By: Whova Team | Last Updated: August 31, 2026
If you’re comparing Bizzabo vs Cvent for an upcoming annual conference or association meeting, you’re probably weighing three things: what each platform does well, what it costs, and whether it covers the requirements your organization needs.
Bizzabo excels at event marketing and attendee experience. Cvent is built for logistics, venue sourcing, and managing a full calendar of events at once.
Neither is the wrong choice. What matters is which one fits the way your team already works, and whether a five-figure annual contract is the right option for an organization that runs one or two major events a year.
This guide compares them on general capabilities, then on what conference and association planners get stuck on: multi-track agendas, member pricing, abstract review, badges, and onsite check-in. We also look at Whova as a potential alternative.
Key Takeaways
- What each one does: Bizzabo focuses on event marketing, with branded sites, email campaigns, and Klik networking badges. Cvent focuses on logistics, with venue sourcing across nearly 340,000 venues, complex registration, abstract reviews, and an iMIS integration.
- Which to choose: Bizzabo suits a marketing-led flagship conference, while Cvent suits an organization running events all year.
Bizzabo vs Cvent at a Glance
What Is the Core Difference Between Bizzabo and Cvent?
The core difference is what each platform was optimized for. Bizzabo leans into experience and marketing. Cvent leans into operations and scale. See how they compare below.
Bizzabo: Built for Experience Design and B2B Marketing
Bizzabo calls itself the “No. 1 event software for B2B conferences” and packages its product as an Event Experience OS. The product reflects that focus: branded event websites, drag-and-drop landing pages, email campaigns, and reporting that connects attendance back to marketing return.
For onsite tools, the standout offering is the Klik SmartBadge, a wearable that lets attendees tap to swap contact details and exhibitors capture leads without a handheld scanner. Bizzabo reports 89% attendee adoption at HubSpot’s INBOUND and 27,677 badge exchanges at Inductive Automation’s ICC.
G2 reviewers tend to confirm the pitch. Bizzabo scores 8.6 out of 10 for ease of use against Cvent’s 7.9, and current reviews single out the modern look of its event pages and how quickly a campaign can be built and sent.
Cvent: Built for Large Logistics and Venue Sourcing
Cvent’s strongest feature has nothing to do with running the event itself. The Cvent Supplier Network carries roughly 340,000 hotels and venues, letting planners issue RFPs, compare bids, negotiate rates, and hold room blocks. Budgets track across the full calendar as well, so a team running thirty events a year can see spending by property or by program.
That same complexity carries through to registration. A single registration form can show different questions and prices depending on who’s filling it in, so a student member sees a different rate than a corporate non-member. It’s possible to create dozens of registrant types, each with its own price and access to different sessions.
Registrations can also be held for manager sign-off before they’re confirmed, a feature aimed at companies sending staff rather than associations registering members. On the reporting side, Cvent’s Cross Event Insights dashboards combine registration and revenue numbers from every event in your account, which pays off for a team comparing dozens of events and less so for one annual meeting.
How Do Bizzabo and Cvent Compare on Core Event Features?
Registration and Member Pricing Tiers
Bizzabo: Registration forms match your branding, and you can embed them directly in your existing event site. Promo codes, custom fields and ticket visibility settings are included, and the whole setup copies across to next year’s event.
Cvent: One form can support dozens of registration types, showing different questions and prices depending on how someone answers. Approvers can also be added so that group registrations wait for sign-off.
Association conferences need a registration form that can price the same ticket several different ways. Before any of it applies, the form has to confirm whether the person registering is a current member, which usually means checking against the association’s membership database. Members pay one rate, non-members another, with student, retired, and first-year rates layered on top. Then there are chapters, which usually register as a group and pay by invoice rather than by card.
Cvent handles all of this. What it costs you is setup time and, for most teams, training. A Bizzabo page will be live sooner, although reviewers report limited customization.
Mobile App and Onsite Attendee Experience
Bizzabo: The app is easy to navigate, and G2 reviewers back that up with a score of 8.6 out of 10 for ease of use against Cvent’s 7.9. For the onsite experience, Klik badges take over from business cards and exhibitor scanners, so networking and lead capture both happen with a tap.
Cvent: The Attendee Hub is well liked too, holding 4.3 stars from 219 G2 reviews. Attendees get the agenda, networking and event details in one place, and schedule changes reach them as they happen. It also connects to Cvent’s onsite check-in and badge printing, so the app and the registration desk are working from the same list.
Both apps rate well and both cover networking in software, including matchmaking and meeting scheduling. Bizzabo adds a hardware layer on top, so contact exchange takes a tap rather than a scan and nobody types an email address. The badges cost extra, quoted per event on your size and scope, and below 500 attendees you set them up yourself rather than getting Bizzabo technicians on site.
Marketing Campaigns and Data Reporting
Bizzabo: The email builder handles segmentation and what Bizzabo calls smart email fields. Promo codes and UTM tracking give you revenue attribution, meaning you can see which registration came from which campaign. The event website is drag-and-drop and needs no developer.
Cvent: Enterprise reporting dashboards cover “every event, every region, every result” in real time, with attendee data syncing into Salesforce, Marketo or Eloqua. Cvent says a custom report for any stakeholder takes a click. Reviewers are more measured, describing that templates lack the fields they need and there is difficulty pulling specific data.
Bizzabo will tell you which email or campaign brought in each registration without extra setup. Cvent covers more events at once, but reviewers say you’ll sometimes end up building a report yourself when the template is missing a field you need.
Which Platform Better Supports Specific Conference and Association Needs?
Session Management and Multi-Track Agenda Building
Bizzabo: Multi-day, multi-track agendas are built through a drag-and-drop interface, and the agenda embeds directly on your event website so the two stay in sync. Speakers get their own portal for checking details and uploading materials.
Cvent: Organizers control what attendees see in Attendee Hub, with filters by track, day, or session type and capacity limits on sessions that fill early.
Both cover a two-day conference on three tracks without difficulty. If your worry is attendees getting lost across six tracks and eighty sessions, Cvent gives you more ways to filter the program down to what’s relevant to them. For the organizer, though, Bizzabo is the easier build, since Cvent’s depth comes with onboarding time that planners often describe as needing formal training.
Member Management and AMS Integrations
Cvent: The only one of the two with a direct AMS connection. Its app marketplace carries an integration with iMIS, which iMIS calls the only Cvent-approved one, specifically designed to stop teams copying member records into registration lists by hand.
Bizzabo: No AMS integration. It connects to HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, Salesforce, and Zapier, with an open API for everything else. A link to your member database is something you would commission rather than switch on. Member rates are set through ticket types and session access rules instead.
If keeping member records out of spreadsheets is a priority, Cvent is the more straightforward option.
Abstract Submissions and Speaker Coordination
Bizzabo: Offers speaker management but from current research there is nothing on abstracts or peer review. Speakers get a portal to manage their details and materials, which covers the people you have already chosen. Running a call for papers, splitting hundreds of submissions across a review committee, and collecting scores would mean using a second tool.
Cvent: Abstract Management lets you build custom submission forms, assign submissions to reviewers by topic, and give those reviewers a portal to score and comment in. Decisions go out as automated emails, and accepted abstracts connect through to the agenda in Cvent Event Management.
If abstract review is part of your process, Cvent is the only option of the two that handles it end-to-end.
Exhibitors, Sponsors, and Lead Retrieval
Bizzabo: Booth staff scan badges with a phone, add qualification notes, and update lead information in the sponsor portal in real time. Exhibitors export a CSV. A leaderboard ranks reps by leads captured. Sponsors can be sold visibility across the app, sessions, and live polls, with branded placements running on kiosks and signage. A live heatmap shows where foot traffic collects.
Cvent: Badge scanning works the same way, with the addition of business card reading. Leads sync directly into a CRM rather than sitting in a portal. Sponsors get profiles inside the platform, a virtual expo attendees can browse, and the option to book one-to-ones with attendees.
The platform covers the show floor as well: planners pin booths to a floor plan, exhibitors request a space from a map, and planners approve or reject it. The finished plan syncs to Attendee Hub.
If your exhibitors are happy with a CSV and your sponsors want branded placements, Bizzabo covers it. If leads need to land in a CRM automatically and you manage a physical floor, Cvent is the stronger fit.
What Are the Main Drawbacks of Bizzabo and Cvent for Event Organizers?
Setup Complexity and Long Onboarding Times
Cvent: The learning curve comes up repeatedly in reviews. Kalani G., a director of program operations at a non-profit, wrote that “the largest con so far with Cvent Event Management is the learning curve.” Cassie P., a senior events manager in financial services, found Attendee Hub so customizable that “the options for personal branding and editing were intimidating at first.” A board member in education put it more bluntly: “there is definitely a learning curve and some features are hidden behind menus.”
Bizzabo: Quicker to learn, though not universally. Meghan G., an event manager, called it “the easiest to build out, for the whole team to learn.” Christiane H., a secretary in education management, had the opposite experience: “Very lengthy process to set up an event and any change in information needs to be updated in multiple areas.”
Either way you spend the time. On Cvent it goes on learning the platform before you start. On Bizzabo you start faster, then lose some of it updating the same detail in several places.
High Annual Contracts and Per-Registrant Fees
Bizzabo costs start from $17,999 a year as listed on their website. Cvent doesn’t publish a price at all. Each quote is built around how many events you run and which modules you take, so you have to ask for a custom quote. Both platforms do annual contracts, so an association running one conference a year pays on the same basis as one running six.
Customer Support Responsiveness
Cvent: Rated 4.5 out of 5 for customer service on Capterra across 1,099 reviews. Agents are described as responsive and knowledgeable, though customers on standard plans report longer wait times and difficulty reaching a human past the AI assistant. Premium support is the usual workaround.
Bizzabo: Also rated 4.5 out of 5, across 171 reviews. Praise is more consistent: account teams are responsive and easy to reach.
Both score the same on paper. If support access matters, Bizzabo is more consistent. On Cvent, the experience depends on which plan you are paying for.
Product Reliability Issues
Bizzabo: Scores 8.4 out of 10 for reliability on G2. Issues might appear during the event. Jade F., a CEO in capital markets, describes “many software and hardware failures” over an 18-month stretch. Other reviewers mention bugs during virtual events that were fixed only after the event had finished, and check-in that gets complicated once badge printers are connected.
Cvent: Scores 8.5 out of 10 on G2. Issues tend to appear during the build. Caroline T., a global events technology coordinator, runs into bugs “when publishing our sites when too many things are operating.” Others report saves that fail until the page is refreshed, and occasional connection drops between Cvent Management and OnArrival.
Close enough on score that neither holds a clear advantage. One difference could be timing: Bizzabo’s bugs tend to surface in the room, Cvent’s during setup.
Why Might Whova Be a Preferred Alternative for Conferences and Associations?
Cvent and Bizzabo are strong choices for large-scale events with complex requirements. For conferences and associations that prioritize ease of setup and community engagement, Whova is worth considering alongside them.
All-in-One Operations for Non-Technical Planning Teams
Whova puts registration, multi-track agenda building, check-in and name badge printing in a single dashboard, and the setup is built for organizers to do themselves rather than through a scheduled onboarding period.
Customer ratings support the ease-of-use case. Whova ranks as the number one event management software for Community and Engagement on G2, backed by more than 5,000 verified customer reviews and over 50,000 events hosted. On G2 it holds 4.8 out of 5, against 4.3 for both Cvent and Bizzabo, with ease of use as one of the biggest strengths that reviewers mention most.
Integrated Abstract Management and Peer Review
Whova includes abstract management in the platform itself rather than as a separate product or a third-party add-on. Organizers collect submissions through a portal with a customizable form, assign reviewers by topic, at random or by hand, and score against custom rubrics with ratings and comments.
Single or double blind review is available. Accepted submissions convert into sessions on the agenda and in the event app, with speaker profiles created automatically, so nothing has to be exported and reformatted between tools.
Proven Attendee Engagement and Instant Onsite Printing
Members set up their own meet-ups and discussion threads on the Community Board instead of waiting for an organizer to broker introductions, and live polling and Q&A let a moderator or speaker gather questions without anyone walking a microphone around the room.
Check-in works the same way. Attendees scan a QR code at a kiosk or search their own name, and the badge prints on the spot, so a two-person team isn’t behind a desk handing out envelopes while the line grows.
Transparent Per Event Pricing
Bizzabo is $17,999 a year. Cvent doesn’t publish a price, and builds each quote around your event volume. Both are annual contracts, so you commit to a year before your first event runs.
Whova prices each event separately. An association running one conference a year pays for one conference, not an annual platform fee. The structure also means you pay for the features your event requires rather than a fixed tier that may include tools you never use.
Responsive Customer Support and Technical Support
Whova, Cvent and Bizzabo all list the same support channels: phone, chat, email, a knowledge base and a 24/7 live representative. The difference appears in the ratings. Whova scores 4.6 out of 5 for customer service on Capterra from 1,514 reviews, against 4.5 for both Cvent and Bizzabo.
What’s included differs too. Cvent reviewers recommend paying for premium support to cut wait times, and describe setup assistance as an extra. Whova provides one-to-one onboarding, weekly workshops and a dedicated account manager with the platform.
Comparison Summary: Bizzabo vs Cvent vs Whova
Curious how Whova would handle your next association gathering? Book a demo and see how easy it is to set up and run.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bizzabo vs Cvent
Is Bizzabo or Cvent better for small-to-mid-sized association events?
Both are more famously used by enterprise buyers and priced that way, so neither is a natural fit for a smaller association. Of the two, Bizzabo is quicker to set up and asks less of your team day to day. G2 reviewers score it 8.6 out of 10 for ease of use, against 7.9 for Cvent. For a mid-sized conference, it’s worth pricing an all-in-one option like Whova as well, since it’s quoted per event rather than per year.
Can Bizzabo or Cvent manage academic abstract submissions?
Cvent has an Abstract Management that is a separate product that collects submissions, assigns reviewers by topic, gathers scores and moves accepted papers into the agenda. Bizzabo publishes nothing on abstracts or peer review, so a call for papers would mean running a second tool alongside it. Whova includes abstract collection and blind peer review in the platform itself.
How do Cvent and Bizzabo pricing models compare?
Capterra lists Bizzabo at $17,999 a year, charged as a flat rate. Cvent doesn’t publish a price at all, and quotes against how many events you run. Both are annual contracts, so one conference a year costs the same as a full calendar of them.