Best lead retrieval software for trade shows

How this list is ranked

• Weighted on how quickly an exhibitor can start scanning, whether context such as notes and interest tags is captured at the moment of the scan, and how the data leaves the system.
• Whether the organizer must buy or resell licences, and whether hardware is needed, counts because it changes what exhibitors pay and what staff handle.
• Pricing is considered only as published or not; no competitor figures are quoted.
• Map D publishes this list and ranks itself first, which is a conflict of interest. What makes that defensible is the weighting being stated rather than implied — and every entry here, including ours, carries its limitations in the same words and the same styling.

1. 1

   Map D

   Organizers whose event revenue comes off the show floor

   Strengths

   • Floor plan, booth and sponsorship sales, exhibitor portal and reporting run off one event record, and ticketing, registration, badging and lead retrieval join that same record when your show adds them.
   • Pricing is published: $1,500, $2,500 or $2,750 per event, listed on the pricing page, so a budget can be sized without a sales call.
   • Per event rather than per seat — adding organizers or exhibitors does not change the plan price, and no booth, exhibitor or attendee cap is published on any plan.
   • Roughly 800 organizers run about 6,000 events a year on Map D, which has processed more than $250M in booth and sponsorship sales and drawn over 800,000 booths.

   See what Map D does with a floor plan

   Limitations

   • No venue sourcing and no room-block contracting. Map D links attendees to your hotel booking page, but if your program is built around sourcing venues and holding room nights, this is the wrong tool and Cvent is not.
   • No venue booking or building operations. Map D runs the show inside a venue, not the venue.
   • If your event has no sellable floor — a pure conference, a training programme — most of what you would be paying for goes unused.
   • Ticketing and registration, with badge printing and onsite check-in, and lead retrieval are add-ons quoted to your event portfolio rather than part of the published per-event plans.
2. 2

   Whova

   Conference-first events where the attendee app is the core experience

   Strengths

   • A conference mobile app with personalized agendas, real-time updates and networking features.
   • Lead retrieval built into the same app exhibitors and attendees already have: QR code scanning, lead tagging and CRM export.
   • A self-service exhibitor hub with booth profiles, staff management, retrieved leads and outreach campaigns.
   • Gamification tools such as passport contests, leaderboards and trivia to drive traffic to booths.

   Limitations

   • Rates are not published. The pricing page asks for your event format, duration and attendance, then offers a demo or trial.
   • Positioned around the conference experience, so a show whose revenue is booth inventory sold off a live floor plan is a secondary use case.
3. 3

   EventMobi

   Registration- and content-driven events that want one vendor for the whole attendee stack

   Strengths

   • A broad all-in-one bundle: event website, registration, badge printing, check-in, mobile app and lead capture.
   • Interactive event maps and a lead capture product that organizers can resell to exhibitors.
   • Publishes starting prices for per-event and annual use, which is rarer in this category than it should be.

   Limitations

   • The published figures are a floor: it states that cost scales with attendee count, selected products and add-ons.
   • The bundle is oriented around the attendee experience; selling exhibit space off a live floor plan is not the centre of the product.
4. 4

   Eventleaf

   Small events and registration-heavy conferences with little or no exhibit floor

   Strengths

   • A free tier for small events, which is useful for a first event or a very small show.
   • Deep registration functionality: an event website builder, multiple registration paths, discounts, invoicing, waitlists and abstract and speaker submission.
   • Badge printing and a lead-retrieval app for scanning attendee badges.

   Limitations

   • Paid tiers are priced per attendee, so cost grows with turnout, and its top tier is quote-only.
   • Built around registration and content management more than around selling booth inventory off a live floor plan.
5. 5

   MapYourShow

   Large, established trade shows with a mature exhibitor directory

   Strengths

   • Floor Builder for the plan, with MYS Sales Pro and Booth Sales covering exhibit sales.
   • An Exhibitor Resource Center where exhibitors manage listings, deadlines and promotions.
   • MYS Smart Scan for lead retrieval, plus Conference Management and a mobile app.
   • Long-standing presence on very large show floors, which is its own kind of evidence.

   Limitations

   • Rates are not published. The site routes you to a demo, so a like-for-like budget comparison needs a sales conversation first.
   • Oriented to large shows with an established directory, which can be more platform than a smaller organizer team needs.

Frequently asked questions