GuestlistOnline
vs Whova
A full conference platform priced by quote vs a self-serve guest list you can price yourself.
Whova is a full conference platform — attendee app, registration, badges, a self-check-in kiosk, speakers, exhibitors and streaming — priced by quote only, with no organiser free plan; the closest thing to a trial is a 20-minute demo. Third-party estimates, not published by Whova, put per-event pricing anywhere from $500 to $1,000 (nunify) up to $2,000 to $15,000+ (aitoolsbakery, unsourced). On top of that quote, Whova charges 3% + $0.99 per paid ticket with Stripe processing extra, and that rate does not apply to free tickets. What it does not publish: white-label branding, EU hosting, or whether the organiser check-in app works with no signal — only that the attendee app caches its own content offline. GuestlistOnline publishes every price from €0, hosts in the EU, checks guests in with no signal at all and gives promoters commissioned links.
Feature comparison
An honest look at how the two platforms compare.
| Feature | GuestlistOnline | Whova |
|---|---|---|
| Costs & payouts | ||
| Free plan | Free: 1 event, 50 guests, guest list, RSVP page and manual check-in, no credit card | None. There is no organiser free plan; the closest thing to a trial is a 20-minute demo call |
| Entry price | €0 free, €19.99 for a single event, €29/month or €249/year on Pro | Not published. Pricing is quote-only per event, with multi-event packages. Third-party estimates, not published by Whova: $500–$1,000 per event (nunify, Aug 2026) up to $2,000–$15,000+ (aitoolsbakery, Sep 2026, unsourced); add-ons such as document upload are reported up to $2,000 (LineUpr, Apr 2026) |
| Fee per paid ticket | 5% + €0.25 per ticket in the ticket currency, payment processing included | 3% + $0.99 per paid ticket, up from 2.5% + $0.99 in 2023; the organiser can absorb it or pass it on per ticket type; Stripe processing is charged separately, roughly 2.9–3.4% + $0.30 |
| Free tickets and free events | No fees on free events, on every plan including the free one | Whova's 3% + $0.99 rate does not apply to free tickets — but there is no free organiser plan to run one on, since the platform licence itself is quote-only |
| Payments and payouts | Payouts to your own Stripe Connect account as tickets sell | Stripe only, through your own Stripe Connect account or Whova Payout, with payouts available in 39 countries; refunds are handled by the organiser in Stripe |
| Guest list & RSVP | ||
| Guest import and sync | CSV import with names, email addresses and mapped columns | Spreadsheet import from a template — re-uploading adds rows rather than replacing them — plus sync from Eventbrite, Cvent, RegFox, Constant Contact or Zapier, with subsegments and custom fields such as dietary requirements |
| Custom questions and registration | Custom questions on the registration page | Custom questions with conditional follow-ups, ticket types, early-bird pricing, add-ons, discount codes, group tickets, invite-only tickets, a registration widget and abandoned-registration reminders; whether approval-required tickets exist is not published |
| Plus-ones | Plus-ones with names and your own wording on the registration page | No dedicated plus-one field — extra guests go through group tickets, and walk-ins need an invitation code |
| Waitlist | Capacity limit that closes registration when full, plus guest approval | Session-level capacity and waitlist are documented; whether a ticket-level waitlist exists is not published |
| Promoter tracking | Promoter links with commissions and per-promoter reporting | Campaign Link Tracking counts registrations per link, but Whova pays no commissions |
| Check-in & door | ||
| Offline check-in | PWA scanner on iOS and Android, installed without an app store, scans with no signal and syncs afterwards | Whether the organiser check-in app works with no signal is not published — only that the attendee app caches its own content offline; a Capterra reviewer (Apr 2026) called the admin app "worthless for anything but checking in" |
| Check-in methods and kiosk | QR scan from any phone; no kiosk or badge printing | QR via the attendee app or a printed badge, name search, a self-check-in iPad kiosk with automatic badge printing, 17 badge templates and session-level self check-in |
| Badge printing | Not offered | Kiosk-printed badges with 17 templates, part of the standard check-in flow |
| Team access and admin roles | 6 roles, up to 5 team members on Per Event and 50 on Pro | Not published: how many admin seats Whova allows, or whether admin permissions differ by role, is not documented anywhere we could verify |
| Branding & communication | ||
| Branding and white-label | Custom branding from Per Event (€19.99); full white-label on Enterprise | Colours, logo and banners on a branded event URL slug, but Whova states explicitly that its app is not white-label — every event runs inside the shared Whova app, and a custom domain is not published |
| Messaging | Email invitations, reminders and templates — no SMS blasts | Email announcements, push notifications, in-app messaging, a community board, polls and surveys; SMS is listed on the features page but left undocumented |
| Platform | ||
| Languages | 7 languages in the dashboard, the emails and the registration pages | Event content can be written in any language, but built-in section titles are English only, and the app interface itself ships in English, French and Chinese |
| Data hosting | Hosted in the EU, GDPR-compliant | SOC 2 Type 2 and EU-US Data Privacy Framework certified, PCI compliance through Stripe — but servers and all subprocessors sit in the USA, with no EU residency option |
| API and integrations | REST API and webhooks on Enterprise | Syncs with Eventbrite, Cvent, RegFox, Constant Contact, Zapier, HubSpot, Zoom and Teams; a public API or webhooks are not published |
| Export | CSV export of guests, RSVPs, answers and check-in status | Exports the attendee list, registration data and a 50+ page report |
| Best for | Organisers, venues, clubs and small teams who need a guest list, tickets and a door without a procurement cycle | Multi-day conferences, association and academic events with 200+ attendees where networking, agendas, speakers, sponsors and an attendee app matter |
Facts verified on 2026-09-17. Sources are listed at the bottom of this page.
What each one costs
GuestlistOnline
- Free — €01 event, 50 guests, guest list, RSVP page, manual check-in
- Per Event — €19.99 one-offUnlimited guests for one event, QR check-in, templates, branding, gift fund, 5 team members
- Pro — €29/month or €249/yearUnlimited events and guests, analytics, organisation settings, 50 team members, 7-day trial
- Enterprise — CustomWhite-label, API and webhooks, dedicated support and SLA
Free events: no fees. Paid tickets: 5% + 0.25 per ticket in the ticket currency, payment processing included.
Whova
- Per-event licence — Quote onlyRegistration, website, attendee app, check-in and badging, priced by quote; multi-event packages available
No published prices. Third-party estimates, not published by Whova: $500–$1,000 per event (nunify, Aug 2026) up to $2,000–$15,000+ (aitoolsbakery, Sep 2026, unsourced); add-ons such as document upload reported up to $2,000 (LineUpr, Apr 2026). No organiser free plan — the closest thing to a trial is a 20-minute demo.
What you pay on 200 × $25 tickets ($5,000 gross)
Whova's 3% + $0.99 per-ticket fee is separate from its own platform pricing, which is quote-only per event; third-party estimates, not published by Whova, put that at $500–$1,000 per event (nunify, Aug 2026) up to $2,000–$15,000+ (aitoolsbakery, Sep 2026, unsourced).
Assumes one ticket per order and no VAT differences. Both platforms charge nothing on free tickets.
What sets them apart
The details that matter when choosing between the two.
Quote-only licence vs a published rate
Whova publishes no price for the platform itself — every event is quoted individually, with multi-event packages on top. The only public numbers are third-party estimates, not published by Whova: nunify puts it at $500–$1,000 per event, aitoolsbakery (unsourced) at $2,000–$15,000+, and LineUpr reports add-ons such as document upload running up to $2,000. GuestlistOnline is free for one event with 50 guests, €19.99 for a single event, and €29 a month or €249 a year for unlimited events, all published and bought with a card.
Where Whova wins: the full conference stack
Whova is a conference platform, not a guest-list tool, and it shows: an attendee app with agendas, matchmaking, a community board, Q&A and gamification (Capterra 4.8, 2,487 reviews), a self-check-in iPad kiosk with automatic badge printing across 17 templates, speaker and exhibitor management, and sync with Eventbrite, Cvent, RegFox, Constant Contact and Zapier. GuestlistOnline has none of that — no attendee app, no kiosk, no badge printing, no exhibitor tools.
Where GuestlistOnline wins: self-serve, EU hosting and promoter commissions
You cannot buy Whova today without a sales conversation, and the licence price never appears anywhere public. GuestlistOnline takes a card and opens registration the same afternoon, hosts in the EU against Whova's US-only servers, runs in 7 languages against section titles that stay English, and gives each promoter a link that calculates a commission — something Whova's Campaign Link Tracking counts but never pays.
Branding and offline check-in: both undocumented on the Whova side
Whova states outright that it is not white-label — every event sits inside the shared Whova app with a branded URL slug, and a custom domain is not published. Its own offline story is just as thin: only the attendee app is confirmed to cache content offline, and whether the organiser check-in tool itself works with no signal is not published. GuestlistOnline offers full white-label on Enterprise and a PWA scanner confirmed to work with zero signal on any phone.
When Whova is the better choice
If you run multi-day conferences, association meetings or academic events where an attendee app, speaker management and onsite badging matter, Whova is built for exactly that.
- Multi-day conferences, associations, universities or corporate events with 200+ attendees
- You need an attendee app with agendas, matchmaking, a community board and gamification
- Badge printing, a self-check-in kiosk and session-level check-in at the door
- A budget that can absorb a quote-only licence plus 3% + $0.99 per paid ticket
Switching from Whova
Whova exports the attendee list, registration data and a 50+ page report; no public API is published for a programmatic pull. Export the file and import it into GuestlistOnline, mapping names, email addresses and any registration answers you want to keep.
What carries over
- Attendee names and email addresses from the export
- Registration type and the answers you map on import
- Check-in status, as the exported record of who arrived
What doesn't
- The attendee app: agendas, matchmaking, community board, Q&A and gamification
- Badge templates and the self-check-in kiosk configuration
- Speaker, exhibitor and sponsor data, and the Eventbrite, Cvent, RegFox, Constant Contact and Zapier syncs
Common questions
Frequently asked questions about GuestlistOnline vs Whova.
All comparisons
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Sources
- Whova privacy policy
- Whova — who pays for Whova and how much it costs
- Whova pricing
- Whova blog — event registration software price comparison
- Whova event management software features
- Whova — can I change the app background image, icons or fonts
- Whova — does Whova support languages other than English
- Whova data security and privacy
Verified on 2026-09-17. Spotted something out of date? Email go@guestlistonline.com and we will correct it.