Wedding Planning Apps Not Owned by The Knot in 2026

Once The Knot Worldwide's purchase of Zola closes, the independent options for couples are Joy for an all-in-one website and registry, Minted for a website that matches your stationery, Riley and Grey for a premium designed site, Honeyfund for a cash and honeymoon registry, MyRegistry for one registry that links every store, and Altessa for the plan itself: the budget, guest list, timeline, and to-scale floor plan. None of those companies' own pages lists any affiliation with The Knot Worldwide or Permira, its owner, as of October 2026. I built Altessa, so I've kept its section short and at the end, and everything about the others comes from their own sites.

Side by side

Two names you might expect to see aren't here. Squarespace makes beautiful wedding sites, and Permira's funds have owned it since October 2024, the same owner as The Knot Worldwide, so it isn't outside the family even though it's run separately; its wedding page also offers a sync with Zola's registry. Amazon's wedding registry is independent of The Knot, and it's a registry rather than a planning tool. The full ownership map is here.

Joy

The closest replacement for what Zola does, all in one place: a free website, a registry with cash and honeymoon funds, a guest list with Smart RSVP, invitations, and hotel room blocks, with apps on iOS and Android. Its seating chart is a paid one-time unlock with a dimensioned floor plan. The thing to know is the business model; Joy's pricing page says it makes money when guests buy registry items Joy sells, and its privacy policy says it sells certain personal data as California law defines the term. So Joy is independent of The Knot, with a business model that looks a lot like the one you'd be leaving. Joy vs Zola, compared line by line, is here.

Minted

If the website has to match the invitations, Minted. Its sites are free and drawn by the same independent artists as its stationery, so the suite and the site share a hand. The registry links out to other retailers plus cash funds, and the guest list carries from your stationery orders into the RSVPs. There's no budget or seating tool on its site, so it's a design choice rather than a planning one.

Riley and Grey

The premium end. Riley and Grey sells designed websites and invitations, with a registry and RSVP and guest management, and you build for free and pay when you publish. Couples who care how the site looks on a phone at the hotel bar choose it, and they're usually paying for that on purpose.

Honeyfund and MyRegistry

Two registry specialists. Honeyfund is built for cash and honeymoon gifts and has been doing it since before most of the big platforms added cash funds. MyRegistry is a universal registry that pulls items from any store into one list, so you're not choosing a registry company at all, just a list. Pair either with a website from anywhere and a planning tool.

Do you actually need to switch

Probably not, if you're already set up on Zola or The Knot and happy with them. Your website and registry keep working, and nothing about couples' accounts has been announced. Where this list helps is the couple who just got engaged and is choosing now, and the couple who has been meaning to get the plan out of a registry company's dashboard anyway. In both cases, the smartest setup I saw over nine years of filming weddings had the registry in one place and the plan in another, so neither company's next decision could reach the other.

Where Altessa fits

Altessa is the planning half: a budget organized by vendor with quotes, deposits, balances, and due dates, a guest list with one row per person that imports from a CSV, a timeline dated to your wedding that pushes to Google Calendar, a run of show, a one-page wedding site with an RSVP form, and a layout builder that draws your room to scale and seats guests at the seat. It's a one-time purchase, 80 dollars for Core or 120 for Premium, built by one independent company, with no registry, no vendor marketplace, and no advertising. Free to start.

Questions people ask

What wedding websites are not owned by The Knot?

Joy, Minted, and Riley and Grey list no affiliation with The Knot Worldwide on their own pages as of October 2026. Squarespace shares an owner, Permira, with The Knot Worldwide.

What is the best alternative to Zola?

Joy is the closest all-in-one replacement for a website and registry. Minted is better if design matching matters most. For the budget, guest list, and floor plan, a dedicated planning tool like Altessa works alongside any registry.

Is Joy owned by The Knot or Zola?

No. Joy's terms identify Joy Life, Inc. of San Francisco, and its pages list no affiliation with The Knot Worldwide.

Is Squarespace owned by The Knot?

No, but they share an owner. Funds managed by Permira own both Squarespace and The Knot Worldwide, and the companies are run separately.

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.