The Knot is popular for good reason: it has all the bells and whistles a bride-to-be could want. In addition to a full range of planning tools, The Knot also has enough visual candy to give Pinterest a run for its money. There are photo-based idea boards for invitations, decor, floral arrangements, cakes, hairstyles and more. Then, if you'd like to see how those fancy ideas could come together at your wedding, you can check out the Real Wedding Photos collection to see how other couples' weddings turned out. Set aside some free time, because you're going to need it to make your way through all this content.

Helpful Planning Tools

The Knot isn't all play, though - remember those planning tools we mentioned? There are to-do checklists, wedding notebooks, personal inspiration boards and features for managing your budget, guest list, RSVPs and gift registry. You can also email Save the Dates with The Knot's email feature.

Personalized Wedding Website

You can create a personalized website to share details about your upcoming event with friends and family. There are over 100 templates and several color schemes to choose from - and you have the option to upgrade to a personal domain for $19.99 per year. The Knot also allows you to integrate your wedding site with your Instagram account or add photos from an iPhone or Android to create an online photo album.

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The Bad

Community Forums
Unethical Articles
Technical Downsides

Community Forums

While The Knot is indeed brimming with content, some of that content is less than ideal. Although The Knot has a team of moderators and its Terms of Use lists "no strong, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise harmful language," there is a good deal of profanity used in the community forums. This includes not only curse words, but also memes and images of obscene gestures. If you're simply looking for some lighthearted wedding banter with other brides-to-be or if you're uncomfortable with profanity, The Knot is probably not the site for you. And then there's the Snarky Brides forum (yes, that's what it's called). The Knot features a forum category in which brides-to-be complain, criticize, rant and verbally bash those who have rubbed them the wrong way, from their fiances to members of the bridal party to the guy in the neighboring cubicle at work. A common theme of many posts is to scrutinize other brides' proposals, invitations, bachelorette parties, wedding receptions or dresses, typically in an extremely negative light. When one bride-to-be debated whether she would "resentfully attend" another couple's wedding, a fellow bride-to-be chimed in and said, "please go and provide a running commentary so we can resent them with you." While the users in Snarky Brides are not bullying each other - they're usually tearing apart a third party - this type of conversation could easily lead to bullying behavior.

Unethical Articles

In addition to the profanity and snark-laced forums, our reviewers came across an article titled "How to Plan Your Wedding at Work (Without Getting Fired)." While we're all guilty of taking the occasional personal phone call or scrolling Facebook at work, scheming to covertly plan a wedding while on the clock is not wise career advice. The Knot could improve its content by opting not to present questionable guidance to its brides-to-be.

Technical Downsides

There are a few technical downsides to using The Knot. The site contains many ads, which greatly slows down the page loading time. Also, if you spend a few minutes on The Knot without being logged into your account, a Join Now/Log In box will appear and cover most of the content - and it can't be closed unless you do join or log in. Since membership is free, any visitor should be able to comfortably access the The Knot's content without being forced to create an account - a pop-up that can't be closed is a poor vehicle for obtaining more memberships and doesn't provide a user-friendly experience for the visitors who haven't created an account.

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The Bottom Line

What you will get with The Knot: free access to a variety of wedding planning tools and countless photo galleries, as well as the ability to create a quality couples site. What you're less likely to get with The Knot: positive interactions on community forums, quick page load speeds or the freedom to browse the site without creating an account. If The Knot works for you, you can also move onto The Nest and The Bump, which are The Knot's affiliated sites for newlyweds and expectant mothers.

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User Reviews

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26 Reviews

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15%

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Rhiannon Taylor Durham, NC

Signed up as a Vendor in 2021. Lots of leads and ZERO sales. I was never signed up for the marketing emails which was a huge pitch by their Sales team when signing up. After months of voicing this issue to both my account manager and vendor support, I finally started receiving emails at the end of my contract… The majority, if not all of their “Leads” did not seem authentic and this definitely needs to be investigated by an outside party. 100% Do not recommend as a Vendor, this is definitely a scam and they take advantage of small businesses trying to get more exposure in the Wedding industry.

12 hours ago

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Ron Proulx Orlando, FL

Crystal, Debbie and Brittany did our hair and make-up for our wedding in January. She was recommended by our wedding planner. Crystal provided hair and make-up services for myself (the bride), my 5 bridesmaids and also for my younger daughter who was a Junior bridesmaid. Our hair and makeup was absolutely amazing. I did a trial run with Crystal, and the hair and make-up look exactly the same for my wedding day, even better! I was so happy with her friendly demeanor and kind words for us during the whole time getting ready for my wedding day. She made us feel very special and we all had a wonderful time. I would highly recommend Crystal for your wedding day!

2 months ago

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Dynahlee Padilla-Vasquez Alexandria, VA

We 💯 love The Knot! It’s an increíble resource with lots of great tips and articles. Our website came out beautiful, and the site is user-friendly and free. Our RSVPs were trackable, our policies were clear, and using the email platform and app were also great additions. (We also bought our party favors from there - custom coasters). I love that we can hyperlink to articles and include photos on the platform as well. We also utilized the budget planner and registry function a lot. Thank you to The Knot for making our wedding planning smooth and keeping all our information in one place. Highly recommend!!!

3 months ago

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Derek L San Antonio, TX

We hired a DJ service for our wedding through the know, Essen Entertainment, and they were quite a few issues. The biggest issues was that Essen Entertainment forgot to play the mother son song, and then when I was trying to work with the owner, JJ, he lied multiple times and I never would have known unless his DJ reached out to me and let me know his boss was lying. I wanted to leave a review on the Knot about Essen Entertainment, to make sure no one had to go through what we did, but JJ emailed me and said that he has a friend at the Knot who will delete reviews for him. I thought there was no way someone at the Knot would damager their credibility by deleting reviews, but turns out they are. I have been trying to get my review posted for over a month now, but the Knot keeps deleting my review and will not respond to me despite all of the proof I have sent them that we hired Essen Entertainment and that they messed up and then the owner lied about multiple things. Do not use the Knot, and definitely make sure you do not use Essen Entertainment if you are in Texas for a wedding. JJ was completely unprofessional and dishonest. Do not trust the reviews for Essen Entertainment on the Knot, I have in writing from the owner that he has friends who delete negative reviews to make sure he only gets five star reviews. Incredibly unscrupulous business practices on the parts of Essen Entertainment and the Knot.

5 months ago

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Beware. They changed requirements by the minute. Was told we couldn't be in till 1, and that bartenders would be on site to pack the refrigerators with our refreshments. Day of, 2:30 pm and told bartenders don't come in till 4, the start time of the wedding, and that stocking the fridge would be done then, or I could do it myself. (Just 1 of 20 examples). Melissa C was horrible to work with, or even try to work with. Shut down bar at 9, and went around ripping drinks out of guests hands. No warning to the guests. Completely rude. Elevator feels like it is from the 1800's. Broken promises at every turn. Would not have booked if they were up front about the rules. Don't waste your money. Holiday Inn Would have been better, or anywhere for that matter. Won't set foot inside this place again.

7 months ago

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Tiffany Baines Akron, OH

Very fun, helpful, offers many options for areas where a wedding day could be more customized, special and original! Helps with a free wedding web site and gives you lists, notifications, helpful dead lines, tips for things to consider or plan! Great for a first time Bride like me! Many things I hadn't even thought about

2 years ago

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Cassidy Gundersen Orem, UT

I used The knot when planning my wedding. It gave me SO many great ideas. I loved using it for inspiration and for concepts. However, they did not have access to many local vendors- which was disappointing. I wish they could help plan on your wedding in your location better.

4 years ago

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Christy Littleton, CO

FYI I will no longer ever support The Knot as a company. This company claims that they will help you get weddings as a vendor, which happened initially when I signed up, but there was zero customer service when I called to speak with someone about how to help my presence on the site. After months of nothing, I tried calling to cancel my membership as I wasn't getting anything out of it. No one called me back. In the meantime, my card on file expired and finally someone called me to collect MONEY. After a few calls, we finally worked something out and The Knot told me they would call me back with updated options for my business so I could continue paying with the security of mind that it wasn't just going out the door. 3 months later - with no call or email from The Knot, they sent my outstanding payment (which I was willing to pay) to a debt collector. Literally have had the WORST experience with this company and that would've been solved with a phone call back, any check-in from the person who sold me on The Knot (who said he would check-in with me often through my membership), and actual customer service. If you're looking to throw money at something with little to no reward, The Knot is the place to go. All they care about is collecting money and not actually serving its vendors who pay to be on their site.

10 months ago

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Melissa Pierson Midlothian, VA

The Knot Website is riddled with technical issues. The one positive is that I was able to find and connect with all of my vendors but the website was so frustrating to navigate. I used the mobile app which has fewer features than the full website but I found that guest information you would add on the mobile app did not sync with the website version. When I tried to write out thank you notes, we lost many of our addressed that we know were entered into our planner. I tried to connect with a technical support team several times and I never received a response. If I were to plan my wedding over again, I would have used a different planning website. This was awful.

2 years ago

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Michael Lyman Salt Lake City, UT

My fiance and I have been using the Knot for our wedding planning. I wanted to help be apart of all of the planning to help her from being stressed out. I thought the Knot was really a great app. It helped us find a florist, wedding dress shops, and gave us lots of really cool ideas we have used for our wedding. My fiance really loves the to-do list that is included on the app as well.

5 years ago

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Dan Dernbach Colonial Beach, VA

We booked a room for a wedding from the link sent to us by the Bride and Groom. We found out later that "the knot.com" spoofs the hotel site and charges nearly double the cost of the room. When we asked about this we were told it was non-refundable and there was nothing they could do. Whatever you do, do NOT use this site for anything. Very dishonest and unethical business practices. How are they allowed to operate such a dishonest business?

9 months ago

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Rhona Leffler Olney, MD

The Knot is a great tool for the wedding couple to post specifics about their wedding, such as date, time, location, wedding party, and gift registry, therefore making it a useful resource for guests as well.

1 year ago

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Yellow Shoes Event Rentals Barrington, IL

I don't want to have anything to do with this company. We have signed a contract with them for a year. First of all, there was little response and in general, the amount we paid for the ad did not pay back within a year. However, that's not the worst part. After a year I called them because we noticed that the Knot had withdrawn money from our account for another month, even though the contract was only for a year. When we called them with a request to end the cooperation, which, according to the contract, was supposed to last only for a year, and they started charging money for the next months - we heard from them that in order not to extend the contract, we had to wait for them to call us. We waited for someone to call. Unfortunately, no one called and the money was still being withdrawn from our account. After the money was withdrawn again, we called our bank and asked to block the collection of money. The deal was for a year. We fulfilled the contract. We paid money for a year. Unfortunately, the representatives of the Knot company are constantly calling us and threatening us with criminal liability. We regret that we started cooperation with them. We have great websites that are recommended by our clients - their advertising not only did not bring us benefits, but now we only have problems.

1 year ago

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Chelsea Centreville, VA

The Knot recently forced design changes to websites that have already been published. People's information is now missing, in the wrong place, duplicated, etc. The company has refused to correct this issue or provide updates despite over 100 customer complaints on a forum they created for people to discuss the problem. I think the forum was just for show--people who paid for their websites, sent invitations with website information, etc. are out of the money they spent now. I have warned my engaged friends to use another platform. Be warned. If you use The Knot to create a wedding website, they can and will change the design on you whenever they feel like it and you will be left looking like an idiot to your guests with a website that is cluttered or missing information. Save yourself the time of dealing with this company and AVOID The Knot.

3 years ago

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NISHA Buford, GA

DO NOT USE KNOT.COM SITE! Does not verify their vendors are legit! DO NOT USE THIS SITE! We were ripped off by multiple vendors for our wedding by using their vendor referrals via the site. We asked the knot what they would do, they stated there was nothing they could do but, we could leave a review on their profile page to help other couples. My mouth dropped, Shaun W photography was referred in our couple's website dashboard but yet they haven't verified or vetted this vendor? Something is wrong with that, they basically referred the vendor then removed themself from the repercussions of it. It would have been nice if they would have stepped up to help. But NEVER AGAIN!

3 years ago

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Lindsey American Fork, UT

I used the free services for The Knot when I got married like the checklists and ideas for wedding parties and wedding planning. If I had done a paid one, I bet I could have personalized it better.

4 years ago

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BL Dallas, TX

I started my business many years ago, any website we are affiliated with gives the user more control over what gets posted/reviews, except for the KNOT. I hate that I wasted my money every month on a service that has so little regard for its business owners. They allowed and still remains one bad review on their site, which apparently they could "care less" about. My first email to report the abuse was never even replied to. Now, 3 years later, I am trying it again. This is the worst site to do business with, don't waste your money. My business has a perfect 5.0 star rating on 20 other sites, and if it weren't for that one Brides nonsense and non factual events. While I still maintain a 5.0 star rating from my clients on this site, its not the point of it. The point is, they allow anyone, to say anything, true or not. BE LEARY! Also, I have tried to take actions to have my business removed, all they would do is move it to a FREE listing. I do not want or care to be a part of any website such as this, who allows such nonsense, they are NON CREDIBLE and do not care about their consumers

5 years ago

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Analis

I have created a draft website (password protected), i have not registered with any retailer and i have chosen that the site does not appear in google searches and YET it does! ! I thought the website will be available ONLY to the people i will give the link to, when it s ready and I send them the link, together with the password! Yet, to my surprise, when i search for my name on google, the registry appears (although I have not registered with any retailer!) The link and the short description reveals our names, the wedding date and place!!! (for personal reasons I did not wish to have this information publicly available!) Not only The Knot is not able to remove this link from google searches after 30 days, but I have neither been informed nor asked permission for this info to be on the web upfront!

6 years ago

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Crippled Angle Bossier City, LA

Horrible business. If you are a wedding vendor ie. photographer, dj, venue, coordinator etc. DO NOT use the KNOT they will provide you with 9 out of 10 Fake Leads. They tell you you can cancel if it doesn't work out but you can't. They will tell you they don't send people to collections, then you will get calls from collections! They will tell you they are sorry you were given misinformation... DO NOT USE THE KNOT. or any other service run by the knot. There are a lot so look it up, and don't do it.

1 year ago

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I own a wedding business and am forever grateful that I never paid to advertise with The Knot. Every single inquiry I have received with my "free" listing has been fake for the 3 years I have been on their site. My friend is also in the business but with a paid listing and she has not gotten ANY business but is stuck in an expensive contract. SCAM company as are ALL these online wedding sites.

4 years ago

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Amy Indianapolis, IN

I had a fake review on my profile, and The Knot refused to take it down, I had to have a contract from the client to prove it was false...but the client never existed and the wedding date was in the future, so it was obvious this was not a real wedding. Reviews are huge for a small business, and the knot IS NOT on your side. They could care less that the review left on my page was false and they didn't do anything about it.

4 years ago

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Beth Kihei, HI

Tried the premium spot for 6 months, was locked in to a storefront for a year. Even with the spent time and energy into setting up site, we are still upside down in our wedding side of our business. When we cancelled our premium, we did not get an accurate answer on future billing. The customer service was horrendous. Standard was email, call, email again to get an answer. The responses never clearly answered our questions. Not as great as people think.

5 years ago

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Annie Arlington, VA

I tried to post a review on vendor that I was given bad services and they kept requesting me to change the entire review. There argument was that they must be fair to vendors also. But then what about consumers? What about vendors who scam people out of their money for weddings? The knot is not authentic don't go by their reviews.

4 years ago

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Tyler Hollinger New York, NY

THE KNOT IS A SCAM. Definitely stay away. They 'lock vendors' into contracts and promise results and leads while charging crazy amounts. Then when you tell them you are done. They try and hold you in the contract.

3 years ago

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Rila Burbank, CA

We just signed up for a 12-month agreement. We were on the site for about a month and they removed us from the site and took our money and no refund. This is a scam and vendors should not sign up on this site.

4 years ago

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SANDRA LUFFMAN Elkin, NC

Terrible app, cumbersome to use for both vendors and couples, software bugs they will not fix.

3 years ago

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