For a UK wedding, the answer is short: use Hitched. The Knot and Hitched are sister brands under the same parent company, The Knot Worldwide, offering the same kind of product: a free wedding website and planning tools attached to a supplier directory that vendors pay to appear in. The Knot’s directory is American; Hitched’s is British. Since the directory is the heart of both products, the right one is simply the one whose suppliers can turn up to your wedding.
That’s the whole answer for nine couples in ten, so the rest of this post covers the edge cases, what the two share, and what neither is built to do. A disclosure: we make Ode, a paid UK alternative to both, kept to one section at the end. Details are checked as of October 2026 and are theirs to change.
What the two share
Both are free for couples. Both offer a website builder with RSVP, a guest list, a planning checklist and a budget tool. Both are funded the same way: venues, photographers and suppliers pay for placement and advertising in the directory, which also means both products are tuned to keep you browsing suppliers. Neither charges you for the website, and neither is in the business of selling it to you; the website is the free gift that brings couples to the directory.
When The Knot makes sense for a UK couple
There are real cases: a wedding held in the US, a largely American guest list that will use The Knot’s aggregated registry, or a planner on the other side of the Atlantic who works in it. The Knot’s registry pulls together major US retailers and cash funds in a way Hitched doesn’t attempt, so a transatlantic couple sometimes runs the registry on The Knot and everything else elsewhere.
When neither is the right tool
If your suppliers are already booked, the directory, which is the best part of both products, has nothing left to do for you, and you’re choosing on the website alone. Both websites are capable, but running the day is not their centre of gravity: think about how meal choices will reach your caterer, how guests will find their seats, and where guest photos will land, and check each of those against the current product before you commit.
Where Ode fits, briefly
Ode is the opposite trade: no directory, no advertising, and a one-off price (or free for a small wedding) for a UK page built around exactly those day-of jobs: per-course catering totals and a caterer PDF, a seating plan guests search by name, and a moderated guest photo album. The Ode vs Hitched and Ode vs The Knot pages put the three side by side and say where each wins; the wider field is in our UK wedding website builder roundup.