Best Honeymoon Registry Fund Websites: The Top 5 Compared

Since 2016, there's been a growing trend in couples opting for a honeymoon registry over a traditional bridal registry, for their big day. The Knot published an excellent study which found a 50% rise in the popularity of honeymoon funds in 2017.

With the bridal industry moving at astronomical speeds, it's easy to get caught up amidst the hype of promotions and special offers. We found there to be one significant and overlooked factor when it comes to the honeymoon registry - it's all about guests.

Trust us. We know how daunting it can feel to not only organize the perfect wedding but to find the ideal registry for your big day. That's why we compiled a list of the best honeymoon registries, to make choosing the right one for you as simple as possible.

Which is the best honeymoon registry?

1. Hitchd

www.hitchd.com

Hitchd review

Hitchd is a new type of honeymoon registry that helps couples fund their honeymoon of a lifetime. It's different from traditional honeymoon registries due to its focus on providing the easiest, most personal, and beautiful experience to both couples and their guests.

Hitchd breaks the traditional wedding registry mould of upselling couples and guests with third-party (usually unwanted) offerings, and simply charges a one-time fee. That's right. Only pay once. In the long run, this is a much more affordable solution than other registries that use a percentage-based pricing model. If couples decide to use Stripe, Hitchd's payment partner, there is a small Stripe transaction fee (the lowest of all registries) which can be paid by guests or absorbed by couples.

Think of it as your very own wishing well and honeymoon planner, all rolled into one. Hitchd allows couples to create gifts, experiences, and everything in between. You're limited only by your imagination.

The thing we loved the most about Hitchd is that right from the very start, every couple receives a registry that has a world-class design, is easy to use (for both couples and guests), and provides freedom to truly fund anything.

What we loved

Aside from its beautiful aesthetic, and ease of use, Hitchd lets you choose from over 1 million stunning gift and cover images via Unsplash.

Payment via Credit Card

Guests can quickly pay via credit card. Hitchd also allows couples to use:

• PayPal
• Venmo
• Cash App
• Bank details (Direct deposit)
• or, any custom instructions for payment at all.

Mobile Device Friendly

Hitchd is the only registry we reviewed which worked flawlessly, start to finish, on a mobile device. The registry delivered the same delightful experience whether your guests will be browsing from their home computer, or on their mobile phone.

Beautiful Design

Hitchd, by far and away, has the most beautiful and modern design for a honeymoon registry online. Hitchd lets you make it your own by adding personalized images, welcome message, and unique registry address. They also teamed up with Unsplash to let you choose from over 1 million beautifully curated images.

Fees

Hitchd breaks the traditional wedding registry mould of upselling couples and guests with third-party (usually unwanted) offerings, and simply charges a one-time fee to upgrade from your free trial. That's right. Only pay once. In the long run, this is a much more affordable solution than other registries that use a percentage-based system. If couples decide to use Stripe, Hitchd's payment provider partner, there is a small Stripe transaction fee (the lowest of all registries) which can be paid by guests or absorbed by couples.

Conclusion

Hitchd, being one of the more modern registries we reviewed, is hands down the honeymoon best registry to use for your upcoming wedding. Hitchd truly feels like the modern approah to a honeymoon registry, combining everything from its beautiful, modern, design, flexible gifts, stunning imagery, and smooth contribution experience. The best thing of all? We know your guests are going to love it.

2. Thankful registry

Thankful registry review

Thankful is a honeymoon registry whose goal is to have everyone who visits one of its registries to feel like it's a real couple behind the scenes. They provide couples with the ability to create a mix of traditional, charitable, honeymoon fund, and experience focused gifts all in the one registry.

What we liked

hankful is committed to charitable donations and giving back causes they believe in.

Payment via Credit Card

Guests can quickly pay via credit card.

Mobile Device Friendly

Thankful showcases gift titles and imagery, allowing guests to easily view gifts, no matter how many are on the page. With the use of excessive white space, we feel the mobile experience is lacking and a little bland. On a mobile device, the light colored text may also make it harder for some of your elderly guests to read.

Beautiful Design

Thankful showcases gifts by displaying their title in a large size and uses gift imagery to draw guests in to learn more. The gifts themselves don't have much room to display more in-depth information, which we feel to be restrictive for guests who want to know more. The light colored text may also make it harder for elderly guests to read.

Fees

Thankful charge guests 2.9% + $0.30 per contribution. Couples must pay a $30 fee to use the registry. Couples should be mindful of the cost of buying images, as they are not included.

Conclusion

Thankful is suitable for couples who are not too worried about the look and feel of their honeymoon registry, who are interested in a cheaper alternative.

Guests are not able to contribute to multiple gifts in one transaction, and similar to Honeyfund will make guests conform to the portion system if a couple has set it to a gift.

3. Zola

Zola Review

Zola is one of the longest-running registries on the internet today. From wedding registry, to all-in-one wedding solution, they sure live up to their slogan of "The home of all things wedding." Zola is ideal if you're looking to receive physical gifts, which are purchased by guests through their extensive list of third-party retailers.

What we liked

It's easy for guests to contribute to a mix of traditional, and non-traditional, gifts in one registry.

Payment via Credit Card

Guests can quickly pay via credit card.

Mobile Device Friendly

Zola looks great on a mobile device; however, it can become quite a cluttered and can be easy to get lost.

Beautiful Design

Zola gives couples the option to use their own, branded, registry, or a themed registry to suit your Zola wedding website. Gifts are displayed in a 2 column layout, which works well if couples have added a large number of gifts.

Fees

Zola charge 2.5% with the option for couples or guest to absorb the fee. There are no hidden fees for cash registries.

Conclusion

If you're planning to use Zola as a honeymoon registry, you'll be sure to receive a registry that is modern, has a wide range of gifts to choose from, and provides excellent support. However, your guests may find it to be a slightly confusing experience.

During our review, we discovered that Zola does so much that it's often hard to focus on the actual task at hand. The constant wave of upselling their core platform (invites, checklist, website builder) can also become a bit tiresome.

4. Honeyfund Review

Summary

Honeyfund is one of the longest-running honeymoon registries, launching in 2006 and appearing on an episode of Shark Tank in 2014. They also started a sister company called Plumbfund, which is a crowdfunding site for people in need. Honeyfund has years of experience and thousands of successful couple stories behind them.

What we liked

Honeyfund provide live chat support for couples and guests who need questions answered on the spot.

Payment via Credit Card, cash or check

Guests can quickly pay via credit card. They also have the option to physically bring cash or a check to the wedding if the couples have enabled this option.

Mobile Device Friendly

Honeyfund works well on mobile devices. Guests will be able to see all the information about your wedding, wedding details, and guest book. Gifts appear in list view, although the accompanying images are quite small compared to the size of gift titles.

During the gifting process your guests will have the option to "Receive travel deals from Honeyfund by e-mail" and your guests will see an external advertising pop-ups after the contribution, which makes the overall feel of the registry a little less personal.

Beautiful Design

Honeyfund is one of the few honeymoon registries we reviewed that we feel is not up to the standard of a modern-day registry. The images provided are low-resolution and grainy, while the aesthetics of the site don't seem to have changed since the initial launch back in 2003.

Fees

Honeyfund charge between 2.8% - 3.95% + $0.30 per contribution, plus an additional 1% 'cross-border' fee, depending on country. Couples must pay an additional $39.99 for non-basic registry themes. Cash, cheque, and custom payments are free.

Conclusion

Being one of the longest-running registries, Honeyfund has experience on its side. Unfortunately, with its outdated design, misleading fees, and lack of innovation, we believe there are better options for your honeymoon registry.

5. Traveler's Joy

Traveler's Joy Review

Traveler's Joy was one of the first honeymoon registries to burst onto the scene in 2004. Purpose-built as a honeymoon fund, it's catered to nearly half a million users since it first launched. Traveler's Joy has a modern aesthetic, is easy to use, and allows guests to contribute to both traditional and non-traditional gifts.

What we liked

Gifts are clearly labeled with big, bold, buttons, making it obvious for guests to move to the next step.

Payment via Credit Card

Guests can quickly pay via credit card. Contributions of $1,000 of more will need to be approved by Traveler's Joy.

Mobile Device Friendly

Traveler's Joy generally works well on a mobile device; However, we found an issue with the staggering number of input fields on the payment page. Your guests will be asked to fill out 15-17 fields to contribtute towards a gift for you, which we believe is excessive.

Beautiful Design

The Traveler's Joy registry is nicely put together, although, we found unless you are adding a long description for every single gift, there will be a massive block of white space in the middle of each item, taking up a significant portion of the screen's real estate.

Fees

Traveler's Joy charge 5.9% + $0.99 per contribution. Even if the couple absorbs the fee, guests are still charged $0.99 per contribution. There are no hidden fees for cash registries.

6. Wanderable

Wanderable Review

Wanderable help engaged couples fund their honeymoons by offering a tasteful honeymoon registries. No more meaningless pillowcases or pots and pans, just experiences and adventures to last a lifetime.

What we liked

The ability to choose from a variety of layouts, font, and colors.

Payment via Credit Card

Guests can successfully pay via credit card.

Mobile Device Friendly

Wanderable works well on a mobile device. While the design is somewhat outdated, we also found the functionality to be lacking compared to other registries.

Beautiful Design

The Wanderable registry is one of the first registries to come on the scene and not much has changes aesthetically over time.

Fees

Wanderable charge 2.5% + $0.99 per contribution.

Conclusion

Wanderable will be a great option for couples looking to change their honeymoon registry layout or typeface.

Although they have an older design and lack of major features compared that of other competitors, Wanderable has been around since the beginning and has a solid reputation in the honeymoon registry space.

That's a wrap

We hope you now have a good idea about which honeymoon registry will be right for you. View our latest article on the do's and don'ts of asking for money for more helpful tips for your upcoming wedding.

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Judging comparison criteria

To make the comparison as useful and fair as possible, we created the same example registry on each website, using the inspiration of "7 nights in Hawaii".

We identified the following criteria to be the top things you'll want for your honeymoon registry:

Payment via Credit Card

A smooth online checkout process provides guests with a more enjoyable experience, leading to the willingness to contribute more money towards gifts. It’s the same experience you would expect from an online store or boutique.

Cash Fund

A cash fund allows a couple to ask for cash (and for guests to gift it) in a more meaningful way by specifying what each monetary gift is going towards. Think; experiences, flights, Airbnb's.

Mobile Device Friendly

Our data shows there's a very high chance a guest will be making their contribution on a mobile device, and the experience should be as straightforward and intuitive as the other websites they use.

Beautiful Design

Your registry is an extension of you and your wedding. Presenting a beautiful honeymoon registry will set the tone for the rest of the events leading to your big day.

Fees

While we don't consider fees to be a huge factor in choosing the right honeymoon registry, we're also aware that some websites may include hidden and misleading fees.

Which one will you choose?

Your wedding guests can — and want to – finance your honeymoon. Which one of the best honeymoon registry fund websites will you choose?