Bizzabo vs. Eventbrite vs. Picatic

Bizzabo is really well suited for large-scale hybrid events. In this day and age, it's imperative to have a software that can successfully accommodate virtual and in-person attendees. Bizzabo blends these experiences extremely well. It is also great when event agendas are complex and need customizations - Bizzabo offers flexibility and has options for tracking session attendance. Bizzabo does not work well for smaller events with in-person only registrations. The risk of the equipment not working is high and, for smaller events, not worth the stress!

Incentivized

We're a nonprofit organization so we have a very lean time, labor, and money so the super easy self-explanatory nature makes it easy for our team to admin an event. The simple UI [of Eventbrite] keeps our focus on the event and avoids any headache-inducing tech hurdles. There're just enough user roles to handle multi-staffer admin. A less appropriate situation is an event that is huge in complexity with a custom workflow and processing which Eventbrite's not built to handle in-house such as multi-step registration, multiple item and category all-select options during registration, multi-event type (not just physical or ticket but virtual goods tracking), more HootSuite-like social media refinery, etc.

Incentivized

I have recommended the software to several clients that are interested in running events. Overall if you are needing to run an event, be it paid or otherwise, this tool does enable you to keep track of all that is happening and to send event reminders. The fees charged are also very reasonable and those can be passed on to the attendees if needed

Incentivized

• Bizzabo makes setting up registration for an event very simple. You can make it more complex if you require that, but if you only need to capture basics and payment, it is easy to set up.
• Making a custom event website is also very easy. There are a lot of widgets build in with content you might need, such as Speakers. While it takes a little bit of use to figure out how it works, once you know the basics, creating a multi page website with all your event info is super easy.
• Creating custom ticket types and promo codes is full of options and it’s easy to allow many different options for purchasing tickets. From expiring ticket types to tracking promo codes, you can allow people to buy tickets with unlimited options (early bird, sponsor discounts, etc.)

Incentivized

• Event management--providing a detailed description of the event (date, time, place) plus details of the event (speakers, topic, sponsors, etc.)
• Registrations--provides enough details about people who register, and tools to manage those registrations (add people manually who didn't pre-register, cancel orders, check-in of attendees)
• Event promotion--events created using Eventbrite can be found by searching Eventbrite for local events

Incentivized

• Intuitive layout of the site. They have done a nice job of making the platform easy to navigate for any user using their services.
• Very responsive online service support. Whenever we have had questions in the past, some from the Picatic team was responded immediately, and were personable and professional.
• The site is versatile in that you can embed not only images but video as well which can really make a dynamic presentation for the viewer or intended audience.

Incentivized

• Our attendees complained about having to login every time to view content
• You cannot be in the system working on the backend while a colleague is. We have found that the work doesn't save.
• The email system is hard to format within Bizzabo
• Staff would sometimes get kicked out of interact rooms. It would be nice to add virtual backgrounds in this space.
• Reports were missing data and it took two weeks to get corrected
• When recording a session, you have to go back and download it, and then upload it. This process should be easier.

Incentivized

• I'd like to see Eventbrite add more customization to the event page layout. It would be nice to be able to differentiate our event through more specific design.
• I've had occasional problems with email formatting in the Eventbrite email builder. It would be nice to have a slightly more trustworthy builder.
• Other than those two things, I think Eventbrite does exactly what it needs to do.

Incentivized

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Incentivized

Bizzabo has become integral to our ability to support and run events, so we will continue to renew as long as Bizzabo continues to run a great product.

Incentivized

Excellent platform and easy to use to create events. Eventbrite sets the standard for simple, effective and safe ticketing platforms. Our customers trust Eventbrite and we've always done well when we use this platform for ticketing. They have recently updated some of the virtual connectivity tools which make it even easier to set up and promote virtual events.

Incentivized

Bizzabo is extremely user friendly. The website builder is very simple to use and can creative some astounding looking websites, with no technical know how. The setup of the account, adding users, managing events and user access to events, as well as creating events from scratch or from existing "templates" (actually just standard events that we set a far off date from and copy as a template) is very simple, but powerful as you can pick and choose exactly what to copy over. It is also a very user friendly platform for the attendees and speakers (both for virtual events and physical events for speakers as the speaker, and partner, portal is very simple to use and can be custom created for the exact specifications you need).

Incentivized

Great platform with so many incredible features. It streamlines workflow, communication, messaging, and analyzing data. I know of no other platform that can do what Eventbrite can do for the price or user-friendliness. They also offer great support for new users and integrate well with other platforms (i.e., social media and Sched).

Incentivized

We have always gotten prompt responses from the Bizzabo team when reaching out. Additionally, in the 2 years we've been working with them, we've never had any kind of platform outage that impacted us.

Incentivized

We've never had any complaints from users about access to the platform or load times. From and admin portal perspective, no issues there either.

Incentivized

Support is always quick to respond. However, some issues are out of their hand, and in these cases, it is a laborious process to then submit a suggestion for how to improve the product. However, where they can rectify an issue, support has gone above and beyond to deliver and do so efficiently and in a friendly manner.

Incentivized

I haven't yet needed to contact customer support, but the information provided next to the various features has been exceptionally helpful. This info is located just to the right of most options, and it provides answers to frequently asked questions. At this point, that information has been enough to keep me from having to contact anyone.

Incentivized

I say this to everyone I talk about Bizzabo with - it was the best platform onboarding experience I've had with a vendor in 25 years in the industry. They were extremely thorough in the onboarding, ensuring that we were successful throughout the process. They had a frequent meeting cadence and the customer success manager was extremely prompt in answering any questions we had, jumping on calls when necessary.

Incentivized

Just jump in, don't over thinking it, doing it will net the very few basic questions you'll have. There's not much complexity so one doesn't need to plan as if moving a canal. It's as simple as can be.

Incentivized

Bizzabo is definitely a great choice for your event tool. I don't find it as robust as Cvent, but I do find it more useful than an Eventbrite. We selected Bizzabo because of our initial support team, but they eventually moved on, which started our problems with Bizzabo. It gives us more data than Eventbrite, which we appreciate.

Incentivized

My "go to" for event registration has always been Constant Contact because they don't charge additional processing fees above the standard transaction. If it's a more basic event where I just need to capture name, email, and payment, I'll continue to use Constant Contact over Eventbrite. However, if it's more complex and requires marketing, I would choose Eventbrite.

Incentivized

Picatics site is clean, modern, and easy to navigate. There are many features and many ways to customize your event to make sure that it is exactly what we want. If your having any issues the technical teams is always ready and available to help with any questions. Picatic has been perfect for us

Incentivized

The terms and pricing were very clear and understandable upfront. The ability to understand the drivers and levers that can be changed and the impact on the pricing really drove a high level of trust in the process.

Incentivized

It's spreadsheet heavy and has to be exact. The devil is in the details and if you miss a detail you have to fix it and redo it with all the changes that need to be made manually.

Incentivized

• Since we have only used Bizzabo for a year we are still learning and figuring out the nuances of it but I would say that one thing it has done is impressed our current clients which makes them want to continue to work with us.
• We hope to use Bizzabo as a tool to recruit more clients i the future
• It has cut a third party out of the system as we have our own dedicated platform to use and do not have to rely on a separate agency to use a different platform.

Incentivized

• A dedicated URL for each event has been easy to use for tying events to editorial content, promotion and marketing.
• For ticketed events, it has been an easy -to-use system without requiring a lot of training on a complicated technology. It is also competitively priced for transaction management.
• Whether we have discovered any Eventbrite users via the Eventbrite site promotion, we appreciate it as a recommendation of our event for like-minded event attendees.

Incentivized

• It had a positive impact when charging for events because the money showed up before the event which helped with cash flow for food and beverages and rental space.
• Time to set up and launch a landing page for creating events reduced from 8 hours to 3 hours once I made the switch. It was also a time saver to have the reminder emails function directly on the page as well.

Incentivized