Turns out The Knot isn’t just a fancy rope-tying technique! They’re also a cash wedding registry where guests can deposit cash and gifts into a happy couple’s bank account. That sounds great and all, but it’s important to know if there’s any additional fees with all this. After all, how does The Knot even make money? And let’s face it, wedding planning and weddings are expensive. So the more money a couple can rake in from their cash funds, the better. In this info article, we’ll find out exactly how The Knot makes money, and whether or not if it affects guests or the wedded couple.
Read also: What is a Wedding Gift Registry?
Short Answer |
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The Knot makes money in 3 ways. First is by offering custom URLs to make it easier for guests to find your wedding website. The second way is popular vendors like Crate & Barrel will feature their products on The Knot and The Knot will make a small commission when someone buys from the vendor. And the third one is the same as the second, except vendors like HomeGoods will offer gift cards and The Knot will make money when a guest purchases a gift card for a couple on their registry. |
Table of Contents |
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• How Does The Knot Make Money? • When Does The Knot Delete Your Wedding Registry? • Best The Knot Wedding Registry Alternatives |
Read also: The Knot vs Honeyfund: Which Wedding Registry is Better?
How Does The Knot Make Money?
This is a common a question we get asked by couples looking to set up their wedding registry for their special day.
The reason behind so many people asking about this is because The Knot doesn’t charge couples any money from their wedding site or bank account… so how do they make money?

It’s a fair question and here’s the answer:
The Knot makes money in a few ways. The first being through custom URLs for your wedding website.
Instead of having guests find your invitations and registry by searching for random letters and numbers, you can purchase a custom domain name which makes it easier for guests to find your registry.

The other way The Knot makes money is through partnerships when you add items to your gift registry.
Popular vendors like Target, Williams Sonoma, and Crate & Barrel team up with The Knot to have their items featured when couples add items to their wedding registry.
Read also: How Much Does Zola Take From Your Honeymoon Fund?

It’s worth noting that this does not affect the price that guests have to pay when buying any gifts off a wedding registry, nor does it affect anything from the couple’s side.
And the final way that The Knot makes money is by also teaming up with vendors for gift cards.

Places like HomeGoods and AirBnb will offer some of their gift cards for couples to add to their gift registry.
And again, this does not affect the price that guests would pay, nor does it come out of the couple’s pocket.
A popular misconception is that The Knot takes a certain percent fee from couples when they sign up for a cash honeymoon fund. This is actually false.
Read also: Do You Need To Give A Gift If You Don’t Attend The Wedding?

The fee is a 2.5% transaction processing fee which is charged by the payment companies to process the payments, and The Knot doesn’t take anything from that fee.
Read also: The Knot vs Zola: Head-to-Head Comparison
When Does The Knot Delete Your Wedding Registry?
The Knot will keep your wedding registry and custom URL active for up to a year after your wedding date.
And before that one-year-mark comes up, The Knot will notify you via email or your account portal to let you know your domain and site will expire.
Read also: Here’s Exactly When You Should Make and Share Your Wedding Registry

From there, you can decide whether you’d like to renew the site and domain, or let it get deleted.
You can read more about when The Knot deletes your wedding registry here.
Best The Knot Wedding Registry Alternatives
If the Knot isn’t quite what you’re looking for, here are a few alternatives that you might find interesting (in no particular order)
Honeyfund (great for experiences and cash gifts)
Zola (great all-rounded registry)
Amazon (great for having a wide variety of registry items to choose from)
Crate & Barrel (great for home decor items)