What is the best event management software in 2026?

Ticket Tailor is a UK ticketing platform with an unusual model: a fixed fee per ticket, no matter what the ticket costs. Pay as you go, that is £0.60 plus VAT per ticket. Buy credits upfront and the price drops to as low as £0.22 plus VAT, and those credits never expire.

For 200 tickets, you pay £120 plus VAT on pay as you go, whether the ticket sells for 10 or 100. The pricier your tickets, the better this model looks next to a percentage. Processing is separate: you connect your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account, and their fees apply on top.

Free tickets cost nothing up to 5,000 a year per the pricing grid, and there is no subscription. The vendor's own FAQ says 2,000, so check before a big free event. Ticket Tailor also handles ticket scanning at the door.

The catch: the pricing page lists amounts in pounds only, so a US organizer pays through a currency conversion. And because processing is billed separately, the comparison takes one more step than with an all-in fee.

Tip: if you run several events a year, buy a credit pack instead of paying as you go. Credits do not expire, so leftover credits at the end of a season are not wasted.

Luma is built for small community events. Organizers describe it as pretty simple, and it shows: you build a clean event page, invite your list, and manage registrations and tickets from one place. The Free plan gives you unlimited events and guests, three admins, tickets and promo codes.

Cost depends on your plan. On Free, Luma takes 5 % of paid tickets, plus Stripe (typically 2.9 % + $0.30). On Plus, at $59 a month billed yearly (about 14 % off monthly), the platform fee drops to 0 %, and you unlock a check-in role, a custom URL, tax collection, Zapier and the API. Online events run through the Zoom integration.

The sending quota is the trap. Free covers 500 invites or newsletters a week, Plus covers 5,000. Each attendee gets several messages (confirmation, reminders), which burns through the quota faster than you expect. Extra sending packs range from $50 a month for 10,000 sends a week up to $800 a month for 100,000.

The catch: no reserved seating, and organizers regret they cannot add Google Analytics or a Meta Pixel. Approving registrants one by one also gets tedious on a big event.

Tip: on paid events, do the math before you pick a plan. Past roughly $14,000 in yearly ticket sales, Free's 5 % costs more than a year of Plus.

pretix is open-source ticketing software built in Germany. The hosted version takes 2.5 % plus VAT of the ticket price, with a hard cap: never more than €15 per ticket. Payment provider fees come on top. No subscription, no commitment.

The cap is the whole point. A €900 conference ticket costs €15 in fees, not €22.50 as a 2.5 % cut would suggest: €1,500 saved on 200 tickets, before VAT and processing. On a €10 ticket, pretix takes €0.25 plus VAT, which is very low, but you still add processing.

Free tickets follow their own rule. You get 500 free tickets a year, plus one more for every paid ticket sold. Past that, each free ticket costs €0.50. If you run lots of free events, model it. pretix ships a check-in app for the door.

The catch: it takes more setup than a consumer ticketing tool, and prices are in euros only. German VAT at 19 % applies to German residents and EU customers without a VAT number.

Tip: if you are in the EU, enter your VAT number at signup. Otherwise the fee is invoiced with German VAT.

Weezevent is a French ticketing platform built for organizers who manage crowds, not just sales. It publishes pricing in several currencies. In US dollars, the fee is 2.75 % plus $0.99 per ticket, excluding tax. Bank fees are included, there is no subscription or setup fee, and free events cost nothing.

What sets it apart is the event day. Access control is free, so you scan tickets at the door without paying for an add-on. The marketing and CRM module is free too. Weezevent also offers staff and accreditation management, and on-site cashless payment, billed separately.

Cash flow is the other thing to understand. Weezevent pays out every 15 days. That is good for your budget, but if you cancel, you already hold the money, so refunds are on you. Many negative attendee reviews come from exactly that: slow refunds and finger-pointing between organizer, platform and insurer.

The catch: the fixed $0.99 per ticket. For 200 tickets at $10, you pay about $253. Ticket Tailor lists its fee in pounds only (£120 plus VAT here), so convert at your bank's rate before comparing.

Tip: write your cancellation and refund policy before sales open, show it on the event page, and keep the ticket money set aside until the event.

Eventbrite is the ticketing platform most attendees have already bought from. Free events cost nothing. Paid tickets carry a 3.7 % plus $1.79 service fee per ticket, plus 2.9 % payment processing on each order. By default the buyer pays the fees, but you can choose to absorb them. Eventbrite Pro adds email marketing from $15 a month.

On a $10 ticket, that fee stack adds up fast. For 200 tickets, the service fee alone comes to $432, plus about $58 in processing on $2,000 of sales: roughly $490 in total. At $50 a ticket, you are past $1,000. The fixed $1.79 is what hurts small tickets.

Organizer feedback is mixed. Complaints focus on heavy fees for small organizers and pricey tickets, payouts held while Eventbrite asks for documents, and support that is hard to reach. If you cancel, Eventbrite holds your payout to process refunds. On the attendee side, people mention ads at the end of checkout and tickets that are hard to find later.

The catch: cost and cash flow, which is why it ranks fifth here. You pay more per ticket than with any other platform here, and you wait longer to see the money.

Tip: before you publish, decide whether attendees or you pay the fees, and write it on the event page. If you already sell on Eventbrite and want out, our guide to switching from Eventbrite walks through the move.

Livestorm is a French webinar and virtual event platform. It has no place at a trade show, but it covers the team whose events happen online.

Pricing runs on credits. The Pro plan costs €2.50 per attendee credit, bought as an annual pack. One unique attendee at one session uses one credit. A 200-person webinar therefore costs €500. A team running one monthly webinar for 100 unique attendees uses 1,200 credits a year, or €3,000.

Its 3.3 out of 5 comes from our full Livestorm review. It reflects the credit model, which gets expensive at scale, and billing disputes reported by users.

The catch: no physical ticketing and no door check-in. And the annual pack commits you to a volume before you know who will show up.

Tip: before buying the pack, count unique attendees per session over last year and multiply by €2.50. Plan details are on our Livestorm pricing page. If the total surprises you, see our Livestorm alternatives.