RegOnline by Cvent (Discontinued) vs. Opendate

RegOnline is a great tool for multi-track events. It is very user friendly and the software makes it easy to set up multiple tracks. It's even easy to check the progress of your event and make changes without impacting the registration process. The ability to collect data that can be taken back to the C-suite is also nice.

Incentivized

We migrated from another ticketing company and Prism. Opendate combined the best of both and the data we unlocked by those two systems has helped guide our marketing efforts and increased our revenue per show. We have excellent customization on the ticketing which helps us better understand the financials of each show. It's the first time our entire team (talent, marketing, production and finance) all are on one system that works for each of us. The product can improve in some of its more advanced functionality such as more robust permissioning and event-level customization

• RegOnline is able to handle credit card payments, cashing out once per month by sending a check to me (paid to the university) via mail. This was the main reason that we needed the site, and it is it's best feature.
• Customizable options were added this year, and though a little confusing at first they have been great at adding additional details in headers on pages (on pages that I formerly was unable to provide additional instructions).
• The registration system itself has been useful for managing registrants, and being able to easily update those who still chose to pay 'offline' via check or wire transfer (allowing me to still easily see all paid participants).

Incentivized

• Manages our calendar clearly
• Increased revenue
• Centralizes all our processes

• You can't easily access a registration unless you click on the edit pencil. It appears that the title of the event is linked but if you click on it you always get an error message. This appearance of being linked should be removed because it causes frustration. Same with the event number. It appears to be a link that can be opened but it goes to the same error message.
• RegOnline did a big change about 18 months ago which wreaked havoc with registrations. A lot of functionality was lost and it took about a year for them to recover from that. At that time, our education and conferences department got so frustrated, we starting using another registration platform which was not a good experience either and then in early 2018 switched to Cvent.
• It isn't easy to get in touch with support.

Incentivized

• Seated shows could have additional functionality
• Additional permission options
• Single sign on

We've never had an issue they couldn't resolve in one phone call.

Incentivized

The Department also uses RegFox for training events as well as conferences. One of the main reasons they use RegFox is because of the price, it only charges $0.99 per registration whereas RegOnline charges $3.55 per registration. Because we are a state agency, that can make a big difference to our budget. That being said it is easier to build multi-track events in RegOnline.

Incentivized

The customer support we have received from Opendate is unmatched. We have multiple points of contact and when we make suggestions they are frequently implemented in quick order. The pricing is competitive and the flexibility we have in the product is great. Most importantly, rather than using 3 or 4 different systems our entire venue is ran out of Opendate

• Everyone has been incredibly happy being able to pay on credit card! Prior to RegOnline, our only payment options were by check, money order, or wire transfer. I personally had to deposit many, many more personal checks to the university on behalf of participants. So participants have been happy with the credit card option (it was requested by many every year until the switch to RegOnline), but it also has been very helpful at saving me time as well.
• The negative impact has been that we had a free registration page set up prior to RegOnline, that we dropped fully. So while some participants still pay by check or wire transfer, we still must pay the 'per participant' fee even for participants not paying through RegOnline.

Incentivized

• Increased our revenue per show by centralizing our upgrades on one platform and better understanding our buyers