The Knot and Wedding Wire are the two most popular wedding websites/apps that I know of. I had previously only used The Knot because it was the website that I discovered first and both sites pretty much do the same thing. So I never felt like I needed to use both sites. A couple of weeks ago, I got curious about what Wedding Wire has to offer and which site is better so I started using both sites simultaneously. Here’s what I discovered:

Checklist

The checklist on The Knot’s website is easier on the eyes. The Knot breaks down tasks in terms of “remaining”, “essentials”, and “completed”. All of those terms are self-explanatory so it’s very easy for the user to navigate. You can also see how far along you are in the planning process by percentage. Personally, I love this feature because I am the type of person who likes to check things off my list and seeing that I’ve accomplished 50% of the tasks makes me happy.

Wedding Wire’s checklist is a little more basic as far as style goes. It doesn’t have the percentage feature that The Knot has, but it does show you how many tasks you’ve done and how many more you have to do. I just prefer seeing that in a percentage form. Wedding Wire does allow you to do things to your checklist. You cannot do that on The Knot so if you have more unique things on your to-do list, Wedding Wire’s checklist may be best for you.

Budgeter

For the budget tools on both sites, you are able to enter your budget and the sites will draft an estimated budget based on that number. They will tell you how much you should/could spend on vendors and tasks while staying on budget. Both The Knot and Wedding Wire allow you to put your actual costs in their budget tool and they add it up for you overall. That way you can see how much you’re going to spend.

Wedding Wire wins this category for me because they also give you the ability to document your payments to vendors. They show you what you’ve paid and what you have yet to pay. This has become really important to me now that we are putting deposits down and making payments for some things. You can also see who has paid for what things which is very important if you have multiple people helping you pay for your wedding.

Vendor Manager/List

The Knot’s vendor list is cute, much like the rest of their website. But it is limited in function. I can only view the vendor’s phone number and send them an email. And I also have to manually add them to the vendor list when I mark “booked _____” on the checklist. Whereas Wedding Wire will add anyone you message to your vendor list and you can delete them if you choose not to book them or you can mark them booked when you do. Wedding Wire has one more extra feature here that The Knot doesn’t have. You can write reviews for your vendors by going through their vendor manager. I’m not at the point where I’m ready to write reviews yet but I do like that all of the vendors will be under one tab, and I can just click “write review” when I’m ready.

Forum

I love how The Knot breaks down their forum categories and I love that the people who post in the forum adhere to those categories. Wedding Wire’s forums are a little more disorganized and that seems to be because they don’t have as many categories so people just post their questions anywhere. However, the people who post on Wedding Wire are way nicer than the ladies on The Knot. And that’s something I’ve noticed just from lurking in the past two weeks. The Knot’s forum posters are BRUTAL. They will cuss at you, they will berate you, they will call you names, and they really make the process of asking and answering questions on a public forum very nerve-wracking. The ladies on the Wedding Wire forums are a lot more inviting and warm. I can overlook a little disorganization but I can’t overlook people taking every opportunity to tear down the next bride for simply asking a question.

Overall

For the stage that I’m at for my wedding planning, Wedding Wire is the overall winner for me. Six months ago, The Knot would’ve taken the cake but now I’m at a point where style has taken a backseat to functionality. I’m using these sites less for inspiration now and more to track my progress, my budget, and to communicate with other brides about the do’s and don’ts of wedding planning. With Wedding Wire winning me over in three out of four categories, it looks like The Knot is going to be put on the back burner for a while.

If you’ve used either of these sites, which one did you prefer?