Evite Alternatives
Evite frustrates me. There are lots of bugs in the messages and hassles in using it, but the real issue is that I have to get an exception to organize an event with more than 750 people invited. I've gotten the exception so far, but it's on a case-by-case basis and at point they might cut me off - and they do. (Dear Evite, I know it's to limit spam, but isn't it obvious that I'm not a spammer? Why are you pushing away your best customers?) So, anyway, I'm looking for other options...
Here's what I've looked at so far, but none of them are quite fitting my needs:
What's the Plan
Planypus
Socializr
MyPunchBowl
Renkoo
Google/Outlook/Etc Calendar Invites
Facebook Invites
Any that I'm missing here?
Here's what I've looked at so far, but none of them are quite fitting my needs:
What's the Plan
Planypus
Socializr
MyPunchBowl
Renkoo
Google/Outlook/Etc Calendar Invites
Facebook Invites
Any that I'm missing here?
well, i'm using weddingsolutions.com. apparently i will be able to print stationery and address labels too. hehehehe ;)
cecilia
Hey Gayle,
I'd love to hear what we can do to help you out at Planypus. We don't put any limits on people ( we had someone invite 900 people the other day). We're always happy to listen to our customers. Thanks!
Yan (CEO, Planypus)
Hi Yan,
Thanks for getting in touch. One thing I noticed with Planypus was that it's so focused on letting guests vote on times and share the organizing that it's difficult to just create an event.
The way I plan things I don't really need an app to let guests vote on times. If it's a small event, I'll just talk to those people over email or IM. For a larger event, it's also not useful to me - I'll just coordinate with a few core people and figure I have enough people on the invite list that it doesn't matter that much when other people are busy.
So, I guess that's my thought on it - the things that Planypus is really good at is something I don't really care much about.
I ruled it out for some reason and I can't remember which. I just went back to the site and the only thing that jumps out at me is the probably vs probably not... it's interesting to not have a 'maybe' response there, but as an organizer I'd worry if offering 'probably' would push a response that would otherwise be 'yes' into 'probably' (because isn't it always a 'probably'?).
I also wonder if given how Planypus does try to be so flexible with being able to add new fields and stuff, if it would make sense for Planypus to let me specify my own responses (not just labeling them like evite does).
For example, for a vacation I'm planning with friends, it would be useful to have a "Paid & Booked", "Yes", "Maybe" and "No" response. Currently on evite I just edit their responses to say 'booked'.
Anyway, that was just a thought. I actually have a detailed list of the features I'm looking for and their priorities. I'm going to try to write a bit more about it over the weekend, but feel free to contact me via email if you'd like a look.
my goodness... I thought *I* had a lot of friends, but inviting >750 people to stuff? :o
Hi gayle,
Interesting thoughts you have, thanks for the detailed response. You're right - we built planypus not as an evite competitor but to solve a different problem - that of casual and collaborative events. Something like you want to go out for dinner friday after work but don't want to plan everything. You throw up an idea and let your friends fill in the details.
For this reason planypus is focused on being quick over customizable (that means no fancy templates or customization of choices), but it also means that you can make plans in 10 seconds vs many minutes on evite.
If you're planning a party there's probably much better tools on evite for that than on planypus but we do urge you to give it a shot for your casual plans. We find that rather than the once a month usage of evite, users on planypus plan as many as 5-10 plans a month. This is the niche we're trying to fill - the stuff that happens every day :-)