WeddingBeacon vs Joy: an honest comparison for UK couples

The short version

• Choose Joy if you want a polished website at no cost, most of your guests are happy with email, you need a site in a language other than English or French, or your guests are in the US and you'd like gifts through Venmo or a big online shop.
• Choose WeddingBeacon if you want each guest invited personally on WhatsApp, you're running a traditional ceremony and a white wedding (or several events), you'd like English and French handled per household without building two sites, or you want QR passes and phone check-in at the door.

What each one is

Joy

Joy is an American company that began as a side project in Seattle and was officially founded in 2016. It now lists San Francisco as its home. Joy gives you a wedding website, a guest list, online RSVPs, travel information and an all-in-one registry with gifts, cash funds, experiences and links to other registries. There's a Joy app too, and your partner or planner can help without sharing a password.

WeddingBeacon

WeddingBeacon gives you one wedding site, with 30+ designs, for your story, schedule, dress code, travel and FAQs. Each guest gets a personal WhatsApp or email invite that opens their own page, RSVPs to their events, and gets a QR guest pass once they confirm.

Pricing

Joy

Joy's wedding website, guest list and RSVPs cost nothing. Some extras are paid. Sending texts, scheduling messages and RSVP reminders by SMS needs Messaging Plus, a one-time purchase, and Premium Digital Cards cost extra too. Email reminders don't cost anything.

WeddingBeacon

WeddingBeacon is Free to start, and each plan after that is a one-time payment. There's no subscription and no charge per guest.

Prices show in your local currency.

Fair point to Joy: if you only need a nice website and email suits your guests, Joy costs you nothing, and that's hard to argue with. WeddingBeacon's paid plans make sense when the features below fix a real problem for you.

• Plan: One-time price
• Free to start: £0
• Basic: £62
• Standard: £118
• Season (for planners, 5 weddings): £513

Invites on WhatsApp

Joy's texting only reaches US and Canadian phone numbers. Its help centre says guests with other numbers can still be reached by email. You can paste your Joy link into WhatsApp yourself, but then you're chasing replies by hand.

WeddingBeacon is built around WhatsApp. Each guest gets their own invite, named and with your photo, and it opens a page that's theirs. You can send through WeddingBeacon or from your own phone, and use email for anyone who isn't on WhatsApp. Phone numbers from your guest list are tidied up before anything goes out, which helps when your list mixes +44, +234 and +237 numbers.

RSVPs and multiple events

Joy is properly good here. Its Smart RSVP handles several events, lets a household reply together, limits plus-ones, and lets you ask custom questions, from meal choices to song requests.

WeddingBeacon runs up to six events on one site. Each guest only sees the events they're invited to and replies to each one separately, so your caterer gets a clean number for the traditional ceremony and another for the reception. You can collect meal choices, dietary needs and song requests in the RSVP, and if someone replies with a phone call, you can record their answer yourself.

Both handle multi-event weddings well. The difference is how the invite reaches people.

Languages

Joy's approach is flexible. You build your pages, duplicate the ones that need translating, write the second version yourself, then tag each guest with a language so they see the right pages. It works with any language and script, a real strength for Spanish, Korean or Arabic speakers.

WeddingBeacon covers English and French only, but it's built in. You choose the language per household, and the guest site and the invite both appear in that language. There are no pages to duplicate, which is less work for Cameroonian and francophone families.

Gifts and cash funds

Joy's registry is one of its best features. You can mix shop gifts, cash funds, honeymoon funds, experiences and links to other registries. Guests can give to cash funds through Venmo, PayPal or Cash App with no Joy fees, or by card, where Stripe adds a 3.5% fee that the guest pays. Joy's help centre also lists a flat fee each time you move card money to your bank.

For UK couples there are two things to know. Joy Wallet is available to couples in the US and the UK, and UK accounts use pounds. But the Joy Shop only works when your registry is set to US dollars, so a UK couple using pounds can't add items from it.

WeddingBeacon keeps gifts simpler. Guests give by card to cash funds such as a honeymoon fund, and leave a note so you know who to thank. You can add a wishlist and link to an outside gift list, such as a UK department store list.

If the registry is the heart of your plans, Joy offers more.

On the day

When a guest confirms on WeddingBeacon, they get a QR guest pass. Your door team checks people in from a phone. The Check-in role can mark arrivals and see who is coming. It cannot open gifts, guest notes, invites, or the website.

Joy's help centre covers QR codes on invitation cards that link to your RSVP or registry pages. We couldn't find a door check-in or guest pass feature, so we've left that out of the table.

Help with setting up

WeddingBeacon includes Bea, a built-in AI assistant that helps with your site, guest list and messages. Nothing is sent or published until you confirm. If you've already started on Joy, you can paste your Joy link and Bea will preview what it can copy across. You can also import a guest list from Excel or CSV.

On Standard and Season, WeddingBeacon also sends confirmations, reminders to guests who haven't replied, a day-of note and thank-yous.

Side by side

• WeddingBeacon: Joy
• Based in: UK (London), US (San Francisco)
• Website cost: Free to start, then one-time £62 to £513, No charge for the website
• Invites: Personal WhatsApp or email invite per guest, Email; texts to US and Canadian numbers only (paid)
• Events: Up to 6, each guest sees only theirs, Multiple events with Smart RSVP
• Languages: English and French, set per household, Any language, by duplicating pages and tagging guests
• Day of: QR guest pass and phone check-in, Not found in Joy's help centre
• Gifts: Cash funds by card, wishlist, outside registry links, Gifts, cash funds, experiences; Venmo, PayPal, Cash App; Joy Shop in USD only
• App: Runs in the browser; guests need no app or account, Joy app plus website

Which should you choose?

If you want a lovely site at no cost, your guests read email, or you need a language other than English or French, Joy is a strong choice, and so it is for American couples who want a big registry.

If your family lives on WhatsApp, you're planning a trad and white wedding or several events, or you want the door handled properly on the day, WeddingBeacon was made for that. It's Free to start, so you can build your site and see how it feels before you pay anything.

Still comparing? Read WeddingBeacon vs Zola, WeddingBeacon vs Hitched, and the best Zola alternatives for UK couples.

FAQ

Can I use Joy in the UK?

Yes. You can build a Joy site from the UK, and UK accounts use pounds for cash funds. Joy's texting only reaches US and Canadian numbers, and the Joy Shop only works in US dollars.

Can Joy send invites on WhatsApp?

Joy lets you share your link on WhatsApp yourself. Its built-in texting is limited to US and Canadian numbers. WeddingBeacon sends each guest a personal WhatsApp invite that opens their own page.

Is WeddingBeacon a subscription?

No. Each plan is a one-time payment: Free to start (£0), Basic (£62), Standard (£118) or Season (£513, for planners running five weddings).

Can I move from Joy to WeddingBeacon?

Yes. Paste your Joy link and Bea, our assistant, previews what it can copy across. Nothing is saved until you confirm. You can also import your guest list from Excel or CSV.