Three models, in one sentence each
An invite-only event starts from a list you choose. Only the people you invited can reply, and each invitation is personal — it cannot be forwarded into a place for someone else. Open registration starts from a page anyone can find: people put themselves on the list, and you decide whether to accept everyone or approve each request. A ticketed event is open registration with a price: the purchase is the registration, and the ticket is what gets you in.
The models are not a ranking. A gala dinner for donors and a public talk in the same venue need different ones, and an event can use more than one: invited VIPs and press, registered attendees, and a block of paid seats.
When an invitation-only event is the right choice
Choose invite-only when who is in the room matters more than how many. Client evenings, board dinners, private views, product launches for press, weddings and internal events all depend on a specific list. The invitation itself is part of the experience: being asked personally means something, and the guest list can be balanced on purpose — clients and partners, seniority, press outlets, families on both sides.
Invite-only also gives you the most control over numbers. You know the maximum before you start, because the list is the maximum, and you can predict attendance from the replies. The cost is that the list is your work: it has to be built, cleaned and kept current, and every late addition has to be checked against the people already invited.
When open registration fits better
Choose open registration when the goal is reach: a public lecture, a community meetup, a trade fair, a webinar with an in-person audience, a free festival day. You do not know everyone you want to come, and the event is better when people you have never met find it. The list builds itself, and the registration form becomes your guest list.
The trade-off is control. Registrations are a softer promise than replies to a personal invitation; people sign up for several free events on the same evening and pick one on the day. Expect a larger gap between registered and attended than you would see with an invited list, and plan the catering and the room on what you have seen at your own past events, not on the registration count alone.
- Open to all: anyone who registers is in, until capacity.
- Open with approval: anyone can request, the team accepts or declines each request.
- Open to a group: registration only for an email domain, a membership or a code you share.
Ticketed events: when a price belongs on the door
Charging for entry makes sense when the event has real costs per person, when you need the commitment a payment brings, or when the event is itself a product — a concert, a paid conference, a dinner with a seat price. A paid ticket changes the shape of the work: you need ticket types, a checkout, receipts, a refund policy, tax treatment and a way to handle transfers when a buyer cannot come.
It also changes the relationship. A guest who paid expects a different kind of service from a guest who was invited, and a ticket is often bought for someone else, so the name on the purchase is not always the name at the door. Decide early whether tickets are transferable, and how a change of name is recorded.
Capacity and waitlists
Every model needs a capacity number, but it is used differently. With invitations, capacity limits how many people you invite and how many plus-ones you allow. With registration and tickets, capacity is a hard cap: once it is reached, the page has to say so honestly.
A waitlist turns a full event into a list of people you can still reach. Keep it in order of arrival, tell people they are on it rather than in, and decide in advance how a released place is offered — to the next person automatically, or by the team. A place offered with a short deadline to reply keeps the list moving; a place offered to five people at once ends with six guests for five seats.
Approvals: the middle path
Approval sits between invitation and open registration. Anyone can ask, but nobody is in until the team says yes. It suits events where you want new people but need to protect the room: an industry evening that should stay free of vendors selling to attendees, a press event, a members-only first look.
Approval only works if it is fast and consistent. Write down the rule — who gets in, who does not, who decides — and reply within a day or two; a request left unanswered for a week is a guest who has made other plans. Send a clear answer either way, and give accepted guests a personal confirmation, exactly as if they had been invited.
What changes at the door
For an invite-only event, the door checks one thing: is this person on the list? A personal QR code per guest makes that a scan rather than a search, and it shows the name, the group and the number of guests allowed. Walk-ins are exceptions that need a person with authority to decide.
For open registration and ticketed events, the door checks that a registration or ticket is valid and has not already been used. Codes are more likely to be screenshotted and shared, so each one should admit once, with a clear rule for re-entry. Name checks matter less than code checks, unless tickets are personal. In every model, record walk-ins and changes at the door as they happen, so the report afterwards is true.
- Invite-only: personal code, name and group on screen, walk-ins decided by a named person.
- Open registration: code valid and unused, capacity watched live.
- Ticketed: code valid, single admission, transfers and name changes handled before the day.