Competitive entry software is almost always billed on the structure of your premium book rather than on how many people come through the gate. One exhibitor entering several classes across two departments is several charges, and a family at one kitchen table is several exhibitors. To know what a season costs, count classes entered, not entrants.
That is the whole of the arithmetic, and it is why the total surprises boards. Participation is what a fair works all year to raise, and participation is the thing the pricing is attached to.
Count the way the platform counts
Before anything can be compared, establish which unit you are billed on. The wording varies between agreements and the difference between these is large.
- Per entry, meaning per class entered. This is the one that multiplies fastest.
- Per exhibitor, per household or per account, which caps a large family but not a busy one.
- A share of the entry fee you charge, which rises whenever the board raises entry fees or premiums.
- A flat season licence, sometimes banded on entry volume, so growth quietly moves you into the next band.
- Everything sold on top: junior divisions, a second show, a late entry window, extra logins, exports and reports.
Where the multiplying happens
Departments are not evenly sized, and a unit price that looks small behaves very differently across them.
A livestock department has relatively few exhibitors, each in a moderate number of classes. A baking, preserves or needlework department can have a handful of families entering a great many classes each. A craft or photography section opened to attract newcomers adds classes before it adds people. Open a junior division and you have duplicated a section's whole class list against a new group of exhibitors.
Then the season repeats it. A spring show, the main fair and an autumn produce show are often three events counted separately on the same contract, and where they sit on different agreements the licence is bought again for each.
The charges that sit beside the entry fee
- Late entries and amendments, which can carry a fee of their own per change.
- Entry tag and exhibitor number printing, or device hire for the hall and the ring.
- Judging and results modules sold separately from the entry system.
- The premium payout run, where the platform moves the money rather than the treasurer.
- Card processing on every entry fee taken, which belongs to the processor and applies to any system, including one you own.
Add a season up before the renewal
Entry software renews in the quiet months, long before the entry deadline, which is why the total has often never been read out as one figure. Take last year's entry count by department, apply the unit you are genuinely billed on, add every licence and module, and you have the number the board should see. Our software bill calculator is a free calculator that turns a per-entry fee and an annual licence into a yearly and a three-year total.
Then look at that figure across the number of years a society like yours would normally commit to. If it is modest, renting is the right answer and the money is better spent on premiums, and we would rather say so than sell you something. Our guide to renting versus owning business software sets out both sides, and our page for fairs and expos describes what a fair board can own and what stays with the veterinary authority and the breed registries.