Who Owns The Knot, WeddingWire, and Zola? The Wedding Internet's Family Tree

The Knot, WeddingWire, and soon Zola all belong to one company, The Knot Worldwide, which has been owned by the private equity firm Permira since 2018; and Permira's funds also bought Squarespace in 2024, which is where a lot of couples build a wedding website when they want to avoid the big wedding brands. That's the short version of a family tree most couples have never seen, because every branch has its own name and its own logo. Here's the whole thing as of October 2026, from each company's own announcements, and why it matters when you're choosing where to keep your plan.

The family tree

The Knot Worldwide's press release says the portfolio will be 14 brands in 11 countries once Zola closes. The deal still needs regulatory clearance and has no announced closing date. Squarespace is a separate company with its own management, and I'm not suggesting it shares data or plans with The Knot. It's in the table because a couple who picks it specifically to stay away from the big wedding brands should know who the ultimate owner is.

How it got this way

The Knot started in 1996 and became XO Group, a public company. WeddingWire was its main rival. In 2018 Permira and Spectrum Equity backed a merger of the two, and the combined company took the name The Knot Worldwide in 2019. Couples kept two websites with two logos. Vendors got one sales system, WeddingPro, which sells advertising across both. Zola, founded in 2013 by Shan-Lyn Ma and Nobu Nakaguchi, grew up as the alternative, built around the registry and a cleaner planning experience, raised 100 million dollars in 2018 at a valuation of about 600 million, and became the brand couples compared against The Knot. On October 14, 2026, The Knot Worldwide agreed to buy it. What the deal means for couples is here.

Why the ownership matters to a couple

Mostly it doesn't, day to day. The websites work, the registries ship gifts, and Zola's leaders are staying to run Zola. It matters in three quieter places. One is comparison. When you search for which wedding planning site is better, a lot of the top answers now come from one company. A PR firm's July 2026 study of AI answers to wedding questions found The Knot and WeddingWire together accounted for about 20 percent of citations, with Zola at 9.5 percent described as the only independent challenger in the top tier. After closing, that's roughly 30 percent of the answer under one roof, by that study's count.

Another is vendors. The Knot Worldwide's money comes largely from wedding professionals who pay to be found, and the deal's own announcement leads with helping more wedding professionals grow their businesses. Senator Chuck Grassley asked the FTC in October 2025 to look at vendor complaints about The Knot's advertising, which the company denies. When the vendor marketplace consolidates, what vendors pay to be found tends to end up somewhere in what they quote you.

The last is your data. Every privacy policy in this family, like most privacy policies, allows information to move with the business when a company is sold or merged. That's standard and not sinister. It does mean that where you typed your guest list in 2025 isn't necessarily who holds it in 2027.

Who isn't in the family

Plenty of wedding tools sit outside this tree, by their own terms and about pages as of October 2026. Joy is run by Joy Life, Inc. in San Francisco. Minted, LLC is in San Francisco too. Riley and Grey Inc is registered in Delaware. Honeyfund.com, Inc. is a Florida corporation. MyRegistry, LLC is in Fort Lauderdale. None of their own pages states any affiliation with The Knot Worldwide or Permira. Independence says nothing on its own about how a company treats your data, and Joy's own policy, for example, says it sells certain personal data under California's definition. Read the policy either way.

Where Altessa fits

I built Altessa, and I'll say plainly that it's independent, self-funded, and paid for once by the couple who uses it: 80 dollars for Core, 120 for Premium. There's no registry, no vendor listings, and nothing to advertise, which is the only reason our privacy page can be short. It's a planning workspace, not a registry or a wedding website company, so a lot of couples use it alongside a registry wherever they like. The guest list, budget, timeline, and floor plan live in Altessa and export with one click.

Questions people ask

Who owns The Knot?

The Knot is owned by The Knot Worldwide, which has been owned by the private equity firm Permira since the 2018 merger of The Knot's parent company and WeddingWire.

Are The Knot and WeddingWire the same company?

Yes. Both belong to The Knot Worldwide, and vendors buy advertising across both through WeddingPro.

Is Zola owned by The Knot?

The Knot Worldwide agreed on October 14, 2026 to acquire Zola. Until the deal closes and clears regulators, Zola remains a separate company; afterward it will be a brand within The Knot Worldwide.

Who owns Squarespace?

Funds managed by Permira completed their acquisition of Squarespace in October 2024. Permira also owns The Knot Worldwide.

Which wedding websites are not owned by The Knot?

Joy, Minted, Riley and Grey, Honeyfund, and MyRegistry list no affiliation with The Knot Worldwide or Permira on their own pages as of October 2026.

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.