A delegate registration system takes a conference from "someone wants to come" to a named badge on the day. In the UK a delegate is a paying or invited attendee, so look for a form per delegate type, private routes for speakers and staff, self-switching price windows, session booking, badges and check-in.
What Does "Delegate Registration System" Actually Mean?
It means the same thing as an attendee registration system, with a UK accent. Delegates are the people who come to a conference, congress or association event, as opposed to visitors at an exhibition or guests at a dinner. American vendors say attendee (the same person with a different job title on the lanyard), and search results for the UK phrase are still dominated by booking forms built in generic form tools, such as the Jotform delegate form one association uses for its annual conference.
A generic form tool collects names. A registration system has to do more: sell several kinds of place, apply the right price on the right date, keep the answers attached to the person, and hand the organiser a list that the badge printer and the front desk can actually use. That is the real shopping list.
What Should a Delegate Registration System Do Before the Event?
It should give every kind of delegate the form that suits them and leave the rest alone. A speaker does not need to answer the questions a paying member does, and a sponsor's staff pass should never appear on the public page. The fix is a separate form per ticket group, plus private groups that only a secret link can reach.
In eventcloud, each ticket group has its own form, with text, dropdown, single and multiple choice, date, time, country, phone, address and Terms questions, plus section headings and page breaks. Private ticket groups cover speakers, exhibitor staff and members. The answers flow to badges, PDF tickets, emails, the attendee list and the Excel export, matched by question, so renaming or translating a question never breaks the link. The registration page has the full list.
Pricing belongs in the same conversation. Conference prices move with the calendar: early bird, standard, late. Stacked price windows that switch themselves mean nobody has to be awake at midnight on the cut-off date, and a delegate who has already bought keeps the price they paid. Group rates (from N tickets, X each) suit the department that sends six people, and promo codes can be limited to named email domains for members or partner organisations.
Sessions matter as much as tickets. Free or paid sessions with their own capacity, a booking cut-off, clash refusal and a Sessions step at checkout (one card per named attendee) let delegates build their programme while they register, then change it later in the attendee portal. Only ticket types that ask for attendee details per ticket can book sessions, so set that up first.
Coming soon: approval and invite-only registration, with the delegate list vetted before anyone pays. Need it for your event? Tell us how your approvals work.
How Do the Big Platforms Handle This?
Differently, and mostly by licence rather than by delegate. The table compares what each vendor states on its own pricing page, read on 30 October 2026. Where a page says nothing, the cell says so: that is a gap in the page, not proof of a gap in the product.
| Question | Swoogo (Pricing Page) | Bizzabo (Pricing Page) | eventcloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| How is it charged? | Per user. The page says it "doesn't charge per event or per registrant" | Per user, billed annually, with a three-user minimum | Per team seat. Registrations and attendees are never counted |
| Registration limits | "Unlimited registrations" listed on the Professional plan | "Unlimited registrations" listed on the core plan | Unlimited events, registrations and attendees on every plan |
| Badges | "Create custom badges" listed under in-person features | Badge customisation in the core onsite software. Custom badge printing sits in the Advanced Onsite add-on | Badge designer in millimetres with live data from any registration question. Print any badge from the dashboard, or let delegates print their own at the Badge Kiosk |
| Check-in | Basic check-in included. Pro features are a paid add-on | Self-service or staffed check-in in the core onsite software | Staff check-in on any phone or tablet with one link and a 4-digit PIN, by QR scan or typed ticket number |
| Session registration | Not described on the pricing page | Not described on the pricing page | Free or paid session booking at sign-up, with per-session capacity, and session scanning at the door |
| Exhibitor lead retrieval | Not mentioned on the pricing page | Lead capture sits in the Klik SmartBadge product, priced by quote | Exhibitors scan with their own phones in the event app. Leads export to Excel |
| Approval-based registration | Not described on the pricing page | Not described on the pricing page | Coming soon. Need it for your event? Tell us. |
Sources: Swoogo pricing and Bizzabo pricing, both read 30 October 2026. Vendor pricing changes without notice, so check the page before you shortlist.
Conference Registration Without the Procurement Saga.
Delegate types, early-bird windows, session booking, badges designed in millimetres and check-in from any phone, with no limit on delegates.
What Matters on the Day of the Conference?
The queue. A delegate registration system is judged at the desk, where a printed name and a green tick beat any dashboard. Every delegate gets a nine-digit ticket number on their ticket, which they can type at the Badge Kiosk (a laptop with a printer beside it) to check their details and print their own badge. Printing checks them in, so the desk staff handle exceptions rather than the whole room.
Door staff scan the QR code on the ticket, or type the number, on their own phones. The scanner flags repeat scans and refuses refunded or unpaid tickets. For breakout rooms, session scanning counts admissions against capacity at each session door, and the organiser can see who attended each session afterwards. The check-in page covers the setup.
What Do Conference Organisers Forget to Ask?
Who owns the delegate data, and what happens when someone asks for it back. Delegate lists hold names, employers and sometimes dietary or access needs, so the system should export every answer to Excel and erase an attendee on request. If exhibitors scan delegates, the privacy notice should say so, and a scan is not consent to marketing. The article on GDPR and event registration data covers what to put in the notice.
The second thing is language. A congress with international delegates needs forms, emails and PDF tickets in the delegate's own language. An eventcloud event can offer up to five languages (UK English, US English, Spanish, German and French), each at its own web address, with a new ticket group's confirmation starting in English until a version per language is published.
Third: what happens when the event sells out. Unlimited events, registrations and attendees on every plan. We count team seats, not tickets, so your bill does not rise because your event sells out. The limits that do exist are operational, not commercial: 99 of one ticket type per order line, 10,000 orders per Excel export, five languages per event, and one subdomain and one sending domain per organisation.
Where Does eventcloud Fit for a Conference?
It fits the organiser who wants registration, badges, check-in and sessions in one place, with nothing metered by the delegate. Every capability is on every seat, and ticket money settles straight into your own Stripe account. The conferences page shows how a typical congress is set up.
Run a programme with a requirement that is not on this page, such as vetted attendance lists or something unusual in your registration flow? Tell us how your delegates register and we will say what works today.
