Event software pricing pages don’t price the same thing. Eventbrite charges a percentage of every ticket. Bizzabo sells a yearly subscription priced per user. Cvent shows no price at all, only a quote form.
So the first job is to find the unit each page prices, then look for what the advertised price leaves out. For associations and companies planning meetings in Phoenix, which ranked No. 4 in the first U.S. News Best Conference Cities rankings, that work comes before any contract.
The Five Ways Event Software Is Priced
Event management software pricing comes in five basic models.
| Model | What sets the bill | Example from a published pricing page |
|---|---|---|
| Flat per event | the event’s attendee limit, quoted once | Conference Tracker: from $990 for a 300-attendee event |
| Per ticket | every paid ticket sold | Eventbrite: 3.7% plus $1.79 per paid ticket, plus 2.9% processing per order |
| Per attendee | headcount and the products chosen | EventMobi: as low as $1 per product, per attendee |
| Annual subscription | users and contract length | Bizzabo: from $17,999 a year |
| By quote | a sales conversation | Cvent and Whova: a quote form, no prices on the page |
A flat price per event is the easiest to budget. Conference Tracker, Engineerica’s event management platform, lists a starting price of $990 for a 300-attendee event. Each event is then quoted at a flat price based on its attendee limit, with no per-attendee fees and no subscription.
That $990 is a starting point. A 400-person conference gets its own quote. If registrations outgrow the limit, you can buy more attendee spots through the account’s online checkout, so ask what that costs up front.
Once quoted, the price holds as registrations come in, and a board can see it before registration opens. Extra attendee spots and add-ons are the charges to price next to it.
Per Ticket, Per Attendee, Per Year or by Quote
Eventbrite, the ticketing platform, suits public events with unpredictable turnout. It charges nothing for free events. On paid tickets, it adds a service fee of 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket, and 2.9% per order for payment processing. Ticket buyers pay the ticket fees by default, unless the organizer chooses to cover them.
EventMobi sells registration, badge printing, check-in and an event app as separate products. Its per-event plan is priced by headcount and by how many of those products you pick.
The last two models fit organizations with a full calendar of events or a formal buying process. Bizzabo, a platform built to run an organization’s whole event calendar, starts at $17,999 a year with a three-user minimum. Its FAQ says it doesn’t sell single events. You need an annual subscription.
Cvent’s pricing page describes Professional and Enterprise packages and offers a quote form instead of prices. Whova, an event app maker, asks how many attendees you expect and how many events you run a year, and doesn’t show a price either.
What the Headline Number Leaves Out
On most pricing pages, the platform fee is only part of the bill. EventMobi’s page is a good example, because it lists its extras:
- badge stock from $1.99 a badge, or pre-printed badges from $3.99
- lead capture, which lets exhibitors scan visitors’ badges to collect contacts, at $50 per exhibitor
- standard integrations with other software from $1,000 each
- streaming packs from $500 per event
- hardware rental from $1,000 for two iPads and printers for a week
All of it is on the page, but none of it is in the headline price.
Payment processing is the other line to look for. On per-ticket platforms, the processing fee comes on top of the service fee. Conference Tracker sends registration payments straight to the organizer’s own PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net account. Those services still charge their usual card fees, but Conference Tracker adds no per-attendee charge on top.
Add-Ons on a Flat-Price Platform
Conference Tracker has extras of its own:
- Sessions streamed to remote attendees need its paid Virtual Package add-on.
- Streaming through Zoom also requires the organizer’s own Zoom Pro license or higher.
- Exhibitors who want to scan leads buy their own Conference Leads license.
The $990 starting price doesn’t include the virtual add-on or leased devices, so ask for those prices with your quote. A purely in-person conference needs neither the Virtual Package nor the Zoom license, and exhibitors, not you, pay for the leads licenses.
Badges and check-in add less to the bill. Badges print on standard name-badge stock with an ordinary office printer, or on a thermal label printer that needs no ink. The check-in app is free and runs on your own phones and tablets. If you don’t have enough devices, you can lease them with the app already installed.
Questions to Ask Before You Sign
Ask each vendor these six questions:
- What is the unit: a ticket, an attendee, a user seat, an event or a year?
- Who pays the fees, your attendees or you?
- What happens when registrations pass the number your plan includes?
- Which charges are add-ons: badges, hardware, lead capture, streaming, integrations?
- Can you buy a single event, or only a year?
- Does a price exist before the first sales call?
The last question decides how quickly a committee can sign off. If you need a number before anyone sits through a sales demo, start with the event platforms that publish their pricing. Then ask each of them the other five.
Which Model Fits Which Event
If you run one conference a year on a fixed budget, a flat per-event price is the easiest to defend. If your conference awards continuing education credits, there’s a second test that has nothing to do with price: whether the platform can prove who attended. Conference Tracker works out each attendee’s credits from the sessions they attended and issues a transcript listing each session, its date and the credits earned.
If you sell tickets to the public and can’t predict turnout, a per-ticket platform passes most of the cost to buyers and charges nothing when an event is free. A corporate team running many events a year may get more from an annual subscription, since the price stays the same however many it holds.
And if you want help finding a venue and managing hotel room blocks (rooms held at a group rate for your attendees) under the same contract, Cvent offers both.
Prices are as published on each vendor’s own pricing page in 2026. Confirm current figures before you sign.
