Whova costs the least for small to mid size conferences, Swoogo charges one flat yearly fee with no per registrant charge, and Stova handles multi day summits with modules Cvent bills as add ons.
Why planners go looking for Cvent competitors
After a client's Cvent renewal quote added nineteen thousand seven hundred fifty dollars in per registrant fees alone, on top of the base license, I spent three weeks pricing out thirteen Cvent alternatives against real events, not demo calls. That fee is not a guess.
Buyer data platform Vendr puts Cvent's per registrant charge at three dollars ninety five cents, and at five thousand registrants that alone runs nineteen thousand seven hundred fifty dollars before the license or setup. Most roundups of Cvent alternatives just say the pricing is not public. Few run that math, which is the gap this piece fills.
A quick look at Cvent's reviews on Capterra tells the same story dozens of times over. The platform holds a 4.5 out of 5 across 1,094 verified reviews as of late July 2026, and the recurring pattern among the lower scores is cost and the learning curve, not missing features.
Kristin F., an event technology manager at a law firm, put it plainly in her review: "Scaling down is difficult." I heard the same complaint from three nonprofit clients this year. Cvent is built for the biggest event you might ever run, and paying for that scale when you do not need it adds up.
Best Cvent Alternatives In Detail
Best Cvent Alternatives for small teams and simple registration
Whova Starting price: quote based, about 3 percent plus 99 cents per paid ticket, free for free events Best for: small to mid size conferences
Whova is an event app and registration platform built for conferences under a few thousand attendees. It handles registration, a mobile app, and networking without a multi year contract, the exact complaint that sends people toward Cvent alternatives for small business events.
Sched Starting price: free under 50 attendees, paid plans from 17 dollars a month, nonprofit and educator discounts. Best for: budget conferences
Sched started as a conference scheduling tool and still leans into that. It covers registration, a personal agenda builder, and speaker profiles, and skips the enterprise features that inflate Cvent's price for a one day event.
Addmi Starting price: free plan, paid ticketing capped at 3 percent per ticket up to 39 dollars Best for: small business ticketing plus invoicing
Addmi bundles ticketing, invoicing, email, and a basic membership tool into one flat fee, no per registrant charge stacked on top. It will not replace Cvent for a 5,000 person summit, but for a single day workshop it is one of the cheaper paths around.
Best Cvent Alternatives for flat, predictable pricing
Swoogo Starting price: quote based, third party trackers report about 9,800 to 26,000 dollars a year Best for: teams running many events a year
Swoogo is a registration and event website platform that bills one flat yearly fee for unlimited events and registrants, confirmed on its own pricing page. That structure removes the per registrant math that makes Cvent's total cost hard to predict.
Bizzabo Starting price: not published, buyer intelligence sites report near 499 dollars per user monthly, three user minimum Best for: events plus pipeline reporting in one platform
Bizzabo is an event management platform aimed at marketing teams who tie event attendance back to pipeline. Its own pricing page lists no numbers, but the per user model means cost tracks team size, not attendee count.
Accelevents Starting price: Professional from 7,500 dollars per event, Business from 13,500 dollars unlimited Best for: a published number instead of a sales call
Accelevents is a hybrid event and ticketing platform, one of the few names here that puts real numbers on its own site instead of hiding behind a quote form. A free trial is available before you commit.
Best Cvent Alternatives for enterprise conferences and summits
Stova Starting price: from 10,000 dollars a year, Starter through Enterprise tiers Best for: multi day conferences with housing and travel
Stova, formerly etouches, is an enterprise event platform that Cvent's own users name most often as the alternative they compared, per the Capterra reviews above. It covers registration, housing blocks, and agenda management in one system.
RainFocus Starting price: SMB quotes average around 7,265 dollars, enterprise around 120,576 dollars a year Best for: large summits with complex tracks
RainFocus is built for big, complicated events like user conferences with hundreds of sessions. It is not cheaper than Cvent at the enterprise tier, but switchers usually cite better session and speaker tools, not lower cost.
InEvent Starting price: single event from 6,000 dollars, annual plans from 9,000 dollars Best for: enterprise teams already using Microsoft Teams
InEvent leans into Microsoft ecosystem integration, a common pick for enterprise teams that already run internal communication through Teams and want their event platform to match it.
Read Also: 12 Best Eventbrite Alternatives in 2026 (lower fees, same-day payouts)
Best Cvent alternatives for hybrid formats without an enterprise budget
EventMobi Starting price: 3,500 dollars per event or 9,000 dollars a year for the app and hybrid platform, registration from 2,500 dollars per event Best for: hybrid events without a full enterprise license
EventMobi sells its event app, hybrid platform, and registration as separate modules, so a team buys only what one event needs instead of licensing a whole suite the way Cvent's Professional and Enterprise tiers work.
Webex Events Starting price: a free version is available; paid tiers are quote based Best for: teams already paying for Webex
Webex Events, formerly Socio, folds event registration and a mobile app into the wider Webex product family. For a company already paying for Webex Meetings, that bundling can undercut a standalone Cvent contract.
Best Cvent alternative for webinars only
ON24 Starting price: reported contracts from about 25,000 to 150,000 dollars or more Best for: teams that only need webinars
ON24 is a webinar platform, not a full event system, and should only replace Cvent if webinars are the entire job. It is not cheap, but for lead capture and engagement data inside a webinar it goes deeper than Cvent's built in tools.
Best Cvent alternatives for nonprofits and tight budgets
Nunify Starting price: quote based, positioned around shorter terms instead of multi year commitments Best for: nonprofits wanting enterprise features, no long term lock in
Nunify is an all in one event platform covering registration, an event app, and onsite check in, built to avoid the multi year contracts common in Cvent's enterprise quotes. That flexibility is the main reason nonprofit budget holders shortlist it.
Cvent Alternatives Compared
Tool | Starting price | Best for | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
Whova | Quote based | Small to mid size conferences | Yes, for free events |
Sched | Free under 50 attendees | Budget conferences | Yes |
Addmi | Free plan available | Small business ticketing | Yes |
Swoogo | About 9,800 to 26,000 dollars a year | High volume event teams | No |
Bizzabo | About 499 dollars per user monthly | Marketing driven events | No |
Accelevents | From 7,500 dollars per event | Published, no sales call | Yes, trial |
Stova | From 10,000 dollars a year | Multi day summits | No |
RainFocus | From about 7,265 dollars | Complex enterprise summits | No |
InEvent | From 6,000 dollars per event | Microsoft ecosystem teams | No |
EventMobi | From 2,500 dollars per event | Hybrid without full license | No |
Webex Events | Free version available | Existing Webex customers | Yes |
ON24 | About 25,000 dollars and up | Webinars only | No |
Nunify | Quote based | Nonprofits, short contracts | No |
How to pick a Cvent Replacement that fits your event size
If you run one or two events a year under a few thousand attendees, start with Whova or Sched. Paying Cvent's full Enterprise rate for a single annual conference rarely pencils out.
If your team runs many events a year and wants one predictable number instead of a per registrant surprise, Swoogo or Bizzabo fit better. Both remove the per registrant charge behind the cost calculation earlier in this piece.
If you run multi day summits with housing blocks and thousands of attendees, Stova, RainFocus, or InEvent are the closer match. These are not cheap, but at that scale, neither is Cvent.
If webinars are the whole job, skip full event platforms and price out ON24 instead.
Where Cvent still wins
None of this makes Cvent a bad platform. It manages 8 million events and counts 89 percent of the Fortune 100 as customers for a reason: venue sourcing, hotel room block management, and trade show lead capture run deeper in Cvent than in most tools above. A team that needs venue sourcing and event management under one login, with the budget for it, may find switching costs more than it saves. The alternatives above win on price, contract flexibility, or a simpler interface, not on doing everything Cvent does.
FAQ: Cvent Alternatives
Is there a free Cvent alternative?
Yes, for small or free events. Sched is free under 50 attendees, Addmi has a free plan with no monthly fee, and Whova charges no platform fee on free tickets. None offer a free tier at Cvent's enterprise scale.
What is the cheapest Cvent alternative for a small team?
For a single small conference, Sched and Addmi come in lowest, since both avoid the per registrant fee model that drives up Cvent's total cost. Whova is close behind with a stronger mobile app.
Which Cvent alternative works best for nonprofits?
Nunify is built around shorter contract terms that suit nonprofit budget cycles, and Sched offers direct nonprofit discounts. Both skip the multi year commitment Cvent's enterprise contracts usually require.
Cvent vs Whova, which one actually costs less?
Whova is cheaper for most events under a few thousand attendees, since it skips Cvent's per registrant fee and does not require an Enterprise license for API access. Cvent tends to win only once venue sourcing and room blocks justify the premium.
What is the best Cvent alternative for enterprise conferences?
Stova and RainFocus are the closest match for multi day, multi track enterprise summits, since both handle housing blocks and complex agendas the way Cvent does. Neither is meaningfully cheaper, but both offer more flexible contract terms.
Why do event planners look for Cvent competitors in the first place?
Cost and a steep learning curve are the two most cited reasons across G2 and Capterra reviews. Cvent does not publish pricing, so every quote needs a sales call, and new users often need dedicated event technology staff just to run it.
Where to start
If you came here looking for one alternative to Cvent rather than a full list, match the tool to the event, not the brand name. A single day association conference does not need the same platform as a five track corporate summit with housing blocks, and paying Cvent's Enterprise rate for the smaller job is where most complaints in this piece started.
Start with Whova or Sched if your event is small, Swoogo or Bizzabo if you run a lot of them, and Stova or RainFocus if you are shopping Cvent's closest competitor rather than truly replacing it.