If your only question is "did they pay", you need a ticketing platform: Eventbrite, Ticket Tailor or Humanitix will do. If you need to know who is coming, what they do, which sessions they want and what goes on their badge, you need a registration platform: RegFox, Swoogo or Cvent. Most conferences, corporate events and trade shows need both at once, and the two categories are mostly a pricing-model artefact rather than a technical one.
What is the actual difference between ticketing and registration?
Ticketing sells access. Registration captures people. A ticketing platform is built around inventory: a fixed number of things to sell, a price, a checkout, a barcode at the door. A registration platform is built around the attendee record: who they are, what type of attendee they are, what they told you on the form, whether they were approved, what their badge should say. Both end with a QR code being scanned, which is why the categories blur so easily.
The tell is the free attendee. A ticketing platform treats a free ticket as a zero-priced product and usually charges nothing for it. A registration platform treats a free registrant as a record it has to store, and usually charges for the record. RegFox, for example, bills $0.99 for every free registrant on its Standard plan, while Eventbrite, Humanitix and Ticket Tailor (up to 5,000 a year) let free tickets through at no charge. That one line on the price list tells you which side of the fence a product grew up on.
Which events are ticketing-shaped, and which are registration-shaped?
Gigs, galas, festivals, tastings and most consumer events are ticketing-shaped. The buyer is often not the attendee, the tiers are about price and position rather than job title, and nobody needs a badge. Conferences, corporate meetings, training days, association events and trade shows are registration-shaped. The attendee is the buyer or is invited, the "tiers" are attendee types (delegate, speaker, exhibitor, press, VIP), the form is where the value is, and the badge is the product.
The awkward middle is where most B2B organisers live. A trade show has free visitor registration, paid exhibitor stand packages and invite-only speakers in the same event. A paid conference has a free press list and a sponsor allocation. A charity gala sells tables but needs dietary requirements per seat. Run that on a pure ticketing tool and you end up with a spreadsheet doing the registration work. Run it on a pure registration tool and you pay per head for the free visitors who make the show worth exhibiting at.
What does each model cost as the event grows?
This is where the categories stop being about features and start being about business models. Ticketing platforms charge a percentage plus a fixed amount per paid ticket. Registration platforms either charge per registrant (paid and free) or sell an annual licence. The table prices a $50 paid ticket at 500, 5,000 and 50,000 sales, platform fees only, with card processing excluded because every vendor passes that through at roughly the same rate. Sources are the vendors' own pricing pages, re-checked this week; Cvent does not publish and its figures are reported ranges.
| Platform | Model | Pricing basis | 500 tickets | 5,000 tickets | 50,000 tickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eventbrite | Ticketing | 3.7% + $1.79 per paid ticket, free tickets free | $1,820 | $18,200 | $182,000 |
| Humanitix | Ticketing | 5% + $1.29 per paid ticket incl. processing, free tickets free | $1,895 | $18,950 | $189,500 |
| Ticket Tailor | Ticketing | £0.60 per paid ticket pay as you go, free up to 5,000 a year | £300 | £3,000 | £30,000 |
| RegFox (Standard) | Registration | $0.99 + 1% per paid registrant capped at $4.99, $0.99 per free registrant | $745 | $7,450 | $74,500 |
| Swoogo (Professional) | Registration | $11,800 a year, one full user, unlimited registrations | $11,800 | $11,800 | $11,800 |
| Cvent | Registration | Annual licence plus per-registrant fees, quote only | about $23,000 (reported) | about $54,500 (reported) | about $369,500 (reported) |
| eventcloud (Team, one user) | Both | $1,250 a year per user, unlimited events, tickets and registrations | $1,250 | $1,250 | $1,250 |
Read the rows rather than the columns. The ticketing lines climb in a straight line with sales, which is fine for a one-off gig and punishing for anything that grows. RegFox climbs more gently because of its cap, but still climbs, and it charges for free registrants, which the ticketing tools do not. Swoogo and eventcloud are flat because they sell the seat, not the ticket; the difference between them is the price of that seat and what sits behind it. Cvent is a licence with a meter attached, which is why its reported figures move at all.
What Would Zero Booking Fees Save You?
eventcloud charges a flat subscription, not a cut of every ticket. Compare it with what your current platform takes.
The crossover points are worth knowing. Against Eventbrite's per-ticket fee on a $50 ticket, a single eventcloud seat pays for itself at roughly 340 tickets a year. Against RegFox it is about 840 paid registrants, or fewer if a large share of your list is free visitors. Below those volumes, and if you run one small event a year, the per-ticket tools are cheaper and you should use them.
The registration desk is where ticketing stops and registration starts: the badge needs data a checkout never asked for · credit: RDNE Stock project / Pexels
Can one platform do both?
Yes, and for B2B events it is the sensible default, because the alternative is two systems and a spreadsheet joining them. The question to ask a vendor is not "do you do registration" but three more specific things. Can a single event carry free and paid attendee types side by side? Does each attendee type get its own form, so visitors answer three questions and exhibitors answer ten? And does the form data travel onto the badge and into the check-in screen without an export and re-import?
eventcloud is built around exactly that mixed model: free visitor registration next to paid exhibitor packages in one event, a separate form attached to each ticket group, and the answers carried through to badge printing and check-in. Revenue settles into the organiser's own Stripe account rather than being held and paid out later. The honest edges: routing happens by attendee type, with a form per ticket group, rather than by branching inside one form, and the platform is priced per user from one user, so a six-person team is six seats. The registration feature page and the ticketing feature page describe the two halves.
What should be on the shortlist checklist?
Attendee types, not just price tiers. If the platform only knows "General" and "VIP" as prices, it is a ticketing tool wearing a lanyard.
Free registrations that are actually free. Ask what a free visitor costs. On registration-model tools the answer is rarely zero.
Where the money lands. Own payment account, or the platform's account with a payout schedule? RegFox pays weekly; Eventbrite pays after the event on its standard schedule; own-Stripe platforms settle as Stripe does.
Badges and check-in included, or bolted on. Bizzabo sells advanced onsite as a premium add-on; Swoogo includes basic check-in and sells Go Onsite Pro; eventcloud includes both. Check the invoice line, not the feature grid.
The export. Whatever the dashboard looks like, you will need every answer, every payment and every check-in status in one file for the finance team. Ask to see it before you sign.
Who this is not for
eventcloud does not do virtual or hybrid events. If a meaningful part of your audience joins from a screen, Bizzabo, vFairs or Cvent will serve you better. There is no attendee networking or matchmaking layer in eventcloud, and no event discovery marketplace, so a consumer event that relies on being found inside an app is better off on Eventbrite. Stripe is the only outside system eventcloud talks to, so a marketing team that runs its own contact list elsewhere will be exporting to Excel and importing at its end. And if you sell 200 tickets to one gig a year, a per-ticket tool is the right answer and a subscription is not.
Where eventcloud fits
For an in-person conference, corporate event or trade show that needs paid and free attendee types in the same event, the choice between "ticketing" and "registration" is a false one, and the real decision is whether you want to pay per head or per seat. eventcloud is one flat per-user subscription with unlimited events, tickets and registrations, so the bill for a 300-delegate summit and a 30,000-visitor show is the same. The pricing page has the numbers, and the Cvent comparison shows what per-registrant pricing does to an event that keeps growing.
