Is percentage pricing or a monthly subscription cheaper?

It depends on yearly ticket revenue. Divide the annual subscription by the percentage fee for a crossover: below it the percentage often costs less, above it the subscription often does. Use real rates, and include free regs if they bill per head.

Do event platforms charge for free tickets?

Percentage-of-sales usually charges nothing on a free ticket. Per-registration often charges for free people too. Always run free events through the quote.

Are payment processing fees included in event software pricing?

Usually not. Cards clear through a payment provider. Ask if the platform takes another cut, and whether you connect your own merchant account.

What hidden costs should I budget for?

Overages, metered email or SMS, staff time on invoices and refunds, and weak check-in or weak exports. Those rarely sit in the headline plan price.

How much does event registration software cost?

By Donghui Qian (Milo)Updated 17 September 20263 min read

Short answer

There is no single price: vendors charge a subscription, a percentage of ticket sales, a fee per registration, or a mix, and card processing is usually separate. Put your own yearly volume, average ticket price and free registrations through each vendor's written pricing, then add overages, metered email, and the staff time spent on invoices and refunds.

Summarise with

Nobody can answer "how much does event registration software cost?" with one number that fits your year. Shops price the same job four ways, and card fees sit under all of them. Two vendors can both sound like "about two percent" and still leave you with very different bills once you run your own events through the sheet.

This is a field guide to that sheet. If you run events and never buy anything from us, it should still be useful.

Four ways shops charge (often mixed)

Model	You pay when…	Often suits…	Catch
Subscription	Every month or year, even with no ticket sales	A steady calendar, lots of free or cheap events	Quiet years still bill; watch overages
Percentage of ticket sales	Each paid order	A few events, volume unclear	High ticket prices hurt; free tickets may cost $0 here
Per registration	Each person who registers (sometimes free ones too)	Headcount you can predict	A big free night can cost more than a paid conference
Hybrid	A base fee plus a smaller % or per-head charge	Vendors covering both sides	You have to model both lines — the homepage rarely does

Card fees are not the platform fee. Stripe, PayPal, or the bank still take their cut. Ask whether the platform takes another cut on top, and whether you connect your own merchant account.

Price last year, not the homepage

Pull one real year (or a honest next year). For each event note:

Paid registrations and gross ticket revenue (before any platform cut)
Free registrations
Refunds — how many, how much
Whether companies needed invoices

Run that sheet against each vendor's written pricing. Ignore "starting at."

platform_year ≈ subscription

+ (% × paid_ticket_revenue)

+ (per_reg × registrations_that_bill)

processor_year ≈ processor_% × card_volume

+ per_charge × charge_count

total_year ≈ platform_year + processor_year

Use your volumes. The numbers below are only shape — your figures will differ.

A worked example (placeholders)

One year: $400,000 paid ticket revenue, 2,000 paid registrations, 1,500 free registrations. Card volume roughly equals ticket revenue.

Illustrative model	Rough platform bill	Note
$6,000/year subscription + 0% of sales	$6,000	Free regs add nothing; a quiet year still costs $6,000
2.5% of paid ticket revenue	$10,000	Free regs free on platform fee; bill grows with price × volume
$3 per registration (paid + free)	$10,500	3,500 × $3 — free community nights get expensive
$2,400/year + 1% of paid revenue	$6,400	Hybrid: both lines count

Add card fees on every column (use your provider's real schedule). The column that looked cheapest can flip once processing and refunds are in.

Subscription vs percentage — the quick check

One vendor is mostly subscription. Another is mostly a cut of sales. Then:

crossover_revenue ≈ annual_subscription ÷ percentage_fee

example: 6000 ÷ 0.025 = 240000

Below that yearly ticket revenue, the percentage often costs less. Above it, the subscription often does. Redo it with each vendor's real rates. Same check as in the choosing guide — one spreadsheet is enough.

Bills the pricing page skips

Staff time on invoices and refunds when checkout only works for consumers.
Paper lists and double entry when check-in dies without Wi-Fi.
Rebuilding money history when exports leave out orders or refunds.
Overage lines for events, admins, or attendees buried in footnotes.
Email or SMS credits if confirmations are metered.

What actually goes wrong

Compared monthly plan prices and ignored the percentage on a high-price conference.
Forgot free registrations under a per-head fee.
Thought the platform fee included card processing. It almost never does.
Modelled one flagship, signed annual, then ran eight free meetups that each burned per-registration fees.
Obsessed over a 0% platform fee while card fees and ops time ate the real bill.

What to ask every vendor

What would last year's events have cost in total under your pricing — free regs and overages included?
Is payment processing included? If not, whose rates?
On a refund, do you reverse your fee, the processor fee, both, or neither?
What do we pay if we run zero paid events for three months?
Where is the overage schedule for attendees, events, admins, and messages?

Same sheet to every shortlist — ours included. Compare written totals, not headlines.

Frequently asked questions

There is no single price. Most shops use a subscription, a percentage of ticket sales, a per-registration fee, or a mix — plus separate card fees. Put your own yearly volumes through each vendor's written pricing.