Zola, Joy and Hitched all offer free wedding websites, and for a UK couple the honest split is this: Hitched is the one built around UK weddings (its business is the UK supplier directory), Joy is the most complete free product (website, app and registry with cash funds), and Zola is the strongest registry by a distance but is built around American retailers. None of the three charges for the website itself; each is funded by something else, and which funding model you’re happiest feeding is most of the decision.
A disclosure before the refereeing: we make Ode, a paid UK alternative to all three, so we have a horse in the adjacent race. This post sticks to comparing the three of them; where Ode differs we’ve kept it to one section at the end. Features are checked as of October 2026 and are each company’s to change.
What each one actually is
Zola (zola.com) is a New York registry company. The free website, guest list and planning tools exist to carry the registry: gifts Zola sells itself, cash and honeymoon funds, plus matching invitations and paper. It’s a genuinely lovely product and the registry is the best in the business.
Joy (withjoy.com) is a free-everything platform: website, app, RSVPs with custom questions, guest messaging and a zero-fee cash-fund registry. Joy earns money when guests buy registry items Joy sells and from paid extras such as custom domains and stationery.
Hitched (hitched.co.uk) is the UK arm of The Knot Worldwide. The free website and planning tools sit alongside its real business, the UK’s largest wedding supplier directory, which venues and suppliers pay to appear in.
For a UK wedding specifically
Hitched is the only one of the three that is UK-centred: UK suppliers, UK content, prices in pounds where anything is priced. Zola and Joy both work from the UK in the sense that you can build a site and guests can open it, but both are American products. With Zola that matters a lot, because the registry is the point and it’s organised around US retailers and shipping; UK couples often end up linking out to a UK gift list, which removes most of the reason to be on Zola. With Joy it matters less: the free website, app and cash funds travel better, and the US-isms are mostly vocabulary.
The registry question
If gifts lead your decision: Zola first, Joy second, Hitched third. Zola’s registry is its whole reason to exist. Joy’s zero-fee cash funds are the standout for UK couples who mainly want contributions rather than boxed gifts. Hitched’s focus is the directory rather than gifts, so couples on Hitched commonly pair it with a separate gift list anyway.
The supplier question
Reverse the order: if you’re still hunting for a venue, photographer or florist in the UK, Hitched is the only one of the three that helps, and its directory is the biggest there is. That’s the trade you’re making: the product’s centre of gravity is supplier discovery, and the advertising that funds it is aimed at you. Zola’s vendor marketplace is US-only in practice, and Joy doesn’t play in this space seriously.
So which one?
- Hitched: UK couple, still booking suppliers, wants everything free in one UK place.
- Joy: suppliers sorted, wants the most capable free website and app, likes zero-fee cash funds.
- Zola: registry-led wedding, especially with American guests, or wants website and paper as one suite.
Where Ode fits, briefly
All three above are free products funded by a registry or a directory. Ode is the other trade: a UK page you pay for once (or nothing, for a small wedding) that carries no marketplace and focuses on running the day, with meal choices exported for the caterer, a seating plan guests search by name and a moderated photo album. If that sounds closer to what you want, the comparison pages put Ode side by side with each of the three, saying plainly where each of them wins.