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Event Registration & Ticketing

Cvent

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Cvent Inc. · www.cvent.com

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Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Cvent at a glance

Vendor
Cvent Inc.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Cvent 2.5/5, the mean of 6 judges. Cvent, a US-based enterprise event platform, is strongest at the door: check-in and on-site scores range 8 to 9, covering QR self-check-in, guest lists searchable by name, email or company, on-demand badge printing, session scans with capacity control, on-site card payments and continuing-education signature tracking. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 29 Oct 2026 to 1 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 30 Oct 2026. all sources

Cvent alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Conference Organiser

Weighted verdict

Runs the annual congress of a trade association: 900 attendees over two days, member and non-member prices, workshops with twenty seats each, and half the bookings made by an assistant for three colleagues at once. Wants the shop on the association's own site, invoices that a company's accounts payable accepts without a phone call, badges printed at the door from the same data, and session check-in that counts towards continuing-education points.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Conference Organiser

Panel median The Conference Organiser This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Conference Organiser
Ticket shop, checkout & registration 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
Payments, payouts, fees & refunds 2.5 of 5 2 of 5
VAT, invoices & accounting handoff 1.5 of 5 1.5 of 5
Check-in, badges & on-site sales 4 of 5 4.5 of 5
Attendee data & the customer relationship 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 2.5 of 5 3 of 5

Ticket shop, checkout & registration

How this is scored

How a ticket or a registration is sold: ticket types and categories, member and early-bird prices, discount codes, bundles and add-ons, a shop embeddable on the organiser's own website or under its own domain, custom questions per ticket and per attendee, group and company bookings, capacity limits and waiting lists, reserved seating with a seating plan, recurring dates and course series, several languages, and an accessible mobile checkout.

0 — Not a ticketing or registration tool; tickets cannot be sold and registrations cannot be taken in the product.

3 — An event page on the platform with a few ticket types and a fixed sign-up form; embedding, custom questions, capacity rules or seating are basic or not described.

5 — Several ticket types with prices, quotas and sale periods, discount codes, custom questions per attendee, a shop embeddable on the organiser's website as a widget or link, capacity limits with a waiting list, and a checkout that works on a phone.

8 — A white-label shop under the organiser's own domain and design, reserved seating with a seating-plan editor, add-ons and bundles, group and company bookings with several attendees per order, conditional questions, member prices by code or login, recurring dates and course series, several languages, and the checkout's accessibility stated.

10 — A shop that fits any event: multi-event and season tickets, timed entry and seat holds, a checkout that the organiser can extend (API, custom fields synced to a CRM), an accessibility conformance statement (WCAG level named), and the conversion and drop-off of the checkout reported to the organiser.

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The Conference Organiser

The registration pages show complete event websites with drag-and-drop design and branding, early-bird pricing, automated reminder emails and abandoned-registration follow-up, and the association pages offer membership authentication for member handling, with an independently audited WCAG statement and eighteen accessibility templates on the trust pages. I found no public information on discount codes, capacity limits with waiting lists, seating plans or group bookings with several attendees per order — the last being exactly what my assistants do when booking three colleagues at once — so I cannot place the shop at the fully flexible level. 8 4 7 14

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Payments, payouts, fees & refunds

How this is scored

How the money moves: payment methods offered to buyers (cards, PayPal, SEPA direct debit, invoice, local methods), whether the organiser connects its own payment account or the platform collects as merchant of record, when the revenue is paid out (continuously, before the event, or after it), the per-ticket and payment fees and whether they can be passed on to the buyer, refunds of single tickets and of a cancelled event, ticket transfer and resale, and chargebacks.

0 — No payment of any kind; the product only collects free registrations.

3 — Online card payment through the platform; payout timing, fee model, refunds or buyer-paid fees are basic or not described.

5 — Several payment methods including cards and PayPal or SEPA, the fee per ticket stated with the option to pass it to the buyer, the payout schedule stated, and refunds of single orders and of a cancelled event issued from the product.

8 — A choice between the organiser's own payment account (Stripe, PayPal, Mollie or similar) and platform collection, payouts before the event stated with their conditions, invoice and bank transfer for business buyers, partial refunds and refund policies set per event, ticket transfer or resale by buyers, and chargeback handling explained.

10 — Full control of the money: the merchant of record named for each set-up, payout timing and any reserve held published, every fee itemised per order, refunds, transfers and resale with the organiser's rules enforced, and the cancellation process for an event documented end to end.

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The Conference Organiser

Cvent Payments is described as collecting money on my behalf with all major cards plus Apple Pay and Google Pay in 130+ currencies, weekly payouts in six named currencies including the euro, automated refund balances updated twice daily, automated reserve handling, and an OnArrival reader for on-site card sales. The captured pages state "One Flat Fee with no hidden costs" without any amount, and I found no public information on PayPal, SEPA direct debit or invoice payment for business buyers, on the per-ticket fee, or on whether fees can be passed to the buyer. 10 11 3

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VAT, invoices & accounting handoff

How this is scored

How ticket revenue reaches the books correctly: the VAT rate set per ticket or product (reduced rates for concerts and culture, exemptions for education and seminars), gross and net prices shown, invoices to buyers in the organiser's name with consecutive numbers, business buyers with company name and VAT ID, reverse charge for cross-border events, cancellation invoices and credit notes, the platform's own fee invoice, e-invoicing, and exports to DATEV or named accounting systems.

0 — No receipts or invoices; the organiser has to produce every invoice outside the product.

3 — An order confirmation or simple receipt per booking; VAT rates, invoices in the organiser's name, business buyers or accounting exports are basic or not described.

5 — VAT rate configurable per ticket, invoices generated in the organiser's name with its tax details and consecutive numbers, company name and address captured for business buyers, cancellation invoices on refund, and a sales export as CSV or to at least one named accounting system.

8 — Several VAT rates in one order, net prices for business buyers, VAT IDs validated and reverse charge applied, e-invoices (XRechnung or ZUGFeRD) for public and business buyers, a DATEV export with booking data, the platform's fee invoice separated from ticket revenue, and whether the platform sells as agent or in its own name stated.

10 — Tax handled per country: VAT rules for events in several EU countries documented with the place of supply, invoices and credit notes stated as compliant with national invoice law, a reconciliation of payouts, fees and ticket revenue per event, and a GoBD-compliant archive or audit export.

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The Conference Organiser

The only facts bearing on the books are "tax collection" as part of the payment service, a finance-and-budget integration category, and an FAQ that mentions SAP Concur for budget tracking. I found no public information on VAT rates per ticket, invoices in my association's name with consecutive numbers, VAT-ID capture or reverse charge, credit notes, or an export to a named accounting system — for invoices an accounts-payable department accepts without a phone call, that is thin. 11 5 8

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Check-in, badges & on-site sales

How this is scored

What happens at the door: a check-in app that scans tickets on phones or scanners, offline scanning and several devices at once, entrances and time slots, check-in lists by name, badge printing with attendee data and QR code, box office and on-site sales with card terminals, walk-in registration, session and room check-in at conferences, attendance certificates, and live attendance figures.

0 — No check-in; tickets cannot be validated at the event.

3 — Tickets with a QR code and a guest list to tick off by hand or in a simple app; offline use, several devices, badges or on-site sales are basic or not described.

5 — A free check-in app for iOS and Android that scans tickets on several devices at once, works offline and syncs, a searchable guest list, and live check-in numbers in the dashboard.

8 — Badge printing with attendee data and QR codes, access rules per entrance, session or day, box office sales on site with a named card terminal, walk-in registration, dedicated scanner hardware supported or rented, and attendance certificates for courses.

10 — On-site operations at scale: self-service kiosks or turnstile integration, session check-in feeding continuing-education credits, cashless or on-site payments reconciled with online sales, and the hardware, offline limits and failover documented.

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The Conference Organiser

OnArrival covers my door end to end: QR self-check-in and search by name, email, company or confirmation, wireless on-demand badge printing with attendee details editable on the fly, kiosks and walk-in registration, session badge scans with admit-deny verification and capacity control, real-time figures every fifteen minutes, and an on-site payment reader. Signature tracking for CE credits and continuing-education credit tracking across all events match my congress duty directly, and both full-service and self-service packages with hardware, printers and scanners are published; I found no public information on offline scanning limits or failover behaviour. 3 4 12 13

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Attendee data & the customer relationship

How this is scored

Who the ticket buyer belongs to: whether the organiser is the controller of attendee data and the platform its processor, or the platform a controller in its own right; whether buyers must create an account on the platform; whether the platform markets other events to the organiser's buyers or lists the event on its own marketplace; consent for the organiser's newsletter collected in the checkout; messages to attendees; attendee data exportable at any time; and deletion and anonymisation after the event.

0 — The organiser receives no attendee data at all; the platform keeps the buyer relationship entirely.

3 — A guest list visible to the organiser; who is controller, the platform's own marketing to buyers, export or deletion are basic or not described.

5 — Attendee data exportable by the organiser at any time, the organiser named as controller with a data processing agreement offered, buyers able to book without a platform account, newsletter consent for the organiser collectable in the checkout, and messages to attendees from the product.

8 — A white-label set-up in which buyers see only the organiser, the platform stated not to market other events to the organiser's buyers (or the opt-out explained), the platform's marketplace listing optional, deletion and anonymisation of attendee data after the event configurable, and attendee data synced to a named CRM or via API and webhooks.

10 — The organiser owns the relationship and can prove it: the controller and processor roles documented for every data flow, no platform account or platform marketing by default, retention set per event and enforced, and a complete export of orders, attendees and answers that a successor tool can import.

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The Conference Organiser

A data processing agreement with a ten-business-day objection window and change notifications is published, the pages state that attendee data is never sold and never used to train external models, data subjects keep rights to correction, deletion and blocking, and attendee data syncs to Salesforce, Marketo or HubSpot through an open API. I found no public information on booking without a platform account, newsletter consent in the checkout, configurable retention after the event, or whether the platform markets other events to my buyers, so the relationship is supported but its ownership is not proven. 15 14 7 5

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where attendee, order and payment data are hosted, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, payment providers, email delivery, analytics, support). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; attendee lists show who goes where and when, and a conference list holds names, employers and dietary or accessibility answers, so the whole chain counts, not only the database.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (payments, email, analytics, support) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, a self-hosted or on-premises option or data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Conference Organiser

The German security page claims first-class European data-centre infrastructure that keeps customer data within the EU, a Cvent Deutschland GmbH appears in the affiliate list under the published data processing agreement, and ISO 27001 and 27701, SOC 1 and 2 Type II, PCI DSS Level 1 and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework are attested. The vendor is U.S.-based Cvent Inc., the affiliate and subprocessor list gives no per-provider locations, and data residency is flagged as unconfirmed from the vendor's own captured pages, so the chain beyond the hosting claim remains open. 14 15 7 1

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether an organiser can compute the real cost of an event from public pages alone: the fee per ticket or per registration (fixed, percentage or both), payment processing fees, whether fees are charged to the organiser or added to the buyer's price, free events, subscriptions or credit packs, payout and refund fees, add-ons (seating, white label, badges, box office), hardware rental, minimums and term, and VAT on the fees.

0 — No public prices at all; every organiser is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or "free for free events" exists, but the fee for paid tickets, payment fees or who pays them is unclear.

5 — The fee per ticket and the payment processing fees are public with the main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (refund fees, white label, seating, box office, hardware) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every fee published with its rule (per ticket, percentage, cap), the share paid by buyer and organiser stated, add-ons and hardware priced, payout and refund fees listed, and VAT treatment of the fees stated.

10 — Complete price computability: the cost of an event derivable for a given ticket price, ticket count and payment mix, with every add-on, hardware, support and payout fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.

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The Conference Organiser

Beyond a 14-day free trial of the registration software, the only pricing statements I found are "One Flat Fee with no hidden costs" and "no hidden fees", both without any amount attached. I found no public information on the per-ticket or payment-processing fee, on who pays it, on refund or payout fees, on hardware rental, or on term and minimums; registration runs through a demo request form, so the real cost of my 900-delegate congress is a sales conversation. 11 14 8

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Cvent

Is Cvent European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Cvent as Rest of world.

Where does Cvent store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

Does Cvent have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Cvent?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates pretix (3/5), Converia (3/5) and doo (3/5) highest among the other 13 Event Registration & Ticketing products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is pretix (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Cvent alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Cvent? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (16)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Features page (event registration) www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Features page (check-in and badging) www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Features page (associations) www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Integrations page www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Privacy policy www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Security / trust page www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Ticket shop, checkout & registration — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Ticket shop, checkout & registration — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Payments, payouts, fees & refunds — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Payments, payouts, fees & refunds — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Check-in, badges & on-site sales — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Check-in, badges & on-site sales — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Attendee data & the customer relationship — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  15. 15 Attendee data & the customer relationship — found from sitemap www.cvent.com Checked 29 Oct 2026 Details →
  16. 16 Imprint — found from the homepage www.cvent.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →