Twelve tools to describe one event.
The sign-up form, the flyer, the mailing list, the link in the bio, the spreadsheet, the code on the door. Twelve subscriptions, all holding a copy of the same date. Event Schedule keeps the date once and does the twelve jobs off it.
Twelve loops on one strap. Free to publish and to take names for nothing, $5 a month for the paid half, and zero platform fees on every plan.
The collapse
Twelve jobs. One record.
Nothing on the left is a product here. They are readings of one event row, which is why the belt holds all of them without twelve places to keep the date.
- L01 sign-ups
- L02 the mailout
- L03 the flyer
- L04 the bio link
- L05 the spreadsheet
- L06 bookings
- L07 feedback
- L08 the date poll
- L09 the door code
- L10 the website
- L11 the plan
- L12 the requests
The event
One row, edited once
Move the start time and the page, the ticket, the graphic, the synced calendar entry and the feed your guests subscribed to all move with it.
12 → 1
Tools to learn
One interface a volunteer has to be shown, instead of a tour of a dozen of them.
12 → 1
Accounts
Twelve sign-ups, twelve password resets, twelve sets of terms. Here it is one account, free to publish or $5 a month.
12 → 1
Copies of the date
The expensive number. Every extra copy of Saturday is another place it can be wrong.
The real bill
The subscriptions are not the expensive part.
Twelve tools is really twelve copies of the same event, kept in step by hand. Here is what that costs, and what the belt does instead.
L03 · L04 · L05
The date drifts
The flyer says nine, the bio link still says eight, and the spreadsheet was right on Tuesday. Whoever finds out first is a guest at the wrong door.
On the belt: the graphic is generated from the event's fields, so it cannot disagree with the page.
L01 · L02 · L05
The list splits
Sign-ups in the form, subscribers in the email tool, and the people who actually turned up in a third file nobody exports.
On the belt: followers, email subscribers and ticket buyers are one audience, and the newsletter is written against it. Confirmed subscribers also get a digest of the events you publish, on their own.
L01 · L05 · L09
Nothing knows about the ticket
A form cannot stop the sixty-first sign-up, a spreadsheet does not know the date sold out, and a code generator cannot tell you whether that code has already come through the door.
On the belt: inventory and RSVP capacity are counted per date, the door scans the ticket that was sold, and a full refund puts the place back on sale.
Ticket inventory and RSVP capacity are held per occurrence date, so a weekly night does not share one pot of places across the whole run.
The census
What is on the belt.
The twelve tools Event Schedule replaces, the job each one was doing, and what does that job here. Every row links to the detail.
| Tool | The job it was doing | What does it here |
|---|---|---|
| L01 Google Forms Registration and forms | Free RSVP with a capacity kept per date, named ticket types with your own questions at checkout, and a "Tell me when tickets go on sale" list in place of the notify-me form. Free Pro | |
| L02 Mailchimp Marketing and communication | Newsletters to your followers and ticket buyers, with open and click rates and an optional subject-line A/B test, and a sign-up form whose confirmed subscribers get a digest of your new events. Free | |
| L03 Canva Marketing and communication | Event graphics generated from the event's own fields, so a changed time redraws instead of being retyped. Free | |
| L04 Linktree Marketing and communication | The schedule page itself: your actual dates, a follow button, every event page one tap off the same link, and a short address for each link you list, with its clicks counted. Free | |
| L05 Google Sheets Scheduling and tracking | An attendee list per event, a Sales page that refunds Stripe and PayPal payments in full or in part, built-in analytics, and a CSV export when you do want a spreadsheet. Free Pro | |
| L06 Calendly Scheduling and tracking | One appointment type free and more on Pro, each with weekly hours, per-date overrides, buffers and optional payment by Stripe, a payment link or cash, booked on a public page. Free Pro | |
| L07 SurveyMonkey Registration and forms | Purpose-built registration, plus post-event feedback with star ratings and comments from the people who came. Free Pro | |
| L08 Doodle Registration and forms | Polls attached to the event itself: you set the options, guests vote, and they can suggest options for you to approve. Pro | |
| L09 QR Code Generators Scheduling and tracking | A QR code on every ticket, scanned at the door on any plan, with a live check-in dashboard on Pro, and a QR code for the schedule page itself. Free Pro | |
| L10 Squarespace Planning and websites | A schedule page with your branding, an embeddable calendar for the site you already have, custom CSS, or your own domain. Free Pro Ent | |
| L11 Notion Planning and websites | Sub-schedules to sort the programme, an agenda of parts inside an event, and templates for the events you run again. Free Pro | |
| L12 Trello Planning and websites | A Requests tab: public submissions land there, email you, and become real events when you accept them. Free |
Free is free forever. Pro is $5 a month, Enterprise is $15, and a selfhosted install has every one of them switched on. Where a row shows more than one pill, the basic job is free and the paid pills mark the parts that are not.
Where the belt stops
Four things that stay on the bench.
A consolidation page that claims everything is not worth reading. These are the jobs Event Schedule does not replace, where you should keep the specialist.
Automations and drip sequences
Newsletters here are written and sent by you, with open and click rates and an optional subject-line A/B test. There is no automation builder, no branching sequence and no drip. The event news that sends itself is fixed, and it is a fact about the calendar rather than a campaign you build: a digest of the new events you publish, for people who left an email address and confirmed it, and the few emails an event's interest list asked for, when tickets go on sale, if it is cancelled and shortly before it starts. If you run nurture flows, keep the email platform.
A blank design canvas
Event graphics are generated from the event's own fields into set layouts, in the sizes the platforms want. That is what kills the retyping. It is not a place to design a poster from nothing, so an art department keeps its design tool.
A general website builder
You get a schedule page and event pages, an embeddable calendar, custom CSS on Pro and your own domain on Enterprise. There is no page builder for an "about us" or a shop, so a site that is more than its events stays where it is, with the calendar embedded in it.
Task boards and free-form databases
Planning here is event-shaped: sub-schedules, an agenda of parts inside an event, templates for the ones you repeat, and a Requests tab for what the public sends in. There is no kanban and no arbitrary table, so a production board with cards for the van hire stays on its board.
One more, because it gets asked: a seating chart is an Enterprise feature. Below that, ticket types are named and priced, and a buyer picks a type rather than a seat.
The plans
Which loop sits on which plan.
Publish, fill the room, be found
- The schedule page and unlimited events
- Two-way Google, Outlook and CalDAV sync
- Free RSVP with a capacity per date, and no monthly ceiling
- Refunds from the Sales page, and no platform fee on any plan
- Scanning tickets at the door, and a QR code for the schedule page
- One appointment type on a public booking page
- Event graphics generated from the event
- Newsletters, ten emails a month, counting each recipient as one
- Email sign-ups, with an automatic digest of your new events
- Built-in analytics and the embeddable calendar
- Sub-schedules, agenda parts, recurring dates
- Backup and restore, images included
Covers all of L02, L03, L04 and L12, and the unpaid half of L01, L05, L06, L07, L09, L10 and L11.
Put a price on it
- Selling tickets that carry a price, and the live check-in dashboard
- Passes, subscriptions and individual tickets
- As many appointment types as you need
- Your own questions at checkout, promo codes, the ticket waitlist
- Polls, post-event feedback, sales CSV export
- REST API, webhooks, custom CSS, ticket widget embed
- One hundred newsletter recipients a month
Covers all of L08, and the paid half of L01, L05, L06, L07, L09, L10 and L11.
Your domain, your team
- Your own domain on the schedule
- Up to five team members
- Internal and unlisted event visibility
- AI agenda scanning into event parts
- One thousand newsletter recipients a month
Finishes L10, and adds the parts a staffed organisation needs.
Selfhost it instead and every Pro and Enterprise feature is on, because a selfhosted install resolves to the top tier.
Also on the belt
Things none of the twelve were doing at all.
Zero platform fees on ticket sales
Money moves through your own Stripe or PayPal account and Event Schedule takes none of it, on every plan including the free one. The only cut is the processor's own fee, the same cut it would take anywhere else, and a refund goes back the same way from the Sales page. This is usually the line that pays for the whole switch.
Two-way calendar sync
Google, Outlook and CalDAV, both directions, on the free plan. The dates keep arriving in the calendar your team already reads.
Embed the calendar
Drop your schedule into the website you already have, so the site does not need replacing for the dates to be right.
Open source, and yours to selfhost
The whole platform is open source. Run it on your own server and every Pro and Enterprise feature is switched on, which is a different kind of answer to lock-in than an export button. Backup and restore is on the free plan either way.
Analytics built in
Views, referrers and where your audience is reading from, on the schedule itself, with no tag to install.
A calendar feed guests subscribe to
Anyone can subscribe to your public dates as a live calendar feed, without giving an email address. Their calendar keeps re-reading it, so a moved date moves there too, which a shared calendar only does when somebody remembers to edit it.
An API and webhooks, for the tool you keep
If one loop stays on the bench, wire it in instead of retyping into it: a REST API over events, schedules, sales and sub-schedules, plus webhooks that fire on sales, event changes and check-ins.
Free forever. Upgrade when you're ready.
Free registration for as many people as you like. When you start charging, zero platform fees on every plan - the only deduction is your payment processor's own.
Everything you need to publish a schedule and fill the room, for as long as you like.
- Unlimited events, sub-schedules and recurring dates
- Two-way Google, Outlook and CalDAV sync
- Unlimited free registration and RSVPs, scanned at the door
No expiry, and no card asked for.
Start charging, and the rest of the selling kit arrives with it.
- Sell paid tickets, with the live check-in dashboard
- Promo codes, add-ons, passes and gift cards
- The REST API, webhooks, and no Event Schedule branding
7-day free trial, cancel any time.
For a room with a seating chart, a team, and a domain of its own.
- Reserved seating, drawn once and reused every date
- Your own domain, and up to five team members
- Internal and unlisted events, and 1,000 newsletter recipients
Included free on every selfhosted install.
Frequently asked questions
What people ask before they take a tool off the belt.
How many tools can Event Schedule actually replace?
The twelve on this page, for the event-shaped part of what each one was doing. That means registration and ticketing, the schedule page, the flyer, the newsletter, the attendee list, appointment bookings, the door code, polls, feedback and the requests queue. It does not mean everything those products do: read the "what stays on the bench" section, which is deliberately specific about where the belt stops.
Is one platform really cheaper than five?
Publishing a schedule is free forever, and that free plan already covers the page, unlimited events, two-way Google, Outlook and CalDAV sync, RSVP with a capacity per date and no monthly ceiling on it, scanning at the door, one appointment type, event graphics, built-in analytics, the embeddable calendar and newsletters to ten recipients a month. Pro is $5 a month and is what lets a ticket carry a price, then adds the live check-in dashboard, polls, post-event feedback, more appointment types with paid bookings and the API. Enterprise is $15. Event Schedule charges zero platform fees on ticket sales on every plan, free included, so the door money is yours minus your payment provider's processing fee.
Can it take PayPal, and refund a buyer from the same place?
Yes, on Pro. Connect your own Stripe or PayPal account and choose per event; Payfast (rand only), Invoice Ninja, a payment link and cash are there too. A Stripe or PayPal sale is refunded from the Sales page, in full or in part, and the money goes back through the provider before the sale changes status. A full refund puts the places back on sale, while a partial one leaves the tickets valid. A sale paid any other way is marked as refunded instead, because there is no money for the app to move. A ticket buyer is not emailed about a refund, so tell them yourself.
What replaces the "notify me" form and the mailing-list sign-up?
Two free things on your public pages. On an event page, once you switch on the "Notify me" card, a visitor can leave just an email address under "Tell me when tickets go on sale", or "Tell me if anything changes" once you are selling. They hear when tickets go on sale, if the event is cancelled, and once shortly before it starts, plus any notice you choose to send if the date or venue changes. On the schedule page, the sign-up panel takes an email address, and confirming it sets up an account that follows the schedule. Confirmed subscribers get a digest of the new events you publish, at most one every 72 hours. Neither list counts against the newsletter allowance, which is only spent on newsletters you write.
What does Event Schedule not replace?
There is no automation or drip-campaign builder, so a nurture sequence stays where it is. There is no blank design canvas: graphics are generated from the event record in fixed layouts. It is not a general website builder, and there is no task board or kanban. Seat maps exist, but only on Enterprise: on the other plans ticket types are priced by the number and buyers are not choosing a specific seat.
Do I have to move everything at once?
No, and most people should not. Two-way calendar sync means the dates keep flowing to the calendar your team already reads, and the embeddable calendar drops the same schedule into the site you already have, so the old page can stay up while you move. Your mailing list comes across by paste or CSV, up to ten thousand addresses per import. Then you can retire one loop at a time.
Can I keep using my own domain and my own look?
Custom CSS on schedule pages is on the Pro plan, and running the schedule on your own domain is an Enterprise feature. On any plan you can embed the calendar, or the ticket form on Pro, into the website you already own, which is the usual answer if the site is not the thing you wanted to replace.
What happens to my data if I want out again?
Backup and restore is on the free plan and exports your schedule data, with images if you want them. Pro adds a sales CSV export, a REST API and webhooks. Event Schedule is also open source, so the last resort is to selfhost the whole thing, where every Pro and Enterprise feature is switched on.
Free forever
Twelve loops. One strap.
Take the name, publish your dates, and move the rest across a loop at a time. No credit card, and nothing taken from the door.
Zero platform fees on ticket sales. You only pay your payment provider's processing fee.
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