Great App
Very good features and a brilliant alternative for Evites/Punchbowl..
SSVD_16
Response from developer
Thank you very much, that means a lot. Mela is built for the people who organize the same crowd again and again, and there is more on the way for teams and communities - Keep an eye for new features and releases. If anything ever gets in your way, hello@joinmela.co reaches us directly. — The Mela team
A community-first event app that's poised to make a dent
I'm writing this to pass along some word of mouth, because my experience with Mela has been a real delight.
I'm genuinely upbeat about Mela. It's a community-focused event manager that delivers an exceptional, seamless experience from start to finish. Creating an invite is a joy - choose from nearly 60 designs or make your own with a photo or video upload. All of it is free with no fees and no ads. Beyond the native app, you can also use a web link for a desktop browser experience.
I was lucky to come across Mela while it was still on TestFlight and to connect with the founding team. They're smart, analytical problem solvers, and they show real empathy for users, which I experienced firsthand when I tried the app out for my son's birthday. Our conversations went well beyond invitations into the everyday friction we all run into, from juggling Zoom links to shopping cars to coordinating across group chats. You can tell they live the community life themselves and are motivated, insightful and skilled at building useful tools for everyday people. They have the heart of Mela.
They were happy to roll out improvements in quick increments. We shared feedback on a Thursday night, and by Saturday there was a new build with reusable potluck food lists, repeating events, and a one-tap guest reminder. When something was confusing, they explained it right away and had a clearer version lined up for the next release. That kind of turnaround is rare.
I've used other invitation apps for years, and none of them come close for community and recurring events. Most are stuck with the approach they settled on years ago and haven't rethought the experience from the user's side. Mela starts fresh. Bring your own photos, videos, documents, and other content, and it all lives in one place. I can tell it's built to scale, both in the number of users and in the mix of structured and unstructured content it handles. Mela is one of a kind.
Try it and make it your own. Set it up once and rolling out, tracking and coordinating events becomes a breeze. No fees, no ads, no drama.
I'm genuinely upbeat about Mela. It's a community-focused event manager that delivers an exceptional, seamless experience from start to finish. Creating an invite is a joy - choose from nearly 60 designs or make your own with a photo or video upload. All of it is free with no fees and no ads. Beyond the native app, you can also use a web link for a desktop browser experience.
I was lucky to come across Mela while it was still on TestFlight and to connect with the founding team. They're smart, analytical problem solvers, and they show real empathy for users, which I experienced firsthand when I tried the app out for my son's birthday. Our conversations went well beyond invitations into the everyday friction we all run into, from juggling Zoom links to shopping cars to coordinating across group chats. You can tell they live the community life themselves and are motivated, insightful and skilled at building useful tools for everyday people. They have the heart of Mela.
They were happy to roll out improvements in quick increments. We shared feedback on a Thursday night, and by Saturday there was a new build with reusable potluck food lists, repeating events, and a one-tap guest reminder. When something was confusing, they explained it right away and had a clearer version lined up for the next release. That kind of turnaround is rare.
I've used other invitation apps for years, and none of them come close for community and recurring events. Most are stuck with the approach they settled on years ago and haven't rethought the experience from the user's side. Mela starts fresh. Bring your own photos, videos, documents, and other content, and it all lives in one place. I can tell it's built to scale, both in the number of users and in the mix of structured and unstructured content it handles. Mela is one of a kind.
Try it and make it your own. Set it up once and rolling out, tracking and coordinating events becomes a breeze. No fees, no ads, no drama.
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VPVijay Peyyala
Response from developer
Thank you Vijay, that means a lot. Mela is built for exactly this, and there is more coming for teams and communities (especially sports). If anything ever gets in your way, hello@joinmela.co reaches us directly. — The Mela team
Finally an app to manage Communities and Spaces with ease
Free, no ads, and a headcount you can estimate and plan for.
I organize for our Church events, the same crowd every week. Two things sold me. First, it's free with no ads whether you invite 8 people or 800. Evite's free tier carries ads, and removing them is a per-event purchase that climbs with your guest list. Second, Mela gives me a real headcount: adults and kids counted separately, plus-ones as a number, dietary notes on the reply, and a dish list with quantities that closes each item once it's covered. Evite gives you a yes count and a "what to bring" list.
Guests reply with a name and a number, no account. Mela emails each person their own link, shows who opened it, nudges the ones who haven't replied, and updates everyone if the time or place changes. The people I invited are still there for the next event.
The UI is the sleekest of the three: clean, fast, nothing buried in menus. Creating an event is one screen, the RSVP view reads at a glance, and the guest side. The app looks great on a phone in a group chat
Not perfect yet: fewer templates than Evite and no licensed kids' characters (Punchbowl still wins there). For one birthday, the big apps are fine. For anyone running a community, Mela is the first app that gets it.
I organize for our Church events, the same crowd every week. Two things sold me. First, it's free with no ads whether you invite 8 people or 800. Evite's free tier carries ads, and removing them is a per-event purchase that climbs with your guest list. Second, Mela gives me a real headcount: adults and kids counted separately, plus-ones as a number, dietary notes on the reply, and a dish list with quantities that closes each item once it's covered. Evite gives you a yes count and a "what to bring" list.
Guests reply with a name and a number, no account. Mela emails each person their own link, shows who opened it, nudges the ones who haven't replied, and updates everyone if the time or place changes. The people I invited are still there for the next event.
The UI is the sleekest of the three: clean, fast, nothing buried in menus. Creating an event is one screen, the RSVP view reads at a glance, and the guest side. The app looks great on a phone in a group chat
Not perfect yet: fewer templates than Evite and no licensed kids' characters (Punchbowl still wins there). For one birthday, the big apps are fine. For anyone running a community, Mela is the first app that gets it.
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RRajivTM
