A2Z Events alternatives for trade show and expo organizers
A2Z Events by Personify has run North American trade shows for 25+ years. Here is how its published feature set and quote-only pricing compare to Map D's self-serve, per-event platform.
For organizers who want published pricing and a self-serve exhibitor experience end to end, Map D is the stronger fit. A2Z Events by Personify is a legitimate, long-established floor plan and exhibitor management system — its own site states more than 25 years serving event professionals — but pricing is quote-only and its public pages describe organizer-side floor plan management rather than an exhibitor-facing self-serve checkout.
Written by Map D, which is one of the alternatives listed below. Claims about other platforms are limited to what those companies publish themselves, and each is sourced at the foot of the page. Last verified September 2026.
Ridgeline Supply Co.
Booth A3- Company profile & logo
- Staff badges · 6 of 8
- Insurance certificate
- Electrical order
- Renewal for 2027
Exhibitors complete this themselves. The organizer sees progress across every booth.
Trusted by leading associations
What A2Z Events is good at
A2Z Events has been part of the North American trade show and association industry for a long time and covers a lot of ground. If any of the following describe your event, it deserves a look.
- A genuinely broad platform: floor plan management, exhibitor management, registration, badge printing/check-in, lead retrieval, sponsorship management, conference/call-for-proposals and attendee matchmaking all documented under one roof.
- 25+ years running trade shows and association events in North America, with public client logos spanning associations like NRPA, ASLA and the Society of Toxicology.
- Continuing-education (CEU) management and call-for-proposals tools, which most booth-sales-first platforms — Map D included — do not build natively.
- A documented cost-savings case study: A2Z Events' site states it saved one association client, ASLA, $30k in credit card fees.
Why organizers look elsewhere
The gaps that send trade show organizers looking for an alternative.
- A2Z Events' own site does not publish pricing anywhere we could find; every pricing-related path leads to a demo request or sales contact, so you cannot build a budget without a sales conversation first.
- The floor plan management pages describe booth status tracking, moving/merging/upgrading assignments and reporting for the organizer's team, but do not document a self-serve online checkout where an exhibitor selects a booth and pays directly — a meaningfully different workflow from a live, sellable floor plan.
- As a platform with 25+ years of institutional history, the buying and onboarding process is built around account teams and demos rather than self-serve signup and published rates.
How Map D compares
Map D’s column states what Map D does. Where a A2Z Events equivalent is not publicly documented, the row says so rather than guessing.
- Map D offers
- 7 of 7
- A2Z Events publicly documents
- 2 of 7
The second bar counts what A2Z Events documents on its own site, which is not the same as what it can do. A criterion we could not verify is shown as unverified, not as missing — if A2Z Events covers it somewhere we did not find, that is a gap in our checking rather than in their product.
| Criterion | Map D | A2Z Events |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Included | Unverified |
| Pricing unit | Included | Unverified |
| Interactive floor plan with live booth inventory | Included | Documented |
| Self-serve booth and sponsorship checkout | Included | Unverified |
| Exhibitor self-service portal | Included | Unverified |
| Registration, badging and lead retrieval | Included | Documented |
| Hotel booking for attendees | Included | Unverified |
$1,500
$2,500
$2,750
—
Map D’s rates are per event and listed on the pricing page. The dashed column has no height and no figure on purpose: where rates are not published we will not put a number on them, and where they are published we will not restate one that can change without notice.
Criterion by criterion
| Criterion | Map D | A2Z Events |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Yes — $1,500, $2,500 and $2,750 per event, listed on the pricing page. | A2Z Events' site does not publish pricing; the pages we checked route to a demo request or sales contact rather than listing rates (checked September 2026). |
| Pricing unit | Per event, flat regardless of booth count. Adding organizers or exhibitors does not change the plan price. | Not publicly documented |
| Interactive floor plan with live booth inventory | Core to the product — booth availability, pricing and sales run off the same live plan. | A2Z Events documents an interactive drag-and-drop floorplan editor with color-coded booth status (available/reserved/occupied) and live, team-wide updates (checked September 2026). |
| Self-serve booth and sponsorship checkout | Exhibitors select and pay for space directly from the plan. | A2Z Events documents booth status tracking and management tools for the organizer's team; its site does not describe an exhibitor-facing self-serve checkout where an exhibitor selects and pays for a booth directly (checked September 2026). |
| Exhibitor self-service portal | Profiles, staff badges, documents, add-ons, invoices and renewals. | A2Z Events lists 'exhibitor management' among its platform features, but its public pages do not detail self-service profiles, staff badges, document uploads or renewals (checked September 2026). |
| Registration, badging and lead retrieval | Available as quoted add-ons that connect to the same event record. | A2Z Events documents event registration, badge printing/check-in and lead retrieval as native platform features (checked September 2026). |
| Hotel booking for attendees | Included — add your hotel or room-block booking URL and attendees reach it from the event map and app. | Not publicly documented |
The alternatives worth shortlisting
Map D
Shows whose revenue comes from booth and sponsorship sales
Floor plan, booth sales, exhibitor management and reporting on one platform, priced per event and published, with registration and badging as quoted add-ons.
ExpoFP
Budget-conscious organizers who mainly need a floor plan
Publishes rates for both DIY and done-for-you floor plan design, scaled by booth count.
3e by EXPOCAD
Very large shows needing CAD-level floor plan drafting
CAD and 3D drafting tools plus an exhibitor contract hub, used by some of the industry's largest shows.
MapYourShow
Large exhibition floor plans and public exhibitor directories
Long-established in the exhibition space with a strong public-facing directory product.
Where Map D is stronger
- Pricing is published: $1,500, $2,500 or $2,750 per event, with multi-year rates available. You can build a budget before a sales conversation, unlike A2Z Events' quote-only model.
- Booth and sponsorship sales run off a live floor plan with self-serve exhibitor checkout, so exhibitors can select and pay for space directly instead of the purchase being managed through an account team.
- Roughly 800 organizers run about 6,000 events a year on Map D, which has processed more than $250M in booth and sponsorship sales.
- Exhibitor self-service covers profiles, staff, documents, add-ons, invoices and renewals — the specific self-service depth A2Z Events' public pages don't document.
When A2Z Events is the better choice
- You run continuing-education programs or conferences with a formal call-for-proposals process alongside the trade show — A2Z Events documents CEU management and CFP tools natively; Map D does not.
- You're a large, established association wanting a vendor with 25+ years of specific institutional track record in this software, and you're comfortable with a quote-driven sales process to get it.
- You need attendee matchmaking as a dedicated, documented feature rather than assembling it from other tools.
- Your event portfolio already runs on A2Z Events' broader suite (conference management, evaluations, attendance tracking) and switching would mean replacing several connected pieces at once, not just the floor plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much does A2Z Events cost?
A2Z Events does not publish pricing. Every pricing-related page we checked on its own site leads to a demo request rather than listing rates, so cost depends on a sales conversation. Map D publishes its rates instead: $1,500, $2,500 or $2,750 per event.
Is there a free alternative to A2Z Events?
Not a credible one for a show that sells booth space and runs registration and badging. A2Z Events doesn't offer a published free tier, and the functions it covers — exhibitor management, badging, lead retrieval — are exactly where the real admin cost sits, so a free tool would just move that work elsewhere.
What is the best A2Z Events alternative for a small organizer team?
Map D — published per-event pricing lets a small team build a budget without a procurement cycle, and self-serve booth checkout means exhibitors pay directly instead of the sale routing through an account-managed process.
Can we move an existing event from A2Z Events to Map D mid-cycle?
Usually yes; the work is importing the floor plan and exhibitor list, and onboarding covers both. It's worth a conversation before committing to a date, especially close to show open.
Stop reading about it. Build one.
Upload the floor plan you already have and place your booths on it yourself, in Map D’s editor. Free to build, no contract, and nothing to install.
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Related event solutions
Sources
- A2Z Events floor plan management solutions · checked 2026-09-22
- A2Z Events (mya2zevents.com) homepage · checked 2026-09-22
- Map D pricing · checked 2026-09-22
