Cova vs Partiful
The short answer: Partiful is how you invite people you already know. Cova is how you end up in a plan with people you don't. If you have a guest list, Partiful is the better tool and Cova isn't trying to replace it. If your problem is that you don't have a guest list, an invitation app can't fix that, because it starts one step after the part that's hard.
I built Cova, so read this knowing that. Everything factual below is checkable, and where Partiful is the better choice I've said so.
Partiful is very good at what it does, and what it does is not what Cova does. They get mentioned together often enough that it’s worth separating, because they solve opposite halves of the problem.
The comparison
| Cova | Partiful | |
|---|---|---|
| Core unit | One-off plan (a “cove”) | An invitation |
| Who it’s for | People you haven’t met | People you already know |
| Where the guests come from | Nearby people who take a spot | Your contacts, your group chat |
| Group size | 3 to 10, capped | Any, uncapped |
| Discovery | The whole point | An explore feed, secondary |
| Cost | Free (optional subscription) | Free, no paid tier |
| Coverage | San Francisco (waitlist elsewhere) | Anywhere |
| Platform | iPhone (Android in progress) | iPhone, Android, web |
The step each one starts at
Throwing something has two parts: deciding what it is, and getting people to come. Partiful is excellent at the second and assumes the first is handled. You write the plan, pick a design, send the link to the people whose numbers you have, and it does RSVPs, reminders, questions for guests, and the photo album afterwards. Nothing about that is improvable by Cova.
The assumption underneath it is the guest list. If you’ve lived somewhere ten years, that assumption is fine and Partiful is one of the best consumer products of the last few years. If you moved to San Francisco fourteen months ago and your group chat is four people who all live in other cities, the invitation isn’t the hard part and a better invitation doesn’t help.
Cova starts one step earlier. You create a cove - a hike on Saturday, a board game night on Thursday, three to ten spots - and people nearby who you haven’t met take the spots. There’s no list to have, which is the entire difference.
The explore feed is real, and it’s a different thing
Partiful has a public feed of events by city, San Francisco included, and it’s genuinely worth browsing. It surfaces things you would not otherwise hear about.
What it gets you is worth being precise about, though. Those are open events, mostly uncapped, and going to one means arriving somewhere alone where everybody else came with someone. That works for some people and it is a real way to spend a Saturday. A plan capped at ten is a different experience, because everyone in it arrived the way you did and the room is small enough that nobody sits on the edge of it. The introverts’ guide goes into why smaller and side-by-side beats bigger and face-to-face.
Which to use
Use Partiful if you’re inviting specific people, you want the event to be as big as it wants to be, you need RSVPs and reminders and a photo album, or you want to see what’s on in your city this weekend.
Use Cova if the people are the missing part rather than the plan, you’d rather four people you’ll actually talk to than forty you won’t, or you want to put something on without having to know who to send it to.
Use both, honestly. They stack cleanly. Cova for the plans that fill with people you haven’t met, Partiful for the ones you’re inviting the people you already like to. If the Cova plan works, the second one is a Partiful invite, which is roughly the outcome everyone is after.
Common questions
Is Partiful free?
Yes. Partiful's own site says it's free with no paywalls or premium tiers, and it's on iPhone, Android and the web. Selling tickets is built in for the events where you're charging.
Can you meet new people on Partiful?
Indirectly. Its core use is inviting people who already have your number, though it also has an explore feed of public events by city, San Francisco included. That's a real way to find something to go to. It's still a room you walk into alone, which is a different problem from being short of things to do.
What are the alternatives to Partiful?
For invitations, Luma and Eventbrite do the same job with more ticketing machinery, and Partiful is the lightest of the three. For actually meeting people rather than gathering the ones you know, that's a different category - Cova for small one-off plans, Meetup for standing groups.
Should I use Partiful or Cova to throw something?
Partiful, if you're inviting specific people. Cova is for when you'd rather the spots went to people nearby you haven't met, and it caps the plan at ten so it stays a conversation rather than a party. They're different events, not two ways to run the same one.