You have an event to fill and no budget for software yet. Plenty of platforms will take your registrations for nothing, and they all use the same word for it, so the shortlist looks longer than it is. The word "free" covers four different arrangements here, and the gap between them is wide: 100 tickets at $25 costs $344 on Eventbrite and $102.50 on a platform that takes no cut of the sale. This guide compares 8 free event registration platforms, explains what each one means by free, and works out what a 100-person event costs on each.
Quick answer: Free event registration software falls into four groups. Some platforms are free only while your tickets are free, including Eventbrite and Ticket Tailor. Some charge a fee on every registration even on a $0 plan, like RegFox at 99¢ a registrant. Some are free up to a cap, like Eventleaf at 100 attendees a year. Two stay free on paid registrations: Zeffy, for registered nonprofits, and Checkout Page, free up to $3,000 a month in sales.
What is free event registration software?
Free event registration software lets you publish a registration page, share it as a registration link, collect signups and attendee details, and check guests in on the day without paying a monthly fee. Every platform in this comparison also handles ticket types, capacity limits, confirmation emails and discount codes.
These platforms separate on what happens when you charge for a ticket, because their feature sets are close to identical. Running a registration page costs the platform money, so a free plan has to be funded somewhere. Four mechanisms show up: a fee on paid tickets, a cap on how many people can register, advertising on the page, or an optional contribution from the attendee. Each one is fine, and each one changes what your event costs.
Ticket tiers, waitlists and check-in apps appear on almost every platform in this comparison, so they separate very little. The funding model separates a lot.
How to read a free event registration plan
Free for free events only
The platform costs nothing while every ticket is $0, and a fee starts the moment one has a price. Eventbrite, Ticket Tailor and Ticketbud all work this way.
Eventbrite charges 3.7% plus $1.79 per paid ticket, with a 2.9% payment processing fee on top of the order. Its help center confirms those US rates apply at every ticket price, so a cheap ticket is not cheaper to sell. Ticket Tailor issues up to 5,000 free tickets a year at no charge, then moves to $0.30 a ticket if you buy credits upfront or $0.85 pay as you go. Ticketbud charges 2% plus 99¢ on a paid ticket and passes it to the buyer by default.
If your events stay free, any platform in this group works. If you expect to sell a ticket later, work out that cost now rather than after you have built the page.
$0 a month with a fee on every registration
A $0 monthly price and a free event are separate claims, and a few platforms only make the claim about the monthly price.
RegFox's Standard plan costs nothing a month and charges 99¢ per registrant even when the event is free, rising to 99¢ plus 1% on a paid registration, with payment processing quoted separately. Eventzilla's Basic plan charges $1.50 per registration and allows a single paid ticket type. Both are reasonable value at volume. Neither is free once someone registers.
Free up to a cap
The third group gives you the full product and limits how much of it you can use.
Eventleaf's Starter plan stops at 100 attendees a year across all your events, and its check-in app does not appear until the Professional plan, which starts at a $2,000 annual minimum. Eventleaf does let you trial every feature on events under 20 registrations. If scanning guests in matters to you, our roundup of event check-in apps compares what each platform includes. Jotform's free Starter plan allows 5 forms, 100 submissions a month and 10 payment submissions a month, so it suits a small registration form rather than a ticketed event. RSVPify's free plan runs one event at a time with 100 registrations a month and collects no payment at all.
Work out your expected attendee count for the whole year rather than for the next event, since these caps are usually annual.
Free on paid registrations
Two of the eight platforms here take no cut when you sell a ticket, and they fund themselves in different ways.
Zeffy charges nonprofits nothing and covers the card fees itself, paid for by an optional contribution it asks the attendee for at checkout. Checkout Page charges no platform fee up to $3,000 a month in sales, and you connect your own Stripe account so Stripe's standard rate is the only cost. Each has a condition: Zeffy is only for registered nonprofits and charities, and Checkout Page's free plan shows Checkout Page branding on your pages.
8 best free event registration platforms
The table below shows what each platform means by free and what it starts charging for, so you can rule out the wrong group before comparing features.
Platform | What free covers | Fee on a paid registration | Free-tier limit | Check-in on free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Checkout Page | Free and paid registrations | None from us; Stripe's standard rate applies | $3,000 a month in sales | Yes, scan from your own phone |
Zeffy | Free and paid registrations | None, and card fees covered | No stated cap | Yes, QR check-in |
SignUpGenius | Free and paid signups | 3.95% plus 95¢ per card payment | No stated cap; ads on pages | Yes, scanning in the companion app |
Luma | Free and paid events | 5% platform fee plus Stripe's rate | Unlimited events and guests | Yes, QR scanner |
Eventleaf | Free and paid registrations | 3% with your own processor, 6% with theirs | 100 attendees a year | No, Professional plan only |
Jotform | Forms with limited payments | Gateway fees only | 10 payment submissions a month | Not a named feature |
Eventbrite | Free events only | 3.7% plus $1.79 a ticket, plus 2.9% an order | Unlimited free events | Yes, Organizer app |
Ticket Tailor | Free tickets only | From $0.30 a ticket, plus your processor | 5,000 free tickets a year | Yes, free check-in app |
Fees verified on each vendor's own pricing page, 22 September 2026. Payment processing is listed separately wherever the vendor quotes it separately.
Two platforms in this table stay free once money changes hands, and both attach a condition worth reading before you pick one. For the other six, what you pay depends on how many tickets you sell and what you charge for them.
Four platforms that come up often are not on this list, for one reason each. Cvent and Whova price by quote rather than publishing a free tier. RegFox's Standard plan is $0 a month but charges 99¢ on every registrant, including on free events. RSVPify's free plan collects no payment at all, though its separate $0-a-month ticketing track does, at 1.95% plus 90¢ a ticket. If you want the paid options alongside the free ones, our guide to event registration platforms covers them.
1. Checkout Page
Checkout Page is a no-code checkout and registration platform built on Stripe, and its free plan covers paid registrations rather than free ones only. You build event pages, embed them on your own site or link to them, and payments settle straight into your own Stripe account, which makes you the merchant of record rather than us. It handles ticket types and groups, capacity limits, custom registration questions and check-in. The limit on the free plan is $3,000 a month in sales, a single team member, and Checkout Page branding on your pages. Removing the branding and adding team members means moving to Launch.
Key features:
- Event pages for in-person, virtual or hybrid events
- Ticket types and groups, such as early bird, general and VIP
- Capacity limits on total attendance, group size or each ticket type
- Custom registration questions with conditional logic, covered in our guide to event registration questions
- Ticket sales scheduling, including batch releases when one type sells out
- Guest check-in by scanning from any phone, free on every plan
- Attendee export with answers, for badges and meal counts
Pricing: Free up to $3,000 a month in sales with no platform fee, paying only Stripe's standard processing rate. Launch is $24 a month billed annually ($290 a year) or $29 month to month, and removes the branding while adding unlimited team members, bulk ticket discounts and staff scanner access.
Best for: Organizers who want paid registrations on their own site at no platform cost while they are small.
Our take: Staff scanner access sits on Launch, so on the free plan you check guests in from your own phone rather than handing scanning to a team of volunteers.
2. Zeffy
Zeffy is a fundraising platform for nonprofits that charges nothing at all, including on paid tickets, and covers the credit card fees itself. It is funded by an optional contribution it asks your attendee for at the payment step, which they can set to zero from a dropdown; Zeffy says two out of three donors leave one. Eligibility is what rules most organizers out: you need to be a nonprofit or registered charity in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia or Germany, with a bank account in your organization's name and a tax ID. US organizations do not need 501(c)(3) status confirmed yet, but do need an EIN and IRS registration.
Key features:
- Unlimited ticket types, each with its own name, price and description
- Group tickets for selling a table or a bundle in one purchase
- Capacity caps by event total, by ticket type and per buyer
- Custom registration questions, askable of each guest in a group booking
- Automatic e-tickets with QR codes and a check-in manager
- Discount codes on ticket forms
- Automatic tax receipts that split the deductible portion
Pricing: Nothing, on free and paid events alike, with card and transaction fees covered by Zeffy. There is no paid tier to upgrade to.
Best for: Registered nonprofits and charities in the six countries Zeffy serves.
Our take: If you qualify, Zeffy costs less than we do, and the honest comparison is that our free plan is for organizers who cannot use it.
3. SignUpGenius
SignUpGenius is a signup and scheduling tool that Google's AI overview currently cites as the answer for free event registration, and its free plan does collect payment rather than stopping at free signups. You get unlimited signup pages, custom QR codes and a companion app that takes payments and scans tickets at the door. Two conditions apply on the free tier: pages carry SignUpGenius advertising, and the card fee is 3.95% plus 95¢, above the usual processor rate. Removing ads starts at the Silver plan.
Key features:
- Unlimited signup pages in several formats
- Ticket types with their own prices, quantities and descriptions
- Per-type quantity limits with an automatic sold-out state
- Custom questions for meal choices, sizes and emergency contacts
- Automatic confirmation and reminder emails, plus text invites
- Payment companion app for door payments and ticket scanning
- Liability waiver collection alongside registration
Pricing: Free with payment collection included, charging 3.95% plus 95¢ per card payment and 1.95% on an eCheck, with bank withdrawals free. Silver starts at $8.99 a month and removes ads from one signup page.
Best for: Community groups, schools and volunteer organizers who want signups and payment without a subscription.
Our take: The 3.95% card rate is above what a standard processor charges, so the free plan costs most on exactly the events that sell well.
4. Luma
Luma is an event platform built around a clean public event page, and its free tier covers paid events rather than free ones only. Unlimited events, unlimited guests and a QR check-in scanner are all included at no monthly cost. The cost arrives as a 5% platform fee on paid ticket sales, charged on top of Stripe's processing, and removing it means the Luma Plus plan. A check-in manager role restricted to particular ticket types also requires Plus.
Key features:
- Unlimited events with unlimited guests on each
- Ticket types, group purchasing and coupon codes
- QR check-in with standard and express scanner modes, plus wallet passes
- Automatic waitlist once an event reaches capacity
- Custom registration questions across seven question types
- Automated reminders by email, SMS, push and WhatsApp
- Zoom integration with attendance tracking
Pricing: Free with a 5% platform fee on paid events, plus Stripe's processing of around 2.9% and 30¢. Luma Plus is $59 a month billed annually and drops the platform fee to nothing.
Best for: Meetups, communities and conferences that want a polished public event page with little setup.
Our take: At 5% plus processing, a single $2,500 event costs more than a year of most paid plans in this comparison.
5. Eventleaf
Eventleaf is conference software with a free Starter plan, and it is the most capable free tier here for anyone running a professional event with badges and an agenda. The event website builder, registration forms with conditional fields, name badge printing, invitations and surveys are all included from Starter. The cap is the problem for most organizers: 100 attendees a year across every event you run. Check-in and QR scanning do not appear until the Professional plan, though every feature can be trialled on events under 20 registrations.
Key features:
- Event website builder with agenda, speakers and sponsors
- Registration forms with conditional fields and registration packages
- Name badge printing with dynamic per-registrant fields and barcodes
- Invitations, reminder emails and invite-only registration
- Customizable surveys delivered by email or the attendee app
- Unlimited events and unlimited users on the free plan
- Full feature access on any event under 20 registrations
Pricing: Starter is free up to 100 attendees a year, with paid registrations charged at 3% using your own payment processor or 6% using Eventleaf's at low volume. Basic is $1 an attendee with a 500-attendee minimum, and Professional is $2 an attendee with a 1,000-attendee minimum, which is where check-in begins.
Best for: Small professional conferences that need badges and an agenda more than they need check-in.
Our take: A 100-attendee annual cap and check-in priced at a $2,000 minimum make this a trial rather than a free plan, unless your events are small and you can scan guests in by hand.
6. Jotform
Jotform is a form builder rather than an event platform, and it earns a place here because a registration form is all some events need. Its free Starter plan connects to more than 30 payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal and Square, and its drag-and-drop builder handles conditional logic and 500-plus widgets without any code. The limit that decides it for events is 10 payment submissions a month on the free plan, alongside 5 forms and 100 submissions. Forms also carry Jotform branding until you pay.
Key features:
- Drag-and-drop form builder with no code required
- More than 30 payment gateway integrations
- Conditional logic, email validation and save-and-continue
- Coupon and promo codes on order forms
- Recurring payments and donation forms
- Sharing by direct link, QR code or embed on your own site
- Automatic invoicing after submission
Pricing: The Starter plan is free with 5 forms, 100 monthly submissions and 10 monthly payment submissions. Paid plans lift those caps and remove Jotform branding; check the current rate on their pricing page, which displays in local currency.
Best for: Small free events, or paid events expecting fewer than 10 registrations a month.
Our take: The 10 paid registrations a month is easy to miss until the eleventh person tries to pay and cannot.
7. Eventbrite
Eventbrite publishes unlimited free events at no cost, with its Organizer app for check-in and door sales included at no charge. Reserved seating, timed entry, waitlists and recurring events are all supported, which is a wider ticketing feature set than most of this list offers. Paid tickets cost 3.7% plus $1.79 each, plus a 2.9% payment processing fee on the order, which our Eventbrite fees breakdown works through in full. Those buyer fees are passed to your attendee by default, though you can absorb them instead.
Key features:
- Unlimited free events published at no cost
- Unlimited ticket types with custom names, prices and quantities
- Reserved seating and timed entry ticketing
- Waitlist management and recurring event management
- Organizer app for mobile check-in and door sales
- Embedded checkout that keeps buyers on your own site
- Promo codes for early bird and limited-time pricing
Pricing: Free for events with free tickets, including check-in. Paid tickets cost 3.7% plus $1.79 each in service fees, with 2.9% payment processing per order on top, and US rates do not drop for cheaper tickets.
Best for: Free events, and paid events that want discovery on Eventbrite's marketplace.
Our take: Its fees are passed to the buyer by default, so the cost shows up as a higher ticket price rather than a smaller payout.
8. Ticket Tailor
Ticket Tailor prices per ticket instead of by plan, so there are no feature tiers to compare and the free check-in app is available to everyone. Our Ticket Tailor comparison goes into how that model works out at different ticket prices. Free events are free for the first 5,000 tickets a year, and paid tickets are charged at a flat rate per ticket rather than a percentage, which keeps the cost predictable on higher-priced tickets. Payments go to your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account. Reserved seating is the one feature that costs extra, charged as an additional credit per seat reserved.
Key features:
- Unlimited events and ticket types
- Ticket groups for managing overall event capacity
- Ticket bundles that sell a family or group as one ticket
- Waitlist to capture demand after a sellout
- Time slots and recurring occurrences
- Free QR check-in app on iOS and Android
- Embedded checkout on your own website
Pricing: No fees on up to 5,000 free tickets a year. Paid tickets cost from $0.30 each if you buy credits upfront, or $0.85 pay as you go, with your payment processor's fees separate. Charities and nonprofits get 50% off, as do low-priced tickets.
Best for: Organizers selling higher-priced tickets who prefer a flat per-ticket cost to a percentage.
Our take: A flat fee per ticket gets relatively cheaper as ticket prices rise, which is the reverse of how most platforms here work.
What a 100-person event costs on each platform
The table below runs the same event on every platform: 100 tickets at $25, so $2,500 in sales, with the organizer absorbing the fees rather than passing them to attendees.
Platform | Platform fee | Payment processing | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Zeffy | $0 | Covered by Zeffy | $0 |
Checkout Page | $0 | $102.50 | $102.50 |
Ticket Tailor (credits) | $30.00 | $102.50 | $132.50 |
Ticket Tailor (pay as you go) | $85.00 | $102.50 | $187.50 |
SignUpGenius | $193.75 | Included in the 3.95% plus 95¢ | $193.75 |
Luma | $125.00 | $102.50 | $227.50 |
Eventbrite | $271.50 | $72.50 | $344.00 |
Payment processing shown at Stripe's standard US rate of 2.9% plus 30¢ per transaction, which the organizer pays directly where the platform connects their own account. Verified 22 September 2026.
Two platforms in the list cannot run this event on their free plans at all. Jotform's free tier allows 10 payment submissions a month, so registration 11 fails. Eventleaf's Starter plan caps at 100 attendees a year, so this single event would use the entire annual allowance, and check-in would still need the Professional plan.
Setting Zeffy aside, since it is open only to nonprofits, the range runs from $102.50 to $344 on one event. That $241.50 difference on a single event is close to a full year of Checkout Page's Launch plan at $290, and more than twice a year of SignUpGenius's Silver plan at $107.89. The fee model explains it rather than the feature set. A percentage of every sale rises as your event grows, while a flat monthly price or a flat per-ticket fee stays where it is. The cheapest ticket selling platforms guide works through the same math at higher volumes, and selling event tickets without big fees covers what to do once you pass the free thresholds here.
Free event registration software FAQ
How much does event registration software cost?
Every platform in this comparison has a free plan, so what you pay is the fee on paid registrations. Expect roughly 2% to 5% of the ticket price plus a flat charge, such as Eventbrite's 3.7% plus $1.79 a ticket or Luma's 5%. Flat-fee platforms charge per ticket instead, from around $0.30, and payment processing is usually extra.
What is the best free event registration software for nonprofits?
Zeffy, for most registered nonprofits. It charges nothing on free and paid tickets and covers the card fees, funded by an optional contribution attendees can decline at checkout. You need to be a nonprofit or charity in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia or Germany with an organizational bank account. Our church event registration guide covers faith-based options.
Is there free event registration software that works for paid tickets?
Yes, though only two of the eight platforms here. Zeffy is free on paid tickets for registered nonprofits and covers card fees. Checkout Page is free up to $3,000 a month in sales, with Stripe's standard processing paid directly from your own account. Every other platform starts charging a percentage or per-ticket fee once a ticket has a price.
What is the best app for registration for events?
For free events, Eventbrite includes its Organizer check-in app at no cost and has no attendee cap. For paid events under $3,000 a month in sales, Checkout Page charges no platform fee. For a professional conference needing name badges and an agenda, Eventleaf's free tier goes furthest, though it stops at 100 attendees a year.
Can I collect payment on a free event registration form?
Yes, though the caps differ sharply. Jotform's free plan allows 10 payment submissions a month, SignUpGenius charges 3.95% plus 95¢ on every card payment, and RSVPify's free plan collects no payment at all. Checkout Page takes paid registrations free up to $3,000 a month in sales. Our guide to creating an event registration form covers the setup.
