Evite is a social-planning website for creating, sending, and managing online invitations.

Evite was launched in 1998. The website is a free, advertisement-supported service. It is owned by conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Usage

An event organizer creates an online invitation through the website via a simple interface. This online invitation is colloquially referred to as "an Evite". The host enters e-mail addresses of prospective guests and Evite sends e-mails to the guests. Each guest is in one of four categories: "Attending", "Not Attending", "Maybe", and "Not yet replied". Guests move themselves from the "Not yet replied" category to one of the three "replied" categories and can write additional comments.

Reminders

• Hosts may send an automatic reminder e-mail in the days prior to the event.
• Hosts can determine through the web site whether a guest has viewed the invitation or not.

Style

The HTML page for the invitation may have various stylistic features chosen by the inviter. These include setting color and layout and renaming the four guest categories.

Updates

Hosts may opt to send guests updates when other guests RSVP for the event, or when the event details are changed.

Legal Controversy

According to Mashable and Venturebeat, Evite has threatened to sue San Francisco based start up and competitor Socializr due to alleged copyright infringement.

Criticism

• Entrepreneur Auren Hoffman wrote a blog post in January 2006 pointing out that Evite had great potential but had not improved for six years. Later Auren wrote a guest column for VentureBeat in September 2006 called "Why I hate Evite".
• Friendster and Evite competitor Socializr founder Jonathan Abrams has written a detailed critique of Evite
• On May 14, 2007, Valleywag listed Evite as #1 in their list of Companies We All Hate: "Why it sucks: The invitation e-mails don't contain the info for the event! Gah! And the page everyone clicks to is choked with ads."
• Time Magazine named Evite one of their "5 Worst Websites" and "Sites to Avoid". 1
• Wired Magazine's February 2008 issue on "Why Things Suck" includes an article criticizing Evite. 2
• Evite site completely down between approx 8:00pm PST to at least 9:15 pm PST on October 6, 2008. Performance consistently poor and amatuerish otherwise. 3