The 16 Best Event Registration Software Tools + Platforms [2024]
Looking for an event registration software that's easy to use, reliable, and customizable to accommodate your event's needs? One that offers instant payout and charges lower fee, and even comes with badging and check-in tools?
To help make your search for the best event registration platforms easier, we've reviewed the 16 popular options on the market. Start with our checklist, then see our detailed review to find the best fit for your event!
How to Compare Event Registration Software Tools
- Reputation: Do their customers speak highly of their product quality, ease of use and customer service on review sites like G2?
- Robustness: If your event registration platform is down for even a day, you can lose large quantities of potential ticket sales.
- Security: Is the registration site compliant with PCI, SOC 2® Type II? Be conscious of payment and information security.
- Early Payout: Does the platform allow you to receive instant payout to cover event expenses?
- Ticket Fees: Does the platform take a big cut from your paid tickets? Does it charge a fee even for free tickets?
Event Registration Platforms: Reviews & Comparison
Here's a look at the top 16 online registration systems out there, considering the key factors we just talked about. We've calculated the registration fee for a $500 ticket, if the information is available. Additionally, we gathered their online reputation and popularity.
1. Eventbrite
- G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5
- #Reviews: 759
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $20.29
Eventbrite is an online event registration software often used by entertainment, social events, parties, classes and charity events. Eventbrite allows you to build and customize a web page with your brand, and create different types of tickets.
Since Eventbrite specializes in entertainment and social events, if you’re looking for a registration platform for professional events such as conferences or expos, it may not be the right choice for you.
Pros: Eventbrite is commonly used for entertainment, social events or parties, many users will likely be familiar with how it works.
Cons: Lacks advanced features needed by most professional conferences. The fee (3.7% + $1.79 per ticket) has also been steadily increasing. By default, it does not come with instant payout.
2. Whova
- G2 Rating: 4.8 / 5
- #Reviews: 1,388
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $13.49
Whova is an event registration software with great reputation on G2, Capterra, TrustRadius and other software review sites. Users enjoy how easy it is to use, setup, and manage. Whova also received the Best Product Team award from the ‘Oscars’ of the event industry (i.e., Event Technology Awards) and was also listed as one of G2's Best 50 Software Companies.
Whova charges a lower ticket fee (3.0% + $0.99) and supports instant payout. It does charge ticket fees if your ticket is free. It comes with easy ticket creation, add-ons, discount code, group tickets, invite-only tickets, and other advanced features. Whova's registration system also fully integrates with other tools within its all-in-one event management platform, such as:
- Name badge
- Check-in
- Mobile event app
- Push notifications
Pros: Whova offers a suite of features that significantly boost attendee engagement and networking through the event app (read more: Two Birds, ONE Stone: Save Money on Event Registration Tool & Double Audience Participation), as well as many time-saving event registration tools for busy organizers.
Cons: Whova specialize for professional conferences and expos. If you expect fewer than 50 attendees, or if your event is a wedding or party, Whova is not a good fit.
3. Cvent
- G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5
- #Reviews: 1,799
- Fee of $500 Ticket: ~$30.00 plus extra setup fee
Cvent is a cloud-based event registration software that provides comprehensive solutions for planning, promoting, and executing events of all sizes. The platform offers a wide range of features, including event marketing, attendee engagement tools, event analytics, and integrated payment processing.
While Cvent offers many features, the software is not as easy to use and set up compared to other platforms.
Pros: With an all-inclusive suite, Cvent can tackle mostly any problem you may encounter when organizing an event.
Cons: Some users may find Cvent customer support to be lacking, resulting in a not-so-satisfactory user experience when trying to learn the features.
4. 6Connex
- G2 Rating: 4.5 / 5
- #Reviews: 200
- Fee of $500 Ticket: N/A
6Connex offers online event registration for enterprises to host and manage online events, trade shows, job fairs and exhibitions. Its cloud-based product portfolio includes event management tools, in-person event apps, virtual venues, webinars, and learning management.
Pros: 6Connex could be a good fit for enterprise external events.
Cons: Depending on the features and level of customization required, 6Connex’s product and services may be relatively expensive, especially for smaller events or organizations with limited budgets.
5. Brown Paper Tickets
- G2 Rating: 4.0 / 5
- #Reviews: 31
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $31.49
Brown Paper Tickets can be a good choice for charity and fundraising events, as it allows you to collect donations with no service fee. They also offer free ticket shipping, should your event require that service, and you can list your concerts, classes, festivals, parties, etc, in their event directory.
Pros: They work well with charity events, performances, and various non-profit and school events. It's an easy to use platform.
Cons: This registration software may not be a great choice for mid- or large-scale conferences, and some customers have complained that the reporting is not very robust.
6. Wild Apricot
- G2 Rating: 4.0 / 5
- #Reviews: 39
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $12.49 + monthly fee
Wild Apricot is a membership management software for associations, non profit, clubs, or other types of membership-based organization. It includes event registration tools that integrate with the membership database.
Pros: As a membership management software it enables new member acceptance and membership renewal.
Cons: Some customers reported that it lacks support and development while introducing multiple price hikes recently.
7. RingCentral Events (formerly Hopin)
- G2 Rating: 4.5 / 5
- #Reviews: 890
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $19.49 + monthly fee
RingCentral Events (formerly Hopin) is a platform for hosting virtual events, providing an interactive event experience to reproduce an in-person event online. It comes with a registration tool to allow virtual attendees to sign up for your event.
Pros: If you’re running a virtual or hybrid event, the platform can deliver a unique and personal interaction over live video for your attendees, sponsors, speakers, and vendors.
Cons: The backend setup interface is not as intuitive as other platforms and there are some learning curves.
8. Ticketbud
- G2 Rating: 4.3 / 5
- #Reviews: 23
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $10.99
Ticketbud is an online registration platform used by many festivals, parties, tours, sports season passes, etc. Its easy-to-use platform allows you to set up and sell tickets in five minutes.
Pros: The platform is simple to use and quick to set up. The fee is modest.
Cons: Not a good fit for larger scale conferences, expos, corporate events.
9. RainFocus
- G2 Rating: 4.6 / 5
- #Reviews: 40
- Fee of $500 Ticket: N/A
RainFocus is an event marketing platform that captures and analyzes event data for event organizers. It provides event registration, content management, exhibitor activation and virtual delivery. It creates data-driven, personalized marketing campaigns to drive attendance.
Pros: Rainfocus has a comprehensive reporting dashboard with handy data visualizations.
Cons: Users have reported that the platform is not user friendly and poor value for price. Some customers have criticized RainFocus for having outdated technology.
10. Splash
- G2 Rating: 4.4 / 5
- #Reviews: 326
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $10,000 annual fee + per ticket fee
Splash is an event marketing platform targeting large enterprise teams. It stands out in offering sophisticated design templates to help organizers run their events and attract attendees. It is suitable for large enterprise teams to build their branded programs.
Pros: Splash’s design templates can help enterprises promote their brands throughout their customer facing events.
Cons: Can be less affordable for associations, university, government and internal corporate events. It does not offer its own mobile event app.
11. Brushfire
- G2 Rating: 4.7 / 5
- #Reviews: 69
- Fee of $500 Ticket: $8.5 + Annual subscription fee
Brushfire is a registration software used widely by churches. It offers a ticketing solution that allows organizers to customize event pages, tickets, confirmation emails and reports.
Pros: Brushfire offers a rich set of features for event registration and ticketing.
Cons: Brushfire’s primary audience is church events, it may not be a fit for conferences and expos.
12. GoTo Webinar
- G2 Rating: 4.2 / 5
- #Reviews: 789
- Fee of $500 Ticket: N/A
GoTo Webinar is a webinar platform. It offers registration functionalities for webinar attendees to register for sessions. It allows the organizer to approve and reject registrants. Organizers can prevent unsolicited attendees from registering to their webinars by restricting access using email domains.
Pros: Goto Webinar is a popular webinar platform used by many organizations. Its integration with Hubspot can streamline the process of adding webinar attendees to CRM.
Cons: The interface for organizers and panelists are not web based and often have compatibility issues. The function of the base package is limited. The registration module does not support payment collection.
13. Evite
- G2 Rating: 4.2 / 5
- #Reviews: 89
- Fee of $500 Ticket: N/A
If you’re throwing a party, Evite can be a convenient platform for inviting guests. Its primary edge over alternative platforms lies in its invitation card designs, enhancing the overall experience and creating lasting memories for your guests.
Pros: Evite offers a wide selection of design templates for creating your party invitation e-card.
Cons: The platform lacks a payment collection function, preventing the direct sale of paid tickets.
14. Google Forms
Google Forms is a software that can be used for event registration. They empower organizers to efficiently collect and manage event-related information. Google Forms allows users to create engaging online registration forms, surveys, and RSVPs tailored to their specific needs.
However, there is no way to collect payment, so if your event’s tickets aren’t free, this may not be the option for you. It is also worth noting that Google Forms doesn’t come with an event app, and are also lacking other tools such as name badges and event check-in capabilities.
Pros: Google Forms is completely free, so it’s perfect for companies on a budget.
Cons: Lacks payment collection and the features and scalability for larger and more complex events.
15. HubSpot Forms
HubSpot Forms is a popular event registration software that allows the user to choose from many different templates to satisfy their registration needs. They offer a wide selection of features, however, some of the more advanced options are only available for a premium, making it a poor choice for companies on a budget.
Pros: HubSpot Forms deeply integrates with its CRM and Marketing software. Registrants will be automatically added into your CRM workflow if you’re using HubSpot.
Cons: Similar to Google Forms, it can’t handle registrant payment, and does not offer check-in or name badges tools.
16. JotForm
JotForm offers a convenient method for generating and sharing online forms across various devices. It is predominantly utilized by small businesses and individual owners.
Pros: It provides greater flexibility and customization options compared to Google Form and HubspotForm.
Cons: Likewise, JotForm lacks support for paid tickets, attendee check-in, or badge generation.
What does Whova Registration Platform offer?
The Whova registration platform offers the following list of features:
- Free Tickets
- Paid Tickets
- Early Bird Tickets
- Instant/Early Payout
- Discount Code
- Add-ons
- Member-only or Invite-only Tickets
- Group Tickets
- Separate Registration Pages for Different Targets
- Customizable Question Form for Each Ticket Type
- Customizable Confirmation Email for Each Ticket Type
- Invitation Emails
- Campaign Link Tracking
- Abandonded Registration Retargeting/Recovery
- Exhibitor Booth Registration
- Sponsorship Package Registration
- Mini Registration Forms (Embed to Your Website)
- And more
How to Set Up Online Event Registration on Whova?
In order to create tickets for your event on Whova, please access:
- Tickets > Ticket Setup > Create Tickets
- Fill out your ticket information.
- Click the Create button.
Live Demo of Whova Event Registration Software
We hope our comparison helped you narrow down your choices and find the right fit for your event. Remember to prioritize your event’s needs, whether that’s cost, specific features you need for event registration, or time-saving tools like attendee check-in, name badge generation, and boosting attendees’ participation.
If you are organizing conferences, expos, or community/networking events, and you're looking for an affordable yet trustful online registration platform, click here to request Whova's live demo and see why so many distinguished events and conferences have loved Whova.