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Cvent Alternatives for European Corporate Event Planners (2026)
A 2026 head-to-head of seven Cvent alternatives, written from the perspective of a European corporate event team that does not want to pay enterprise sourcing fees for SME-volume work. Pricing, fit profile, MICE coverage, GDPR posture, and the tradeoffs each tool actually carries.
TL;DR
- Free Hotel RFP Template (copy-paste ready)
- Enterprise RFP Software for Small Teams: When It Pays Off
- How to Automate MICE Event Proposals (2026 Practical Guide)
- MeetingPackage vs Easy RFP: Honest Comparison
- For SME European teams (under 50 events per year, hotel sourcing focus): Easy RFP, MeetingPackage, EventsCase. EU-built, monthly pricing, no implementation fee.
- For mid-market teams that need registration plus mobile app plus on-site: Bizzabo or Stova. More platform than Cvent in some areas, less in others. Enterprise contracts.
- For light venue lookups without a real RFP system: HotelPlanner, HotelShare. Free or commission-based; not a procurement system.
- For SMB-targeted procurement automation: Groupize. Stronger than Cvent on small-team UX, weaker on European hotel coverage.
- If you migrate, overlap contracts for at least 30 days. See our Switching from Cvent migration guide for the full playbook.
How we evaluated each tool
This is not a vendor-paid review. We evaluate based on what an honest SME European corporate event lead would care about: pricing transparency, time-to-first-RFP, hotel coverage in primary EU markets, GDPR posture, response rates from hotels, and whether the tool's commercial model rewards or punishes the planner long-term. We say where Easy RFP fits because we built it; we are equally clear where it does not fit.
The 7 alternatives at a glance
| Tool | HQ | Pricing | Best for | Avoid if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy RFP | EU (Portugal) | Free / 45 EUR / 149 EUR / Enterprise | SME European teams, hotel-focused sourcing | You need integrated registration plus mobile app |
| Bizzabo | US (NY) | Custom enterprise | Mid-market hybrid events with registration | You only need hotel sourcing |
| Stova (Aventri) | US | Custom enterprise | Conferences with on-site management | You want SaaS pricing transparency |
| MeetingPackage | EU (Finland) | Free + commission | One-off venue lookups | You need full RFP workflow |
| HotelPlanner | US | Free, hotel-paid commission | Group-rate room blocks | You need event-space sourcing |
| Groupize | US | Custom (mid-market) | Small-meeting procurement automation | European hotel coverage matters |
| EventsCase | EU (UK) | Custom mid-market | European event teams with registration needs | You only need hotel sourcing |
1. Easy RFP: SME European hotel sourcing
Easy RFP
- HQ
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Pricing
- Free (1 RFP/mo, 5 hotels) / Pro 45 EUR/mo (10 RFPs, 15 hotels) / Team 149 EUR/mo (unlimited, 25 hotels, 5 seats) / Enterprise custom
- Best for
- SME corporate event teams, in-house planners, boutique agencies
- European hotel coverage
- 105,803 hotels mapped across 27 markets, 4,495 MICE-capable. See our market fragmentation report for the full breakdown.
- Hotels pay?
- No, ever. The platform is free for hotels, planner-paid only.
- GDPR
- EU data residency, GDPR-native by design, full DSAR plus erasure endpoints
- Tradeoffs
- No integrated registration, mobile app, or on-site check-in. We do hotel RFPs, period. If you need the broader event platform, look at Bizzabo or Stova.
Easy RFP is built specifically for the gap that most European SME corporate event teams sit in: too small for Cvent enterprise sourcing licences (custom enterprise pricing, not published by vendor), too large for spreadsheets to scale, too European for the US-built alternatives to feel native. Pricing is transparent and monthly. Hotels never pay for the platform.
2. Bizzabo: mid-market hybrid event platform
Bizzabo
- HQ
- New York, US
- Pricing
- Custom enterprise contracts. Typical mid-market deployments enterprise-tier annual.
- Best for
- Mid-market teams running 50+ branded conferences and product launches per year
- Tradeoffs
- Strong on registration, mobile app, hybrid event experience. Hotel sourcing is not their strength; expect to pair with a hotel sourcing tool. Enterprise contract structure means you get attention but also pay for it.
3. Stova (formerly Aventri): conference + on-site management
Stova
- HQ
- US (formerly Aventri, rebranded 2023)
- Pricing
- Custom enterprise. SMM-tier sourcing licences in similar range to Cvent (custom enterprise pricing, not published by vendor).
- Best for
- Conference organisers needing strong on-site management plus registration
- Tradeoffs
- Aventri rebrand is recent; some legacy product naming may persist. Strong on-site capability versus Cvent. Hotel sourcing module is comparable to Cvent SMM.
4. MeetingPackage: one-off venue lookups
MeetingPackage
- HQ
- Helsinki, Finland
- Pricing
- Free for planners. Hotels pay commission on confirmed business.
- Best for
- Light venue lookups in major European cities without committing to a procurement system
- Tradeoffs
- Not a full RFP system. No multi-hotel competitive bidding workflow comparable to Cvent or Easy RFP. Better described as a meeting-room booking marketplace.
5. HotelPlanner: group-rate room blocks
HotelPlanner
- HQ
- US (West Palm Beach)
- Pricing
- Free for planners. Hotels pay commission (10 to 15 percent typical) on confirmed bookings.
- Best for
- Group room-block bookings without event space needs
- Tradeoffs
- Strong on transient and group rooms; weak on event space sourcing. Commission-based model means hotels factor that 10 to 15 percent into the rate they quote you. The "free" tag is partially funded by your booking spend.
6. Groupize: small-meeting procurement
Groupize
- HQ
- US (Massachusetts)
- Pricing
- Custom mid-market contracts
- Best for
- SMB and mid-market teams automating small-meeting procurement (under 50 attendees)
- Tradeoffs
- Strong UX for small meetings, weaker hotel coverage in continental Europe (more US-centric supply). Worth testing if your event mix is heavy on small meetings; less compelling if you do conferences over 100 attendees in EU markets.
7. EventsCase: European event platform
EventsCase
- HQ
- UK (London) with Spanish roots
- Pricing
- Custom mid-market contracts
- Best for
- European mid-market teams that need registration plus event apps with GDPR posture
- Tradeoffs
- Stronger on registration and event apps than on pure hotel sourcing. Pair with Easy RFP or MeetingPackage for the sourcing piece.
How to pick: 4 questions
- What is your annual event volume? Under 50 events: SME tools (Easy RFP, MeetingPackage). 50 to 200: mid-market (Bizzabo, Stova, EventsCase, Groupize). 200+ across multiple regions: probably keep Cvent.
- What is your dominant work? Hotel sourcing only: Easy RFP. Sourcing plus registration plus mobile app: Bizzabo or EventsCase. Procurement automation for small meetings: Groupize. Quick room-block lookups: HotelPlanner.
- What does GDPR posture matter to your organisation? If your DPO is strict: EU-headquartered (Easy RFP, MeetingPackage, EventsCase). If standard SCC-based DPA suffices: any of the seven works.
- What is your budget reality? SaaS-priced tools (Easy RFP, MeetingPackage) sit in the low-thousands annually. Mid-market and enterprise platforms operate on custom contracts that vendors do not publish.
Why we built Easy RFP
The honest reason: the European SME corporate event team is the most underserved buyer in the MICE software market. They are too small for Cvent enterprise contracts, too European for the US-built alternatives to feel right, and too procurement-oriented for the consumer-grade group booking tools. We built Easy RFP for that exact gap. If your profile is different, one of the other six tools above is probably the right answer; pick honestly.
Easy RFP: built for SME European MICE planners
Hotels never pay. Free up to 1 RFP per month. Pro tier 45 EUR per month. EU data residency. No implementation fee.
Start freeFrequently asked questions
Why not include HotelShare in this list?
HotelShare exists and serves a niche of European mid-market planners with strong DMC partnerships, but its public surface is thin and we have no first-hand customer signal. We will add it to the list when we have evaluation data.
Are there free Cvent alternatives that actually replace Cvent?
For very low-volume planners (1 to 4 events per year, light scope), Easy RFP's Free tier or HotelPlanner can replace Cvent's sourcing module functionally. For higher volume or feature complexity, no free alternative exists; the tools above all sit at SaaS or enterprise pricing.
What about Microsoft Forms plus a spreadsheet?
This works for 1 to 5 hotel RFPs per year if your team is comfortable with manual outreach. Past that, the time tax of chasing replies, normalising responses, and building comparison views becomes more expensive than a 45 EUR per month SaaS tool.
How do I run a fair pilot?
Pick one upcoming RFP. Run it end-to-end on the alternative without falling back to Cvent. Measure time to first reply, response rate, ease of comparison, ease of awarding the winner, and GDPR data handling. If the alternative does that one cycle without breaking, it scales.
Will Cvent reduce its price if I tell them I am evaluating alternatives?
Often yes (15 to 30 percent discounts are common). Decide upfront what discount level would change your decision, in writing, and stick to it. Vendors who offer big retention discounts are signalling that the renewal price was inflated; that information is also useful for next year regardless of whether you stay.
What we hear from teams who actually switched
The recurring pattern in customer interviews with teams who left Cvent: the migration friction was lower than expected, but the perceived "we lose features" anxiety was higher than reality. Most teams who feared losing capability discovered, post-migration, that they were not using those features in Cvent either. The mental tax of paying for unused capability is real even when the line items are small.
Three quotes paraphrased from migrating customers in 2025-2026:
- "We were terrified of losing the integration with our HR system. Turned out we used it twice in 18 months. Replacing with a CSV export covered the same need."
- "The hardest part was telling the Cvent CSM. The actual technical migration took an afternoon plus a parallel-run month."
- "We thought we needed Cvent's mobile event app. We did not. Our attendees use the calendar invite and the venue's own wifi welcome page."
What this guide is not
Not a feature parity matrix. Not a vendor pricing leak. Not a recommendation that every team leaves Cvent; mid-market and enterprise teams with deep integrations should usually stay. This is a fit guide written from the perspective of an SME European corporate event lead who is paying for capability they do not use.
The honest cost of "platform fit"
Each alternative on this list is positioned for a different segment than Cvent's enterprise base. Cvent does not publish official pricing, so any cost comparison depends on what your specific Cvent contract looks like — that is your data, not ours. The hidden cost on the alternatives is platform-specific learning, vendor-specific quirks, and the time tax of the migration itself. Budget 5 to 12 hours of focused effort for the switch and 30 to 45 days of overlap. Whether the net result is savings depends on your contract terms, your team size, and your event volume. Some teams will save money on a switch; others will find the SME tier feature gaps don't fit their workflow and should stay on enterprise. Either path is legitimate; what's worth doing is comparing your actual contract against the alternatives' published pricing before renewing.