Comparison
Wedding Planner Pro
vs Zola
Zola is free for couples. That sounds great until you realize why: vendors pay for placement, your data funds their ad business, and every feature serves their marketplace first. Wedding Planner Pro costs $49.99 once because you are the customer, not the product.
| Feature | WPP | Zola |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49.99 once | Free (you're the product) |
| Vendor ads in planner | ||
| Guest list + RSVP | ||
| Public wedding site | ||
| Seating chart | ||
| AI seating (conflict detection) | ||
| Floor plan builder | ||
| Budget (deposits + payments) | Basic | |
| Guest photo gallery | ||
| Day-of place cards + check-in | ||
| Trilingual (en/es/pt) | ||
| Works on Android | iOS only | |
| Search finds every guest name | Primary only | |
| Registry | ||
| Paper invitations | Paid add-on |
Where Zola wins
- Free registry with cash funds and items from any retailer.
- Native iOS app with 4.9 rating and 92K reviews.
- Paper invitations and save-the-dates (paid).
Where WPP wins
- Zero vendor ads. You are the customer, not the product.
- AI seating resolves family conflicts. Zola has basic drag-and-drop only.
- Trilingual: English, Spanish, Portuguese. Zola is English only.
- Guest photo gallery. Guests upload from their phone. No extra app, no photographer gallery fee.
- Budget tracks deposits, payments, and balances. Not just estimates.
- Works on every phone. No app download needed.
The real trade-off
Zola is free because vendors fund it. Every feature decision Zola makes balances two customers: couples and the vendors who pay them. That is why notification spam exists. That is why vendor search is pay-to-play. That is why the budget tool pulls biased cost estimates from their own marketplace.
WPP costs $49.99 because you are the only customer. No vendor ads in your planner. No lead-gen pop-ups. No sponsored recommendations. Every feature exists because it helps you plan your wedding. That is the difference.
$49.99 once. Yours through your wedding and six months after.