Help center / Registration & ticketing
Run a free event
What you can skip when nothing is being sold, and the two things people still get wrong.
A free event skips most of the payment setup. You still need a ticket — it is what carries capacity and attendee-type visibility — but it costs nothing and no gateway is involved.
Steps
- Open Tickets and go to the Tickets tab.
- Add a ticket and set it to Free.
- Give it a Name, a Quantity limit if places are limited, and set Visible to attendee types.
- Save.
That is it. You do not need a payment method, and you can ignore currency and tax.
What you still need to get right
A quantity limit. Free events attract registrations from people who never intended to come. If you have 200 seats, cap the ticket at 200 — or deliberately over-allocate for expected no-shows, but do that on purpose rather than by leaving it blank.
Confirmation emails. People need their QR code exactly as they would for a paid ticket. Test that the email arrives and the code scans.
Free events have far more no-shows
Somewhere between a third and a half of free registrations typically do not attend, and there is nothing evenclo can do about that. What helps:
- Send a reminder a day or two out — see the Marketing guides for scheduling one.
- Ask people to cancel if they cannot come, and put that line in the confirmation email.
- Over-allocate against a known no-show rate rather than guessing on the day.
- Use a waitlist by capping the ticket, so cancelled places can be offered on.
Mixing free and paid
You can. Common combinations: a free Speaker ticket alongside a paid Delegate one, or a free exhibition pass alongside a paid conference pass.
Use Visible to attendee types so the free ticket is only offered to the people entitled to it. A free ticket visible to everyone is a paid event with an opt-out.
Common problems
It still asks for payment. The ticket is set to Paid with a price of zero rather than Free. Set the type to Free.
Everyone can see the free ticket. Check its attendee type visibility.
Nobody turns up. Normal for free events. Reminders and a realistic expectation of the rate are the practical answers.
You want to charge a deposit that is refunded on attendance. Not supported. Charge a small non-refundable amount instead, which does far more for attendance than a deposit anyway.
more in registration & ticketing
- Create attendee typesDefine the kinds of people coming — delegate, speaker, press, student — and what each one sees.
- Add a question to your registration formPick a field type, label it, and place it on the right step.
- The 22 question typesWhat every field type is for, and which one to reach for when two look similar.
- Edit a question's label, options and validationChange the wording, build the option list, set validation rules, and restrict a question to certain steps or attendee types.