A privacy friendly RSVP for events
Planning an event can be stressful, and the last thing you need is worrying about your guests’ privacy. But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with a privacy-friendly RSVP option.
Opportunity
There exist plenty of online services (like rsvpify) that offer a slick looking interface and a powerful dashboard to track who’s coming to your event.
However, such online services require guests to provide personal information such as their name, email, phone number, and sometimes even their address.
While they may be convenient for managing responses, they can also put your guests’ privacy at risk or may even use their information for marketing purposes.
Insight
But there is a better way: good plain old email.
- No middleman
- Senders control when and if to send Email
- No fees
Let’s create a simple HTML website that offers such a privacy-friendly RSVP option.
First, create an HTML file with the following code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Privacy-Friendly RSVP</title>
</head>
<body>
<button onclick="sendEmail()">RSVP</button>
<script>
function sendEmail() {
window.location.href =
'mailto:[email protected]?subject=RSVP&body=I will be attending!';
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
This code creates a basic HTML page with a single button. When the button is clicked, it will invoke a JavaScript function that directs the user to their email application and prefills the email receiver address, subject and body.
Notice how we leverage the +rsvp suffix in a gmail address to allow to easily filter or label RSVP emails in your mailbox.
Off course, you can customize this code to fit your specific event by changing the email address, subject, and body text.
Guests decide what, when and whether to send. All without having to provide any personal information to a third-party service. It’s simple, easy, and most importantly, respectful of your guests’ privacy.
Full example
Let’s build a slightly more attractive looking RSVP page:
That looks on mobile like:
This can be achieved by starting from the following HTML:
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" />
</head>
<body
background="background.jpg"
style="
background-size: cover;
background-position: center;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
"
>
<div
style="
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
align-items: center;
justify-content: start;
max-width: 800px;
width: 90%;
height: 90%;
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
border-radius: 20px;
padding: 20px;
"
>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; align-items: center">
<h1
style="
color: white;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 8em;
margin: 0px;
"
>
Party
</h1>
<h2
style="
color: white;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 2em;
margin: -25 0 0 0;
"
>
description
</h2>
</div>
<div style="flex-grow: 1"></div>
<div
style="display: flex; align-items: flex-start; flex-direction: column"
>
<p
style="
color: white;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1.5em;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0 20;
"
>
Come celebrate with me
</p>
<p
style="
color: white;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1.5em;
margin: 0px;
padding: 0 20;
"
>
🗓️ date + hour
</p>
<p
style="
color: white;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1.5em;
margin: 0 0 20 0;
padding: 0 20;
"
>
🍻 and 🍟 to enjoy
</p>
<iframe
src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2246.3233326624286!2d9.124615916552427!3d55.73551088054884!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x464b717428bfa99b%3A0xfba38e2c20ba313a!2sLEGOLAND%C2%AE%20Billund%20Resort!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sbe!4v1680002007769!5m2!1sen!2sbe"
width="100%"
height="150"
style="border: 0"
allowfullscreen=""
loading="lazy"
referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"
></iframe>
<button
style="
padding: 8 30;
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 1.5em;
margin-top: 20;
background: white;
border: white;
align-self: center;
"
id="btn-rsvp"
>
RSVP?
</button>
</div>
<script>
document
.getElementById('btn-rsvp')
.addEventListener('click', function () {
var link =
'mailto:[email protected]' +
'?subject=' +
encodeURIComponent('RSVP - My party') +
'&body=' +
encodeURIComponent('We will be there!');
window.location.href = link;
});
</script>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Just save the code above in index.html and add a background.jpg to the same folder to set your desired background.
Party on! 🎉
Wrap up
This site is 100% tracker free, 
for liking my post on Mastodon or Linkedin to let me know you've read this.
You don’t have to sacrifice privacy for convenience when it comes to event planning. A simple HTML website with a button to send an email is a privacy-friendly RSVP alternative!
If this was helpful to you, consider buying me a coffee.
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