9 Best Event Marketing Platforms for 2026 (Pros, Cons and Pricing)

Eventbrite is the fastest way to put a ticketed event on sale. Publishing is free, there is no monthly subscription, and the built-in marketplace does real promotion work: Eventbrite says it has helped transact 270 million tickets across 4.7 million events, so people browsing for things to do can find your event without you buying ads. The organizer app handles check-in from a phone, and the optional Pro plan adds email marketing from $15 a month.

The catch is the per-ticket math. On a $100 ticket you pay $5.49 in service fees plus 2.9% payment processing, so a sold-out 500-person event costs about $2,745 in fees before the processing charge. Event pages also carry limited branding options, so the page never looks fully like your own site. Pick Eventbrite when discovery and speed matter more than the fee line.

Whova is the conference app attendees actually open. The agenda, speaker profiles, announcements and community boards live in one place, and the matchmaking, messaging and meetup tools give people a reason to talk before the first session starts. Reviewers rate it 4.8 out of 5 on G2 — the highest score in this list — and praise the support team most after ease of use.

The platform itself is sold by custom quote per event, so budget from a sales conversation, not a price page; third-party reports put typical quotes in the low-to-mid four figures per event. The ticket fee is the lowest here at 3.0% plus $0.99 per paid ticket, and free tickets cost nothing. Choose Whova when the hallway conversations are the point of the event.

Cvent is the platform large event programs standardize on. Registration, event websites, the Attendee Hub, OnArrival check-in and badging, venue sourcing and room blocks all sit in one contract, and the integration list runs past 200 tools. It earned the highest G2 Grid score in the event management category for Fall 2026, and support runs 24/7 with a live representative.

Everything is quoted, so there is no number to compare before the sales call — independent procurement data puts a typical mid-market contract near $19,500 a year, before per-registrant fees and implementation. Setup is also the heaviest here, with rollouts commonly taking one to three months. Buy Cvent when the event program is big enough to justify an enterprise contract.

Bizzabo is built for B2B conferences where sponsors pay the bills. The Event Experience OS covers registration, event websites, a mobile app, virtual events and analytics, and the Klik SmartBadges let attendees exchange contacts with a tap — Bizzabo reports nearly 1 million contact exchanges since the badges launched in 2022. Native HubSpot, Marketo and Salesforce integrations push those leads into the CRM.

The price is published, which is rare in this category: $499 per user per month billed annually, with a three-user minimum, so the floor is $17,999 a year. There is no single-event option, and the badge hardware costs extra. Pick Bizzabo when sponsor leads are the metric the event is judged on.

Splash is the design-first option. Event pages, invites and emails look polished straight out of the templates, and reviewers say a page can go live in minutes without a designer or a developer. Every paid plan includes unlimited events and unlimited registrations, and the two-way Salesforce sync keeps the guest list and the CRM in agreement.

The trade-off is price transparency: Pro and Enterprise are sold by quote, and third-party estimates disagree widely, from about $12,500 a year to a median contract near $27,000. Large guest lists can also slow the interface down. Choose Splash when the event page is a brand asset and speed to publish matters.

Goldcast is the event platform for demand-generation teams. Webinars, digital events and field events run on one system, and the engagement data flows into HubSpot and Salesforce so sales can follow up on the people who actually paid attention. Content Lab then turns the recording into clips, blogs and social posts with AI, so one event produces a month of content.

Pricing is custom quote only, and third-party estimates put entry around $15,000 a year — confirm with a quote before you budget. G2 reviewers also flag reporting as the weak spot, with custom reports taking extra work. Buy Goldcast when webinars are a pipeline channel, not a one-off broadcast.

Zoho Backstage is the value pick in this list. Essentials costs $119 a month, or $99 a month billed annually, and covers unlimited events, a drag-and-drop event website, RSVP management, check-in and badging — plus 0% commission on ticket sales, so you keep every dollar of ticket revenue. A pay-per-event option from $299 an event suits teams that run one event a year.

The limits are attendee counts: Essentials caps at 200 attendees per event, and bigger conferences need Premium at $249 a month. The 4.4 out of 5 G2 rating also rests on only 29 reviews, far fewer than the other platforms here. Pick Backstage when you want a full event platform without giving up a cut of ticket sales.

HubSpot Marketing Hub is the event marketing pick for teams that already live in HubSpot. Invites, landing pages, registration forms and follow-up emails run in the same CRM as the rest of the marketing, so there is no sync to build or break. Starter costs $20 a month per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts included, and a new-customer promotion can cut that to $7 a seat.

HubSpot is not an event platform in the full sense: there is no native event app, check-in or badging, so onsite work needs another tool. Costs also climb with contacts — Professional jumps to $890 a month. Choose HubSpot when the event is a campaign inside a CRM-led marketing program, not a standalone production.

Brevo is the cheapest way to promote an event in this list. Starter costs $9 a month for 5,000 emails, and the free plan sends 300 emails a day, so a small team can run invites, reminders and follow-ups without a budget line. Email, SMS, WhatsApp and transactional messages sit in one account, and Brevo charges by emails sent rather than contacts stored.

The $9 tier is deliberately thin: no marketing automation or A/B testing, only 500 stored contacts, and the Brevo logo stays on emails unless you pay a $12 monthly add-on. Brevo also runs the promotion, not the event — registration and check-in need another tool. Pick Brevo when email is the main channel and the budget is the constraint.