---
title: Open Source Event Management
date: 2025-12-27
summary: Tools for organizing conferences, meetups, and community gatherings. When your event infrastructure belongs to you, every registration builds community assets rather than paying platform fees.
draft: True
featureImageCaption: "Photo by [Headway](https://unsplash.com/@headwayio) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/F2KRf_QfCqw) (Unsplash License)"
---

Events are the heartbeat of communities. They transform online connections into real relationships, create shared experiences that strengthen bonds, and provide regular touchpoints that maintain momentum.

Conferences bring together practitioners and newcomers for knowledge exchange. Meetups provide regular connection points for local communities. Workshops enable skill-sharing and hands-on learning. Gatherings like hackathons and unconferences foster collaboration and innovation.

But organizing events on commercial platforms comes with costs: Eventbrite takes 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket. Meetup.com charges organizers $98-198 per month. And beyond the fees, your attendee data—your community's most valuable asset—lives on someone else's servers.

Open source event management tools offer a different path.

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## Why This Matters for Communities

### The Fee Problem

Consider a community running 10 events per year with 500 attendees each, charging $50 per ticket. Eventbrite would take approximately $25,000+ in fees annually. Self-hosted Pretix on a $20/month server costs $240/year.

For free events, the savings are even more dramatic—commercial platforms still charge processing fees, while self-hosted tools cost only hosting.

### Data Ownership

Your attendee list is your community. On commercial platforms:
- They own your attendee data
- Export options are often limited
- If they change pricing or shut down, you lose your audience
- Your community data feeds their marketing systems

Self-hosted tools mean:
- You own your attendee list forever
- Full export capabilities at any time
- GDPR compliance in your hands, not a third party's
- No risk of platform selling or sharing your community data

### Customization

Commercial platforms are designed for the average of everyone. Your community has specific needs: custom registration fields, particular workflows, integration with your other tools, branding that matches your identity.

Open source tools can be modified to fit how your community actually works.

### Values Alignment

For communities built on open source principles, using proprietary event platforms creates a contradiction. Your conference about digital freedom shouldn't fund surveillance capitalism.

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## Real-World Examples

### CERN and Indico

CERN developed Indico for their own needs—managing everything from small meetings to massive physics conferences. Now used by 200+ institutions worldwide, with 25,000+ users at CERN alone.

Other major users include Fermilab, DESY, and United Nations agencies. The tool handles everything from small meetings to conferences with thousands of attendees.

### Chaos Communication Congress and Pretix

The Chaos Communication Congress—one of the world's largest hacker conferences with 17,000+ attendees—uses Pretix. So does FOSDEM (10,000+ attendees). Millions of tickets have been sold through the platform.

Privacy-conscious technical communities trust Pretix because they can verify exactly how it handles their data.

### FOSSASIA and Eventyay

FOSSASIA developed Eventyay for their own open source conferences. It's now used for FOSSASIA Summit, OpenTech Summit, and events throughout the global open source community in Asia.

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## Choosing the Right Tool

### Indico: The Conference Powerhouse

Best for academic conferences, research institutions, and organizations needing robust scheduling and abstract management.

**Strengths**: Battle-tested at massive scale; exceptional conference management (sessions, tracks, abstracts); strong meeting management; room booking integration; mature and well-documented.

**Used by**: CERN, Fermilab, DESY, UN agencies, major universities.

**Considerations**: Complex setup (designed for large institutions); ticketing/payment features less developed; steeper learning curve.

### Pretix: The Ticketing Expert

Best for events focused on ticketing and registration, especially paid events.

**Strengths**: Excellent ticketing and payment handling; beautiful, modern UI; powerful plugin system; seating plans and reserved seating; strong check-in app.

**Used by**: Chaos Communication Congress, FOSDEM, many European tech conferences and cultural events.

**Considerations**: Less focused on conference program management; no built-in call for papers or speaker management.

### Eventyay: The All-in-One Option

Best for open source communities wanting full conference features with modern UX.

**Strengths**: Full-featured (ticketing + scheduling + speaker management); modern, clean interface; call for papers built-in; supports in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.

**Used by**: FOSSASIA events, open source conferences globally.

**Considerations**: Smaller deployment base; fewer payment gateway integrations than Pretix.

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## Open Source Options

| Project | Description |
|:--------|:------------|
| [Indico](https://getindico.io) | Comprehensive event management from CERN. Excellent for conferences with complex scheduling. <br><small>📊 200+ institutions, 25K+ users at CERN alone.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/indico/indico) · MIT</small> |
| [Pretix](https://pretix.eu) | Modern ticketing platform with excellent payment handling and check-in tools. <br><small>📊 Millions of tickets sold. Used by CCC, FOSDEM.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/pretix/pretix) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
| [Eventyay](https://eventyay.com) | Full-featured event platform with ticketing, scheduling, and speaker management. <br><small>📊 Powers FOSSASIA and open source events worldwide.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/fossasia/open-event-server) · Apache-2.0</small> |

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## Feature Comparison

| Feature | Indico | Pretix | Eventyay |
|:--------|:-------|:-------|:---------|
| Registration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Paid ticketing | Limited | Excellent | Good |
| Session management | Excellent | Basic | Good |
| Call for papers | Yes | No | Yes |
| Speaker management | Yes | No | Yes |
| Check-in app | Yes | Excellent | Yes |
| Badge printing | Yes | Yes | Yes |

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## The Bigger Picture

Events are where communities come alive. They deserve infrastructure that serves the community rather than extracting from it.

When your event platform belongs to you:
- Every registration builds your community's database, not someone else's
- Every dollar saved on fees can fund community programs
- Every customization serves your specific needs
- Every year of history stays under your control

The tools exist. They're battle-tested at massive scale. They're free to use and modify.

Your community's gatherings deserve infrastructure as thoughtful as the events themselves.
