The Knot Is Buying Zola. What It Means for Your Registry, Website, and Guest List

If your registry, wedding website, or guest list lives on Zola, nothing has changed today: The Knot Worldwide agreed on October 14, 2026 to buy Zola, the deal hasn't closed, it still needs regulatory clearance, and both companies say Zola will keep running as its own brand. What neither company has said yet is anything specific about registries, cash fund fees, wedding websites, or what happens to your guest data, and that silence is the part worth planning around. I build Altessa, a planning app that competes with both, so read this with that in mind. Everything below is from the announcement, the vendor notices, and the reporting, with links, and where something isn't known I say so.

What actually happened

Reuters broke the story on the morning of October 14, citing two people familiar with the deal. The same day, The Knot Worldwide confirmed it in a press release titled The Knot Worldwide to Welcome Zola to Its Portfolio. The price wasn't disclosed. Zola was last valued at about 600 million dollars in a 2018 funding round, a number reporters were careful to say doesn't necessarily reflect this price. J.P. Morgan advised The Knot Worldwide and Evercore advised Zola. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including any required regulatory clearances, and no closing date was given.

The buyer is The Knot Worldwide, the company that owns The Knot and WeddingWire, merged in 2018 and owned by the private equity firm Permira since then. After closing it will have 14 brands across 11 countries, Zola included. Zola was founded in 2013 by Shan-Lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi, and its press release line is that over 2 million couples have chosen Zola. Ma and her co-CEO Rachel Jarrett are expected to keep running Zola and later join The Knot Worldwide's leadership team.

What they said, and what they didn't

Read that table from the bottom. The detailed promises went to vendors, who pay both companies, and the couples' half of the announcement is one sentence about choice. That's normal for a deal that hasn't closed; companies can't promise much about integration before they're allowed to integrate. It also means the questions couples actually have, about the registry and the data, have no official answer yet.

Why people are paying attention

Three things make this more than a business headline. The first is size. The Knot and Zola were the two names couples compared, and I've written that comparison myself. After closing, both sides of it belong to one company. A PR firm's July 2026 study of AI answers to wedding questions described Zola as the only independent challenger in the top tier, behind The Knot and WeddingWire, which already share an owner.

The second is the regulatory backdrop. Trade coverage of the deal points out that in October 2025, Senator Chuck Grassley asked the FTC to look at how The Knot Worldwide treats wedding vendors after his office received nearly 200 complaints about advertising that produced questionable inquiries and contracts that were hard to exit. In February 2026 the FTC chairman replied that the conduct, if substantiated, could raise consumer protection issues, without confirming an investigation. The Knot denies the allegations. None of that is an antitrust review of this deal, and whether regulators will look closely at the merger is still unclear.

The third is the 2018 precedent. When The Knot and WeddingWire merged, couples kept two separate websites, and vendors ended up buying advertising across both through one system, WeddingPro. Offbeat Wed's publisher put it well in her read of this deal: keep your eye on the back office. Separate front doors for couples can sit on top of one company behind them.

What to do this week if you're on Zola

Nothing drastic. Zola says accounts, websites, and registries never expire, and there's no sign that anything will switch off. But a big ownership change is the right moment to make sure your plan doesn't live in only one place. Four things, about half an hour total, all from Zola's own help pages:

1. Export your guest list on a computer: Guest List, the dots in the top right, then the full list. Zola notes this isn't available in the app.
2. Export your RSVPs with meal choices from Track RSVPs, using Export RSVPs in the upper right.
3. Download the gift tracker as a CSV, which includes each gift, the giver's address, and thank-you note status.
4. If you have a cash fund balance, transfer it to your bank; Zola says a first transfer usually takes up to 10 business days.

That's a backup, and it's sensible whether or not anything changes. If you want to go further, here's what each platform's privacy policy says about selling and sharing your data, written before this deal and still accurate.

Where Altessa fits

Altessa is a one-time purchase, 80 dollars for Core or 120 for Premium, and that's why it doesn't need your data for anything else; there's no registry, no vendor marketplace, and no advertisers. If you're backing up your Zola guest list this week, it imports straight into Altessa's guest list from that CSV, one row per person with RSVP, meal, and table, and it sits next to a budget with every vendor's deposits and balances, a timeline that pushes to Google Calendar, and a to-scale floor plan. You can keep your Zola registry and website exactly where they are and plan in Altessa alongside them. It's free to start.

Questions people ask

Did The Knot buy Zola?

The Knot Worldwide, which owns The Knot and WeddingWire, agreed on October 14, 2026 to acquire Zola. The deal hasn't closed yet and needs regulatory clearance. The price wasn't disclosed.

Will my Zola registry still work?

Yes, for now. Zola keeps operating as its own brand and nothing has been announced about registries, cash funds, or fees. Transfer any cash fund balance to your bank and download your gift tracker as a precaution.

Will Zola become The Knot?

The Knot Worldwide says The Knot and Zola will continue as distinct consumer brands. When The Knot and WeddingWire merged in 2018, both kept their own sites, while the vendor side was combined.

What happens to my data on Zola after the merger?

Nothing has been announced. Zola's privacy policy, like most, allows sharing information if the company is sold or merged. You can request a copy of your data through Zola's Privacy Center and export your guest list and RSVPs yourself.

Should I switch from Zola after The Knot deal?

Not in a panic. Back up your guest list, RSVPs, and gift tracker this week, and watch for any change to fees or terms. If you'd rather plan somewhere with no registry or advertising business behind it, independent tools exist.

Armin Korsos is a filmmaker who spent nine years shooting weddings before building Altessa (altessa.studio), an all-in-one wedding planning workspace that replaces the spreadsheet.