Everybody wants to leave a great impression on people around them, don’t they? And while there are many ways to impress people you know, organizing an amazing event that your friends and acquaintances will talk about for years to come is one of the most popular ways to do so nowadays.
However, if you want to plan an outstanding event, you don’t have to do it alone. On the contrary – professional event planners’ careers have been some of the most popular jobs to do over the course of the last decade. On the other hand, if you want to save yourself some money, you can use event registration software instead. That being said, if you are an event planner yourself, there are many reasons why you could benefit from using event registration tools.
Online event registration makes it so much easier for users to plan and manage their events. From sending invitations to receiving payments, good event registration tools will take care of all of that. The only question that remains is how can you choose a reliable event registration system and the truth is that there are several things to consider before you make this decision:
- How many attendees are you expecting?
- Do you want to process credit cards?
- Do you want the option to send follow-up emails to attendees?
- Would you like to encourage recurring giving?
You can use an event registration website as one of the best ways of promoting an event. However, it is not the same if you wish to promote a single event or if you need to feature events on your site regularly. With a single event, you should create a dedicated page containing all the necessary information, while with multiple events, you could really benefit from a registration software. Now, let’s talk about why.
The best event registration software options
Amelia
Amelia is a powerful WordPress booking plugin that works flawlessly with WordPress sites of all kinds. It has a minimal, yet powerful appointment booking interface designed to ease your workflow, automate repetitive tasks, avoid double booking, and make appointment booking a breeze for your customers.
You can even have email notifications and SMS notifications so that nobody forgets about their appointment bookings.
In order to book an appointment, the complete user interaction takes a few clicks with this WordPress plugin. Moreover, with it you can accept payments via PayPal and Stripe, perfect for those who want to pay in advance to book appointments.
As a business owner, you can monitor KPIs in the WordPress dashboard and analyze other important data to keep a pulse on your business. Amelia is a straightforward, no-nonsense booking calendar plugin and an amazing option for those who want an around-the-clock solution for their WordPress site.
Amelia also has an Events Calendar module integrated within its features.
You can now automate your event bookings as well. To be more precise, it means that you will be able to schedule a single day, a multi-day, and also recurring events with Amelia.
Did we mention that you can manage multiple locations and that you have Google Calendar integration?
All of these and much more are under only one license, no add-ons are needed.
To test things for yourself, I’d suggest checking out the demos and seeing how things look on the front end as well as in the back end.
Medical/Health online booking page demo
A website of a demo private clinic, where a visitor can read about provided medical procedures and services, and schedule an appointment.
Barbershop booking page demo
A dummy WordPress website for Barbershops with online booking – a nice and easy implementation with the Bridge theme and the Amelia WordPress booking plugin.
Fitness Gym / Yoga booking page demo
A pseudo Yoga/Gym online booking page where you can browse through possible Yoga classes, schedule individual or group training, and book a package of appointments.
Spa/salon booking page demo
A dummy cosmetology website – look through different cosmetic procedures and treatments, pick an employee and schedule appointments.
Consultant booking page demo
A pseudo Business Consultant / Coach / Lawyer website, where a customer can browse through provided consultancy and lawyer services and book an appointment.
Hands down, this is the one you should pick from this list. Yet, you can check out the other options as well to see for yourselves why Amelia is #1.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is an easy event software for creating an event that will be given its own listing page. Then, if you wish to feature it on your own website, you will simply embed a quick checkout form by copying and pasting a dedicated code.
The downside, however, is the fact that it can get rather costly, especially if you sell a big number of event tickets. This makes Eventbrite a good event management solution for those who are primarily promoting free events or listing events on rare occasions.
HoneyBook
This event booking software is suitable for event organizers but also for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It helps to manage sessions and online payments using one app.
HoneyBook’s slogan is “Book Fast. Get Paid Faster.”
It manages the administrative work and keeps users aware of their schedules. This saves money and time and allows users to focus on growing their business.
Event Smart
Event Smart is a hosted event registration software which means you can get started with online event payment and registration right away and without managing your website. On the other hand, this event registration tool also comes with a good selection of customization options and lots of useful features.
It is a particularly good event registration tool for event organizers that want to run a dedicated events website without having to host and maintain it yourself.
TicketTailor
TicketTailor is another of the hosted register programs and event registration sites. It allows you to create your events and run them through the platform’s ‘box office’ feature. Alternately, you can integrate them with your WordPress website using an official plugin or feature them on social media such as your Facebook page.
Keep in mind though that its pricing structure gets more affordable if you run a great number of events. Additionally, if you are looking to promote events primarily through Facebook, TicketTailor might be the right pick for you.
Whova
Whova is an event booking system that is probably the cheapest on the market for the features it offers. Its low price doesn’t come with any compromises; in fact, this event management platform received an award in 2018 for the People’s Choice section in Event Technology.
As for features, you have access to a suite of tools like event registration, marketing, and everything else you need to ensure smooth event management.
Events Manager
Events Manager is a WordPress-specific event management software. It is a corporate event registration software that comes in the form of either free or premium plugin. It will not host your events for you, but it will provide lots of tools to help you run and promote your events on your own.
It is great for managing everting event-related on your own website while it also comes with a variety of customization and optimization options for each event.
Regpack
The next of these event booking systems is Regpack. It is a tool that lets you customize most aspects of the event booking process. Event organizers create as many attendee types as you need, easily redesign the event registration forms after your own requirements, and even create a personalized check-in process.
Regpack is a sophisticated tool that should be used by medium to large companies. One great feature is that groups can book spots at events together, and they can also make payments online with an intuitive ticketing system.
Besides being an online scheduling system, Regpack also allows for selling products and asking for feedback from people who’ve attended an event organized with the tool.
Cvent
Cvent is a cloud-based event registration software that is particularly useful to large organizations that need to deal with venue sourcing, budget management, and online event registration. It is particularly handy for those organizing high-end events where the cost is not one of the major concerns.
While event registrations may be easy to finalize, this tool’s complexity is a common complaint and while reporting is oversimplified, the actual software is a little bit rigid and hard to use even for the most experienced of users.
DoubleDutch
As a comprehensive event management system that features everything you might need and more, DoubleDutch is a great choice for those who are already accustomed to event management software.
It is a large-scale tool, appropriate for enterprise events or popular trade shows. The team behind DoubleDutch gives you the option to build a personalized app with custom features to meet your very own requirements, and it is a very powerful solution when you take the time to set it up properly.
DoubleDutch comes with support for multiple back-end integrations and it is compatible with some of the most popular CRM systems. As with Amelia, you can also generate easy-to-read analytics reports.
What is an event management software?
An online event registration software is a tool that will not only help you manage the events easily, but will also be enjoyable for attendees to use. This means that you will likely reduce the number of people who don’t complete event registration while also giving you control of registration branding.
Unfortunately, many event planners, promoters, and marketers ignore event registration software and simply assume that getting attendees to the registration page is enough. Unfortunately, this often turns out to be a costly error that you definitely want to avoid making.
The benefits of using event registration software tools
Free online event registration comes with far more benefits than just the possibility to collect attendee information. Here are some worth mentioning:
Online event registration saves time
A meeting registration software saves you a lot of time that you would normally have to spend on event registration management. However, a free event registration software allows you to focus on more important things such as improving attendee experience instead.
An online event registration platform is convenient and easy to use
Event registration software makes the entire process much more convenient both for the staff and the attendees. Not to mention how much more efficient it is compared to mail where you have to print out a form, fill it out, send it, and wait for it to be delivered. Luckily, with the new technologies and good event registration software, you can forget about those slow steps.
Custom fields
Conference registration software allows you to customize fields on your event pages and collect all the relevant information that you need from the attendees quickly and easily.
Group registration
People rarely attend events alone; they often come in groups which is why event pages should also include group registration.
How to choose the best event registration software
Key Features: Make sure the event registration platform supports registrant’s management, custom event tickets, analysis, ticketing web, and other things that you feel you might need.
Reputation: You should opt for a reliable and trustworthy event app with good reviews and a good reputation.
Attendee engagement: Your event registration platform should make it easy for you to communicate with the attendees from the moment they purchase their ticket to the end of the event in question.
Extra tools: Choose an online registration system that comes with the best selection of tools and features to give you the ability to manage everything from creating an event app to name badges.
Pricing: While it might be tempting to use a free registration site, first you should check if you are not missing any critical features. Anyhow, find event apps that fit your budget and compare their prices as well as what those prices can get you.
Ending thoughts on using one of the best event registration software
If you plan, manage, and organize events often, one of the best ways of making your job easier is by finding the right event registration software and event payment system – preferably, all in one.
In this article, we talked about several great registration programs that you should check out and consider using.
With the help of the right event registration service, you will be able to focus on more important aspects of your job like creating a successful event, while the software takes care of all the heavy lifting for you.
If you enjoyed reading this article about event registration software, you should check out this one with event WordPress themes.
We also wrote about a few related subjects like event websites, event booking systems, fitness event ideas, and event planning resources.
Not only that, but we also created articles with event scheduling software, using PayPal for event registration, event registration landing pages, and how to make money hosting events.