The Host vs. Blackthorn vs. Fonteva vs. Cvent

Feature	The Host	Blackthorn	Fonteva	AC Events	SF Labs Events	Cvent	Splash	RegFox
Pricing	Free on AppExchange	Custom — contact sales	$175+/mo annual	Free / paid tiers	Free	~$19K+/yr	Custom enterprise	$0.99 + 1% per registrant
Platform	100% Salesforce-Native	Salesforce-Native	Salesforce-Native	Salesforce-Native	Salesforce-Native	Standalone SaaS	Standalone SaaS	Standalone SaaS
Target Market	20-person meetup to 10,000-attendee conference	Mid-market events teams	Associations & member orgs	SMB events	Basic internal events	Large enterprise	Marketing-led events	SMB registration
PLATFORM & COST
Runs natively on Salesforce	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ External platform	❌ External platform	❌ External platform
Data lives in your CRM (no sync)	✅ All data in Salesforce	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ External data store	⚠️ Bidirectional sync	⚠️ One-way via Zapier
Inherits org security model	✅ Permission Sets + OWD	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ Own RBAC	❌ Own RBAC	❌ Own RBAC
AppExchange Security Review	✅ Passed	✅ Passed	✅ Passed	✅ Passed	✅ Passed	⚠️ Connector only	⚠️ Connector only	❌ Not listed
SCALE & SIMPLICITY
Simple event in under 60 seconds	✅ Yes	⚠️ Multi-step setup	⚠️ Multi-step setup	⚠️ Multi-step setup	⚠️ Multi-step setup	❌ Implementation required	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Progressive disclosure — complexity only when enabled	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Multi-day conference	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available
Multi-site / multi-venue	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
REGISTRATION & TICKETING
Online registration & ticketing	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	⚠️ Basic	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Native payment processing	✅ Stripe Connect	✅ Yes	✅ 100+ gateways	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Waitlist with priority promotion	✅ VIP / sponsor / early-bird	⚠️ Basic waitlist	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Basic	❌ Not available
Dietary / accessibility requests	✅ Aggregated catering reports	❌ Not available	⚠️ Custom fields	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	⚠️ Custom fields
CONFERENCE FEATURES
Call-for-speakers / CFP workflow	✅ Blind review + scoring	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Multi-track agenda builder	✅ Conflict detection	⚠️ Single track	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Vendor / exhibitor management	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Booth rental & exhibit hall (floor map, pricing, add-ons)	✅ Full transactional workflow	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Sponsor tiers & fulfillment tracking	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available
Volunteer management	✅ Shifts + hours	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Paid staff / crew management	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
ON-SITE & ENGAGEMENT
Badge design & on-site printing	✅ Any printer, browser-based	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available
Kiosk self check-in (offline mode)	✅ Yes	⚠️ Online only	⚠️ Online only	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available
Session attendance via badge scan	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Hybrid / virtual (Zoom, Teams, Webex)	✅ All three	⚠️ Zoom only	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	✅ Yes	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available
Real-time command center dashboard	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	⚠️ Basic reporting	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
AI & SALESFORCE ECOSYSTEM
Agentforce AI agents	✅ Attendee, organizer, volunteer	⚠️ Announced	⚠️ Via SF AI	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Data Cloud integration	✅ Unified profiles + scoring	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available	❌ Not available
Marketing Cloud journeys	✅ Native	❌ Not available	⚠️ Limited	⚠️ Limited	❌ Not available	⚠️ Via connector	⚠️ Via connector	❌ Not available
Experience Cloud portals	✅ 5 LWR portals	⚠️ Limited	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	❌ Not available	❌ Own portal	❌ Own portal	❌ Not available
Native Salesforce reports on event data	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	⚠️ Synced data only	⚠️ Synced data only	⚠️ Synced data only

Summary

The Host

Free Salesforce-native event management that scales from a 20-person user group meetup to a 10,000-attendee multi-day, multi-venue conference on one platform — no second product, no migration, no separate license when the event grows up
Progressive disclosure means a simple event takes under 60 seconds and never shows you a CFP workflow, booth floor map, or volunteer shift board unless you turn them on — the complexity is there when you need it and invisible when you don’t
Booth rental is a first-class transactional workflow with its own object model — floor map, pricing tiers, add-ons, and fulfillment — alongside volunteer shifts, paid crew management, and aggregated dietary and accessibility reporting that no native rival offers
Agentforce agents for attendees, organizers, and volunteers plus Data Cloud unified profiles and engagement scoring, running inside your own security model with native Salesforce reports on every record

When to use: You’re a Salesforce shop running events of any size and you don’t want event data living outside your CRM. You need one platform that handles the 30-person webinar and the annual conference without switching tools. You want booth rental, sponsors, volunteers, and paid crew in the same data model as your Accounts and Contacts. You’d rather not pay $19K a year for the privilege of syncing your own attendee data back to yourself.

Blackthorn

The best-known native events app on the AppExchange with a long track record, a mature payments module, and a large installed base — the safe, well-supported choice for straightforward Salesforce event operations
Strong registration and ticketing fundamentals with native payment processing, and the Blackthorn Payments product integrates cleanly if you’re already using it elsewhere in the org
All data stays in Salesforce and inherits your permission model, sharing rules, and reporting — the core native advantage is fully intact
Modular product family (Events, Payments, Messaging, Compliance) lets you buy only the pieces you need rather than a monolithic suite

When to use: You run recurring single-track events at consistent scale and want a proven native vendor with commercial support. You value vendor maturity and a large customer base over feature ceiling. You don’t need booth rental, volunteer management, or multi-venue coordination. You have budget for per-event or subscription pricing.

Fonteva

The deepest native feature set of any Salesforce events product — multi-track agendas, exhibitor management, sponsor tiers, badge printing, and 100+ payment gateway support all ship in the box
Purpose-built for associations and membership organizations, where events sit inside a broader membership, dues, and certification lifecycle that Fonteva also handles
Mature Experience Cloud portal capability for attendee, member, and exhibitor self-service, backed by years of association-market refinement
Native Salesforce architecture with full CRM data residency and reporting, so nothing about the events module breaks the platform model

When to use: You’re an association or membership organization and events are one part of a member lifecycle you need managed end-to-end. You need the broadest native conference feature coverage and you’re prepared to pay a subscription for it. You need 100+ payment gateway options for international or specialized processing. You don’t need Data Cloud, Agentforce, or the ability to spin up a trivially simple event in under a minute.

AC Events

Lightweight native events app with free and paid tiers, giving budget-constrained orgs a genuine on-platform starting point without a procurement cycle
Solid basic registration and ticketing with Experience Cloud portal support for attendee self-service
Data stays in Salesforce under your existing security model, so even the free tier avoids the fundamental tradeoff that integrated tools force
Low learning curve and minimal configuration burden for teams that need events working this week, not this quarter

When to use: You run small, simple, single-day events and have no realistic path to needing conference features. You want something native and inexpensive without evaluating a full platform. You can handle payments through an existing process outside the app. You’re comfortable outgrowing the tool and migrating later.

Salesforce Labs Events

Free, native, and published by Salesforce Labs — zero cost and zero vendor relationship for orgs that need bare-minimum event tracking inside the CRM
Fully native data model with standard Salesforce reports and dashboards on event records, inheriting your org’s security configuration by default
Unopinionated and easily extended — many orgs treat it as a starting schema and build their own automation on top rather than adopting it as a finished product
No procurement, no contract, no license true-up at renewal time

When to use: You need internal event tracking, not event management — recording who attended what, without registration, payments, or attendee-facing experiences. You have admin capacity to extend it yourself. Salesforce Labs apps carry no formal support SLA, so you’re accepting that tradeoff knowingly. Budget is the binding constraint.

Cvent

The enterprise standard for large-scale event management, with the deepest feature coverage in the category — venue sourcing, room blocks, air travel, complex multi-track agendas, and exhibit hall management at trade-show scale
Supplier network and venue marketplace are genuinely unmatched — if you’re sourcing hotel contracts and negotiating room blocks across a global event calendar, no other product competes
Mature on-site operations: badge printing, kiosk check-in, session scanning, and lead retrieval hardware, all field-proven at events with tens of thousands of attendees
Comprehensive attendee engagement and event marketing tooling, including a mature mobile event app that attendees actually expect at conferences of that size

When to use: You run large trade shows or global conference programs where venue sourcing and room blocks are core workflows. You need on-site hardware and operations at a scale native apps haven’t proven. You have a dedicated events team and a budget starting around $19K a year. You’ve accepted that event data lives in Cvent and only synced fields reach Salesforce.

Splash

The best-designed event pages in the category — Splash is a marketing tool first, and branded registration experiences ship fast and look genuinely good without a designer
Bidirectional Salesforce sync is real and well-built, so Campaign membership and attendee status flow back into the CRM more cleanly than most integrated tools manage
Strong fit for demand-gen and field-marketing motions: recurring branded event templates, guest list management, and clean attribution back to pipeline
Fast to launch a simple event with a polished public-facing page, competitive with native tools on time-to-first-event

When to use: Your events are marketing programs — field dinners, roadshows, webinars, launch parties — and brand presentation matters more than operational depth. Your events team sits in marketing, not operations. You need Campaign attribution more than you need attendee data residency. You don’t run multi-track conferences with exhibitors and volunteers.

RegFox

The most transparent and lowest-cost pricing in the category at $0.99 plus 1% per registrant, with no subscription, no minimum, and no annual contract
Genuinely fast registration form building with a flexible form engine, conditional logic, and strong conversion-oriented checkout design
No implementation project — you can be selling tickets the same day, which no enterprise tool in this comparison can claim
Zapier connectivity reaches Salesforce and several hundred other apps, which is enough for orgs whose only requirement is getting registrants into a Campaign

When to use: You need registration and payment collection and nothing else. Per-registrant pricing beats a subscription at your volume. You’re fine with one-way Zapier sync into Salesforce and no CRM-native reporting on event data. You have no conference, exhibitor, volunteer, or on-site operations requirements at all.

Comparisons made from publicly available information — vendor websites, AppExchange listings, and public reviews (G2, Capterra) — retrieved 4/2026. Integrated tools (Cvent, Splash, RegFox) store event data in their own systems and sync to Salesforce via connector or Zapier; capability ratings reflect the product itself, while “native reports” and “data in CRM” rows reflect what survives the sync. Feature sets and pricing change frequently — verify current details with each vendor.