What Whova charges
Whova charges 3% + $0.99 on every paid registration, plus card processing on top. Below: what that comes to over a year at three volumes, what is not in that number, and what the same job costs when you own it instead of renting it.
What Whova publishes
Ticketing: 3.0% + $0.99 per paid ticket, free tickets no fee, charged on top of Stripe processing fee (Stripe rate not stated). Organizer can absorb or pass fees to attendees (whova.com search snippet). Event app/platform is quote-only (pricing page = quote form).
Those are Whova's own published numbers, read on 21 September 2026. Vendors change pricing without announcing it, so check the live page before you sign anything — and check your own last invoice, which is the only number that is definitely yours.
A year of Whova fees, at three volumes
Worked straight off the published rate. Card processing is left out of every column, because it is charged whoever takes the money.
| A year of | Whova | Built and owned | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 registrations at $1503% of $150 + $0.99 = $5.49 a registration, 200 times | $1,098a year | $109.80a tenth of what you pay them | $988.2090% of the bill |
| 1,000 registrations at $1503% of $150 + $0.99 = $5.49 a registration, 1,000 times | $5,490a year | $549a tenth of what you pay them | $4,94190% of the bill |
| 4,000 registrations at $1503% of $150 + $0.99 = $5.49 a registration, 4,000 times | $21,960a year | $2,196a tenth of what you pay them | $19,76490% of the bill |
We do not publish a price of our own, because it is worked out against yours: a tenth of what the platform costs you, with hosting, fixes and changes included. The volumes are illustrations at a stated price per registration, not a promise about your business — send your own bill and the figure is exact.
What you would own instead
- The part you actually useMost of a platform like Whova goes unused. We rebuild the parts your business runs on and leave the rest out.
- The code and the dataYours, in your own account, exportable on any day for any reason.
- A price that does not scale with your takingsa tenth of what you pay now — hosting and changes included, and it does not grow with your takings.
When to stay put
- You use nearly all of itIf your team lives in every corner of Whova and the bill is small, replacing it is work for no gain.
- The fee is tiny against your marginRun the numbers above on your real volume first. If it is noise, leave it.
- It is the only place your customers can find youA marketplace that brings you buyers is selling you demand, not only software. That is worth paying for.
Whova pricing, asked and answered
What does Whova cost?
Whova charges 3% + $0.99 on every paid registration, plus card processing on top. Ticketing: 3.0% + $0.99 per paid ticket, free tickets no fee, charged on top of Stripe processing fee (Stripe rate not stated). Organizer can absorb or pass fees to attendees (whova.com search snippet). Event app/platform is quote-only (pricing page = quote form).
What would Whova cost me over a year?
On 1,000 registrations at $150, Whova's published fees come to about $5,490 a year (3% of $150 + $0.99 = $5.49 a registration, 1,000 times). Built and owned, that year is about $549 — a tenth of what you pay now — and you keep the $4,941 difference.
Who pays Whova's fee — me or my customer?
You can choose: absorb it out of your payout, or add it to what the buyer pays at checkout. Either way somebody is paying it every registration.
Is card processing included?
No. Taking the money is a separate cost, normally around 2.9% + $0.30 an order, and it is charged whoever you use. The figures on this page leave processing out on both sides so the comparison is like for like.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Whova?
That depends on what you actually use it for. Most businesses use a small part of a platform like this — take the money, hold the record, send the confirmation, show the list. That part can be built once and owned, and we price it against your own bill: a tenth of what you pay now, instead of a share of every registration forever. You keep the code and the data, and the old system keeps running beside it until the new one is proven.
What the others charge
Same category, same treatment — each one read from the vendor's own pricing page.
- What Cvent chargesCvent doesn't publish its pricing — it is quoted per contract.
- What Swoogo chargesSwoogo runs $983.33 a month.
- What Bizzabo chargesBizzabo runs $1,500 a month.
Reading on the same subject
- Source code handover: what a small business should ask forSeptember 28, 2026 · Five things to ask a developer for so another team could take over: repository access, accounts in your name, deployment notes, service logins and backups.
- What to ask before signing a multi-year SaaS contractSeptember 21, 2026 · Questions to ask before a multi-year SaaS contract: renewal and notice windows, price increases, minimums, shrinking, and data export when you leave.
Keep reading
Tell us what Whova costs you
Send your last invoice or just the rate you are on, and we will tell you what the same work costs built and owned — and say so plainly if you are better off where you are.
Hiro costs about a tenth of what you pay now, quoted against your own bill. Hosting, fixes and changes included, and no per-seat fees.