Guide
Event Check-In Apps: Hosted Service or Your Own Site
What event check-in has to do, how a dedicated app and a plugin compare, and how to run the door from the site that took the registrations.
Check-in software comes in two shapes. A dedicated app carries a copy of your guest list to the entrance and syncs it back afterwards, which is exactly right when the registrations live in one system and the door is another. A plugin reads the registrations where they already are, because the site that took them is the site running the door.
Which one fits depends on where your list lives. This is what the job actually involves, and how the two compare.
What check-in has to do
Confirm this person is on the list. Fast enough that a queue does not form.
Mark them as arrived. Once, and visibly, so the next person on the door does not check them in again.
Handle the ones who are not on the list. Somebody always used a different email, or their colleague booked for them, or they registered this morning.
Produce a real arrival count. Registrations are who said they would come. Arrivals are who came, and the second is the number your caterer and your fire officer care about.
That is the core of it. Beyond that the two routes differ mostly in where the list lives and what happens when the network does not.
When a dedicated app is the right call
Buy one when your registration lives somewhere that cannot check people in: a form tool, a spreadsheet, a platform whose door features cost more than the app does.
Buy one when you need offline operation and your venue has no reliable network. This is the strongest argument for a dedicated app and it is worth taking seriously, because a queue does not care why the scanner stopped.
Buy one when you need badge printing on arrival, which is a hardware problem more than a software one.
The cost on that side is install day: something has to go onto several volunteers’ phones on the morning of the event, and the volunteers are rarely the ones you briefed.
When the plugin route fits
If the site took the registrations, it already has the list. Eventonomy Pro puts a QR code on the attendee’s emailed ticket. Staff signed in to your site scan it with the phone’s own camera app, which opens the link and checks the attendee in. A check-in block on a page of your site covers the rest: a USB scanner, a pasted code, or a search by name or email.
Nothing to install. Several people can open the same page on their own phones and work the door together, because they are reading and writing the same records rather than syncing copies: scan a code twice and the second scan says who it was and that they are already in. When a camera will not cooperate, paste the code into the check-in block or search the attendee by name.
Because it reads the live records, a cancelled or refunded ticket stops working by itself, and so does a code belonging to somebody who replied no or never got off the waitlist. An exported list cannot do that, because it stopped being true the moment it was exported.
The honest limitation: it needs a connection. There is no offline mode, so if the venue network dies the scanner stops, and you fall back to the printed list like everyone else.
Print the list anyway
Whatever you use, print the list the night before.
Venue wifi fails. Phones run out of battery. A volunteer arrives without the link. None of that is a reason to avoid scanning, which is faster and produces a clean count, but a sheet of paper has never once failed to start up, and it is the difference between a slow door and a stopped one.
After the event
The number worth keeping is arrivals against registrations, per event, over time. It tells you what to expect next time, which decides how much food to order and whether to overbook.
That figure only exists if somebody actually checked people in. It is the main reason to bother.
Written September 2026.
Questions
What is the difference between a check-in app and a plugin?
A dedicated app carries a copy of your guest list to the door and syncs it back, which is what you want when the registrations live somewhere that cannot check people in. A plugin reads the registrations directly, because they are already on the same site, so there is nothing to export or reconcile. The right one depends on where your list lives, not on which is better software.
How does scanning work without installing anything?
Each Eventonomy Pro ticket carries a QR code. A staff member signed in to your site points the phone's own camera app at it, opens the link, and the attendee is checked in. Eventonomy Pro also puts a check-in block on a page of your site, which takes a USB scanner, a pasted code or a name or email search. There is no app to install on the door staff's phones, which matters when the volunteers change on the morning of the event.
What if the venue wifi fails?
Have a printed list. The scanner needs a connection to mark somebody as arrived, so a dead network stops it, and conference venue wifi fails at exactly the wrong moment. Print the list the night before, check people off by hand if you have to, and reconcile afterwards. This is not a criticism of any particular tool; it is true of every online check-in system.
Can more than one person check people in at once?
Yes. The check-in page is a page on your site, so several people can open it on their own phones at the same time and the list stays consistent, because they are all reading and writing the same records rather than separate copies.
What is the difference between registrations and arrivals?
Registrations are who said they would come. Arrivals are who turned up, and for a free event the gap can be large because a free place costs nothing to abandon. Check-in is what turns the first number into the second, which matters for catering, for room capacity, and for knowing whether your event actually worked.
Do attendees need to print anything?
No. The ticket arrives by email with a QR code they can show on a phone screen. Printing is a fallback, not a requirement, and most people will simply open the email at the door.
What about someone who lost their ticket email?
The check-in block also takes the code pasted in by hand, or a search by name or email, so anyone who is on the list gets through without a scan. Someone who cannot find it at all is the case for the printed list: mark them off it, let them in, and reconcile afterwards. Every event has two or three of these, so plan for them rather than holding the queue.
What happens if somebody was refunded or cancelled?
Their code stops working. A cancelled or refunded ticket is rejected at the door rather than admitted, and so is a code belonging to somebody who replied no or is still on the waitlist. This is the practical argument against exporting a list to a separate app: the export is a snapshot, and a refund issued the morning of the event does not reach it.