Free Event Management Software

What free usually means

When a tool says free, find out which of these it is. They behave very differently once your event grows or turns into a paid one.

It also helps to ask what the vendor gets from the free offer. Some use it to bring in a small event that later grows into a paying customer, some earn on payment fees, and some limit the free plan so that anyone with a serious event has to upgrade. Knowing the model tells you where the limits will be.

• A free plan

  Real use with limits, such as a cap on attendees, events or features. It stays free as long as you stay inside the limits.

• A free trial

  Full or near-full features for a set time. It is free only until the clock runs out, and moving data afterwards takes effort.

• Free for free events

  No charge when tickets are free, with a fee or commission on paid tickets. Fine for a free meetup, costly the day you add a ticket price.

• Free software, paid payments

  The tool is free but payment processing is not, because the payment provider charges its own fee on card payments.

• Open source

  The code is free. Hosting, setup, security, updates and support are on you, or on someone you pay.

The limits to check before you commit

Read the plan page for numbers and conditions, not the headline. These are the limits that most often turn free into a problem:

The cost-of-free checklist

Free software has costs that never appear on the price page. Add them up before you decide:

A simple way to do this is to price your own event. Write down the expected number of attendees, the ticket price and the number of paid tickets, then work through each line below with real numbers. The comparison between a free plan and a paid plan often flips once the event sells more than a handful of tickets.

• Transaction fees

  A commission or per-ticket fee on paid tickets, plus the payment provider's processing fee. Multiply by your expected sales.

• Your time

  Setup, workarounds for missing features and fixing problems with no support. Count the hours and put a value on them.

• Missing features you replace

  If check-in, badges or reporting are not included, what will you use, and what does it cost?

• Data and exit

  How hard is it to take your attendee data elsewhere, and will you need to?

• Growth

  What happens at the next size of event, and is the next tier a small step or a big jump?

• Reliability on the day

  A free tool you cannot get help with is a risk at a door with a queue.

When free is enough and when it is not

Free is a sound choice for some events and a false saving for others. The decision turns on size, payments and what must work on the day.

Read the table by row, and mark each row for your own event. If most of your answers sit in the first column, a free plan is a reasonable place to start, and you can move later if the event grows. If two or three sit in the second column, especially tickets, the door or risk, get a quote for a paid plan and compare the full cost before you decide.

Free event software for nonprofits

Nonprofits search for free software because every dollar of the event budget counts, and that is a good reason to check transaction costs closely. A free plan that takes a commission on donations or tickets can cost more than a paid plan with none, once an event raises real money.

Ask three things. What fee applies to donation and ticket sales, in total, including the payment provider's. Does any discount or special pricing for nonprofits exist, and on what terms. And can the tool support the way you collect money, such as tickets, donations or pledges, without a workaround. Where you cannot get a clear answer in writing, treat the free label with caution.

• Compare the full fee

  Add the software fee and the payment fee, and compare on a realistic event total.

• Check the donation path

  Make sure a donation or a ticket works without an extra tool.

• Plan for the next event

  A tool you outgrow midway through a campaign costs more than one that scales.

How to test a free tool in an afternoon

Before you build your event on any free tool, run a small trial that mimics the day. It takes a few hours, and it is far cheaper than finding a limit when tickets are already on sale.

Do it with another person if you can, so that one of you plays the attendee and the other plays the organizer at the door.

1. 1

   Write your must-haves

   List what has to work: registration form, tickets, payments, check-in, a list export.

2. 2

   Build a dummy event

   Create it end to end, including a paid ticket if you will sell one.

3. 3

   Register as an attendee

   Use a phone, and see what the buyer sees, including any branding that is not yours.

4. 4

   Check in a few people

   Test the door process you will really use, offline if connectivity is poor.

5. 5

   Export the data

   Download the attendee list. If this requires an upgrade, you have found a limit.

6. 6

   Ask support a question

   See whether you get an answer at all.

What Eventdex offers for free

Eventdex is not a free platform, and pricing is by quote on the pricing page. Two parts of the product are relevant to the word free, and they are narrow:

Neither is a free trial of the whole event platform, and neither should be read as one. If you want to see more of the product, such as registration, badges or check-in, ask for a demo and a quote sized to your event.

• A free interactive floor plan

  Create a free account and build one event's floor plan: upload your layout, place and number booths, and mark them open, reserved or sold, with no card and no contract. Publishing the map to your event site, sharing it with exhibitors and selling booths through it are what a paid plan adds.

  Free interactive floor plan

• 0% commission ticketing

  Eventdex charges no commission on ticket sales, which is different from the whole platform being free. Payment gateways, such as Stripe or PayPal, set their own processing fees, so check with your gateway.

  0% commission ticketing

• Pricing

  Plans are sized to your event, so ask for a quote rather than expecting a price list.

  Eventdex pricing