Punchbowl: Invitations & Cards Reviews

by Jennylee949

I was sooo excited to try this out - I wanted to create some cute invites for my daughter and son’s birthdays. But it completely backfired and I feel victim to false advertising. I mean, the picture in their store listing shows a cute card in a text message, right?! But no - not even close. It looks like a crazy spammy link, no picture or card, and none of our friends even wanted to touch it because it looked so shady. I kept having to bug everyone to see if they got it and they all wanted me to change to something else because they thought it looked so sketchy and lame. My daughter was super sad because I showed her the ad and told her that was how it would look but it looked nothing like that.
Even more than that, the whole point in me trying to use a text and email app was to be able to send guests other updates and reminders in the same place I sent the original invite - makes sense, right? But Punchbowl doesn’t even work like that. It just sends a shady looking spammy link to people from a weird phone number, you can’t see the invite at all, can’t rsvp unless you make them use Punchbowl , and you can’t communicate with them by text. So I may as well have just made a cute picture on WordSwag or something and sent it by text to my friends! So irritated, I’m a busy mom with 3 kids and a job and I don’t have time for this mess.

by Smoke20004

I downloaded Punchbowl and created a membership after looking online for a site to send ecards. I followed the steps and selected my recipient after customizing. When I hit send I got a pop up that just said “ok”. No other message. I clicked it and my ecard went nowhere. I double and triple checked to make sure I had my recipient’s info and all was in line. Still again, ok. Nothing to indicate what was going wrong. I saw an option to save my ecard as a draft so I did that so I could come back to it after attempting to troubleshoot and find info on what could be happening. I found nothing helpful and to make it even worse, couldn’t even locate the draft so my only option it to recreate the card again... Ugh! I wanted a quick and simple option to send a card today and wasted more time dealing with this. I opted out of them selling my info and will be deleting Punchbowl . I will have to just send a birthday text now because I don’t have time for this. Complete waste! Punchbowl needs work!

by JariCarli

I NEVER write reviews, but I feel like this one deserves one. I am very disappointed with the service. I got Punchbowl to make my sons first birthday invitations. Everything was great, people were rsvp and everything and I loved how easy it is to send. When I initially got Punchbowl it says it’s a 7 day free trial but after 7 days do you want to buy the annual pass for 80 or so dollars or just pay 6.99 a month and cancel. So picked the 6.99 a month because I wasn’t going to use it all year just for his birthday. Last night I got a bank notification that I was negative on my account. I got charged for the whole year and I got charged a fee for being negative. When I emailed the company they said they could not refund the money because it was bought off from iTunes when the help center specifically says 30 MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. They will NOT return the money.

by Look At Me 5

First you going to add your information everything seems like it’s going well do you go to view your invitation and suddenly it’s populated back to Massachusetts which is not what you typed and I had to go back through Punchbowl several times it’s impossible to check out as a guest user so you might as well just go ahead and create account and sell your information now. The only reason I’m using Punchbowl is because the party venue that I booked with this is how they get the invitations out otherwise I would’ve never downloaded Punchbowl and will be deleting it as soon as party is over. Save your time and purchase something for a whole dollar that will give you a better user experience.

by MandyBuz

1. I use this for larger events and seem to have issues on occasion where they will only allow me to send them any messages to make sure I’m not sending spam. I will say that they respond pretty quickly and fix the issue but I don’t see why or how it’s an issue.

2. If I’m using Punchbowl from my phone and I want to select a large group of people I have to individually check them that is a pain in the rear end. If I do this on my computer I can just click check off it would be great if they could fix this through their app.

3. To be paying for Punchbowl I find it annoying that when I want to send detailed information to my invitation guest list that they limit the text content to 1200 characters. I am paying for this they should allow at least 2000 to 3000. Sometimes I have a very important information and details that I need to send the members and 1200 characters is not always enough. I can understand limiting 1200 characters to non-paying members but to be paying for this I think I should be getting more.

Other then that honestly I find them better then e-vite but if they could fix the above things for those paying it would be great.

by Cmal92

The iPhone app works pretty well but it’s 2019 and we still have apps that don’t go landscape on iPad? C’mon... The best user experience is definitely through their actual website in my opinion. It’s much easier to use and to navigate.

The service is a great idea and executes very well, but their pricing schemes are completely misleading. They advertise as having two different monthly plans for each subscription tier. IE if you subscribe to their mid-tier premium plan, they advertise it as $4.99 per month. What they DON’T tell you is that that price is for their yearly membership which is a one time payment of almost $60. The ACTUAL monthly membership is closer to $13 per month. So WATCH OUT FOR THIS COMPANY’S FALSE ADVERTISING

by Karmel_sutra

First Off I like how Punchbowl made my invitations etc . However the PURPOSE of Punchbowl is to send to multiple ppl to be able to fwrd it share it ect electronically as a pose to the old school mailing way ect. However when i try to send to someone OTHER than whose number is saved in my phone i can’t 🙄 i created the invitations on my phone and tried to send my bf the link to send to his family members via a copy and paste text and what a FAIL !!! basically his family won’t and can’t get an invitation unless i manually add them to the list one by one store their info etc. I really want to give Punchbowl five stars but that BLOWS ! & is A LOT of work smh. Things would be sooooo much easier if it was just link anyone who received it could click on and add their self smh

by Crystal Brook

Out of the few times I have actually used punch bowl I have literally had about four errors in being able to send the invites two friends with valid numbers. It would send me a message saying invalid phone number or email. I had to contact punch bowl to resolve this. Not a smooth ride for a first time, Second time, third time user. Each time I’ve had a difficulty with the sending. For whatever reason they were able to fix it on their end and make the number a valid number. I was never explained why this error occurs. I can’t imagine I’m the only person. So that is my three star rating. Overall Punchbowl is a great idea but I might just go back to Evite the next time around!

by KenoshaDad

Punchbowl makes it easy to select a greeting card and customize the message on the front and the inside. However, I find the free app to be rather limiting. The selection of cards is very limited without upgrading to the paid version. Although there’s a user-friendly interface for writing a custom message in the card, the only editing options are fonts selection, text size, color, alignment and line spacing. And each of these options can only be applied to the entire (front and) inside message, and there are no options to reposition the text, or to add images or other visual elements. The eCard you send will also have ads on it, if you’re using the free version.
Punchbowl is easy to use. But with the free version, your options are very limited.

by Bugged Bride

I LOVE using this to send invites for events and I LOVE the potluck option. My only issue is that when I receive invites via text from other people for an event there is only a “create free account to save your invitation” option in the To-do list. Because I already use Punchbowl I just need to sign in and save the invitation. When I hit the create account to save invite option there is still no sign in option, only a sign up option which then tells me the email is already in use (obviously). So my advice to the developers would be to please make it easier to save the invite when you receive it via text. That is why I am giving it 4 stars.

by Shiny Fossil

I was looking for a way to send invitations other than my usual fossil way. When I found this app I liked the variety of images ranging from very simple to brightly colored with lots of movement and emotion in them. They also have images that appeal to the whole gamut—from little kids to sophisticated adults. It is very easy to personalize your invitation. I found it very simple to set up the text as well as the guest list. My inexperience resulted in my lapse into the ancient convention of writing each family member’s name on the single invitee line. As a result, most people are responding with a single yes or no. Therefore, I don’t know how many are actually intending to come. Some people are more savvy and they have figured out to respond with +guest, +guest, etc. Maybe a separate field that inquires “How many will be attending?” would help clarify the actual numbers. Right now I’ve just made a simple spreadsheet on my home computer to track it more precisely. I appreciate that I got an email stating that a few invitations were undeliverable. That helped me to get the new invitee information corrected. Overall I am finding it pretty neat. Within an hour of sending out the first round 1/4 of my guest list responded! How cool is that? I’ll know how to proceed better in the future. But so far the experience has been very smooth.

by SunshineSeeker12

I used Punchbowl for my daughter’s birthday party invites. I loved the little pie chart visual of responses as well as that you can ask people to indicate infant, child, and adult. Really helpful for quickly figuring out my different types of seating, number of kid/adult favors, kinds food, etc. There’s also a lot of control in the settings, all very nice and useful! the only thing that I don’t like is that I can’t add guests without giving a phone number or email (my grandma who doesn’t use a smart phone or email can’t be included then) AND you’re not able to add people (kids or spouses for example) to someone’s existing invite- in a couple cases people just text me, but I wanted to put it on the this app app because I was keeping track of all my invites that way- nope! I had to do a work around and send myself an invite to a different email address and add them on that way. Kind of a hassle. Overall though, I do like Punchbowl a lot and they have a good selection of cute invites.

by Edriisxe

This has been quite useful to use! Made one for my daughters 1st birthday and it’s been easy so far. My only gripes…
1. If you’re not a member, you can only make modifications via the mobile app. As most people would utilize this feature, I wish I was able to use the web version when I’m also toggling between other things while planning an event.
2. With most free trials, when you cancel before the charge date, it usually lets you continue to use the trial, then in case you want to reinstate membership, you can. Perhaps this is not something they’re able to do, but I wish that were the case. I did that because I only wish they do a monthly charge instead of a yearly charge. But I completely understand the nature of the business and your decision to do it whichever way you see fit.
3. To the developers: Did you know, when isn’t he mobile app, when I do the preview and I select “Guest List,” it doesn't allow me to go back? So I have to close Punchbowl and preview it again.

I thought I’d just use it for my daughters birthday, but Thanksgiving is on the way and I remembered it had a Pot Luck feature! So I’m gonna give that a try. WHO KNOWS! I might pay for a year. But for now, I probably won’t simply because I wish there was a monthly subscription instead of a yearly one.

by Tjnbk72

I cannot speak highly enough about Punchbowl. I’ve done an annual birthday party event and I’ve looked at every single possible invitation app to use for the party. This is hands down the best of its kind. It does everything that the others do if you wrapped them all into one package. It simplifies but uses classy ways to accomplish its goals. It has top notch cards that are good for any and every occasion. Most of all the customer service response time is super fast. If you are on the fence and looking for a direction to go, take my work, this app is in a class all by itself. You can thank me later!

by Kepolaa

I actually love the Idea of sending E-Cards ! My recipients adore them as well! But I noticed once you’re at the end of the process this app always interrupts it with a limitation and you cannot continue or finish the process without having to upgrade your membership or have all you creative work stop or it is deleted!

For example, I already paid for the membership which included an “Ad Free” option! I continue to create my E-Card and this app wouldn’t remove the ad unless I upgraded my membership AGAIN!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

A “Hidden Upselling Trap”. What a rip off to the consumer! I’m already frustrated, extremely disappointed and exhausted ...and I’ve only sent 1 card so far!!’

by BlondeBomber108

Punchbowl saves so much time (which is so precious to Mom’s everywhere)spent on searching the internet for pricey custom paper invites for a party! Instead of agonizing over addresses and styles of cards and when to send, I just easily loaded Punchbowl and within five minutes found the card I loved that matched the theme of my party, and with access to my contacts in my phone, I had the invites sent within a half an hour!
Also, the fact that I can just click on Punchbowl and see everybody that’s RSVPed or people that change their RSVP, is amazing!!! I’m hoping to see that they have digital thank you cards as well! Fantastic app that u can cancel anytime if you don’t use the service as often as you thought.

by Hockeyfanatik

I just discovered this invite site when searching for a particular theme invite for my son. I found this site to have so many options, themes, etc! Super easy to use and when I was having an issue, I sent an email requesting some help, expecting to hear back from someone in a few days but they got back to me the same day (within an hour) and were so helpful! I even received an email once I started creating the invitation letting me know they were there for any help I may need. What fabulous customer service....very impressed!!

by Momoball

Right now my invitation shows one date but the text and reminder says the correct date. Can’t get it fixed either. It’s a little hard to navigate through and I didn’t realize that I have drafts that were saved. I have had to redo my invite 4 times before I realized there drafts.

2 days later: I contacted the co. about the issue and they worked on it the very next day, and on a Sunday. Issue was resolved. Still a little difficult to navigate but having to redo it a few times i started to get the hang of things. One thing I don’t like for the people I sent the invites to are all the ads. I have had to tell a few to make sure they click “No Thanks” to navigate through to RSVP. But you get what you pay for...

by Bonniou2

I am a Senior Citizen.I was in the United States Navy and served my community as an Emergency Nurse for 30 years. My husband is a Korea, Vietnam Veteran of 23 years in the United States Army and we are on a fixed income. Buying cards and postage stamps have been a challenge. I have 11 children , 27 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. One of adult granddaughters told me about this app and sent me a card. It is so easy and I can now send cards to my beautiful children and their babies. Thank you so much, it was easy to learn. Do you give discounts to Veterans and or Senior Citizens? I have shared with my other seniors, God Bless
Bonnie Schneider

by Venice Blair Sky

Love this service!!!! So very easy to use & I know because I've used it so many times. Currently I'm planning a Talent Show using this. Who has time to hand write invitations, stuff envelopes, & the expense of buying stamps? Then you're swamped with phone messages on your voice mail. All I have to do is it send for free then wait for email responses sent from this app- YEAH!!!!! I easily added a Potluck Menu so the guest can select which item they want to contribute. I went over the number limit for guest so my invitations were not sent. I was devastated after all the time & effort I put into compiling my guest list. I contacted the company & they emailed me a simple solution. YEAH!!! Highly recommend this company.

by ChocolateGirlWonder

I’ve only used Punchbowl . Maybe the service is better on a web browser.

Creating an invite was easy. Sending it not so much. It imported my contacts but they weren’t imported in an logical way (alphabetically, etc) so it was a pain to add people. I also had an issue removing duplicate recipients. (It would say they’re removed but their names wouldn’t disappear and it would give an error.)

There’s also no option to send thank you cards to the guests from an invite. I had to manually add those folks to the card. They weren’t imported as this app contacts and there was no option to add them as such even though their info was stored with the invite.

by Stacarilla

Overall I am please with it being free, good for text/email and keeping things organized. It would be nice to to have a party task or to-do list function. I wish Punchbowl would have started with a basic tutorial on the different functions. For example I used the message board and no one that didn’t have Punchbowl knew there was information posted there. There are almost too many ways (messages, message board and announcements) to communicate with your invited guests you need to know how the information is received.

by GaNic18

Loved it. I’m old school and am used to using a competitor’s platform because it’s what I’ve been using for years (old habits die hard). But I specifically wanted a Hello Kitty background, which the competitor didn’t offer at all. I found MANY Hello Kitty options on this app, which created a good challenge to have - which should I choose? It was super easy to import contacts and send out. Between the great design options and user friendliness of Punchbowl , I will definitely use again!!! 5 stars (plus)!

by Nick 2. 7

I love ❤️ Punchbowl, it’s so easy for any event (especially party 🎉 planning ). I wasn’t sure Punchbowl was good, since almost all apps try to steal your information, but this one was totally good! I use this app for all my events, and sometimes make up excuses to try to use Punchbowl . I also like the tracking feature so you know how many people are coming, if there adults, children, infants 👶. So, I would recommend Punchbowl to all of my friends that like to plan parties 🎉.