Are you a busy event planner desperate to get a hold on managing your in-person, virtual and hybrid events? If so, you need an event management system that can save you time, keep you organized and take care of every detail of your event.
Buying event planning software without doing your research can be detrimental to your budget, event and career. With all the features currently available in a single solution, picking the right product for your needs can be more challenging than actually throwing the event.
Before committing to software, it's essential to choose the best tool for your unique needs.
What are the Benefits of Using an Event Management System?
There are many benefits to using an event management system, but the main reasons come down to professionalism, data, and analytics — and saving time and money!
Cost-effective
With an online event management tool, you generally pay one low fee. This fee lets you send countless invitations, create an event homepage and more. Not only will you save money but you will save valuable time.
Valuable reporting
Event management software provides access to multiple reports. Usually, these reports are available at no additional cost. Reporting gives your team the required data in an easy-to-read format.
Look more professional
An online event management system will allow you to create invitations, registration forms, homepages and other web pages that maintain the same look and feel as your website and other communications.
What Factors Make a Good Event Management System?
When researching and analyzing event management software, consider many factors: The goal is to save time, provide increased data and analytics, cut down on manual planning processes and help prove event success.
Factor #1 Team collaboration
One factor to consider when choosing event management software is team collaboration. Look for software that gives you many tools that you and your team members can share to plan the best possible event.
Factor #2 Case studies and peer reviews
You want to factor in case studies and peer reviews when choosing a system for your company. The info found in these resources adds credibility to the product, but make sure you use sources that hold reviewers accountable.
Factor #3 Good UI/UX design
Event management systems should offer numerous designs to match your events. Look for companies with many designs that also provide customization.
Factor #4 Price for value
Determine if pricing is based on the features you want to use, the number of attendees, the number of backend users you can have, or the number of events you plan to hold. If the pricing model fits the type of events you plan to host, then the event management system is a good fit.
Factor #5 Analytics
Look for reporting that includes data from the entire attendee experience, from registration rates to post-event survey completions. The data should be easy to export and read.
The Best Event Management System
With these tips, we present to you the top six event management systems. Remember, event planners of all kinds benefit from event technology, but not all need the same features and functionality.
1. Bizzabo – All-in-one event software
Bizzabo is a cloud-based event management solution that caters to professional event planners’ needs, such as conference and corporate event planners.
Bizzabo has a long list of positives, including great tools to increase event registration. Bizzabo allows you to create email marketing campaigns and landing pages for your events, and there are features to streamline ticketing and communicate with attendees.
Bizzabo also helps boost the ROI of event sponsors by giving you real-time insights and post-event analytics. Finally, Bizzabo lets you create customizable mobile apps for events. It has it all!
Some of the cons are that Bizzabo cannot receive online payments at this point in time. There is also a lack of flexibility around Speakers’ pages. You are unable to add links to YouTube or embed videos.
Bizzabo does not provide pricing details on its website. You will need to contact them directly for pricing information.
Overall, Bizzabo is one of the best event management systems for event planning, corporate events, registration process and event marketing.
Rating: 4 Stars
2. Eventbrite – Best for ticketing and events
Eventbrite is suited for event planners working in events of all sizes, from private seminars to large professional events. Eventbrite lets you create customizable websites for your events. These sites can have tools for registration, payment, analytics and support.
Event planners can manage their events through Eventbrite’s mobile apps and can track sales in real-time. For live events, there is a mobile ticket scanner.
Eventbrite is strictly an online ticketing system. If you were hoping to use one system for event registration and event promotion, this might not be the best fit. However, you can integrate Eventbrite with MailChimp to send invites and keep track of responses through MailChimp’s reporting.
Eventbrite is free for free events. Otherwise, Eventbrite’s fees are based on ticket sales. These start at 2% + $0.79. Eventbrite passes on the fees to the attendees of your event.
Eventbrite is ideal for helping businesses worldwide plan, promote and sell out events of all kinds.
Rating: 3 Stars
3. Boomset – Great for large events
Boomset is a terrific choice if you manage large in-person events (which you hopefully will be soon)! It offers online registration, check-in and badge printing. You can create event registration pages, manage ticket sales and do event marketing.
Boomset also has a suite of tools for kiosk check-ins at live events. Boomset’s lead retrieval helps exhibitors connect with attendees using mobile devices, and session management allows you to track data on which event activities are most popular.
Boomset even has facial recognition software for check-ins. Finally, we love Boomset for its well-known customer support for its users.
Most people love using Boomset for event management, but there are some complaints that the software is not incredibly intuitive. However, its customer support is excellent and solves problems quickly.
Boomer is a perfect choice for event planners, marketers, event and marketing agencies, IT departments and HR professionals.
Boomset has three pricing plans that range from $4,000 to $15,000 per year. There are some additional charges for extra event check-ins and premium features such as facial recognition, gamification, and virtual and on-site support.
Rating: 5 Stars
4. Aventri – Best for virtual events
Aventri is one of our favorite event management systems. It helps you simplify event planning for all your virtual, hybrid and in-person events. It has the power and flexibility global enterprises need and the scalability that event organizers love.
Aventri excels at virtual event solutions, seamlessly transferring your event experience from in-person to virtual and back to in-person again. With trackable multi-session capabilities, real-time audience engagement features, branded event lobbies, screen and presentation sharing capabilities — and the ability to stream your event to any device — Aventri has you covered.
Some users say that the reports can be complex, and results can sometimes be challenging to decipher. Dedicated support is needed to maneuver some of the reports successfully.
Aventri is perfect for event planners managing small staff meetings to a 100,000+ person conference.
There is no free plan with Aventri. A standard license is $3,000 per year.
Rating: 4 Stars
5. Cvent – A complete event management solution
Cvent is one of our favorite event management systems because it offers complete design, building and managing of event websites for corporate companies.
It is easy to use, powerful online software that will increase attendance and engagement while allowing easy navigation of every event process. The Cvent team is expert at helping your organization in planning and executing successful marketing events.
Reporting quality is a complaint by some Cvent users. Users sometimes have problems sorting through confusing data that is imported from the software.
Cvent helps organizations of all shapes and sizes better plan, manage, market and analyze their in-person and virtual meetings and events.
Cvent offers a subscription pricing model with a free trial period. More details are available only by contacting Cvent directly.
Rating: 4 Stars
6. Everleaf – Simple event management
Eventleaf is simple, powerful and reliable event management software with a multiple-platform approach.
We love Eventleaf because it is both a web-based and desktop event management platform. It helps create impressive event web pages, send invitations, sell tickets, print badges, conduct surveys and engage with attendees. Eventleaf is accessible from anywhere and is easily shareable as well.
One major negative is that Eventleaf has very little customer support during the weekends when most events occur. This leaves the customer in an uncomfortable position if technical or any other support type is needed.
The vendor only provides pricing, but there is a free trial period. The vendor sells individual licenses.
Eventleaf is perfect to use when planning conferences, seminars, workshops, trade shows, networking meetings, corporate training and award shows.
Rating: 4 Stars
An Essential Consideration
The truth is that event marketing software is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a must-have. Event planners need to start utilizing some type of system to stay on top of trends and keep their attendees returning year after year. A quality software system will transform your event by cutting down on precious time, providing invaluable data and analytics, and proving event ROI.