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When planning your next gathering, whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, it’s natural to wonder which solution will streamline sign-ups and let your team focus on delivering value. Choosing the best event registration platform means finding event management software that’s intuitive for guests and organizers, scalable as you grow, and equipped with online registration tools like personalized registration forms to support a seamless experience from start to finish.
Event management software for associations that comes with registration features can help. With features like customizable registration forms, drag and drop page builders, and integrated analytics, today’s systems deliver the robust event registration tools you need to capture data, sell tickets, and keep stakeholders informed. Below, we break down the five best options for 2026 and the factors every association, nonprofit, and corporate planner should consider.
What are the best options in 2026? It often comes down to your industry and organization’s needs. We’ll review the five best event registration software options with key considerations to help you decide.
What Are the Best Event Registration Software Options In 2026?
The top five 2026 event registration platforms are:
1. Eventscribe for Nonprofits And Associations
Eventscribe is an event management software created to target the needs of associations and nonprofits. It couples a fully branded event app with deeply customizable event pages, letting teams publish agendas, accept payments, and push updates in minutes. Real-time dashboards, granular contact fields, and top-tier customer support make it ideal for lean staff that still need enterprise-grade insight.
Eventscribe offers several great features that help with registration, including:
- Highly customizable event website and mobile app
- The ability to add registration to an event website or app
- Real-time accessible analytics
- Integration with all your other event management tasks
Eventscribe is a complete event management solution that helps with more than just registration. You can use it for abstract management, speaker and presentation management, logistics planning, enhancing attendee engagement, and more.
2. Cvent For Corporate Events
Cvent is a top option for large-scale corporate events. It offers enterprise-grade tools, in-depth reporting features, and lead capture to set up custom forms and track progress toward your event goals. However, organizations with smaller teams can find it harder to manage since there’s a bigger learning curve and many details involved to get the most out of it.
3. Eventbrite For Entertainment And Consumer Events
Eventbrite is a great choice for events like concerts or festivals that are entertainment or consumer-oriented. Some aspects that stand out about it are its user-friendly interface, ticket management options, and an accessible platform. That said, some users report that customization and data tracking options are limited.
4. Whova For Community-Centric Events
Whova is a popular choice for community events like community picnics, farmers markets, or educational workshops. Elements that make it a great experience include an accessible attendee app to provide information and help with registration, an agenda builder, and sponsor visibility. The main drawbacks are that some users report that the app feels cluttered, and customization is limited.
5. Bizzabo For Marketing And Tech Conferences
Bizzabo focuses on branded events, analytics, and personalized experiences. It’s a great option for businesses that want to emphasize branding during event registration and planning. However, the drawback is that dev-level customization is required to get the most out of it, so you’ll want to have staff members with high levels of technical expertise when choosing it.
What Event Registration Software Is Best For Nonprofits?
Cadmium’s EMS, Eventscribe, is a great event registration software for nonprofits. Eventscribe delivers a balanced event registration system: more flexible than free tools yet simpler than enterprise suites. Deep payment integrations, donor tracking, and workflow automations help smaller teams stay organized without sacrificing power.
You can look at it as a middle ground between platforms like Cvent and Eventbrite. You get a system that’s easy to use and accessible with more customization than a basic platform like Eventbrite. At the same time, you get lots of great reporting and management tools with less complexity than a platform like Cvent.
It’s a great option for nonprofits with a small staff who need well-rounded tools with a lower learning curve that can make event planning easy.
On top of that, you get some great nonprofit event tools while planning events like fundraisers, where you’ll want to track donations, sponsorships, and progress toward funding goals in one place. Eventscribe is easy to integrate with other tools you already use, so you can set up donation integration with your donor management system or use it alongside your project management system.
Are There Free Event Registration Platforms Available?
There are event registration platforms you can use for free, but they can have several limitations you’ll want to consider before using them.
Eventbrite and Whova are free to initially create an event on the platforms. However, there is an extra fee per ticket sale, which users say can add up and become more expensive than going with other paid options. These platforms are also more basic when it comes to customization and analytics.
Another one of the best free event registration platforms is Zeffy, which is completely free to sign up and sell tickets. However, Zeffy comes with some drawbacks, like limited file uploads, minimal customization options, and very basic reporting features. Other completely free options can also limit how many guests you can register and how many events you can add at once.
Generally, most organizations will prefer options that offer more scalability as they grow to handle all their needs in one place. It can be less of a hassle to go with a paid option right away rather than trying to switch systems later on when you outgrow one and need features like multiple ticket types, paid event registrations, and early bird pricing, as well as built in attendee management. That’s where options like Eventscribe can be a good fit since it offers a scalable option that’s easy to manage for teams of all sizes.
Which Event Registration Platforms Offer Integrated Payment Options?
Most organizations will want to look for event registration platforms with payment options to make collecting event ticket payments and registration fees easy. Each of the top five registration platforms listed above offers integrated payment processing in different ways. Here’s how each one helps with this:
- Eventscribe: Eventscribe offers a centralized payment system that you can configure and use with many popular payment processors. That includes Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net, Clover, BluePay, and Cybersource. This allows you to add a payment system you already use for easy management and financial tracking.
- Cvent: Cvent has its own payment processor in the platform and integrates with other payment systems like Stripe, Authorize.net, and Payflow Pro.
- Eventbrite: Eventbrite has its own payment processor on the platform and integrates with Stripe.
- Whova: Integrates with Stripe as its main payment processor.
- Bizzabo: Has its own payment processor in the platform and integrates with Stripe, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.
These all offer secure payment options, so you can have your guests submit their information and payment details with confidence.
How to Choose the Best Event Registration Software for Your Organization
Each event registration platform in this guide offers strong capabilities for different industries, event types, and use cases. The right choice depends on what your organization values most whether that’s a flexible event app, a streamlined registration platform, or tools to build a polished registration page. As you compare event registration options, here’s a quick summary to help guide your decision.
- Eventscribe is a great choice for nonprofits and associations that want customizable registration and event management features in an intuitive platform.
- Cvent is a top choice for corporate event registration and management with detailed reporting and attendee accommodation features, but it does have a bigger learning curve.
- Eventbrite is a good choice for smaller consumer and entertainment-focused events. It’s easy to use with an accessible interface, but its customizability and reporting are more basic.
- Whova is great for community-focused events, but has limited customization for organizations that care about branding across materials.
- Bizzabo is a good solution for marketing and tech conferences, and it has great branding and customization features during registration. However, customizing it requires higher levels of technical expertise.
If you want to future-proof your organization’s success, make sure the registration and event management solution you choose offers enough capacity to scale with you. Our Eventscribe EMS at Cadmium is a top choice for associations and nonprofits of all sizes, whether you’re just getting started or have multiple locations worldwide.
Learn More About How Eventscribe Helps With Event Registration And Management
Associations and nonprofits needing reliable online event registration tools and management solutions can rely on our Eventscribe EMS to help. You can use it to set up customizable forms, gather attendee-specific information, and track progress as you go with our seamless online registration experience.
On top of that, Eventscribe can help with all your event planning needs at each stage. That includes:
- Transforming attendee engagement before, during, and after the event
- Managing speakers and presentations
- Automating logistics planning
- Organizing abstract submissions and reviews
- Coordinating exhibitors and sponsors
- And more
Our team at Cadmium is here to help you create impactful experiences, on-point event marketing, and event success with the right video, learning, and event technology. Click here to learn more about how Eventscribe can make a difference for you.
