For the couple with too many tabs open
The sheet you started in October is already wrong. One live list holds every name, so invites sent, replies in, plus-ones and the silent ones all sit in the same place, readable on your phone.
A guest list begins sensibly enough: one tab, names down the side, a column for yes or no. Within a week it has a second tab for the plus-ones, a note buried in a row saying the Kowalskis are bringing a friend, and a headcount you no longer trust. The trouble is not the spreadsheet. It is that the list and the replies live in different places, and you are the one carrying answers between them.
A guest list app worth the name closes that gap. Names, invitations, confirmations, companions and the outstanding few all belong to one record. When a guest replies, the answer lands on their row by itself. You stop typing the same information twice and start reading a number you can hand to the caterer without flinching.
Four questions decide whether the day is planned or merely hoped for. The list answers all four at once.
Every name you load is invited from the same page, so you can see who has a link out and who you still need to reach. Nothing slips because it lived only in your head.
A confirmation ticks its own row. You always know how many have answered, rather than counting coloured cells and hoping you did not miss a tab.
Companions attach to the guest who named them, inside the limit you set. The extra places arrive with names instead of arriving as a surprise on the night.
The list shows the silent separately, and reminders to non-responders go out through WhatsApp or email. You pick who and when; the message does the chasing.
The spreadsheet is not only messy. It quietly hands work back to you that a live list simply does not ask for.
When couples search for a wedding guest list app they usually picture something to download and a series of sign-ups. This is not that. The list opens in your phone's browser, so you can read it in the checkout or the queue at the post office, and there is nothing from an app store for your guests either. They open the invitation link, reply in a couple of taps, and never install a thing.
The count keeps assembling while you are not looking at it. You add names as you build the list, and each reply settles onto the right row from there, so the number you read on the morning of the deadline is the same number you would have read standing at the venue with the door list in hand.
How it works
Sign up on the web, or message Jitabi on WhatsApp to draft the invitation, and add everyone you have invited so far. The guest list is part of the build rather than a separate file you make later.
Choose how many companions each guest may name. The reply form enforces the number, so the count stays honest without you policing it by message.
Share the invitation over WhatsApp, SMS or email. Every confirmation, companion and meal note attaches to a name, and the running total moves on its own.
Read who still owes an answer and send reminders to just those people. Long before the vendor deadline the count has been quietly assembling itself.
Questions
No. It runs in the browser on your phone and your computer, so there is nothing from an app store to install. Guests never install anything either; they open the link, reply, and leave it at that.
There is no automatic import. You add the names as you build the list, and each reply then attaches to the name you entered. It is slower by a minute and cleaner for the whole planning season.
The list separates those who have confirmed from those who have not. Reminders to non-responders go out through WhatsApp or email from inside the list, so you are not hunting through messages to work out who is outstanding.
Yes. Companions are capped at the limit you set, and when you offer meal options each guest picks one and can note an allergy. Both roll up into per-dish and total counts you can hand over.
It is the same live record you can open from a phone on the day, and arrivals can be marked against it with the door check-in code, so the paper list and the count never fall out of step.
Get Started
One live list keeps invites, replies, plus-ones and the outstanding few in the same place. You stop carrying answers between a sheet and an inbox, and the count is settled long before anything needs it.
