Introduction
Cvent is a well-established platform in the event management software industry. Like many enterprise software solutions, Cvent utilizes a custom pricing model rather than published rate cards. Based on user feedback from review platforms, some event planners have reported challenges in obtaining upfront pricing information, and have noted that the fee structure involves multiple components that may require careful consideration during budgeting.
In this article, we will explain how Cvent works, from licensing fees to registration charges, what influences its pricing, the features of each pricing plan, and whether you will receive value for your investment. We will also compare Cvent with solid alternatives, such as Eventify, to help you make more informed decisions.
How Much Does Cvent Cost?
Cvent employs a consultative sales approach with customized pricing rather than displaying standard pricing publicly. Interested users can visit their website, select their area of interest, and provide contact information to connect with a sales representative who will provide tailored pricing based on specific requirements.
Following initial inquiry, prospective customers typically receive communication from a Cvent product specialist to discuss their specific event management requirements and provide appropriate recommendations.
Following this, you will be provided with a personalised quote. You would also be invited to explore their on-demand demo library in the meantime. In addition, Cvent offers three primary pricing models -
- Registration - This covers registration and promotes your event.
- Attendee Hub - This model encompasses everything that helps you enhance attendee engagement at your event.
- OnArrival - This covers check-in, badging, and attendance.
Furthermore, there are flexible options available for you to choose from.
Eventify: A Transparent Alternative
While Cvent follows a consultative pricing approach, Eventify offers a different model with published pricing tiers and package details available upfront. Eventify is designed as an integrated event management platform that aims toprovide transparent pricing without additional fees beyond the stated package costs. From registration and ticketing to attendee engagement tools, mobile app creation, and detailed analytics, Eventify streamlines all operations to make your events successful.
What makes Eventify stand out?
- User-focused: From the intuitive, user-friendly interface to pricing terms and package benefits clearly outlined, Eventify prioritizes the needs and preferences of end-users. This makes it easy for them to navigate the website without getting overwhelmed.
- Engagement-first: Eventify features in-built attendee engagement tools, including live Q&A, matchmaking capabilities, virtual booths, and gamification.
- Clear terms: Eventify offers various plans tailored to different needs, which are clearly stated.
If you are an event organiser looking for affordable yet rich plans with no hidden costs, Eventify is your best choice. Start by booking a free demo and experience the difference for yourself.
Understanding Cvent's Service Categories
Disclaimer: The following information is based on publicly available materials from Cvent'swebsite and may not reflect current pricing or complete feature sets. For accurate and current information, please contact Cvent directly.
Registration
This pricing plan covers basic tools to build registration sites to collect attendee data, manage signups, and process payments. It is an excellent option for event organisers who want to centralise their attendee registration and onboarding without any hiccups in data collection and communication.
Attendee Hub
Attendee Hub provides tools that enhance attendee engagement; it is perfect for event organisers who want to move beyond numbers and maximise engagement and customer retention.
OnArrival
This pricing plan provides real-time onsite attendee support and enhances onsite workflows. If you want to establish a lasting first impression at your events, this is your best bet.
Additional Cost Considerations Reported by Users
Diclaimer: The following section summarizes feedback patterns observed in public customer reviews and should not be considered universal experiences. Individual pricing and experiences may vary significantly based on specific needs and implementations.
Based on customer reviews from platforms like G2 and Trustpilot, some event organizers have reported that their final investment differed from initialestimates, often due to additional services or features needed duringimplementation. Som eusers have shared in public reviews that the custom pricing structure made it challenging to predict final costs, and that additional requirements identified during implementation led to budget adjustments. Below are various forms of the hidden cost;
- Additional Services: According to user feedback, some features that customers expected tobe included in base packages, such as certain CRM integrations, may be offered as separate add-on services, which can increase overall investment.
- Attendee engagement: According to some reviews, Cvent prices features such as gamification and a mobile app separately. While these help boost attendee engagement, they inflate costs.
- On-site services: According to some user reports, features such as on-site badge printing and kiosk branding are not bundled together as a package; instead, they are individual costs that can quickly become major expenses.
- Scaling costs: As per some user reviews, ss your event expands, so do your fees. More sign-ups, more storage capacity for content, etc., often lead to major increases in your expenses.
- Training & support: Accoridng to user feedback while basic support is included in the base package, additional or premium support always requires an upgrade. Even training your staff on how to use the tools can be billed as a service.
Cvent: Reported Strengths and Considerations
When considering an event management platform to use, you must examine both the benefits and drawbacks to get a complete picture and make an informed decision. While Cvent is well-known in the events industry, it might not be the best option for every event organiser. As such, we’ve put together the pros and cons to help you decide if Cvent suits your preferences.
Pro
- Strong reputation: Cvent is one of the leading event management platforms in the events industry; it is trusted by Fortune 500 companies and large organisations, enhancing its credibility in decision-making rooms.
- Holistic event management tools: From sign-ups to promotion, attendee engagement, and post-event activities, Cvent covers everything, eliminating the need to use multiple tools.
- Scalability: Cvent can support large events with thousands of attendees and multiple sessions without crashing, while ensuring a smooth experience for everyone.
- Third-party integration: Cvent seamlessly integrates with a wide ecosystem of tools from CRMs such as Salesforce to payment gateways, ensuring a smooth data flow throughout the event lifecycle.
- Advanced analytics: Cvent provides detailed insights into attendee behavior and engagement, which helps calculate ROI and measurable outcomes for sponsor feedback, and drives better strategies for future events.
- Customizable modules: Clients can customize their base package according to their needs and preferences, without being restricted to a particular primary pricing model.
Cons
- Consultative pricing approach: Based on customer reviews Cvent doesn't publicly publish its prices. You must go through a sales representative to discuss your event needs before obtaining a quote, which may result in hidden charges.
- Packagestructure considerations: Some users have reported in reviews that certain package configurations included features beyond their immediate needs, potentially affecting cost efficiency for their specific use cases.
- Intense learning curve: Some considerations reported include Cvent’s packages come with so many features that onboarding takes time and may require extra staff training to use the tool effectively.
- Scale considerations: Based on user feedback and industry analysis, Cvent appears to be optimized for larger events, and some smaller organizations have reported finding the platform's feature set and pricing structure more complex than needed for their requirements.
- Pricy premium support: According to some industry feedback basic support is available, additional or priority support comes with a price, thereby increasing the entire budget.
- Unpredictable budgeting: Based on customer reviews with the unclear pricing models, add-ons can inflate costs even if the base package seems reasonable.
While Cvent has solid benefits, its drawbacks can be an overkill. You can opt for an alternative that’s easy-to-use, intuitive, and flexible with no hidden fees - Eventify. Eventify is built with the needs of modern event organizers in mind; start by exploring some of its features here.
Who is Cvent Best For?
Like most enterprise software solutions, Cvent's feature set and pricing structureappear to be designed with particular customer segments in mind, based on their marketing materials and case studies. For instance, it’s not suited to small events, but can be the greatest resource guaranteeing the success of a large event. That said, here are the different types of personas that can make the most of the platform;
Enterprise Event Teams
Based on publicly available information, case studies, and user feedback, Cvent appears to be well-suited for event teams of large corporations and enterprise-level organisations can use Cvent because they deal with a large number of attendees, global events, multiple tracks and sessions, frequent hybrid shows, etc.
Cvent offers comprehensive packages, including Attendee Hub and OnArrival, to help event teams manage attendee check-ins and engagement, as well as integrate with CRMs, ensuring seamless data flow. Additionally, enterprise event teams often have the budget and staff to utilize Cvent, making it a less burdensome option for them.
Global Nonprofits & Professional Associations
Based on publicly available information, case studies, and user feedback, Cvent appears to be well-suited for global non-profits and professional associations that host annual conventions/conferences, and hybrid events, while juggling the preferences of multiple stakeholders, including attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, and others.
Cvent offers activation tools that help them meet the needs of various stakeholders, providing detailed analytics that make it easier for them to report outcomes to donors or boards. Small nonprofits don’t have the budget to manage Cvent, so the pricing structure is more suited for global nonprofits that have massive funding for their work.
Professional Conference Organisers (PCOs) & Event Agencies
Based on publicly available information, case studies, and user feedback, Cvent appears to be well-suited for PCOs and event organisers who organise and manage events for multiple clients - individuals, associations, organisations, government, etc - can use Cvent. Beyond its scalability, Cvent’s seamless integration and robust analytics enhance the data-driven reports they need to present to their clients when giving feedback about the progress of their work.
Additionally, being an all-in-one event management solution eliminates the need to juggle multiple software tools, as all essential functions are centralized on Cvent. However, event agencies and PCOs need to factor in Cvent’s hidden charges, especially when dealing with clients with small budgets.
Cvent Tool Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are the most credible way to find out what sales representatives and brochures won’t tell you about the event management platform, and this is the same for Cvent. You can find both praises and frustrations of end users about Cvent on review platforms such as G2, Trustpilot, Gartner, Capterra, TrustRadius, etc. Below, we’ve curated the direct positive feedback and recurring complaints for you.
Customer Review Disclaimer: The following reviews are direct quotes from public review platforms and represent individual customer experiences and opinions. These reviews are shared for informational purposes only and do not represent our opinions or claims about the platform. Individual experiences with any software platform can vary significantly based on implementation, use case, training, and many other factors. We encourage readers to consider multiple sources and conduct their own evaluation.
Positives
- “Cvent Event Management does it all! Our company hosts multiple events at a given time all throughout the country, and sometimes things can get a little hectic. This allows us to manage our attendees, have a mobile app for guests to access their schedules and breakout sessions, and have on-site solutions for easier check-ins. It is all around an event saver!” - Kat, US.
- “I use Cvent on a daily basis for multiple clients. What I like best is that I can configure each site to what my clients' specific needs are, branding guidelines, and attendee diversity. Every event we do is unique; we have events that are a basic RSVP, to complex builds that need a great deal more of attention. I can customize our sites easily with stored themes & images, and the access to the travel widgets and pre-set contact information makes my job much easier too.” - Denise, US.
- “It is easy to use, the exact layouts, drag and drop features, and allows you to share the software with the client so they can look at the setup and make changes on their own.” - Carrie M.
Complaints
Cvent upsells all of their services and provides no support beyond sending you the invoice. All of the cons we noticed with Cvent includes:
- Everything is manual on your end
- Exhibitor portal is not linked to registration
- The app tends to glitch
- The email templates are not up to industry standards
- Registration will randomly close without warning
- Speakers have complained about the Resource Center
- The registration process is not simple, you have to add a session, configure it with the web designer, have all the settings be right. You will be on the phone with customer support for long hours
- "Incredibly expensive. You're better off developing your own registration platform for half the cost. “ - Thomas, US.
- “It was a joke when the seller said during the meeting, "We'll see if we cooperate." It’s our company that wanted to purchase a service, not the seller buying something from us. It smells like a scam. They don’t provide clear pricing, but instead refer to this license costing something and that license costing something else. They add various licenses so that you, as the customer, end up paying a lot. There’s no clear overview of what they’re offering.” - Hamon, SE.
- “I feel sometimes the system is slow, and the cache can mess things up. The customizations help a lot. But can take time. Recently many of my colleagues have not been able to renew as the cost is just too steep. I wish there were level packages that may help others utilize the software.” - Lesley, US.
These represent individual experiences and may not reflect current platform capabilities or typical user experiences.
Alternative To Cvent: Eventify
If you are evaluating different event management platforms and considering various approaches to pricing and feature delivery, Eventify represents a different approach to event management software that may align with organizations seeking transparent pricing and integrated feature sets. Whether you are running virtual, in-person, or hybrid events, Eventify offers all the essential tools you need to make your events unforgettable. From attendee registration to gamification for real-time engagement to post-event activities, Eventify helps you deliver smooth event experiences that your attendees won’t stop talking about.
What Makes Eventify Stands Out?
Key Features of Eventify
- Transparent and tiered pricing: Eventify offers various packages to suit different event needs and budgets. From simple attendee registration to more sophisticated engagement tools, the pricing is clear. There are no hidden costs, and what you see in each plan is what you get.
- AI-powered networking & mobile app: Eventify has an in-built mobile app to enhance real-time engagement among attendees. From live polls to private chats to personalised matchmaking, Eventify boosts attendee networking and event branding.
Eventify Pricing
Unlike Cvent, Eventify has no surprises - what you see is what you pay for and get. Besides, there are various tiers to cater to different event needs, and even the lowest tier provides features that help you deliver a smooth attendee experience.
The platform is intuitive and user-friendly, keeping attendees connected and helping event organizers achieve their goals. Whether you are organising a small meeting, a hybrid show, or a global conference, Eventify enables you to meet your target without inflating your costs. You can check it out by requesting a demo here.
Does Cvent Pricing Fit Your budget?
Budget considerations are important when evaluating event management platforms. Based on publicly available information and user feedback, Cvent's pricing model appears to be structured for organizations with substantial event budgets and complex requirements. The platform's enterprise-grade features and customization capabilities may align well with larger organizations that have significant event management needs and corresponding budgets. Such organisations are less likely to find the hidden costs of scaling and add-ons challenging. Organizations seeking upfront pricing visibility and predictable cost structures may find alternative solutions more aligned with their procurement and budgeting processes.
However, whether you are a growing startup or a large organisation that prioritizes engagement, flexibility, and cost-efficiency, Eventify provides a more practical solution. It has transparent, tiered pricing that clearly indicates what you are paying for and what you are getting. If you are ready to explore a simpler and smarter event management platform, try Eventify today.
DISCLAIMER: This content is provided forinformational and educational purposes only. All statements regarding pricing, features, and user experiences are based on publicly available information, customer reviews, and general industry analysis as of the publication date.This content does not constitute professional advice and should not be relied upon as the sole basis for purchasing decisions.
All product names, trademarks, and service marks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. No endorsement or affiliation is implied. Individual experiences with software platforms vary significantly based on numerous factors including implementation, training, organizational needs, and usage patterns.
We strongly recommend conducting independent research, requesting current information directly from vendors, participating in product demonstrations, and consulting with relevant stakeholders before making any software purchasing decisions. Pricing, features, and service offerings aresubject to change without notice.
This analysis represents our perspective and interpretation of available informationand should be considered alongside other sources and professional guidance appropriate to your specific situation.
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