Indico vs SimpleTix

Indico is a free, open-source tool for organizing events, archiving materials, and supporting collaboration. It provides workflows for seminars, meetings, workshops, and conferences, and can bring an institute’s events together. For conferences, organizers can handle registration and abstract submission, store papers and other materials, and provide participant badges. Events use hierarchical categories, protections for resources, and roles within events. The room-booking module supports delegated management, booking approvals, and audiovisual equipment management. Indico integrates with Zoom so participants can join video conferences with a single click; listed plugins also cover PayPal payments and Amazon S3 event-file storage. It can be customized through configuration and plugins, and its HTTP Export API exposes category contents, events, rooms, and bookings. Indico is installed as a self-hosted instance. The project began in 2002, and CERN adopted it for event management in 2004 and has financed its development since. The maker describes room booking as suited to companies, research institutes, and universities.

SimpleTix is a ticketing and registration platform for small and medium-sized events. It supports in-person, virtual, and hybrid gatherings, including concerts and festivals. Organizers can offer timed entry, reserved seating, season tickets, memberships, promo codes, waitlists, and abandoned-cart recovery. The Organizer mobile app validates digital tickets and scans them offline. Reporting includes an analytics dashboard, sales and attendee reports, and scheduled reports. Payment processors listed are Square, Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net. Integrations include Zapier and Make, with examples such as Zoom, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact. SimpleTix lists web, iOS, Android, and API access, plus badge printing, payment processing, and custom-code form customization. GA and Flex Pass free tickets have no SimpleTix fee; reserved-seating free tickets cost 25¢ each, and tickets priced $5 or less carry a flat 25¢ fee. The free plan is available, with seven-day support and free onboarding.