12 Cheap Prom Dresses Under $30

One of the most memorable times in the lives of very many people is their prom night. It is the culmination of all the events and accomplishments of the previous years and is a final time to celebrate together with their classmates. 

No wonder that on occasions like this, everyone wants to look their best. Boys/men dress up in suits, shirts, or tuxedos, while girls/women search for the ultimate prom night outfit. 

The only problem is that not all people have the same financial background to purchase an expensive prom dress. In this case, some might have to resort to cheaper options. However, this doesn’t mean that the looks or quality should be sacrificed. 

Here is a list of 12 prom dresses under $30 bucks, which will make you look and feel like a million dollars! Read on if you are interested!

1. Ababalaya Long Bodycon Cocktail Dress for Prom Party

Here is a beautiful, simple, yet elegant dress that provides an excellent bang for your buck to start today’s list. Its elegant green velvety texture and flattering look are sure to get you a couple of compliments on the big night. 

This dress is perfect if you are looking for something effortless but still easily worthy of a prom night. This simple bodycon dress will highlight and emphasize your shape and outline and is also really comfortable to wear. 

The soft material is not one that will shed on your skin or which will irritate it; instead, it smoothly hugs your skin. Due to its fragility, manually washing it with cold water is recommended.

If you are interested, check it out by clicking on this link to Amazon!

2. Women’s Vintage Floral Floor-Length Dress

This vintage dress is for the girls out there who love watching costume movies and want something special for their prom night. With its beautiful floral design on top and the tulle which reaches the floor, you will look like the duchess of the night wearing this dress. 

This dress’s quality is often praised in the reviews and comments since it is breathable and comfortable, which are two things you will be looking for when choosing a dress for your prom night. 

The only issue might be the long skirt part, which might get stepped on, or you even might trip in it if the ballroom is too crowded, in which case this dress might not be the best option for you. However, for most proms, this should be one of your first choices. 

This dress is available in different colors as well, so if you don’t like the standard burgundy color, you can also get it in black, navy blue, pink, and various other colors. Having this same dress available in different colors is fantastic since it lets you keep the dress style while adjusting the color to your eye or hair color for better color combinations. 

If you are interested in purchasing this dress, you can do so on this link, which will take you to the Amazon page of the product!

3. DRESSTELLS Women Casual Tea Dress

Here is another casual-elegant dress for your prom night, which you can pair with your beautifully styled hair, light make-up, and some simple heels for the ultimate prom outfit. It is easy-going and sophisticated, which is a look many girls go for, so if you suspect you are one of them, make sure you check out this one as well!

The material is very comfortable, made out of 100% polyester on the lining and 94% nylon, and 6% spandex on the rest. This makes it light, stretchy, flexible, but still sturdy and well put together. 

This cute A-shape swing dress is also available in a bunch of different colors and pattern designs. Depending on whether you are looking for an elegant prom night dress or perhaps just a lighthearted spring outfit, you have it all in one place and at a fantastic price. 

If you are interested, you can check this dress out by clicking on this link to Amazon!

4. InsNova Women’s Long Sleeve Velvet Bodycon Wrap Dress

For a somewhat more elegant and less simple look, you could check out this dress from InsNova, which is the perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. Its high quality has received tons of positive feedback, just like its well-designed shape. 

The best way to describe the design of this piece of clothing would be a bodycon skirt, with a banded waist and an overlapping, elegant tulip hem. This simple and evergreen design is what makes this dress look effortlessly smart and pretty.

This dress is made out of spandex and polyester, in a 5-95% ratio (with 95% being polyester). This, though it isn’t the highest-quality material combination out there, ensures great color vibrance and dress durability, as well as a lightweight, stretchy fabric that hugs the body. 

Available in a couple of different colors like black, green, burgundy, grey, and more, the texture and aesthetic design make this dress stand out. Its velvety, shiny but smooth texture makes it look exquisite while not over the top. 

If you are interested in buying yourself an InsNova Women’s Long Sleeve Dress, you can do so on this link to Amazon! 

5. Romwe Women’s Lace Sleeveless A-Line Elegant Dress

If you are more of the romantic type and are not looking for the typical prom girl look, but rather a somewhat more reserved and feminine look, here is a dress for you. 

The reason this dress is more romantic than many others on this list is its cute a-shape and the floral lace on top of a simple, sleeveless minidress. This playful yet elegant balance makes this dress the perfect outfit for a prom since it is an effortlessly, romantically beautiful look. 

Also, due to its sleeveless and floral lace design, it is the ultimate spring and summer dress and isn’t as good for the fall or winter months. This is perfect, since in most places, prom nights are held at the end of a school year, so there isn’t really a better option out there! 

Out of close to 700 reviews, it has a 4.2-star rating, which is amazing for online clothing, since very many people tend to criticize clothes too much due to the difficulty of finding the right size.

The material of this dress is 100% polyester, which makes it one of those clothes which are not elastic and stretchy. This isn’t a problem though, since it stays truer to the original retro-floral-romantic style by not being so flexible. For the price point, it is a very high-quality dress that will easily outperform its price range. 

If you are interested in adopting a romantic look for your prom night, check out this dress by clicking on this link to Amazon!

6. ZKESS Women’s Off The Shoulder One Sleeve Slit Maxi Party Prom Dress

The next dress, the Off The Shoulder One Sleeve Slit Maxi Party Prom Dress by ZKESS, is an absolute bomb dress for all of you out there who like more modern design and tighter fits. As the name suggests, it is off one shoulder and has a couple of other features that add to its current, sexy vibe. 

It is made out of 95% polyester and 5% spandex, which gives it its modern stretchy and soft feel and also makes it super comfortable. Comfort is often pushed into the background when choosing a prom outfit since aesthetics seem more important, but after the first hour or so, trust me, you will like the comfort you get from this outfit. 

This dress is also available in a bunch of different colors, so you can adjust it to your skin color, eye color, hair color, and the general theme you are looking for. The four colors you can purchase this dress in are black, red, blue, and white, which are some simple but amazing options. 

The rating of 4.2 stars from a whopping 1800 reviews also speaks for itself, which means that high-quality and satisfaction are guaranteed. Also, the bang-for-the-buck ratio is insane with this dress since you are getting a full mermaid style dress which is easily going to steal all the looks on prom night and for a steal. 

If you are interested in this modern and comfortable mermaid dress by ZKESS, click on this link to Amazon to check out and purchase the product!

7. AUSELILY Women Short Sleeve Loose Plain Casual Long Maxi Dresses

This dress is one of the most simple ones on today’s list, yet it is still elegant and of high quality. Though not a traditional prom night dress, it is a great option for those who like a more conservative style, who don’t want to go overboard with the aesthetics but would rather have a more reserved look. 

After more than 20 thousand reviews on Amazon, this dress still has one of the best average ratings of all the dresses on this list (4.4). This is extra proof of the quality and reliability of the dress. 

It is also available in a large variety of different colors and designs, from a simple all-black model to colorful floral arrangements as well. Though not all of them are suitable for a prom night party, in my opinion, you can browse through their selection and find what is best for you. 

This beautiful dress is made out of 95% Rayon and 5% Spandex. Rayon is a regenerated cellulose fiber, which is often used in the clothing industry to create a somewhat more environmentally friendly alternative for polyester. These materials are really comfortable, and they keep their color really well, so you won’t have to worry about it fading away. 

If you are interested in purchasing this simple yet amazing dress for your prom night, click on this link to Amazon and place your order now!

8. Romwe Women’s Stretchy A-Line Swing Flared Skater Cocktail Party Dress

Another ROMWE dress on today’s list, this time an A-Line Swing Flared Cocktail Party Dress. It is cute, simple, and elegant, in short: all you need for the perfect prom night. If you believe yourself to be somewhere on the line between romantic and modern/casual, this dress might be the best one for you!

This A-line swing dress is made out of 95% polyester and 5% spandex, which is the most common combination for almost every prom night dress which is under the 100 dollar line, since though it isn’t the most luxurious fabric out there, it is comfortable, it holds color really well and is easy to create beautiful dresses out of. 

This dress is also available in a couple of different colors (more than a dozen of them), so you can adjust your outfit to the general look you are going for. I would highly recommend the Burgundy Glitter and the Royal Blue colors due to their versatility and beauty. 

Having a 4-star-plus rating with nearly six thousand reviews is more than enough guarantee in my book for the quality of the clothing, and what is even better is that it doesn’t break the bank. It is a highly affordable, versatile, classy, and cute outfit, a fantastic choice for an occasion such as a prom night. 

If you are interested in getting this dress, check out this link to Amazon and purchase yours today!

9. DIDK Women’s Mesh Long Sleeve Pullover Tunic Dress

If you are looking for a feminine and more conservative look, here is a dress you might enjoy. Conservative dresses which look good usually have a couple of features in common, and those features can be found on this dress. 

If you aren’t the type for exposed shoulder/collar bone, open back, or similar, more modern design elements, this dress should be on your list. It is an elegant, feminine, reserved, and gorgeous dress. 

There are a couple of different colors and designs available, some with floral elements and others with white pearls or beads, so you can choose just how vintage of a look you are going for. 

In my opinion, you can never go wrong with the classic embroidered burgundy or green dresses, but of course, it depends on your hair and eye color and the general look you are going for. 

The materials are the typical 95% polyester and 5% spandex, making it a comfortable option and one you can wear multiple times without worrying about color fading or other problems dresses are prone to. 

If you are interested in this beautiful, versatile dress, check out this link to Amazon and purchase yours today!

10. SheIn Women’s Sexy Satin Deep V Neck Backless Maxi Party Evening Dress

For all the girls out there who enjoy dressing in a more modern fashion, here is a great dress from Sheln. This spaghetti strap, deep V satin dress is a great option for a prom night or any other formal occasion since it is elegant yet very fresh and fun. 

It is made out of 100% polyester. The popularity of this fabric among more affordable dresses and clothing has already been touched upon, but I would also add that aside from a lower chance of color-fading, you also won’t have to deal with wrinkles. If you are looking for dresses under 30 bucks, polyester is probably your best bet at a dress, or perhaps a spandex mix. 

There are various colors available for this dress, like pink, dark green, or solid navy, all of which look fantastic. The variety of colors also lets you decide what theme and image you will be aiming for, making this dress highly versatile.

The closure type is listed as pull-on, which means that there are no irritating straps, zippers, or similar mechanisms which might get tangled up, broken, or might irritate your skin. YOu just put this dress on and you have a wonderful, elegant prom night look, effortlessly. 

If you are interested in a great prom dress that is modern and very versatile, check out this link to Amazon, choose the color you feel would be the best for you, and order it today!

11. A Grain of Wheat Women’s Casual Square Neck Short Sleeve Dress

Another charming dress, this time by A Grain of Wheat. It is a casual yet elegant, square-neck short sleeve dress that is the optimal choice for anyone looking for a simple, cute, and elegant design they can rock on a prom night. 

The dress, like most in this category, is made out of 95% polyester and 5% spandex and the touch and feel of the material are excellently smooth and soft according to both the product description and the reviews of the product. 

This dress has a zipper closure on the back, which secures the dress really well, and also doesn’t irritate the skin due to proper dress design. It is an A-line style dress with a square neck and short sleeves, which give it a very cute look. 

It is also available in a couple of different colors like red, blue, white or yellow. For a more elegant and pure look, go for the beautiful white version, however, if you want to look more vibrant and fun, go for the yellow dress. You can adjust it to not only your physical attributes but also to your personality, but whichever choice you go with, you won’t go wrong!

If you are interested in purchasing one of these dresses for yourself, make sure you check out this link to Amazon, where you can place an order today!

12. DIDK Women’s Sleeveless A-Line Fit and Flare Glitter Above Knee Party Cocktail Skater Dress

If you liked the previous dress, but don’t like the “cute” aspect, but would rather enjoy a similar dress with a more sophisticated or romantic look, this dress is the one for you. 

This dress is optimal for the girls out there who want a simple, elegant, and somewhat more sophisticated or formal alternative to the typical A-line dress. The sparkly and smooth texture is just enough for the dress to look beautiful and formal, however, the shape and the design still provide the fun and the cute look that A-line dresses are all about. 

It is made of a slightly different combination of materials since aside from the spandex and polyester, it also contains nylon. To be precise, 56.3% of the dress is nylon, 33.8% of it is polyester and the remaining 9.9% is made of spandex. This makes the dress lightweight, breathable, and also very comfortable and stretchy. 

The design of this dress is a pretty typical  A-line design, with no sleeves (exposed shoulders) and a round neck, leading into a short-medium-sized skater skirt that reaches approximately to the mid-thigh area. 

It is a zipper closure dress, which makes it very secure and well-fitting, and there are no accounts of any zipper irritation or other issue caused by it. 

This dress is also available in a variety of different colors, like grey, pink, red, blue, and more, so you can also adjust the dress to your style and/or physical attributes. 

If you are interested in purchasing one of these great prom-night dresses, check out this link to Amazon and grab your’s today!

Guide to Buying Prom Dresses Under $30

To round up today’s list, I have come up with a couple of tips to help you choose your prom nightdress. These tips are intended to help you avoid making mistakes like ordering a wrong-sized dress or perhaps being scammed since it happens more often than we would like to think. 

So if you have not yet found what exactly you want to buy or are just looking for some information to help you out, check out these tips!

Always Check the Sizing

One of the absolute most important aspects of buying clothes online is checking the size of the clothes you want to buy. Millions of bad reviews and unsatisfied customers exist due to this issue, and it isn’t one that is being solved all that well. There Is no reliable way that is widely practiced to ensure that the size is good, so what can you do? 

When looking for clothes online, especially on websites like Amazon, you will soon realize that there is insane competition. This competition provides an incentive for sellers to create as good of a size-chart as they can since a bad chart or a lack thereof will drive sales down immensely. 

As a rule of thumb, do not buy clothes from sellers who don’t have a size chart. That is an indication that they are not all that serious about their product or that it might even be a scam. 

Get a measuring tape and really look through the size-chart before buying every piece of clothing, since receiving a small or too large dress a day before your prom night will definitely be an insanely stressful and almost terrifying experience. 

Materials

The next important factor, though not really in the same league as the previous tip when it comes to importance, is the material make-up of the dress you are buying. It is important to always look for the highest-quality clothing you can find, and there are many, quite obvious reasons for that. 

They last longer, they look better, they fade less easily, etc. Finding a dress made out of high-quality materials is imperative. So, what is high-quality material in the budget range? 

When you don’t have all that much money to spare for a dress, there are a couple of options you can choose from, and there aren’t many available in the first place. Polyester is the number 1 most common material used for such purposes, and it is also reasonably good. 

However, it is less stretchy and also less strong compared to nylon, so on the rare occasion that you stumble upon a dress that is made of nylon, make sure to give it a somewhat higher rating in your mind before making the decision, just because of the slight edge the material quality gives it. 

Also, spandex is a great addition to dresses. Though for some dresses, it is even better if there is no spandex used, most dresses which implement that material in the production process are more stretchy and comfortable. 

Search for Reputable Sellers

The last tip I have is a fairly obvious but often disregarded one. Try to look for reputable sellers when choosing the dress you want to buy. There are two main factors you can take into consideration: rating and reputation. 

Always check the rating of the dress you are buying. It should always be somewhere above 4 stars, or 3.5 at the absolute very least, though that isn’t a very appealing number. The more reviews a product has while still successfully retaining 4+ ratings, the more trust you can have towards the product. 

Also, the seller’s reputation and rating are important. This is a score based on fulfilled orders and completed shipping time. Try looking for sellers with a past on the platform and as many high reviews as possible, since it is almost a better guarantee of a good product than the product’s rating itself.