Dryfta vs. Eventbrite

I can't provide a scenario where Dryfta could be well suited. I guess it's a matter of delivering what has been promised on time, and without having to invest thousands of hours in extra work, as it was in our case. If it worked properly it could be a good tool for any conference.

This software is very well suited for a variety of larger events, like lectures and performances. I have appreciated setting it up and allowing it to run around the clock for our participants, which ultimately provides a smoother experience. However, I probably wouldn't recommend it for events where you're expecting a smaller audience. It can take a while to set up exactly as you'd like, and it may not be worth the time if you're expecting 30 people or less (depending on how much info you're trying to gather, of course).

Incentivized

• It has a lot of functionalities (website and administration) all included in the same platform. If it worked properly, it allows you to organise a conference paper-free.
• Help desk responds quite quickly
• They consider making improvements when asked for.
• It’s not too expensive.

• Eventbrite is a well-known and trusted place for purchasing tickets. That trust helps us sell tickets. It also eliminates the need for integrating some other payment system into a webpage, which would be the alternative.
• Eventbrite makes sending invitations easy. Upload contacts and using contacts from a previous event is very straight-forward. Building emails is simple, since there are a couple of prebuilt templates.
• Discount codes and strategic pricing structures are a significant part of our marketing for events. Eventbrite makes it easy to offer discount codes. We also create several ticket types that include multi-ticket discounts, early-bird type specials and more. Each of which help us reach our audience at the right time with the right price.

Incentivized

• Multilingual issues. Although it is advertised as multilingual, it didn’t really work as such. The many issues that popped up throughout the conference preparation were fixed little by little at a cost in time, from help desk emails and to struggles with the unfriendly UX.
• Admin pages reloaded every time you clicked on a button (their developers seem to ignore Ajax technologies). It was time-consuming and required constant page searches.
• Inflexibility in many of the supposed functionalities it offers.
• Certificates were not modifiable nor custom when we had to send them (it was solved months after the conference finished when we were surprisingly contacted by the help desk).
• Problems with the size of images to be displayed on the site, very small fonts and limited options to display content. We had to hire a professional developer in order to get a graphically consistent and presentable website.
• Very poor mobile version. Too big margins, unreadable text, endless text blocks and lists, distorted pictures, etc.
• Issues with the ordering of the authors’ names for different proposals (authorship being so important in research).
• Fixed, inflexible fields in the contact sheets, speakers info, and so on.
• Special character issues (due to Latin characters and other types used in linguistic research).
• Not being able to include links in the HTML editor due to Dryfta's inadvertent decisions to block them.
• Only one Superadmin user allowed to access the full functionalities of the platform, so we had to share it (consequently not knowing who did each action).
• Problems with the generation of reports and the high complexity of their interface.
• Some issues on the mandatory anonymity. The double-blind review process not fully respected due to unclear user info and options, with other issues coming up on the go such as unwanted info in automated notifications and messages in the Welcome dashboard.
• Not being able to use the other payment methods on the platform because they were incompatible with the conference country.
• Missing information and time wasted when creating events for sessions with info that already existed in the server that randomly failed to be selected. These issues were reported even with video proofs (help desk didn’t believe us), and were never solved. We had to repeat the same processes again and again, never knowing what was going on

• While integration with Facebook is fairly seamless, once you have uploaded the event description to Facebook, any additional revisions must be made on both Eventbrite and Facebook individually. It's not a live integration.
• My initial on boarding was extended by needing to seek information through various blogs, outside users and exploration through the site. More comprehensive training for first timers to the site would be welcome.
• Integration with the manager calendar would help the marketing timeline. It's helpful to get email reminders, but would be fabulous if milestones could be dropped in my calendar.

Incentivized

Excellent platform and easy to use to create events. Eventbrite sets the standard for simple, effective and safe ticketing platforms. Our customers trust Eventbrite and we've always done well when we use this platform for ticketing. They have recently updated some of the virtual connectivity tools which make it even easier to set up and promote virtual events.

Incentivized

Great platform with so many incredible features. It streamlines workflow, communication, messaging, and analyzing data. I know of no other platform that can do what Eventbrite can do for the price or user-friendliness. They also offer great support for new users and integrate well with other platforms (i.e., social media and Sched).

Incentivized

It was quick, that's all we can say. Quite a few times they sorted out the problems and issues. But, sadly, sometimes their answers were useless and irritating (not addressing the problem or simply ignoring it, "passing the buck"). In some cases, they pretended the problem didn't exist and we had to send them videos as proof. No response to that.

Always willing to help out and they have a ton of information handy on their website for self-service. If you can't find what you're looking for, their support team is quick to help out and provide any assistance you may need.

Incentivized

Just jump in, don't over thinking it, doing it will net the very few basic questions you'll have. There's not much complexity so one doesn't need to plan as if moving a canal. It's as simple as can be.

Incentivized

My "go to" for event registration has always been Constant Contact because they don't charge additional processing fees above the standard transaction. If it's a more basic event where I just need to capture name, email, and payment, I'll continue to use Constant Contact over Eventbrite. However, if it's more complex and requires marketing, I would choose Eventbrite.

Incentivized

• The overall performance was okay in the end, but it was due to our team's commitment and effort. Without that extra work, the results would have been awful.

• We have greater flexibility using Eventbrite than with our previous system. Previously, we could not schedule events or invites to occur at a specific time. If we wanted to promote our event 1-week in advance, our invite would go out based on the date/time of the event.
• Generally, about half the number of people who register for our events actually attend. But there are occasions when we need to limit registrations, something we couldn't do with our previous system.
• Eventbrite allows us to email our registered attendees ahead of an event with further details, or to follow-up with things discussed during our event. It provides yet another way of promoting our next event.

Incentivized