Digital invitation price: what QR access control costs

It's 20:20 on a Saturday. The coach with half your guests has just pulled up and someone at the door is holding a phone with a spreadsheet on it. That's the picture most people have in their head when they start looking into a digital invitation with QR access control. The problem is that two very different things get sold under that phrase, and only one of them comes with the invitation you buy. You can pick a design, edit the cover and send the link today from the catalogue, so it's worth knowing where the 29.99 EUR stops.

Short version: the QR that opens your invitation on a guest's phone is included. A scanning setup at the entrance, with a reader, a person holding it and a list synced to it, is a separate service charged per event. Separate the two and the price question stops being mysterious.

The QR at the door is not the QR in the link

One QR is a shortcut. A guest points their camera at it and your invitation opens in the browser: no app, no download, no account. The other one is equipment and people. A reader at the entrance, someone operating it at half past eight, and a list that matches who actually walks in. The first is part of what you buy. The second is quoted on its own, per event, and it's the one that turns up in quotes with a lot of zeros.

• Does the quote include the readers, or are they rented on top of the service?
• Who is holding the device at 20:30 — you, a cousin, or someone on the supplier's team?
• What happens if the venue's wifi drops and the reader can't reach the list?
• Does a sit-down dinner for 90 with assigned tables actually need scanning at all?

How much does a digital invitation with QR access control cost?

On the invitation side, 29.99 EUR per invitation, paid once. No monthly fee ticking along until the day itself. Inside that: a page of your own, up to six of your own photos (cover plus decorative ones, framed automatically), music, and RSVP questions you write yourself. You can also edit after sending and the link stays the same, so if the ceremony moves to five o'clock, guests see five o'clock.

What stays outside the price is paper. If someone in the family wants a copy for the fridge door, the sensible mix is a link for everyone and a handful of printed copies for the people who will keep them. The site runs in seven languages — Spanish, English, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese and German — and the invitation content can be set per language, which matters the moment part of your list only reads in English.

The QR that opens the invitation is part of the price. The scanner at the door is a different purchase, and most sit-down dinners don't need it.

What digital invitations already handle before anyone reaches the door

Confirmations arrive in a list inside the invitation itself, and you decide which questions the form asks, so you know who's coming before you talk numbers with the caterer. Nothing to install, nothing to chase over WhatsApp one message at a time. If a last-minute change lands, you edit the scene, the text updates and the link keeps working — no reprint, no second round of messages. Decide it like this: closed list and assigned tables, the invitation with RSVP is your whole job here. Open bar, after-party and friends of friends, ask for a written quote for door scanning. Either way, edit the cover for free in trial mode first and unlock every scene only when you buy.