Best Event Management Software of 2026

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What you need to know about event management software

What is event management software?

Essential features of event management software

Benefits and competitive advantages of using event management software

How to choose the best event management software for your business

Software related to event management software

More resources for your event management journey

What you need to know about event management software

Event management software helps organizations better plan, organize, and execute events via features such as registration management, attendee management, and event scheduling. By reducing manual tasks, event management software helps firms automate scheduling and registration tasks and empowers users to track progress and communicate with stakeholders through a centralized platform. 

To give you an idea of the market, we have over 496 different event management vendors on our site, and we've published over 6,000 reviews in the past year for event management products. [1]  

The event management market is vast, with hundreds of solutions available to cater to various industries. This diversity allows organizations to find an event management solution designed to support specific industries, whether they are in education, nonprofit, healthcare, or IT and services industries. However, the market size and complexity can be daunting, making it essential for buyers to evaluate their options carefully.

Pricing for event management software varies depending on the vendor, features offered, and scalability. Some solutions offer tiered pricing models based on specific organizational requirements. To put things into perspective, we’ve found that prices for high-end plans that have advanced event management features average $88 per month and over, while entry-level pricing ranges from $4 to $32 per month for basic functionality. [2] 

First-time buyers should begin evaluating with a budget, number of users, specific needs, and necessary integrations in mind. Ensure you’ve consulted with stakeholders on a list of critical questions to help you evaluate systems based on your needs, such as: 

• What specific features does the software offer, and how do they align with the organization's needs? 

• Is the software scalable to accommodate multiple events and future growth?

• Does the software integrate with other tools and systems your organization currently uses?

• What level of customization is available to tailor the software to your specific processes?

• How user-friendly is the software, and what kind of support and training is provided? 

Because there are so many event management systems available, choosing the right option can be a long, daunting process. In this guide, you’ll learn about the essential components of event management software and get step-by-step guidance on how to choose the right solution for your business. To get expert guidance, schedule a free consultation or start a chat with us today.

What is event management software?

Event management software is a digital platform that supports businesses and event planners to effectively organize and execute meetings and events. This software typically includes a range of features designed to streamline various aspects of event management. Key functionalities often encompass marketing tools to promote events, attendee registration systems for seamless sign-ups, and badge creation for easy identification and access control. Additionally, it offers calendar generation to manage event schedules and venue space management to optimize the use of physical locations.

Event management software significantly reduces manual effort and minimizes errors by automating tasks such as event planning, scheduling, registration, and coordination. It also enhances efficiency and ensures a smooth event experience. Furthermore, the software provides various self-service functions for event attendees, including online registration for convenient sign-up, content delivery for accessing event materials, and fee payment processing to handle transactions securely. These features collectively enhance the attendee experience and contribute to the overall success of events.

Essential features of event management software

When comparing event management software systems, it's important to know what features you can expect to see and which features are more advanced add-ons or uncommon. Some functionalities like attendee management, event scheduling, and registration management are core features that will be available in every event management software. Other features, such as payment processing, ticketing, social promotion, and reporting/analytics, are still common. We analyzed thousands of reviews to determine what we believe are core features of event management software:

Core features

Common features

Benefits and competitive advantages of using event management software

Our analysis of over 6,000 user reviews in the past year shows that staff management, conference management, event management, and meeting management are the top-rated benefits of event management software. These features directly address the core needs of event management software, including communication and coordination across teams, optimal use of time and resources for organizing and attendee management. 

• Better manage staff and resources: Event management software streamlines the allocation and coordination of staff and resources by enhancing communication and operational efficiency. It provides real-time updates and progress tracking to ensure all staff members are aligned for event planning and organization. 

• Streamline conference management: With comprehensive planning tools, event management software simplifies conference logistics, supports attendee management, and provides event planners with key data insights. 

• Enhance event management: Event management software automates routine tasks, saving time and resources. This allows event organizers to focus on strategic growth and ensure consistency across multiple events. 

• Optimize meeting management:  Event management software optimizes meeting scheduling and integrates collaboration tools. The software enables users to foster seamless communication and remote participation and creates a collaborative meeting experience. 

How to choose the best event management software for your business

Choosing the right event management software can be quite overwhelming, with so many options offering varying features and capabilities. Here are some steps that can make this process more streamlined and successful:

1. Define your requirements

When defining your business's requirements for event management software, it's important to consider several key factors to ensure that you get the solution that aligns with your organizational needs and goals.

Evaluate your business goals and objectives

First, clearly outlining your business goals and how event management software can achieve them is the best place to start. Ask yourself what is slowing down your business operations and what solutions you need to solve those issues. Consider whether you need to improve coordination, planning, team collaboration, and communication, or automate tasks for optimized resource management. 

Take into account your business size and scalability 

It’s important to identify the size of your business and which software is appropriate for your needs. Is your business undergoing exponential growth, or do you plan to invest in event management software that will grow with your business? Consider the software's scalability and ensure that it can grow with your business and accommodate an increasing number of events or advanced reporting and customization functionality without sacrificing performance.

Identify budget constraints

Next, consider how much you want to spend on event management software. While it's difficult to generalize the price of event management software because of varying individual needs and other factors that can affect price, a good starting point is to identify how many users your business requires and the features you need to fulfill your business objectives. With that in mind, consider initial costs, subscription fees, and any other additional expenses for training and support. Additionally, some vendors may offer unbundled costs, which means that while their prices may seem competitive in comparison, additional costs may place constraints on your original budget. 

2. Make a shortlist of event management software

After carefully defining your requirements, it's time to start narrowing down your options to create a shortlist and seek professional help in making an informed choice. 

Get qualified help from an advisor 

At Software Advice, our advisors have experience helping hundreds of businesses identify solutions that suit their business needs. If you need guidance on how to make a shortlist or have any doubts regarding your business requirements, you can chat online now with an advisor or schedule a phone consultation. 

Explore our list of event management FrontRunners

If you’re not ready to speak to an advisor just yet, you can also start compiling your shortlist of event management software with our FrontRunners report. Only products that earn top user ratings make this list. Check out our full methodology description for more details on how the report is compiled.

For more help creating a shortlist and a free, downloadable comparison chart, check out The Ultimate Software Vendor Evaluation Guide. This guide and comparison chart will help you compare software evaluation criteria for each prospective vendor by tracking functionalities, training and support offerings, costs, and deployment options.

3. Pick your best option

Now that you have your curated shortlist, it's time to pick the best option. But how? Picking the best option means you need to try to get hands-on experience with the chosen software to ensure that it can fulfill a set of criteria before making your final choice. Here are a few things to consider before committing to a vendor:

Schedule a vendor demo

Vendor demos are sessions provided by the vendor to help get you familiar with the features of the product, its capabilities, and understand their pricing. Here, you have the chance to learn more about the product and ask questions to ensure that it aligns with your business needs. Be sure to ask about what is included in the price and whether technical support and training resources are available.

Evaluate your integration needs

Check the software’s ability to integrate with your existing systems and tools, such as email marketing software, CRM software, social media platforms, and calendar applications. A software solution with seamless integration is vital to streamlined workflows and improved data consistency across platforms. 

Determine customizable options

When making your final choice, it's also important to determine the level of customization the software offers to meet your specific business processes and requirements. A customizable software solution can enhance the software's relevance and effectiveness for your business. 

4. Make the most of your event management software

Finally, once you’ve shortlisted and selected the event management software that fits your business needs, it's important to take steps to ensure successful implementation and to maximize its benefits. Here are a few things to consider to make the most of your chosen event management software:

Develop an implementation plan

When onboarding a new software solution, a detailed implementation plan should include installation, configuration, data migration, and testing to ensure a smooth transition. Additionally, it should outline the timeline, key milestones, and responsibilities. Key stakeholders from different departments should also be engaged to gather input to help tailor the software and ensure alignment with business goals.

Provide comprehensive training

Offer thorough training sessions for all users to ensure they understand how to use the software effectively. The training should cover an explanation of the software's core features, best practices, and any customizable functionalities specific to your organization. 

Monitor and evaluate performance 

Monitor the software's performance regularly and evaluate its impact on your business operations. Collect user feedback to understand their experiences and challenges with the software. Use this feedback to fine-tune the software so that it continues to meet evolving needs. Finally, use analytics and reporting features to track key metrics and identify areas for improvement.  

Software related to event management software

Depending on which event management software you choose, you may need to supplement some features with related software systems in order to support organization, coordination, scheduling, or marketing. Some types of software that are closely related to event management software, but may or may not be included in your event management system, include:

• Catering software: Catering software manages business functions for the catering, event planning, and banquet management industries. It provides an integrated solution for coordinating essential business processes, including client details, locations, scheduling, inventory management, menu planning, waitstaff coordination, payroll, and marketing and budgeting functions.

• Conference software: Conference software provides and automates tools for promoting, registering, and organizing live or online conferences and events.

• Event Check In software: Event Check In software helps significantly speed up the check-in process at conferences, performances, and other events. This type of software can be deployed on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as well as kiosks, and often provides badge printing capabilities. Many organizations use Event Check In software to capture attendee information for lead-generating purposes.

• Live streaming software: Live Streaming software allows organizations to broadcast live event feeds over the internet and engage with their target audience. This type of software comes with recording and real-time video editing capabilities that can be used for events, conferences, shows, and more.

• Meeting software: Meeting software coordinates schedules and plans various types of meetings. It typically offers scheduling features, agenda management, collaboration tools, minutes recording, and more.

• Mobile Event Apps software: Mobile Event Apps enable event organizers to consistently distribute important event information to the attendees in real time and facilitate networking among attendees.

• Registration software: Registration software automates the process of registering for conferences, meetings, classes, and events. These applications offer a customizable solution for attendance tracking and event or meeting registration tasks. They also provide tools for processing payments either in advance or onsite, as well as donation collection and volunteer coordination features. Registration solutions also offer various self-service functions, such as online registration, content delivery, and fee payment.

• Ticketing software: Ticketing software automates online, kiosk, and box office ticketing processing for events across theaters, parks, festivals, fairs, travel, and other activities. These applications help manage seat selections, exhibitor data, performer assignments, and locations, as well as online and onsite payment processing operations.

• Venue management software: Venue Management solutions aim to help event planners market and schedule their facilities, ensuring that appropriate services and resources are provided for each event and that the facility's capacity is optimally utilized.

More resources for your event management journey

• Best Virtual Event Software of 2025

• Best Event Marketing Software of 2025

About our contributors

Author

Andrew Blair is a content analyst at Software Advice, covering marketing, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies across industries. He leverages his technical expertise and business acumen, acquired from experience as a web developer in the eCommerce industry, to deliver data-driven insights on market and business operations, empowering businesses to embrace the right technology.

Andrew’s research and analysis are informed by more than 150,000 authentic user reviews on Software Advice and nearly 3,000 interactions between Software Advice software advisors and software buyers. Andrew also regularly analyzes market sentiment by conducting surveys of IT and marketing leaders so he can provide the most up-to-date and helpful information to small and midsize businesses purchasing software or services.

His research and data insights for small and midsize businesses have been featured in SBS Media, IT Brief Australia, and Technology Decisions media publications. Andrew’s commentary on tech trends is published in various content forms, including podcasts, videos, and written interviews. In his free time, he enjoys sports and spending time outdoors.

Editor

Parul Sharma is a content editor at Software Advice with expertise in curating content for various niches, including SaaS, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. With over half a decade of experience in content writing and editing, Parul has the expertise to simplify complex terms into engaging, valuable content for targeted audiences. She completed her graduation and post-graduation in English literature from Delhi University and was awarded the Dr. Asha Sahni Memorial Award for being the highest scorer in her graduating class.

Parul has contributed to the news, lifestyle, education, and health verticle of DNA India, India’s premier media channel. Outside of work, she can be found curating healthy recipes, coloring in mandala books, and spending quality time with her family.

Sources

1. Software Advice reviews data: Software Advice reviews are collected from verified users for individual software products. Read the complete methodology. 

2. Software Advice software pricing data: Only products with publicly available pricing information and qualified software products within the category, are included in the pricing analysis. Read the complete methodology.