What Lense does well
Lense turns your guests' phones into disposable cameras. Guests scan the code or open the link, enter their name and start taking pictures in the browser, without downloading an app or creating an account. Each guest gets a set number of shots, and the host can lift that limit with an add-on. With a delayed reveal, the pictures stay hidden until the moment the host chooses, so everyone sees the evening together at once, a little like picking up the prints after the party.
Before anything becomes visible, the host can review every upload and remove what should not be included. A live photo wall comes with every event, ready for a screen at the venue. Once guests have joined, they can keep taking photos without an internet connection, which helps in a barn, a cellar or a garden far from good reception. The host can download all photos and videos at once, Lense keeps the original files, and hosts can run their event from apps for iPhone and Android.
Lense's site and app are available in Dutch, English, German and Spanish, which matters when your guests speak Dutch. For photographers and planners who run many events, Lense also offers monthly plans for professionals.
If the game of the disposable camera is the point of your evening, Lense is built for exactly that, and asks nothing of your guests but their name.
Where EventAssets offers more
EventAssets starts before the first photo. Each event has its own page with the schedule, the location on a map and what guests should know, and the same page collects the replies: guests find their name, answer for their whole party and fill in your questions before the deadline you set. The guest list feeds the seating chart, where you place tables and seat parties, and guests later look up their table on the same page. Budgets with planned and actual amounts sit beside it, so the costs of the day are planned in the place where the guests are.
The guestbook takes written messages and voice recordings made in the browser, signed with a name from the guest list or left anonymous, and you can review entries before they appear. In the gallery, photos and videos arrive in original quality, with videos included on every plan, and albums keep the ceremony, the dinner and the party apart. The price does not depend on the number of guests: the free plan caps photos, videos, storage and voice recordings, and one payment per event lifts those caps.
A camera for the evening, or a home for the event
The core difference is what each one is for. Lense is a camera: it makes taking pictures at the event a shared game, with a set number of shots and a reveal when you decide. EventAssets is a home for the event: it begins with the page you send with the invitation, holds the replies and the seating, and keeps the photos, videos and messages afterwards. EventAssets has no disposable camera mode and no delayed reveal; an upload appears in the gallery as soon as it arrives, or once you approve it.
Both sell a single event for a one-time payment, without a subscription. Lense sets its price by the number of guests, with more shots and video available as add-ons; EventAssets starts free and lifts its caps with one payment. The table above sets the plans side by side, with what each includes and how long the gallery stays online. If you only need the camera, compare those rows. If you would otherwise juggle an invitation tool, a spreadsheet for the seating and a separate guestbook, compare the planning rows as well.
What to check before you decide
Count your guests and think about how they will take part. Do you want everyone to shoot on the night with a set number of shots and a reveal later, or to see each picture in the gallery as soon as it arrives? Should guests film as well as photograph, and should their wishes be written or spoken? Do the replies and the seating chart belong in the same place as the pictures? Then pick the plan that covers it, with either provider, and try the free plan first. With EventAssets, the event page, the guest list and the guestbook are yours to set up before you pay anything.
