation code, and the export your caterer is used to seeing from a guest list. The install count is real. The job is different.
Choose this if you are publishing a calendar of public events, or you are selling tickets, and RSVP means “I am taking one.”
Skip it if the list is the people you invited to a wedding.
What we would not use for this job
A form plugin, including a wedding RSVP template inside a form builder, stores submissions. It does not give you a guest row you can update when someone changes from pending to declined. You can export entries. You are still reconciling them against the original list in a spreadsheet. That is the problem these plugins exist to avoid.
A page on The Knot or Zola is a different product. This article is about plugins on a WordPress site you control. If you want that comparison, it is a separate piece. It is not this one.
How a Party ID reply works
This is the Wedding Party RSVP path, because it is the one we can describe from the software rather than from a listing.
- You enter the household, or you paste names in. People who share a reply share a Party ID.
- You put that code on the invitation, the email, or the text. The guest does not create a password.
- They open the page on your site, type the code, and mark each person coming or not, with a meal and a dietary note.
- If you set a capacity and the accepted count is already there, a new yes is waitlisted. A decline still saves.
- You export CSV when the caterer asks. You can also open a read-only caterer link. Do not post that link in a group chat.
The free plugin does not send the first invitation blast. You send the Party IDs yourself, or you use Pro for batch email. The free reminder mail only helps people who already have an email on the row.
A checklist before you install anything
Run this against the plugin page, and against a test site if you can. A listing that says “unlimited guests” has not told you whether those guests were invited or whether they signed themselves up.
- Add ten people yourself, in three households. If the plugin has no place to type the list, it is a registration form.
- Reply as one person for a whole household. If each name is a separate public submission, you will be merging them later.
- Change one person from coming to not coming. The row should update. A second form entry is not an update.
- Export CSV and open it. Look for name, reply, meal, and a note field. If the export is “all form entries,” plan on a cleanup pass.
- Set a cap if the plugin has one. Send one more yes and one decline. The decline must save. The extra yes must not silently become another accepted plate.
- Log out. Complete a reply without creating a guest account. If the plugin demands a WordPress user, your aunt is not going to finish.
- Find the reminder control and read what it actually sends. “Email” might mean a confirmation to the person who just submitted. It might not mean a chase note to the people who have not replied.
Wedding Party RSVP passes that list in the free plugin, with two limits you should know before you rely on it. The first invitation is yours to send unless you add Pro. The reminder mail only reaches guests who already have an email on the row, and it waits on the site’s daily schedule.
RSVP and Event Management, read from its listing, will fail step 5 in the free version because the waiting list is described as paid. Simple RSVP will fail the household step if you need one reply to cover several named people: the vendor’s own Pro roadmap still lists household RSVP as not shipped. RSVPMaker and Event Tickets fail the “I typed the invited list first” step unless you rebuild your process around registration.
Meals, allergies, and the spreadsheet you will be asked for
The caterer does not want your plugin. They want a count. Adult entrée, child meal if you have one, and a note that says gluten-free or nut allergy in words a kitchen can read.
Wedding Party RSVP’s free plugin collects adult entrée choices and dietary notes on the household form. Child guests and a longer course-by-course menu are in Pro. If you only need “chicken, fish, or vegetarian” plus an allergy line, the free form is enough. If you need a children’s plate as its own guest type, do not pretend the free form does that.
Simple RSVP’s listing names meal preference and dietary restrictions as predefined questions. That is enough for a single plate per person who looked themselves up. It is not, on the page we read, a household form.
RSVPMaker will collect whatever fields you add, because it is a form on an event. You can add a meal question. You are then responsible for making the spreadsheet match the invited list. Event Tickets can collect an RSVP. Custom registration fields are described as part of Event Tickets Plus, so the free ticket form is a thin reply unless you add the paid plugin.
Export the file once while the list is still small. If the columns are wrong, you want to know in week one, not when the caterer’s deadline is Friday.
Ownership, in one paragraph
All five plugins run on your WordPress site, so the rows are in your database for as long as you keep the site. That is the point of using a plugin instead of a portal. RSVPMaker.com also sells a hosted setup, and weddingrsvp.pro sells a hosted wedding site that includes this stack. Hosting is a convenience. It is not the same claim as “you can export the guest list.” Check the export before you pay anyone for hosting. Deactivating Wedding Party RSVP does not delete guests. Deleting the plugin does not drop the guest-list table either. Guestbook entries are removed on delete. If you want the guest rows gone, use Settings → Erase all data.
Questions people ask before they install
Do guests need an account?
Not in Wedding Party RSVP, and not in Simple RSVP. Wedding Party RSVP uses the Party ID you assigned. Simple RSVP uses the name on the list. RSVPMaker and Event Tickets are built around the guest registering or taking a ticket.
Can I get the list out?
Wedding Party RSVP, Simple RSVP, and RSVPMaker all describe a spreadsheet or CSV export on their listings, or in the plugin we ship. Export before you need it. Do not discover the button on Thursday night.
What if more people say yes than the room holds?
In the free Wedding Party RSVP plugin, you set a cap. Extra yes replies are stored as waitlist. Declines still save. A person offers the open seat. The RSVP and Event Management listing puts the waiting list in the paid version. Do not assume the other free plugins do this. Their pages did not say they do.
Is the phone app required?
No. Guests can reply on the website. The Wedding RSVP Companion app is free and optional, and it is English only. Event Tickets describes its mobile ticketing app as part of Event Tickets Plus.
Which one should a couple with their own WordPress site install first?
If the list is private and the reply is per household, start with Wedding Party RSVP. If the guest must search by name and you accept a new plugin with 30+ installations, read Simple RSVP carefully. If the site is really an event calendar, start with RSVPMaker or Event Tickets and accept that you are not buying a wedding list.
Install the free plugin
If the closed list is the job, install Wedding Party RSVP from WordPress.org and put the form on a page. You can add guests before you send a single Party ID.
