Free Event Registration Form: Sign-ups, a Capacity Limit and an RSVP That Closes Itself

Open the RSVP templateDownload the event registration planner (PDF)

When a form beats a ticketing platform

Ticketing platforms are built for selling tickets. For free events many of them cost nothing to use; Eventbrite's pricing page, for example, says it is free for events with free tickets, while paid tickets carry a 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket plus 2.9% payment processing per order, paid by buyers by default.

So for a paid event with strangers buying tickets, a ticketing platform often earns its fee. For a free workshop, an open house, a client party, a volunteer day or a community class, a plain registration form is usually simpler: your own branding, your own questions, the guest list in your own account, and nothing pointing your guests to other organisers' events. What it needs is the part ticketing platforms do automatically: stop taking sign-ups when you are full.

Two templates: registration and RSVP

Event registration asks for name, email and phone, how many tickets, dietary requirements (Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free, None, or Other with a box), and how they heard about the event. Use it for public events where people sign up.

RSVP is for invitations. It asks for name and email and "Will you be attending?" as Yes/No. The number of people and dietary needs appear only after a Yes, and a rule replaces the thank-you message for a No with "Sorry you can't make it — thanks for letting us know." Use it for invited guests, where a No is as useful to you as a Yes.

A third template, Paid workshop sign-up, takes card payment for a ticket through your own Stripe account; payment questions need a paid plan.

The capacity catch: sign-ups are not seats

In Settings, under Open and close, "stop after" a number of answers closes the form once that many complete sign-ups have arrived. Visitors then see your closed message instead of the form, and a sign-up sent after the limit is refused. Unfinished, abandoned forms do not count.

The catch is that the limit counts sign-ups, not the number typed into "How many tickets?". With 40 seats and a limit of 40, forty sign-ups for two people each is eighty guests. There are two clean answers:

• One sign-up per person. Delete the tickets question and set the limit to your number of seats. Each guest registers separately. This is the most accurate, and you get every guest's name and dietary needs.
• Groups allowed, with a safety margin. Keep the tickets question, set the limit to seats divided by your typical group size, and watch the total. The form's Summary tab shows the average, lowest, highest and total for a number question, so the running ticket count is one click away.

Also set "closes after" to a date, the day you need to confirm numbers with a caterer or venue. Closing dates are whole days, not times.

Step by step

1. Choose Event registration or RSVP

Open the free form builder and pick the template from the Event registration group.

2. Decide what one sign-up means

One person, or a group. Remove or keep the tickets question to match, as above.

3. Set the limit and dates

Open the Settings tab. Under Open and close, set "opens on" if you are announcing ahead, "closes after" for the cut-off day, and "stop after" for the number of sign-ups. The video walks through this tab.

4. Write the closed message

In the same section, write what people see when registration is full or closed. Make it useful: say whether there is a waiting list and how to join it, or when the next event is.

5. Tag, publish and share

Under Contacts and automations, add a tag such as the event name; everyone who registers gets it on their contact, which makes next year's invitation list easy. Then publish, and share the link and QR code from the Share tab. The embedding guide covers putting the form on your event page.

The thank-you message says "We've emailed your details" in the template; on the free plan the portal does not send that email, so change the message to what is true, such as "You're registered — we'll email you the details the week before."

Running the list

The Results tab lists every registration with search and filters, so "dietary requirements contains Vegan" gives the caterer's count. On the close date, export the CSV for the door list. If people need to change their answers, "Let them edit their answers afterwards" in Settings puts an edit link on the thank-you page, and an edit updates the same sign-up rather than adding a second one.

For the conditions in the RSVP template, and how to add your own, see the conditional logic guide.

Questions to add, and questions to skip

Every question on a registration form should change something you do. A short list of the ones that usually earn their place:

• Access needs, as an optional long answer: step-free access, seating, a sign-language interpreter. Asking ahead is far easier than improvising on the day.
• Session choice, as a dropdown, when you run the same event more than once. Make one form per session instead if each session has its own capacity, because the response limit applies to the whole form.
• Dietary needs, only if you serve food, as checkboxes with an Other box, as in the template.
• Company or role, only for professional events where you will print badges or group people.

Skip postal address, date of birth and anything you would not use before the event. People abandon sign-ups that look like paperwork, and every field you collect is a field you have to keep safe.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• Eventbrite — Organizer pricing
• Nielsen Norman Group — Website Forms Usability