BagEvent vs pretalx

BagEvent provides event websites, registration, ticketing and payments, on-site check-in and badges, and reports for conferences, corporate events, and trade shows. It runs on the web, Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. Staff check-in apps can scan an event roster downloaded in advance and sync queued check-ins when the connection returns. Ticket sales carry a 0% platform fee and settle to the organizer’s own Stripe or PayPal account. Pro costs $99/month billed annually or $129/month billed monthly, and includes five events per month, up to 1,000 attendees per event, five team members, and one custom domain. Business costs $479/month billed annually or $599/month billed monthly, with an API and webhooks. The API reads attendee and order information but cannot create registrations or change orders; the service has no built-in one-click CRM connectors. A 14-day Pro trial requires no credit card, though paid-ticket use is limited to 50 registrations, $10 per order, and $500 total. Organizer and attendee data is hosted on Google Cloud Platform in Singapore. BagEvent says it holds no security certification.

pretalx manages conference calls for participation and the work that follows, including submission review, talk selection, speaker communication, scheduling, and publication. Organizers can customize call pages, set multiple deadlines, accept submissions in multiple languages, and use a chosen domain. Review teams can rate and discuss submissions, and organizers can add questions for reviewers. The schedule editor uses speaker availability and warns about conflicts; published schedules can include an RSS feed and public changelog. Organizers can use full API access or download static schedule pages for hosting elsewhere. pretalx is open-source software under the Apache License and can be installed with pip. It can be self-hosted or used as a hosted service. Self-hosted software costs nothing, but server costs and maintenance apply. Hosted service includes backups, certificates, updates, operational maintenance, and assistance; pricing is per event and varies with conference size and ticket price, with no price listed here. The hosted service says it uses servers in Germany, encrypts data in transit, and does not track attendees with cookies, analytics, or sensitive IP logging. Event-page and schedule availability is usually guaranteed for six months after an event.