Overview

Zoho Backstage is an event management platform for planning and running in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. It is best suited to organizers who need to coordinate attendees, sessions, speakers, and exhibitors alongside ticketing and event delivery. Its broad toolkit is a strength, but the Free plan’s attendee, session, and event-day limits can quickly rule it out for larger programs.

Key features

Backstage brings event planning, registration, ticketing, onsite check-in and badging, exhibitor tools, and analytics into one platform. Session tracks, room scheduling, and speaker management help organizers structure more involved programs; event websites use templates, with customizable domains, URLs, and pages. That breadth is useful when a team wants event operations and attendee-facing tools together, rather than a registration-only service.

Zoho says ticket sales carry zero commission, a meaningful advantage for paid events. For virtual and hybrid programs, Backstage OnAir supports livecasting, attendee chat, polls, questions, screen sharing, and shared documents or presentations. These interaction features complement the operational tools, though the plan limits still matter when deciding whether a particular event fits.

The REST API lets developers manage events, sessions, speakers, attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, and registrations programmatically. Paid plans list Zoom Webinar and Meeting, Zoho Meeting, and Google Analytics integrations; Premium and Ultimate also list Zoho CRM, Flow, PageSense, and SalesIQ. Organizer and attendee apps are listed for Android and iOS on all four plans.

Zoho says attendee personal data is encrypted at rest with 256-bit AES, and portal access can be restricted to trusted IP ranges. Backstage also provides data access, rectification, and deletion options to help organizers process attendee data in line with GDPR. All plans include 24x5 email support.

Pricing

Backstage has a Free plan and a 15-day trial. Free costs 0.00 USD per free and caps each event at 100 attendees, 300 RSVP invites, three sessions, three speakers, and one event day. That is a useful starting point for a short, small event, but the attendee and session ceilings leave little room for growth.

Essentials has custom pricing and raises the caps to 200 attendees, 800 RSVP invites, unlimited sessions, 25 speakers, 15 sponsors, and three event days. It fits teams building an audience and community whose events need more program capacity than Free allows. Premium also has custom pricing: up to 1,000 attendees, 5,000 RSVP invites, unlimited sessions, 100 speakers, 50 sponsors, and five event days. Its profile is aimed at event professionals managing larger programs.

Ultimate has custom pricing and supports up to 5,000 attendees, 30,000 RSVP invites, unlimited sessions, 200 speakers, 100 sponsors, and 15 event days. It is the tier designed for organizations and agencies planning events of varied types and sizes. The event-day cap is a key distinction across tiers: one day on Free, three on Essentials, five on Premium, and 15 on Ultimate. All plans list mobile apps and 24x5 email support; paid plans list integrations, with the additional Zoho suite integrations reserved for Premium and Ultimate.

Platforms

Zoho Backstage is available on web, Android, iOS, and through an API. Its organizer and attendee mobile apps are listed across all plans, making mobile access available even to Free users.

Who it's for

Backstage is a strong fit for teams that need to bring event websites, registration, onsite operations, exhibitor management, and virtual participation into a coordinated workflow. Free suits small, one-day events; Essentials is a step up for community-focused teams; Premium and Ultimate target professional organizers and organizations with higher attendee, speaker, sponsor, or duration needs. It is less suitable when an event exceeds the applicable plan caps or an organizer needs a single-purpose tool rather than this wider set of event functions.

Pros and cons

Pro: Planning, ticketing, check-in, badging, exhibitor tools, and analytics share one platform, reducing the need to assemble those functions separately.
Pro: Zoho says ticket sales have zero commission, which benefits organizers selling paid tickets.
Pro: Backstage OnAir combines livecasting with attendee interaction tools, useful for virtual and hybrid programs.
Pro: The REST API covers core event entities, while mobile apps are listed on every plan.
Con: Free is limited to 100 attendees, three sessions, and one event day per event, so it is a constrained option for growing or multi-day events.
Con: Essentials, Premium, and Ultimate have custom pricing, so teams must seek a quote to compare their costs.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison of event platforms, browse Event Management Software. If scheduling is the main need, compare Event Scheduling Software; nonprofits can review Nonprofit Event Management Software. For narrower needs, see Exhibitor Management Software or Event Badge Printing Software.

Eventzilla is another freemium option with a Basic plan priced at 1.50 USD per month, billed per registration, and unlimited events; its listed Basic plan includes unlimited free registration types and one paid ticket type per registration. Eventleaf has a free Starter plan with 100 attendees per year, unlimited events, and unlimited users, while its Basic plan costs 500.00 USD per year. EventCreate offers a free-forever plan for one event, 50 attendees, and one user, with a 5% ticketing fee.

Explara has a Starter plan at 0.00 USD per month, with a 4% fee on domestic ticket value, a 1% Stripe transaction fee, and one group and event per month. Eventbrite offers free event publishing, with free tickets carrying no ticketing fees and free events allowed to be any size. Humanitix has a free-events option with no ticket fee for free events, while its Standard plan is 0.99 USD per month, billed per paid ticket. Eventeny offers a free Basic plan with 3–5% transaction fees and one admin. RegFox has a Standard plan at 0.00 USD per free, billed monthly, with a $0.99 + 1% fee per paid registration and a $4.99 cap per registrant.

Verdict

Zoho Backstage is a compelling choice for organizers who want event operations, attendee tools, and virtual-event features under one roof, especially when zero ticket commission and API access matter. Choose it if its event-day and capacity limits fit your program; look elsewhere if those ceilings constrain your events or you need prices you can compare without requesting custom quotes.

	Award Force	Zoho Backstage
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	$270.83/mo	Free
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	Android, api, iOS, Web
Free plan	No	Yes

Award Force vs Zoho Backstage

Award Force

Zoho Backstage