Wedding Website Cost: Free vs One-Time Payment

How much does a wedding website cost? Anywhere from nothing to a few hundred euros, depending on the pricing model behind it. That sounds vague, so let's make it concrete. I'm Nick, a wedding DJ from Augsburg in Germany, and I built about2marry after watching couples at real weddings pay for things they never used. Here's how the three common models compare, and where the hidden costs like to hide.

Free builders: you pay with ads and data

A free wedding website is rarely a gift. The provider has to earn money somehow, and that usually happens in one of three ways: ads on your page, upsells at every corner, or your data. Think about what actually sits on a wedding page. Names, addresses of your venues, who's coming with whom, sometimes even food allergies. Ask yourself whether you want a banner ad next to your ceremony schedule, and whether you know what happens with your guests' details.

Free plans also tend to lock the useful parts behind a paid tier: RSVP with menu choice, photo uploads, an ad-free page, password protection. In practice, the free version is a demo. You find that out three weeks in, when your page is half built and switching providers feels like too much work. That's the plan.

Subscriptions: small monthly fee, long planning time

Often around $10 to $15 a month sounds harmless. But wedding planning doesn't take a month. Most couples publish their page 9 to 12 months before the wedding, sometimes earlier if a save the date goes out. Multiply the monthly fee by your planning time and the "cheap" option quietly becomes the most expensive one.

Then there's the cancellation part. After the wedding, you're on honeymoon, writing thank-you cards, getting back to normal life. Cancelling a website subscription is nobody's priority in those weeks, and some plans renew for a full year at a time. I've heard this exact story from couples at weddings I've played: they paid months longer than they meant to.

One-time payment: what a wedding website cost should look like

The third model is the simplest: you pay once, the page runs through your wedding and a while beyond, then it's done. No recurring charge, nothing to cancel, no surprise on a credit card statement a year later. The price is visible before you start, which is how I think it should be. The one thing to check with any one-time offer: what exactly is included, and how long the page stays online.

Hidden costs to check before you commit

• Premium features: RSVP forms, menu selection, or a seating chart are often paid extras on "free" and low-tier plans.
• Custom domain: a personal web address is frequently sold on top, as a yearly cost that keeps running.
• Photo storage: guest photo uploads may come with tight limits, with more space costing extra.
• Removing ads: some builders charge you just to make their own branding disappear from your page.

Before you pick anything, write down the features you actually need. Our guide on how to make a wedding website walks through that list step by step.

What about2marry costs, exactly

Since this article comes from a provider, here's our own pricing in full, so you can compare it honestly. You design your page for free and pay only when you publish: €49 one time, no subscription. The optional guest photo upload add-on is €19, also one time. Your own address in the form name-and-name.about2marry.de is included, so there's no domain to buy. Access code protection, RSVP by name matching, menu choice with allergies, and a seating chart with floor plan PDF are all part of the base price. Guest pages are available in German or English, your choice, and everything runs on servers in Germany.

One more thing that's a feature, not a limitation: the page deletes itself 4 weeks after the wedding, so your guests' data doesn't sit online forever. You can read the details in our article on how long a wedding website stays online. If that model fits you, you can start designing for free and decide about paying later.