How much does a conference app cost in 2026?

What drives conference app pricing, the published and reported price points for Bizzabo, Cvent, Eventbrite, Whova, and ConferenceTap, and a worked cost example for a 400-person event.

Published by ConferenceTap · September 17, 2026 · Updated September 17, 2026

A conference app can cost nothing, or it can cost more than the venue. The spread is that wide because vendors count different things. One charges per user seat. One charges per event. One charges nothing up front and takes a cut of every ticket. Before you compare quotes, know what each vendor is counting.

This guide covers what moves the price, the numbers we could verify for five platforms, a worked example for a 400-person conference, and the questions that get a straight answer on a sales call. If you would rather go straight to a number, see our plans and request a quote.

What actually drives the price

Attendee count. Almost every vendor prices by attendance band, either openly or through a quote form. Whova's quote form asks for attendance in bands from under 500 to over 60,000. Give the vendor your realistic number and your best case, and ask what happens if you land between the two.

Number of events per year. A single-event price and an annual price are different products. One conference a year usually suits a one-event plan. A conference plus quarterly meetups can cost less per event on an annual plan. Whova's FAQ says it offers package deals for multiple events, and most vendors will do the same when asked.

Live video. Streaming to remote attendees, breakout rooms, and recordings are often a separate tier. Bizzabo lists virtual events as a premium add-on priced separately from its base subscription. If your event is in person only, do not pay for a virtual tier. If it is hybrid, ask what the concurrent viewer limit is and what it costs to go over it.

Onboarding. Some vendors include a person who sets the event up with you. Some charge a setup fee. Some hand you documentation. The difference is real staff hours on your side.

Branding. Removing the vendor's logo and using your own colors and banner is standard on some plans and an add-on on others. Bizzabo lists custom branding among its separately priced add-ons. Get the branding line in writing before you sign.

Per-ticket fees. Any platform that sells tickets takes a percentage, a fixed amount per ticket, or both, plus payment processing. On a 400-person event these fees can be larger than the software subscription. The worked example below shows how much the structure matters.

Published and reported price points for five platforms

The table uses only figures we could find on a vendor's own site or on a named third-party page, all checked on September 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm on a call.

Scroll sideways to see all columns.

Platform	Published or reported price	What it covers	Source type
Bizzabo	$499 per user per month, billed annually, three-user minimum. The pricing page says “Starting at $17,999 per year.”	Event Experience OS. Virtual events, advanced onsite, integrations, custom branding, and API access are premium add-ons priced separately.	Vendor pricing page
Cvent	No published list price. Vendr reports a median contract of $19,550 per year across 194 purchases, with a range of $5,133 to $94,530, and per-event pricing of roughly $500 to $2,500 for small organizations.	Full event management suite. Scope varies by contract.	Third-party marketplace data
Eventbrite	3.7% + $1.79 service fee per paid ticket, plus 2.9% payment processing per order (US). Free events have no fees.	Ticketing and event listing. Not a conference app; you still need an agenda, networking, and check-in tool.	Vendor pricing page
Whova	Quote only. The pricing page is a request form asking event type, duration, attendance, and annual event count. A third-party guide reports about 3% + $0.99 per paid ticket; Whova has not confirmed that figure.	Event app with registration. Multi-event package deals on request.	Vendor pricing page and third-party guide
ConferenceTap	One Event from $2,500, flat; Unlimited Events from $10,000 a year. Free trial up to 100 registrations. Ticketing fee 3.5% plus Stripe processing fees on paid tickets.	Unlimited registrations, unlimited organizers, white-label branding, 1:1 onboarding, live video, analytics with export, on both paid plans.	Our pricing page

Bizzabo and Cvent are built and priced for teams that run many events a year, and both have strengths we do not match. Bizzabo has strong analytics, Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, and its Klik SmartBadge wearables. Cvent has venue sourcing, enterprise integrations, and scale. Eventbrite is not a conference app, so the real question is “Eventbrite plus what?” rather than which is better. Our own line on the subject is short: “Most event apps quote in the $3k–$10k+ range. We don't.”

A worked example: a 400-person, two-day conference

Illustrative example with invented inputs. The figures below are not a quote from any vendor. They exist to show how the pieces add up. Swap in your own numbers.

The event: 400 paid tickets at $350 each, two days, one keynote streamed to remote viewers, check-in on staff phones. We assume a platform quote of $6,000, a $1,500 setup fee, and an $800 streaming add-on. All three are invented round numbers. Some vendors include setup and streaming and some do not, which is why they get separate lines.

Scroll sideways to see all columns.

Cost line	Fee A: 3.5% per ticket	Fee B: 3.7% + $1.79 per ticket
Platform quote (invented)	$6,000	$6,000
Setup fee (invented)	$1,500	$1,500
Streaming add-on (invented)	$800	$800
Ticket service fees on 400 tickets at $350	$4,900	$5,896
Payment processing	Separate, charged by Stripe at its published rate	Separate, 2.9% per order per the Eventbrite pricing page
Total before payment processing	$13,200	$14,196
Per attendee, before payment processing	$33.00	$35.49

How the two fee structures differ on the same ticket

Fee A is our structure: 3.5% of the ticket price, plus Stripe processing fees. Fee B is Eventbrite's published US service fee: 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket, plus 2.9% processing per order. On a $350 ticket:

Fee A: $350 × 0.035 = $12.25 per ticket. 400 tickets × $12.25 = $4,900.
Fee B: $350 × 0.037 = $12.95, plus $1.79 = $14.74 per ticket. 400 tickets × $14.74 = $5,896.
Difference: $5,896 minus $4,900 = $996 on the same 400 tickets.

The fixed $1.79 matters more as ticket prices fall. On a $60 ticket, Fee A is $60 × 0.035 = $2.10. Fee B is $60 × 0.037 = $2.22, plus $1.79 = $4.01, almost double. Across 400 tickets that is $840 against $1,604, a gap of $764. Cheap tickets and a fixed per-ticket fee are a bad combination.

Neither column includes payment processing. Eventbrite publishes 2.9% per order. Stripe publishes its own rates by country and charges them on top of our 3.5%. Add the rate that applies to you to both columns before you decide.

Hidden costs to ask about

Setup or implementation fees. A one-time charge that appears after the subscription is agreed. Ask for it on the first call, and ask what it buys.
Per-attendee overages. If the quote is for 400 attendees and 450 register, what is the charge for the extra 50? Get the overage rate and the trigger in writing.
Add-ons. Branding, streaming, integrations, API access, badge printing, and extra organizer seats are the usual ones. Ask for a priced list of everything outside the base price.
Contract term. A per-event quote and a twelve-month contract are different commitments. If the quote is annual, ask what happens if you cancel after the event.
Annual increases. Ask whether the renewal price is fixed, indexed, or at the vendor's discretion. A quiet increase at renewal is how a cheap first year becomes an expensive third year.

Questions to ask on a sales call

What exactly is included in this price, and what is the full list of things that cost extra?
What is the total fee, including payment processing, on a $50 ticket and a $500 ticket?
What happens to the price if attendance is 20% higher than my estimate?
Is this a per-event price or an annual contract, and what is the renewal price?
Who does the setup, and is there a named contact on event day?
Can I remove your logo and use my own colors and banner without paying extra?
Can I export every attendee, session, check-in, and poll record myself, without asking support?
Can I have a written quote for the same scope I am sending to two other vendors?

When a free tool is enough

Not every event needs a paid app. A 40-person workshop with one room and a printed agenda can run on a registration form, a spreadsheet, and a group email. Eventbrite charges nothing on free events. Our free trial covers up to 100 registrations and events up to two hours with self-guided onboarding, enough to run a small session end to end and see whether an app changes anything for your attendees.

The free option stops working when you have parallel tracks, paid tickets, a sponsor who wants a branded presence, or more than one organizer editing the schedule. At that point the hours spent patching tools together cost more than a quote.

Compare the quotes on the same scope

Ask every vendor to quote the same event: same dates, same attendee count, same streaming needs, same branding, same number of organizers. Then put the answers side by side. Download our quote comparison worksheet (CSV) and fill in one column per vendor. It has a row for each hidden cost above and a column for the evidence behind each figure.

If you are weighing a specific platform, we have written up the tradeoffs against Whova and Cvent, including where each is the better choice. When you are ready for a number for your own event, see our plans and request a quote.

Sources

Sources checked September 17, 2026.