Cvent versus Eventbrite:
Which Is Best for B2B Marketers?
Choosing the Right Digital Event Platform
If you're planning on hosting digital events, choosing the right platform is key to ensuring their success. However, with hundreds of options available, it can be tough to decide which one is right for you. We feel your pain!
If you’ve narrowed it down to Cvent and Eventbrite, we’ve broken them down to help you choose the right one for your business. Whether you’re shopping for a simple webinar platform for small events or a robust solution for large enterprises, here’s how both platforms compare.
Cvent versus Eventbrite
Here’s a quick breakdown of the features and functionality offered by each SaaS platform and how they compare.
Cvent
Cvent is a leading meeting and event management platform. Cvent’s key strength is in-person events and trade shows. They offer a comprehensive list of features to support these, including supplier procurement, venue selection assistance, online event registration, event badging, event marketing, attendee management and engagement, and more.
Their solution for in-person is best-in-class. But for B2B marketers with a digital-first approach, Cvent falls short in a few areas. Simple things like scaling webinars, building beautiful and intuitive online events, and even onboarding speakers are overly complex.
In-person check-in and badging solution
As an in-person-first platform, Cvent offers state-of-the-art check-in and on-demand printing capabilities. This ensures your attendees get into your event quickly and easily.
Advanced ticketing options for in-person events
Hosting a complex event? No problem. Cvent supports express ticketing and add-on pricing for additional registration items. It also supports secure payment processing and walk-in registrations.
Sleek mobile app with agenda builder
The Cvent Attendee Hub mobile app is powerful for engaging and networking with other attendees, particularly for in-person and hybrid event experiences. The app works seamlessly across iPhone and Android devices.
In-person event analytics
Cvent rounds out its in-person capabilities with robust analytics. The platform allows you to track session attendance, manage session check-in and capacity, manage continuing education credits, and sync this data to your CRM or MAP.
Not built for digital events
While Cvent is ideal for almost any in-person experience, they fall short when it comes to building beautiful online events. They do offer support for virtual, but customers find it clunky and complicated, especially for simple events like webinars.
Steep learning curve
Cvent has a lot of bells and whistles, and it can take a lot of training to really learn the platform. This makes it difficult for new event organizers or speakers to get up to speed quickly.
Lack of high-end video production tools
Many user reviews note that Cvent has very limited video production capabilities, like chat publishing, overlays, or tickers. This can lead to an experience that falls flat and feels more like an Eventbrite call than an event.
Issues with event surveys
Post-event surveys are essential for collecting real-time attendee feedback. Many people mentioned the Cvent survey feature is not flexible or easy to use.
Limited customization and branding
Marketers, in particular, mentioned that there’s a large gap when it comes to design customization. The platform is very limited here and doesn’t allow for the beautiful branding that attendees expect in a modern online event.
The Details: Cvent Pros & Cons
To summarize, here’s a simplified chart that outlines the top pros and cons of Cvent.
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Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a ticketing and event technology platform that helps businesses and nonprofits market and sell tickets online for events. They started around 15 years ago and are now one of the biggest marketplaces for all types of events. This makes it easy for eager eventgoers to search for and find local events.
Eventbrite touts three tenants: growing attendees, engaging communities, and creating with confidence. The advanced ticketing and robust marketing capabilities are the platform’s biggest selling points.
While Eventbrite is the go-to solution for small businesses, creators, and entrepreneurs, the tool falls short for modern B2B brands looking to scale digital events. Let’s take a closer look at Eventbrite’s software solutions.
Flexible ticketing system
Eventbrite has flexible ticketing tools for in-person and virtual events that support both free tickets and paid ticket tiers. 25% of tickets sold on the platform are a result of people actively searching for local events, and Eventbrite offers a lucrative marketplace and public event calendar to reach new audiences.
Mobile app
Easily monitor and manage events on the go. Eventbrite offers a mobile app to handle on-site and online ticket sales.
Social marketing tools
Eventbrite allows marketers to tap the power of social media to amplify event promotion. You can easily share your event on Facebook or LinkedIn directly from your Eventbrite account.
Eventbrite Boost to reach more people
Looking to level up your event promotion? Eventbrite Boost is a tool just for that. Creators and organizers can use email marketing tools, the smart audience builder, and quick asset customizations to help sell more tickets and scale event marketing.
Outdated user interface
While Eventbrite’s event marketing suite sounds, well, sweet, many users find the templates and branding of the platform antiquated. It lacks the modern interface that most B2B marketers are used to with enterprise tools.
Reports are not intuitive
A few users mentioned that the reports generated were not intuitive and even inaccurate in some cases. This is a huge red flag for campaign reporting and showcasing event ROI.
Complex payment process
Many marketers mentioned that the payment process is lengthy and a bit clunky. This is less than ideal if you’re hosting large-scale events.
Limited customization
Many user reviews mentioned that Eventbrite has limited customization and that landing pages could use more flexibility. The pages look and feel like an Eventbrite event page.
No live chat feature
Eventbrite does not offer a real-time chat feature, which is essential when it comes to live event engagement. The platform as a whole offers very little interaction or engagement, another red flag for marketers building robust digital experiences.
Not built for digital-first events
Eventbrite truly shines as a registration, ticketing, and event management solution for small businesses. However, the platform was simply not built for digital-first events. While Eventbrite does support virtual events and webinars, the experience is bare bones; it’s not customizable or engaging to meet the needs of modern brands.
The Details: Eventbrite Pros & Cons
To summarize, here’s a simplified chart that outlines the top pros and cons of Eventbrite.
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Goldcast: The Revenue-Driven Event Marketing Platform
The Goldcast platform is built for B2B marketers to run engaging digital events. Many leading B2B brands like 1Password, Mailchimp, Lattice, Drift, Salesloft, and others have chosen Goldcast as a key component of their MarTech stack.
At Goldcast, we aim to make it easy to set up and run high-quality digital events while providing a seamless experience for event attendees and enabling organizers to prove event ROI.
Goldcast provides your sales team with robust analytics and real-time insights through a host of native CRM integrations. You’ll have everything you need to run pipeline-driving events that don’t reek of Eventbrite fatigue.
Proven results
Rate
every month
That was the best part—we made the decision to pivot on a Friday, and I didn’t have to work or stress over it on the weekend. I knew that I’d be able to move the whole event into Goldcast on Monday. It wasn’t even a concern.
Goldcast was super easy to use compared to other platforms for both our employees as well as our guest speakers
Our MQL goals saw an increase of 20% through Goldcast’s video production capabilities. The experience was super engaging and very modern!
Goldcast is built for B2B marketers who want to create Netflix-like events and drive engagement with their prospects and customers. We take the guesswork out of events so you can focus on what matters most.
Flexible for a plethora of B2B use cases, which include community events, webinars, product launches, demos, field events, hybrid events, user conferences, and more
Ability to embed CTAs and resources in an event
Plenty of engagement features like chat, polls, and Q&A in a completely customizable interface—that means events are "on brand" for your brand, not ours
Sophisticated video conferencing and production tools that include overlays, speaker layouts, lower thirds, and tickers for an enhanced attendee experience
Duplicate templates so you can easily scale your events
Accessible to a wide range of audiences—captioning, subtitles, and translation in 14+ languages allow you to grow your audience across the globe
Actionable insights in the form of 16+ engagement points that are synced into CRMs and MAPs after your event
Deep, native integrations with popular MarTech tools like HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and more make it easy to move between platforms
Accurate follow-ups with Slack + Salesforce integration help you give your sales team valuable info on prospects
On-demand access to all recordings is ready within 24 hours
Dedicated customer success team with live customer support for ALL your events—because there's nothing worse than needing help during an event and not being able to get it
Generous pricing model allows multiple teams to scale digital events
Frequently Asked Questions
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