Eight companies will legally marry you over live video. We loaded every one of their pricing pages on the same day (first on July 18, 2026, again on September 10, 2026), screenshotted them, and did the math. The surprising result wasn’t who’s cheapest. It was how much the pages changed in seven weeks, and how little the “limited time” discounts did.
One thing before the table: we run one of these services. Read this as an insider’s map with receipts, not a neutral review site. Every fact below comes from each company’s own published pages or its public Trustpilot profile, and where a company doesn’t publish something, we say “not published” instead of guessing.
The comparison table
Prices in US dollars, as shown on September 10, 2026.
| Service | Advertised price | License fee (~$70, gov’t) | Same-day / rush | Refund before ceremony | Trustpilot (score, count) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowed and Clear | $349, same price everywhere | $71, shown before checkout | +$100, same day | Full refund | 4.6, 26 (we’re newer) |
| Courtly | $199 non-refundable Core; $299 Popular in September (list $399); $499 Fast-Track (list $599) | “Estimated at $70,” extra | +$150 | Popular and above only | 4.8, 923 |
| Distant Weddings | $299 (“regularly $499,” “$200 off ends September 30”) | $71, extra | +$200 | ”Full refund if you choose not to get married” | 4.9, 435 |
| VirtualMarriage | $299 standard / $499 rush tier (“Save $200, ends Sep 30”) | $70, extra | Rush tier, under 24 hrs | ”100% refund if you decide not to get married” | 4.9, 1,600 |
| Virtual Same Day Marriage | $299 Essential / $399 Premium (Same Day) | Not on the package page; their blog says $70 | Premium tier only | ”Full refund if you change your mind” | 4.6, 40 |
| RemoteVows | 295 in one block, 250 in another, same package | Says “included” in the 250 block | Not published | ”100% money-back guarantee” | 4.9, 237 |
| Vows & Beyond | Not re-verified since July (then 249, “was $449”) | Never mentioned in July | None published in July | Not published | Very few reviews in July |
| Wedding Proxy | 570 to 720 (Montana double proxy; active-duty military or Montana residents only) | Bundled | ”As little as 5 hours,” business hours | Not published | No reviews found |
Witnesses deserve their own line because they’re the same story everywhere: Utah requires two, every service lets you bring your own two adults free, and the paid option exists for couples who don’t have two people available. That pair costs $50 at Courtly, Distant Weddings, and VirtualMarriage, $25 per witness at Virtual Same Day Marriage, and $25 per witness with us.
What changed between July and September
The countdown timers rolled over. In July, Distant Weddings said “$200 off ends July 31” and VirtualMarriage said “Save $200, ends July 31.” In September both pages say the same discount ends September 30. The sale price is the price. It has been the price all summer.
Courtly cleaned up its rush price. In July their summary grid said rush was $150 and the detailed card on the same page said 275. In September the page shows $150 only. Credit where it’s due; that was our biggest complaint about their page.
Courtly’s refundable tier got cheaper, for now. The Popular tier that listed at $399 in July shows $299 in September with a promo tag. If that holds, their refundable tier undercuts ours by about fifty dollars, which we’ll say plainly rather than hide. Whether it’s still that price when you read this is the question their page can’t answer.
RemoteVows’ pages still disagree with each other. The pricing page shows 295 and 250 for the same package, and it says “300+ Successful Online Marriages.” The homepage says “1,500+.” One of those numbers is out of date.
The real differences, since the certificates are identical
Pricing you can pin down. This is still the biggest gap in the category. Two companies show two different prices for one package. One never lists the license fee on its package page. Two run discounts that expire every month and reappear on the first.
Who actually files the license. Courtly, Distant Weddings, VirtualMarriage, Virtual Same Day Marriage, and we all process the Utah license application as part of the service. RemoteVows’ site named no state in July and now mentions Utah officiants on its homepage; we still couldn’t find a plain statement of who applies for the license, so ask before paying.
Speed, at a published price. Our same-day rush is $100, so a same-day wedding is $420 plus $100 all in. Courtly’s is $150. Distant Weddings’ is $200. VirtualMarriage sells rush as a separate 499 tier. Virtual Same Day Marriage, despite the name, puts the same-day promise only in its 399 tier. If getting married today or tomorrow is the point, we’re the cheapest published path to it.
Refunds. Courtly’s $199 tier is non-refundable; refundability starts at the Popular tier. Distant Weddings, VirtualMarriage, and Virtual Same Day Marriage all refund before the ceremony. So do we. RemoteVows advertises a money-back guarantee without published terms.
Claimed customers versus public reviews. Courtly says “over 20,000 happy customers” and has 923 Trustpilot reviews. VirtualMarriage says “20,000+ married online” against 1,600 reviews. Virtual Same Day Marriage says “over 50,000+ happy customers” against 40 reviews. We have 26 reviews and don’t publish a customer count. None of these ratios prove anything by themselves, but they’re worth knowing when a homepage number looks big.
Where competitors are genuinely strong
VirtualMarriage has the category’s largest review base and a published lawyer-consultation add-on. Courtly has the biggest brand, multilingual support, and an embassy-authentication service we don’t offer. Distant Weddings includes a name-change kit and publishes a real refund guarantee on its rush promise. Wedding Proxy’s Montana double-proxy model serves a case nobody else can: couples where one partner can’t appear on video at all, though eligibility is narrow and we’ve written up how proxy marriage actually works.
We compete on the things this page is built from: one price with the government fee visible up front, the license handled for you, the cheapest published same-day rush, a full refund before the ceremony, and a personalized ceremony with an HD recording included rather than sold back as an add-on.
Whoever you choose, get three things in writing before paying: the all-in total including the license fee, the rush price if you need speed, and the refund terms. The good services answer in one email. The evasive ones are answering the question too, just differently. If you want the legal backdrop first, it’s in Is Virtual Marriage Legit?, and the head-to-head with the biggest brand is at Vowed and Clear vs Courtly.
