This comparison is for organizers who run conferences or professional development programs on Sched, the event scheduling platform, and want to know what each alternative costs before a sales call. Every price below comes from the vendor’s own published pages, pulled September 2026, and where a vendor publishes nothing, that is stated plainly.
The short list
- Conference Tracker for conferences that certify attendance: CEU, CME, and professional development events, from $990 per event with no subscription.
- Expo Pass for badge-first onsite operations from $2,495.
- EventMobi for association events priced per attendee from $3,000.
- Whova for engagement-first agendas, at quote-only pricing.
- Accelevents for annual event portfolios from $7,500.
How we compared
We compared published pricing, which features each platform bundles at which tier, and the attendance-and-certification layer specifically, because Sched’s own audience (school PD days, higher education, CME events) is the buyer who eventually has to prove who attended. Conference Tracker is our product, so the fairest method is the one used here: every vendor’s own published numbers side by side, each sourced, with a clear section on who should stay put. Nothing comes from review sites.
Published pricing at a glance
| Platform | Best for | Published pricing | Pricing model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sched (the incumbent) | agendas and simple registration | from $200 per event; attendance tier from $1,500 per event | per event or annual, scales by attendee count, ticketing fees |
| Conference Tracker | attendance and credit certification | from $990 (300-attendee event) | flat per event, no subscription, no per-attendee fees |
| Expo Pass | badge printing and check-in | from $2,495 | quote built per event above the floor |
| EventMobi | association conferences | from $3,000 per event, $8,900 per year | per attendee, add-ons priced separately |
| Whova | attendee engagement | not published | quote request form |
| Accelevents | registration-centric portfolios | plans at $7,500 and $13,500 | annual, virtual as paid add-on |
What organizers outgrow on Sched
Sched’s published tiers tell the story themselves: the agenda, registration, and app basics start at $200 per event, and the layer a certifying event needs (attendance tracking and check-in, customizable badges, lead retrieval, the advanced call for papers) arrives in the tier priced from $1,500 per event. Pricing scales with attendee count, and ticketing fees apply, advertised at 50 percent lower only on the top tier.
None of that is a defect; it is a platform built agenda-first, priced accordingly. It simply means the moment your event has to track and prove attendance, you are no longer buying the $200 product, and the comparison below starts at that moment.
Conference Tracker
Check people in fast. Prove they were there.
Conference Tracker scans attendees with the phones your staff already carry, tracks time in every session, and issues certificates and CEU transcripts on its own. One conference ran 2,623 attendees across 186 sessions on it.
30+ years building attendance tracking for events and education
Conference Tracker: the attendance and credit engine, from $990 per event
Conference Tracker is built in the opposite order: attendance and certification first, agenda and registration around it. Pricing starts at $990, the published sample for a 300-attendee event, flat per event with no per-attendee metering and no annual subscription, which makes it the only platform on this page with a published starting price under four figures and nothing recurring to justify next year.
The certification machinery is the part no competitor page states. Each session carries its own presence rule: a minimum percentage or number of minutes, with sign-out required where staying matters, not just arriving. Credit can be gated behind a quiz that only unlocks after attending, at a pass score you set, or behind the session evaluation being completed. Virtual viewers are tracked automatically and prompted with a still-watching check that removes idle screens. And every credit traces back through five-status attendance logs to the individual swipe and the device that captured it, which is the evidence trail an accreditor audit actually asks for. Attendees download their own Certificates of Attendance and per-session CEU transcripts; nobody mail-merges anything.
The rest of the conference runs in the same system: a call for papers with open, single-blind, or double-blind review and a rebuttal phase, registration with payments landing directly in your own PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net account, and the Conference Attendee app for schedules, messaging, and the event feed. Operationally it travels light: staff scan on their own phones with a free app, scans keep capturing offline and sync when the venue wifi returns, and badges print on ordinary office printers and Avery stock. The Texas Emergency Management Conference ran 2,623 attendees across 186 sessions on 22 leased scanning devices, and went from purchase order to a running conference in 12 days.
If your events end with credits to prove, request a Conference Tracker demo and price your next conference in one call.
The honest limits: virtual and mixed sessions are a paid add-on (the Virtual Package), and there is no venue sourcing or corporate travel layer. An event that is really a webinar series, or a team buying travel management, is shopping in a different category.
Expo Pass: badge-first onsite from $2,495
Expo Pass publishes a starting price of $2,495 and leads with the onsite stack: registration, badge printing and check-in, lead capture, and attendance tracking, with CE tracking and certificates advertised as well. The number above the floor comes from a quote shaped by attendee count and product mix. Its pages do not state enforcement mechanics like minimum-presence rules, required sign-out, or quiz-gated credit.
EventMobi: association events priced per attendee
EventMobi publishes two models: per event from $3,000 or per year from $8,900, with per-attendee pricing its own page states as low as $1 to $3. Its check-in app records session in and out with duration visible, and CE verification is stated. The extras are itemized separately: badge stock, lead capture per exhibitor, and integrations, so a full deployment should be priced as a total rather than a headline.
Whova: engagement-first at quote-only pricing
Whova reports over 50,000 events across 170+ countries on its own site, with the attendee app and engagement features as its core pitch. Badges print on popular printers, check-in runs by QR at event, day, and session level, and certificates generate from attendance records. It publishes no pricing; the pricing page is a quote request form, which matters when procurement needs a number before a conversation.
Accelevents: annual portfolios from $7,500
Accelevents publishes plans at $7,500 and $13,500, annual, with unlimited events and admin seats, aimed at teams running a calendar of events rather than one. Check-in works offline and syncs when the connection returns, and CE credits are mentioned for session tracking. Virtual events are a paid add-on, and the annual shape is the commitment to weigh for a single yearly conference.
Where Sched stays the right call
Keep Sched when its entry tiers already cover the whole job: events under 50 attendees ride its free tier, and a PD day or community event that needs an agenda, registration, and a polished schedule page (with SOC 2 Type II and FERPA compliance stated on its site) is well served without the attendance layer. Switching earns its cost at the moment attendance has to be proven, credited, and defended.
Which alternative fits which event
Pick by what your event has to prove. A conference that certifies attendance on a fixed budget: Conference Tracker, from $990 flat with the audit trail built in. A badge-heavy expo: Expo Pass. An association calendar: EventMobi per attendee, or Accelevents annually. An engagement-first program with budget room: Whova, once the quote returns. We keep the same published-pricing comparison for the Cvent field and for registration-first tools, and every number on this page is the vendor’s own, current as of September 2026.
