Essential event management software buying information
Event management software platforms facilitate the marketing, registration, coordination, and scheduling of events.
Event managers and marketing professionals across a range of industries use event management applications to manage and plan meetings and events, and carry out tasks including event marketing, attendee registration, badge creation, calendar generation and venue space management.
Most event management software solutions on the market are priced on a “per month” basis, and a typical entry level pricing plan can range from $6 to $51+ per month.1
First-time event management software buyers need to consider their budget, event planning needs, and required integrations with the rest of their marketing tech stack when evaluating their options. We recommend consulting with stakeholders on a list of critical questions to ask potential vendors in order to help you evaluate systems based on business needs, such as:
What kind of attendee communication options does the platform include?
What martech (marketing technology) integrations are included in the platform to push event data for marketing purposes?
Is it possible to fully personalize the agenda for each event?
Does the platform include on-site check-in capabilities?
Is it possible to define custom metrics and create reports to track and analyze data before, after, and during an event?
Marisa Lather2, a digital strategist and marketing thought leader, advises buyers to also consider how well systems handle virtual and hybrid events.
“The post-COVID world raised our expectations for professionalism and quality from virtual events,” Lather explains. "If you want to do webinars and other large-scale virtual events in a bigger capacity, having a robust tool will be incredibly powerful.”
What are the most reviewed event management systems?
Capterra Shortlist identifies the top event management systems based on a proprietary blend of user ratings and popularity, helping small businesses efficiently find the most effective event management solution for their needs.3 Here are the five most-reviewed products in our Capterra Shortlist for this category:
These rankings are determined by combining verified user ratings and publicly available web search popularity data:
Ratings score: Relative score of the software based on ratings given by users on Capterra, normalized for number and recency of reviews.
Popularity score: Relative popularity of software based on web search trends and products’ web presence.
What is event management software?
Event management software helps event planners organize, market, and analyze events. It is designed to streamline and automate most event management tasks, including event planning, scheduling, attendee management, ticket and revenue collection, room booking, revenue management, post-event feedback collection, and reporting.
Event management software gives event organizers a digital space to collaborate with clients, exhibitors, vendors and each other. The tool helps with event management strategies by providing tools for managing coordination, event attendee registration, marketing, custom badge creation, calendar generation, and venue space management. Most event management tools also offer some self-service functions for event attendees, such as online registration, content delivery, and fee payment.
Gartner expects the event management technology market to continue to evolve and see vendor consolidation, including M&A (mergers and acquisition) activity.4 In addition, Gartner expects continued slowing growth or, in some cases, declining revenue in vendors that solely support virtual events. Gartner predicts that event strategies will continue to evolve as a mix that requires both in-person events and separate virtual events.
The Capterra event management software category includes over 927 software products, and products in this category received almost 8,597 user reviews within the past year.5
Event management software pricing
Most online event management software solutions on the market are priced on a “per month” basis, and a typical entry level pricing plan can range from $6 to $51+ per month.1 A higher priced plan for larger companies will offer more advanced features such as: website creation, badge management, barcode scanning, calendar management, customizable branding, and advanced reporting.
If you are not sure about the specific features your business needs in order to manage different event management operations, we recommend checking if a free trial is available for the software you are interested in. This will not only help you to decide which software fits best with your business needs, but also save you money and save you from having to commit to a vendor before being sure which solution is best for your company.
Some of the features you can expect to find, depending on the pricing type are:
Entry-level event management software plans often include: email notifications for new registrations, custom email invites, custom email templates, custom images and messages and advanced reporting.
Advanced event management software plans often include: online ticket sales, an integrated check-in app and custom surveys and form questions.
Lather advises buyers not to take a system’s listed price at face value. She says implementation and setup fees are often the biggest hidden costs that take buyers by surprise. These could include data migration costs from your current system or the ability to create custom integrations with your other software, such as a CRM system.
Lather also points out that some platforms may impose attendee caps, which could limit scalability or result in extra charges for larger events.
“I was actually surprised when I had to pay to host an event on [a platform] that had recently changed its pricing so that you now had to pay more if the event included more than 25 tickets,” she said.
Event management software features rated by users
All software for event management includes event scheduling, registration management, and attendee management as core features, which will be mentioned in the next list. Also, we will mention a variety of common features, including email marketing, payment processing, and ticketing.
Based on analysis of our proprietary reviews data from event management software users, the most important features for this type of software are:
Core event management software features
Registration management: Track and register event attendees, visitors, customers, and more. 87% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Event scheduling: Schedule events and plan and track venue reservations within the event management calendar. 86% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Attendee management: Capture and store information about the people attending events, including contact information, food preferences, session sign-ups, VIP status and arrival plans. 85% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Common event management software features
Our analysis of proprietary reviews data reveals other common event management software features users rate as valuable:
Reporting/analytics: Generate reports to calculate event expenses and return on investment (ROI) using metrics such as audience engagement, revenue per attendee, and sales leads. 75% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Contact management: Manage, organize and store contact information for attendees, vendors, participants, etc. 72% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Calendar management: Track and manage schedules and meetings via an integrated calendar. 72% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Payment processing: Accept, record and reconcile financial transactions. 62% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Email marketing: Create and send email blasts/campaigns.
Ticketing: Customize, sell, and distribute tickets. 54% of reviewers rate this feature as critical or highly important.
Exhibit/vendor management: Manage layout and location logistics such as catering and venues.
Social promotion: Market events via social media tools.
Surveys and feedback: Gauge satisfaction and receive information for improvement and success.
Lather emphasizes the importance of advanced analytics and engagement tools. “I love using custom codes and UTM tracking to see which influencers or team members are the most engaged during an event,” she explains. These unique identifiers help track attendee interactions and campaign effectiveness. Features like personalized registration links, discount codes, or even smart wearables can be used to capture this data.
She also stresses the importance of specialized portals for different stakeholders (e.g., sponsors, speakers, attendees) to streamline communication and enhance the overall event experience for each group.
"Easy functionality to create breakout rooms, schedule one-to-one meetings, and interactive chat functions could be crucial for creating valuable attendee experiences in both virtual or in-person events," she adds.
Top event management software benefits identified by users
Improved collaboration between team members: Users say event management software improves team collaboration by involving all team members in a project. This can be especially useful when planning events within a remote or distributed team.
“In a workplace setting with a large team, this product helps to keep everyone in good, clear communication.”
–Maggie C., event planner, higher education
Centralized staff and volunteer management: Event management software allows professionals to organize staff members to manage different event activities.
“Our organization is decentralized and this software allows us to empower our staff and volunteers to help us accomplish critical organizational activities with ease.”
–Joshua W., director of strategy and operations, P2C-students religious institutions
Enhanced task tracking and project management: Event management platforms allow team members and management to track project status and task progress when planning events.
“This software's flexible and easily customisable features can be adapted to suit a wide range of specific needs: for example, we have recently implemented a way to track the progress of our projects which helps us monitor their development status.”
–Agata C., head of operations, professional training & coaching
Common challenges of event management software identified by users
Some of the challenges users face when it comes to events management software specifically relate to email notifications or reminders for events, user experience, and issue resolution, according to Capterra reviews for this type of software within the last year.
To overcome some of the mentioned challenges, companies in search of a suitable event management software should enquire about the customer support the software provider offers. For example, try to find out if they offer 24/7 client support, if they will provide a dedicated account manager, or if there is a live chat.
Some of the challenges users face when it comes to events management software specifically relate to email notifications, user experience and issue resolution, according to Capterra reviews for this type of software from the last year. When selecting software, users are advised to make sure the vendor offers an issue reporting or bug fix service, as well as a user experience that complies with business needs.
Before making a software purchase, businesses should consider and compare different event management software options. The features or capabilities might differ from one business to another, taking into account factors such as business size, industry, or number of employees that will be using the platform.
When selecting software, users are advised to make sure the vendor offers an issue reporting or bug fix service, as well as a user experience that complies with business needs.
What is event management software used for?
Analysis of our extensive event management software reviews and insights from Lather reveal the most common use cases:
Organizing clients and customers: Event managers and marketing professionals use event management tools to provide information to clients, keep client contact data consolidated and communicate with existing and potential clients.
Coordinating various aspects of meetings: For virtual events, event management software allows organizers to follow the agenda live and access virtual content. It also allows users to switch between different presenters, monitor participation and launch interactive elements such as quizzes to keep the audience engaged.
Facilitating event registration. Event management systems allow users to set up an event registration page and manage attendee registrations, event activities, and email notifications.
Bridging virtual and hybrid spaces: Lather emphasizes that "any type of virtual event in particular is going to be extremely reliant on event management software." These tools are crucial for creating engaging online experiences and integrating virtual and in-person components. "When you're in person at an event, I would be looking for things that might have smart badges or capacity to create event wearables like tracking bracelets," she explains.
Running influencer campaigns: "If you're trying to do something that has a lot of stakeholders, such as an influencer campaign, and you've got multiple product codes for each influencer you want to track, an event tool is critical for that," Lather notes. This allows for precise measurement of influencer impact and campaign ROI.
Creating VIP experiences: Event management software allows organizers to tailor experiences for different attendee groups. "If you want to create a different digital or in-person experience, the tool can help you do that," Lather says. You can design unique pathways or create exclusive content for specific audiences, such as VIP ticket holders, sponsors, or different professional tracks. The software can manage exclusive session access, personalized schedules, or special networking opportunities, enhancing the overall event value for these key participants.
Who uses event management software?
Event technology platforms empower B2B event marketers and teams to organize engaging in-person and/or virtual events like tradeshows, user conferences, roundtables, and field marketing events.
Event management software can be used by different professionals and departments across a wide variety of industries. Some of the types of professionals that use event management systems users include:
Event management software is specifically designed for those who plan events for external audiences, including multi-session or in-person interactions, rather than internal company meetings or webinars.
Event management software users work across a range of industries, most notably non-profit, marketing and education. While event management software can be utilized by businesses in any industry, it can be particularly useful for those in non-profit organizations since event planning often makes up a large proportion of their business model.
Users of event management software tend to work for small businesses with less than 200 employees. Over half (53%) of employees who reviewed this type of software on Capterra in the last year work in companies with less than 50 employees. Another 16% work in companies with between 51 and 200 employees.
Common event management software integrations
We analyzed our extensive reviews database and, based on that, we determined the three categories of software that most often integrate with event management platforms are:
Email marketing software. This integration allows the automation of confirmation emails, updates, and notifications about the event.
Meeting software. Integrating event management software with meeting tools simplifies the process of planning and management of online events that require a tool for video conferencing.
Website builder software. This will help to create a dedicated website or landing page for the event, including important elements such as registration, important information, and log in features.
Before you invest in an event management software solution, make sure that it can integrate with other tools you use, such as email systems, ticketing software, and event check in software. Some event management platforms may already include features offered by these solutions, so it is worth exploring which features come as part of the event management platform and which features you may need to search for in a separate tool that can be integrated.
During the evaluation of software, it is worth confirming with vendors if the tool offers integration support and how it works—whether this be via an API, a third-party integration platform or through native integration. Standalone systems are favored for their specialized capabilities, but they need to be integrated with other software solutions to meet diverse business needs.
Businesses investing in event management software should also consider which marketing technology (martech) they might want to integrate the tools with in order to track and measure ROI against key metrics. According to Gartner’s Event Technology Market Guide, this clarity around data and martech integrations will also help to quantify marketing event investments. These martech integrations might include marketing automation, CRM, or analytics platforms.4
Recent trends in event management software
Increasing development of long-term event strategies: Clients are inquiring more and more about events technology with the aim of developing long-term events management strategies. Interactions with clients suggest these long-term strategies will focus on both virtual and in-person delivery models.4
Declining reliance on virtual events: Following an initial rise in the popularity of virtual events following the COVID-19 pandemic, Gartner now predicts a slowing growth or, in some cases, decline in revenue for vendors that solely support virtual events. This is partly due to the return of in-person events, accounting for 30% of hosted events in 2022, compared to less than 20% in 2021.4
AI capabilities: According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Event Technology Platforms6, many providers have incorporated GenAI capabilities into marketing content creation to support events. These technologies can automate tasks such as session titling, abstract drafting and promotional content development. Event marketing teams seek more AI-generated content and insights and event management software vendors are upgrading their roadmaps to meet these demands.
Learn more about how event management software can help your business
Still not sure if event management software is the right choice for you? Or struggling with where to begin your search? Explore the 7 Best Free Event Management Software based on verified software reviews on Capterra.
