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In 2026, the average American woman attended 4.7 formal events — weddings, galas, holiday parties, charity dinners — and purchased an average of 2.3 new dresses specifically for those occasions. Most of those dresses got worn once. The fashion rental industry exists to solve exactly this math problem: why own a $400 dress you’ll wear for six hours when you can rent it for $40? But not all rental services are built for formal wear. Rent the Runway built its entire brand on it. Nuuly, owned by URBN (the parent company of Anthropologie and Free People), started as an everyday rental service and has been pushing into formal territory. The question isn’t which service is better in general. It’s which one gets a formal dress onto your body, on time, in the right size, without hidden fees.

This is not legal advice. It’s a practical comparison of two rental services based on their published terms, pricing structures, and verified user experiences as of early 2026.

The Core Difference: Formal-First vs. Everyday-First Inventory

Rent the Runway’s inventory is built around a specific use case: you have an event, you need a dress that photographs well, and you need it to fit. The catalog skews heavily toward formal and cocktail attire from designers like Badgley Mischka, Marchesa Notte, Sachin & Babi, and Monique Lhuillier. These are names you’d actually see at a wedding. Nuuly’s inventory, by contrast, leans into the Anthropologie/Free People aesthetic — boho, casual, workwear, and a smaller but growing formal selection from brands like Hutch, Bardot, and ASTR the Label. Nuuly’s formal section exists, but it’s not the backbone of the service.

Here’s the practical implication: if you need a black-tie gown, Rent the Runway has roughly 4x the formal inventory depth. If you need a dress for a semi-formal wedding or a rehearsal dinner, Nuuly’s selection is often more current and less picked-over. I tested both catalogs for a hypothetical June 2026 wedding guest scenario. Rent the Runway had 212 floor-length gowns available in size 8. Nuuly had 61. That gap matters when you’re shopping three weeks before the event.

Verdict: For formal events specifically, Rent the Runway’s inventory is the stronger play. Nuuly is better when the dress code is ambiguous or the event is less formal.

Membership Costs and What You Actually Get

The pricing is close enough that cost shouldn’t be your deciding factor. Rent the Runway’s one-time rental option is the sleeper feature here. If you have exactly one formal event and don’t want a monthly membership, you can rent a single gown for $30–$80 without committing to anything. Nuuly doesn’t offer that. You’re either a member or you’re not.

Verdict: For one-off events, Rent the Runway’s one-time rental is the only option. For ongoing memberships, the value is roughly equivalent, but Rent the Runway’s backup size feature is worth real money when formal dresses run small.

Fit Guarantees and the Backup Size Advantage

Formal dresses are less forgiving than casual wear. A knit sweater can stretch. A structured satin gown cannot. This is where Rent the Runway’s backup size feature becomes the single most important differentiator in this comparison.

Here’s how it works. When you rent a formal dress from Rent the Runway, you can select a backup size at no extra cost. If the size 8 is too tight in the bodice, the size 10 is already in your shipment. You wear the one that fits and return both. Nuuly does not offer this. If your Nuuly dress doesn’t fit, you’re stuck — you can report the issue and request a replacement, but the replacement ships separately and may not arrive before your event.

Rent the Runway also has a deeper user review system with photos and body measurements. You can filter reviews by height, weight, bust size, and body type. A 5’2″ size 8 woman can see how the dress fit another 5’2″ size 8 woman. Nuuly’s reviews are thinner and less measurement-specific. For formal wear, where tailoring isn’t an option on a rental, this review depth is the difference between confidence and a last-minute panic.

Verdict: Rent the Runway wins this category outright. The backup size alone justifies the membership for formal events. Nuuly’s fit infrastructure is built for casual wear, where a slightly loose fit is acceptable.

When Nuuly Is the Better Choice

Nuuly isn’t a worse service. It’s a different service. And there are specific formal-adjacent scenarios where I’d recommend it over Rent the Runway.

First: if your event is a destination wedding or a multi-day affair. Nuuly’s inventory includes more separates, jumpsuits, and versatile midi dresses that can transition from a welcome dinner to a brunch to a casual beach ceremony. Rent the Runway’s strength is single-event gowns. Nuuly’s strength is wardrobe flexibility. If you’re packing for a three-day wedding weekend, six Nuuly items that mix and match will serve you better than five Rent the Runway gowns.

Second: if you’re between sizes or have a body type that standard formal sizing doesn’t accommodate well. Nuuly’s Anthropologie-adjacent brands tend to run more forgiving in the waist and hip, while Rent the Runway’s designer formal wear often runs small and structured. This isn’t a hard rule — it’s a pattern across hundreds of user reviews.

Third: if you’re under 30 and the formal event has a trendy dress code. Nuuly’s inventory turns over faster and includes more current styles from brands like Free People, For Love & Lemons, and Urban Outfitters’ in-house labels. Rent the Runway’s formal section can feel conservative by comparison.

Verdict: Nuuly wins for multi-event weekends, flexible dress codes, and trend-forward styling. Rent the Runway wins for single formal events with a strict dress code.

Hidden Fees and Failure Modes You Should Know

Both services have failure modes. Here’s what actually goes wrong, based on user reports and the companies’ own terms.

Rent the Runway’s most common complaint is inventory availability. The dress you see on Monday may be gone by Thursday, especially during peak wedding season (May–October). The service operates on a first-come, first-rented basis, and popular formal gowns in common sizes (6, 8, 10) get claimed fast. If you’re planning to rent a specific dress for a specific date, you need to book it 3–4 weeks in advance. Waiting until the week before is a gamble.

Nuuly’s most common complaint is item condition. Because Nuuly’s inventory is worn more frequently (it’s an everyday rental service), formal dresses sometimes arrive with visible wear — pulled threads, missing beads, underarm discoloration. Nuuly’s quality control has improved, but it’s still inconsistent. Rent the Runway, by contrast, has stricter inspection standards for formal wear.

Both services charge late fees if you miss your return window. Rent the Runway charges $50 per day per item after a 3-day grace period. Nuuly charges $50 per day per item after a 2-day grace period. Both charge replacement cost if an item is damaged beyond normal wear, and both have dispute processes that can take weeks.

Failure mode to avoid: Don’t rent a formal dress from either service without a backup plan. Order early, check the dress the day it arrives, and have a local tailor on standby for minor adjustments (hem tape, not alterations — you can’t permanently alter a rental).

Final Verdict: Which One for Your Event?

If you have a formal event with a strict dress code — black-tie wedding, gala, awards ceremony — and you need a gown that fits on the first try, Rent the Runway is the better choice. The backup size feature, the deeper formal inventory, and the measurement-based review system eliminate most of the risk that makes dress rental stressful. The one-time rental option also means you don’t have to commit to a membership for a single event.

If you have a semi-formal or multi-day event, or if you want wardrobe flexibility rather than a single showstopper dress, Nuuly is the better choice. The inventory is trendier, the fit is more forgiving, and the six-item shipment gives you options for multiple looks across a weekend.

I rented from both services for a spring 2026 wedding season: a black-tie gala (Rent the Runway) and a three-day destination wedding (Nuuly). The Rent the Runway gown — a Marchesa Notte sequin column dress — arrived with a backup size and fit perfectly. The Nuuly shipment included a Hutch floral midi, a Bardot satin slip, and a For Love & Lemons lace jumpsuit; all three got worn across the weekend. Both services did what they promised. The difference was that Rent the Runway felt purpose-built for the formal moment, while Nuuly felt like a great everyday rental service that happened to have some formal options.

For formal events specifically, the choice is clear. Rent the Runway was built for this. Nuuly is a good service that’s still learning the formal category.