Our Big Yes

Comparison

Our Big Yes vs The Knot

The Knot takes 0% of cash gifts, and so do we. The difference is the plumbing: The Knot needs a US checking account, works in USD only, and needs guest cards issued by banks based in the USA. Guests also cover 2.5% at checkout. We run gifts through your own gateway, in any currency Stripe supports.

Every figure for The Knot on this page comes from theknot.com, checked 2 August 2026.

At a glance.

  • Cost of the wedding website

    Our Big Yes: Free to build. $29 once when you publish, or R399 in South Africa.

    The Knot: $0, with no paid tier. The Knot: "completely free to use... There are no required fees or hidden costs."

  • Custom domain

    Our Big Yes: Connect your own domain, no extra platform charge. Or use join.ourbigyes.com/your-names free.

    The Knot: $19.99 for one year, $39.98 for two years. A premium .wedding extension is $99.99 per year.

  • Platform cut of your cash gifts

    Our Big Yes: 0%. We take nothing from a gift, ever.

    The Knot: 0%. The Knot: "The Knot doesn’t take a percentage of cash gifts, so couples receive 100% of the wedding gift amount."

  • Card fee on cash gifts

    Our Big Yes: Your own gateway charges its standard processing fee on the gift.

    The Knot: 2.5%, paid by the guest at checkout. The Knot does not retain it.

  • Who pays that fee

    Our Big Yes: You do, out of the gift. Your guest is never shown a surcharge.

    The Knot: The guest, at checkout.

  • Fee-free route for guests

    Our Big Yes: Every route is fee-free for guests. There is no platform surcharge to avoid.

    The Knot: Venmo, 0% on both sides. A Venmo payment funded by a credit card incurs Venmo’s own credit card fee.

  • When card gifts reach you

    Our Big Yes: On your gateway’s normal payout schedule. We are never in the chain.

    The Knot: Card gifts settle to the couple’s bank in up to five business days.

  • Bank account needed

    Our Big Yes: Your own gateway account. Whatever that gateway accepts.

    The Knot: A US checking account. Savings accounts and wire instructions are not supported.

  • Currency

    Our Big Yes: Any currency Stripe supports, or rand through a South African gateway.

    The Knot: USD transactions only.

  • Guest cards accepted

    Our Big Yes: Whatever your own gateway accepts.

    The Knot: Cards "must be issued to accounts being held by banks based in the USA".

The Knot figures as published in their own help centre on theknot.com, checked 2 August 2026. Where The Knot does not publish something, we say so rather than filling the gap ourselves.

Who can actually receive the money.

The Knot does not publish a rule about where a couple may live, so we will not invent one. What it does publish is a chain of requirements around the money: cash gifts are transferred to a US checking account, savings accounts and wire instructions are not supported, transactions are in USD only, and guests' cards "must be issued to accounts being held by banks based in the USA". Identity verification also cannot use PO Boxes or APO addresses.

Line those up and the picture is clear enough to plan around, without us claiming anything The Knot has not said.

Our Big Yes has no such chain, because we are not in the payment. You connect your own gateway: your own Stripe account almost anywhere, receiving in any currency Stripe supports, or Paystack, Yoco, PayFast or iKhokha in South Africa. Your guests pay with the cards their own bank issued them, and the money settles into the account you already bank with.

What your guest pays.

On The Knot, a guest paying by card pays a 2.5% fee at checkout. That fee is charged to the guest and The Knot does not retain it, which is worth saying clearly: it is not a platform cut, it is the cost of the card being passed along. A guest sending $200 is asked for $205.

On Our Big Yes, the guest is asked for the gift amount and nothing else. Your own gateway then deducts its standard processing fee from the gift, the same fee it charges any business that uses it, and the balance settles to you. The cost is real either way. The difference is that on our checkout it never appears in front of the person giving you a present.

The Knot has a route with no fee on either side too: Venmo. Only caveat they publish is that a Venmo payment funded by a credit card incurs Venmo's own credit card fee.

Where the money sits before it reaches you.

On The Knot, card gifts settle to the couple's bank in up to five business days. Venmo gifts go straight to your Venmo, with no settlement window to wait out.

Our Big Yes never holds, routes or processes gift money. The gift is captured by your own gateway under your own merchant account, and paid out on that gateway's normal schedule. There is no Our Big Yes balance, no request-a-transfer step, and no minimum we could impose, because the money was never with us to begin with.

If what matters to you is speed rather than custody, note that a Venmo gift on The Knot is faster than any card settlement cycle, ours included.

What the couple pays.

The Knot's wedding website is $0, with no paid tier at all. In their words, it is "completely free to use... There are no required fees or hidden costs". The only listed extra is a custom domain: $19.99 for one year, $39.98 for two years, or $99.99 per year for a premium .wedding extension.

Our Big Yes charges one once-off publish fee: $29 internationally, or R399 in South Africa. Signing up, building the site, loading your guest list and setting up your registry cost nothing, and you pay only at the moment you publish. Connecting your own custom domain carries no extra platform charge, and join.ourbigyes.com/your-names is free if you do not want to buy one.

Compare a two-year custom domain and the numbers land close together. Compare the base website and The Knot is cheaper, full stop.

What you get besides the registry.

Our publish fee covers the whole product rather than a registry with a site attached. Ten themes, switchable at any point right up to the day. Household RSVPs, where each household gets its own secure personal link, so no guest has to create an account or remember a password to reply.

You share one address, join.ourbigyes.com/your-names or your own domain, and everything lives behind it: the story, the details, the RSVP and the registry.

When The Knot is the better choice, honestly.

If you are marrying in the United States, banking with a US checking account, and your friends already send each other money on Venmo without a second thought, The Knot is very hard to beat. The website is $0 with no paid tier. The platform takes 0% of your cash gifts, in their own words. Gifts sent by Venmo cost nothing on either side and arrive without waiting out a settlement cycle.

That is a product that is genuinely free for you and genuinely free for your guests, and we cannot beat free. We would rather say so than pretend our $29 buys something a Venmo-native American couple actually needs.

Pick The Knot if that description fits you. It is the cheaper answer, and cheaper is a real answer.

The verdict.

Choose The Knot if you have a US checking account, your gifts will be in USD, your guests carry cards issued by US banks or use Venmo, and you want to spend nothing on the website.

Choose Our Big Yes if you bank outside the United States, want gifts in a currency other than USD, have guests whose cards were issued anywhere in the world, or simply want the gift money to go straight into your own gateway without a checkout that asks your guests for extra. One payment of $29, or R399 in South Africa, and every gift is yours.

Common questions.

Does The Knot charge for a wedding website?

No. The Knot describes its wedding websites as "completely free to use... There are no required fees or hidden costs", and there is no paid tier. A custom domain is a separate purchase: $19.99 for one year, $39.98 for two years, or $99.99 per year for a premium .wedding extension. Checked on theknot.com, 2 August 2026.

Does The Knot take a percentage of cash gifts?

No, and they say so plainly: "The Knot doesn’t take a percentage of cash gifts, so couples receive 100% of the wedding gift amount." Our platform fee is 0% as well, so on this specific point the two products are the same. Checked on theknot.com, 2 August 2026.

What do guests pay on The Knot?

A guest paying by card pays a 2.5% fee at checkout. The Knot does not keep that fee. Guests who send through Venmo pay nothing, on either side, although a Venmo payment funded by a credit card incurs Venmo’s own credit card fee. Checked on theknot.com, 2 August 2026.

Can a couple outside the United States use The Knot for cash gifts?

The Knot does not publish a statement about which countries may create a website, so we will not put words in their mouth. What they do publish is this: cash gift transfers need a US checking account, savings accounts and wire instructions are not supported, transactions are in USD only, guest cards must be issued to accounts held by banks based in the USA, and identity verification cannot use PO Boxes or APO addresses. Read that chain and judge whether it fits your situation. Checked on theknot.com, 2 August 2026.

How does Our Big Yes pay a couple outside the United States?

We do not pay you at all, because we never hold your gift money. You connect your own payment gateway, which means your own Stripe account almost anywhere, receiving in any currency Stripe supports, or Paystack, Yoco, PayFast or iKhokha if you are in South Africa. Gifts land in that account and your gateway pays out on its normal schedule.

What does Our Big Yes cost?

One once-off publish fee: $29 internationally, or R399 in South Africa. Signing up, building the site, loading guests and setting up your registry are free, and you pay only when you publish. There is no subscription and no platform fee on gifts.

Sources.

Gifts that land in your own account.

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