Wedding Registry Fees Compared: What Each Platform Actually Charges

Wedding registry platforms charge in three ways: a percentage of every cash gift, a recurring subscription, or a once-off software fee. Percentage platforms usually advertise themselves as free, because their cost lands on your gifts rather than your card. Once-off fee platforms cost more upfront and less overall on a well-supported registry. Which is cheaper depends entirely on how much cash you expect to collect.

Everything below is taken from each company’s own published pricing, checked on 2 August 2026. Where a platform does not publish a figure, we say so instead of guessing.

The three business models

Percentage of gifts. The platform is free to sign up for and free to use, and it takes a cut of the cash gifts your guests send. Sometimes that cut is charged to your guests at checkout, sometimes to you on withdrawal, and sometimes you get to choose. This model suits couples who expect a small cash registry, or none at all, because a percentage of a small number is a small number. It suits couples with a large registry considerably less well.

Subscription. You pay monthly or annually for the website and its tools. Rare in the wedding space as a pure model, but it appears at the edges: several one-time-fee builders switch to a monthly hosting charge once your included period runs out. Worth checking, because a wedding site you want to keep online for a few years afterwards is not a one-time purchase in that case.

Once-off software fee. You pay once for the product, and gifts are not touched. This is the only model where your cost is known before you start and does not move. It suits couples collecting meaningful cash gifts, and it is the worst value for a couple who wants a website with no cash registry at all and would happily use a free tier.

What each platform charges

Competitor pricing as published on their own sites, checked 2 August 2026. Where a platform does not publish a figure publicly, we say so rather than estimating. Your payment gateway still charges its standard processing fee on each gift; that is between you and your gateway, we take nothing.

Line by line, with sources: Our Big Yes vs Joy, vs Zola, vs The Knot and vs Honeyfund.

The fee you did not see on the pricing page

The headline percentage is not the whole cost. Three things change the real number.

Who pays the card fee. Zola’s 2.5% card handling fee on cash funds is charged to your guests by default, as published on their own site and checked 2 August 2026. That is genuinely different from a fee taken out of your money, and it is fair to say your cost there is zero. But it does mean a guest who intends to give you $200 is asked for $205 at checkout, which some couples are entirely comfortable with and some are not. Hitchd’s 4.98% card fee, published on their own site and checked 2 August 2026, can be paid by you, by your guests, or split between you, which at least makes the choice explicit.

What it costs to get your money out. This is the one couples miss most often. Honeyfund states that it does not charge platform fees, which is accurate, and then publishes redemption fees, as read from their own site on 2 August 2026: 0% to a prepaid Mastercard or gift cards, 2.2% to PayPal or Venmo, and 3.5% plus $0.59 to a bank account. So the same registry costs you nothing or costs you 3.5% depending purely on the form you want your gifts in. Wrapistry in South Africa publishes 5% plus a once-off R999 transfer fee, checked 2 August 2026, so the transfer itself is a line item rather than a free operation.

Whether there is a payout delay. Hitchd publishes a first payout held for 10 business days, checked 2 August 2026. That is a reasonable fraud control and not a hidden charge, but if you were planning to spend gift money on the honeymoon you leave for on the Monday, it is a real constraint.

Custodial or direct, and why it matters more than the percentage

There is a structural difference between platforms that gets far less attention than pricing does, and it matters more.

A custodial platform receives your guests’ money into its own account and holds it until you ask for it. Zola holds funds until you request a transfer. Honeyfund holds them in a Honeyfund Wallet until you redeem. Hitchd holds them until you transfer. Wrapistry holds them until your registry closes. All four are as published on their own sites, checked 2 August 2026.

A direct platform never touches the money. Your guests pay into your own payment gateway account, and the platform is only the page they paid on.

Three practical consequences follow from that difference.

First, geography. Zola’s transfers require a United States checking account with a United States address, and it does not transfer to international bank accounts, as published on their own site and checked 2 August 2026. For a couple outside the United States that is not a fee question at all, it is a hard stop.

Second, timing. Custodial money moves on the platform’s schedule. Direct money moves on your gateway’s normal payout schedule, which is the same schedule any business in your country is already used to.

Third, exposure. With a custodial platform, your guests’ gifts sit on someone else’s balance sheet between the wedding and the withdrawal. Most of the time this is completely uneventful. It is still worth understanding that it is the arrangement you are in.

Working out your own real cost

Do this with your own numbers rather than trusting a comparison, including this one.

1. Estimate the total cash gifts you expect. Guest count multiplied by a realistic average is close enough.
2. Multiply by the platform’s gift percentage, if any.
3. Add the withdrawal or transfer cost for the payout method you actually want.
4. Add the platform’s upfront or subscription price.
5. Add your payment gateway’s own processing fee, which applies on every model including ours.

Worked example, a registry that collects R120,000 in South Africa. On Wrapistry’s published 5% plus R999 transfer fee, checked 2 August 2026, that is R6,000 plus R999, so R6,999 before your gateway’s own costs. On Our Big Yes it is the R399 publish fee, because we take 0% of gifts, plus whatever your own gateway charges to process the payments. On EasyRegistry’s published pricing, checked 2 August 2026, it is R340 once for Premium with no platform fee on gifts, with SnapScan or PayPal fees applying.

Worked example, a registry that collects $6,000 internationally. On Honeyfund’s published redemption fees, checked 2 August 2026, taking the balance to a bank account costs 3.5% plus $0.59, so roughly $210 on a single redemption, while taking it as a prepaid Mastercard or gift cards costs 0%. On Hitchd’s published 4.98%, checked 2 August 2026, it is around $299, borne by you or your guests or split. On Our Big Yes it is the $29 publish fee plus your own gateway’s processing fee.

Where another platform is the better answer

We would rather you chose correctly than chose us.

Zola is a genuinely good deal for a United States couple with a United States checking account who are comfortable with guests covering the 2.5%. The website is free, the fee never touches their money, and the product is polished. Zola also publishes a fee-free path where guests contribute via the couple’s Venmo username. If that describes you, the comparison is not close.

Honeyfund is the better choice if you would rather have gift cards or a prepaid Mastercard than cash in your bank account, because that redemption route is published at 0%. Paying nothing is hard to beat.

EasyRegistry suits a South African couple who wants a free plan and a small registry, with no upfront spend at all.

WedSites is the right shape if you do not want cash gifts and only need a website with registry links, at a one-time price with hosting included for a fixed period.

Hitchd does not publish a price on its pricing page, so we cannot compare it fairly on that axis and neither can you. Ask them directly before deciding.

Where we fit

Our Big Yes is the once-off software fee model, run strictly as a direct platform. One publish fee, $29 internationally or R399 in South Africa. 0% platform fee on gifts. We never hold, route or process gift money at any point.

You connect your own Stripe, in any currency Stripe supports, or Paystack, Yoco, PayFast or iKhokha if you are in South Africa. Gifts go into that account and only your gateway’s own standard processing fee applies. Signing up and building your site is free, so you can see the whole thing before paying anything. Details are on the pricing page.

If you have not decided how to raise the subject with your guests yet, that is a separate and more interesting problem, and we wrote about it in how to ask for cash instead of wedding gifts.