Why event ticketing platforms don't replace visitor management.
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Eventbrite is the industry standard for event ticketing and registration. If you're hosting a one-time event, selling tickets, or managing conferences, Eventbrite does that brilliantly. Many organizations use Eventbrite for their events and wonder if they can use it for day-to-day visitor management too.
The answer is: technically yes, but it's a poor fit. Eventbrite's model assumes discrete events with registration periods, ticket types, and defined start/end times. A museum's daily visitors, a church's weekly attendees, or an office's regular guests don't fit this paradigm well.
Using Eventbrite for ongoing visitor management means creating "events" for every day you're open, managing those events individually, and hoping visitors understand they need to "register" before visiting. The administrative overhead adds up quickly, and the visitor experience is confusing—why am I buying a "ticket" to visit a free museum?
More fundamentally, Eventbrite is about event registration, not visitor management. It tracks who registered, not who actually showed up. There's no check-in kiosk for arrivals, no real-time view of who's on-site, and no check-out tracking. The data model doesn't support what visitor management actually requires.
Clerkcat handles the ongoing, everyday nature of visitor tracking that Eventbrite isn't designed for. There are no "events" to create—just a kiosk that captures arrivals and departures, day after day, with all the analytics and reporting you need.
| Feature | Clerkcat | Eventbrite |
|---|---|---|
| Use case | Daily visitor management | Event ticketing and registration |
| Event creation required | No—always ready for visitors | Yes—each day/event needs setup |
| On-site kiosk | Purpose-built check-in | Limited check-in features |
| Walk-in visitors | Fully supported | Requires pre-registration |
| Check-out tracking | Full support | Not available |
| Daily operations | Set it and forget it | Ongoing event management |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly fee | Per-ticket fees |
| Real-time visibility | Who's here now | Registration counts only |
Set up once and handle visitors every day without creating new events.
Visitors check in when they arrive—no pre-registration friction.
See who's currently on-site, not just who registered.
Flat monthly fee regardless of visitor volume. No per-check-in costs.
Track arrivals and departures, not just registrations.
You have to create and manage "events" for every day you want to track visitors.
Eventbrite knows who registered, not who actually showed up.
Costs scale with volume, making high-traffic locations expensive.
Can't see who's currently in your building or when they arrived.
"Register for an event" is confusing when you're just walking into a building.
Clerkcat is the better choice if any of these apply:
Eventbrite is excellent for events. Clerkcat is excellent for everyday visitor management. If you're creating Eventbrite events just to track regular visitors, you're using the wrong tool. Switch to something built for the job.
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