Splash alternatives for trade show and expo organizers
Splash is an event marketing and registration platform for corporate marketing teams. Here is how it compares to Map D for organizers whose revenue comes from the show floor.
Splash does not build or sell trade-show floor space: it is an event marketing and registration platform, now part of Cvent, built for branded event pages, email campaigns, and CRM-connected registration. For organizers who sell booth and sponsorship inventory off a live floor plan, Map D is the more direct fit. Splash remains a strong choice for marketing teams running webinars, roadshows, and branded in-person events where the goal is pipeline and registration data, not booth sales.
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.
Hall A
LiveHall A revenue
$184,600
Trusted by leading associations
What Splash is good at
Splash earned its reputation inside marketing departments, not on the trade-show floor, and it is worth naming what it is genuinely good at before explaining why it does not compete with Map D on booth sales.
- On-brand, no-code event pages and email programs that a marketing team can stand up in minutes, not days.
- Deep CRM and marketing-automation integrations, including Salesforce and Marketo, that keep registrant and attendee data flowing into the systems marketing and sales already use.
- Ticketing, check-in, and on-site badge printing for the attendee side of an event, backed by a Host app the company says has checked in more than 25 million guests.
- Reporting built around event-led-growth metrics: pipeline attribution, attendance insights, and ROI dashboards marketing teams report to leadership on.
Why organizers look elsewhere
The gaps that send trade show organizers looking for an alternative.
- Splash's own platform pages list Event Design, Invites and Reminders, Guest Management, Ticketing, Reporting, Attendance Insights, Virtual Venue, On-Site Tools, Security & Compliance, Integrations, and Team Management as its feature set (checked September 2026). There is no floor plan, no booth inventory, and no exhibitor portal anywhere in that list.
- Splash's On-Site Tools page covers check-in, badge printing, on-site registration forms, and check-in reporting for attendees — useful at any event's front door, but none of it touches selling or managing exhibitor space.
- Splash is now part of Cvent's portfolio: its release notes, community pages, and legal terms are hosted on cvent.com and community.cvent.com, which lines up with why it stays in a marketing-and-registration lane rather than adding trade-show floor tools.
- Pricing is quote-only. Splash's pricing page names two plans, Pro and Enterprise, built around per-seat 'Builder', 'Host', and 'Crew' user licenses, but every call to action reads 'Get Splash Pro' or 'Get Splash Enterprise' with no rate shown.
How Map D compares
Map D’s column states what Map D does. Where a Splash equivalent is not publicly documented, the row says so rather than guessing.
- Map D offers
- 7 of 7
- Splash publicly documents
- 6 of 7
The second bar counts what Splash 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 Splash covers it somewhere we did not find, that is a gap in our checking rather than in their product.
| Criterion | Map D | Splash |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Included | Documented |
| Pricing unit | Included | Documented |
| Interactive floor plan with live inventory | Included | Documented |
| Self-serve booth and sponsorship checkout | Included | Documented |
| Exhibitor self-service portal | Included | Documented |
| 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 | Splash |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Yes — $1,500, $2,500 and $2,750 per event, listed on the pricing page. | Splash's pricing page names Pro and Enterprise plans but does not publish a rate for either; both plans lead to a sales conversation (checked September 2026). |
| Pricing unit | Per event. Adding organizers or exhibitors does not change the plan price. | Splash prices around annual, per-seat user licenses (Builder, Host, Crew), not a per-event or per-show rate (checked September 2026). |
| Interactive floor plan with live inventory | Core to the product — booth availability, pricing and sales run off the same live plan. | Splash's full platform feature list does not include a floor plan or booth inventory of any kind (checked September 2026). |
| Self-serve booth and sponsorship checkout | Exhibitors select and pay for space directly from the plan. | No booth or sponsorship checkout exists on Splash's site; its ticketing tools are for attendee registration, not exhibitor space (checked September 2026). |
| Exhibitor self-service portal | Profiles, staff badges, documents, add-ons, invoices and renewals. | Splash's licensed roles (Builder, Host, Crew) are for a marketer's own team, not for outside exhibitors (checked September 2026). |
| Registration, badging and lead retrieval | Available as quoted add-ons that connect to the same event record. | Splash's Host app covers attendee check-in, on-site badge printing and registration forms, but no exhibitor lead-retrieval app is documented on its site (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.
Cvent
Marketing teams standardizing on the vendor that now owns Splash
The broader enterprise suite Splash sits inside as of 2026; stronger for corporate meetings and venue sourcing than for exhibitor floor sales.
Bizzabo
Marketing-led hybrid and virtual events with heavier community features
A similar registration-and-marketing orientation to Splash, with more emphasis on the virtual and hybrid attendee experience.
Eventbrite
Simple ticketing for small in-person or virtual events
Lighter weight than Splash, without the CRM-depth marketing teams use Splash for.
Where Map D is stronger
- Pricing is published: $1,500, $2,500 or $2,750 per event, with multi-year rates available, so you can build a floor-sales budget before any sales call.
- Booth and sponsorship inventory lives on the same live floor plan attendees and exhibitors see, so availability, pricing and revenue never leave the platform for a spreadsheet beside it.
- 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 — profiles, staff badges, documents, add-ons, invoices and renewals — replaces the email threads a marketing-oriented platform like Splash was never built to handle.
When Splash is the better choice
- Your event is fundamentally a marketing program — a webinar series, a roadshow, or branded client events — where the goal is registrations and pipeline attribution, not booth sales. That is exactly what Splash is built for.
- Your team already runs on Salesforce or Marketo and wants event data synced automatically without building the integration yourselves; Splash's CRM and marketing-automation connections are a genuine strength.
- You need a large marketing org to self-serve on event pages under strict brand governance — Splash's custom roles, template libraries, and approval workflows are built for exactly that scale of team.
- You are already a Cvent customer and want Splash for the registration and marketing layer while using another Cvent product for anything venue- or floor-related; the two now share a parent company.
Frequently asked questions
Does Splash have a floor plan or booth sales feature?
No. Splash's own platform pages list Event Design, Guest Management, Ticketing, Reporting, Virtual Venue, On-Site Tools, Security & Compliance, Integrations and Team Management as its feature set, and none of it covers a floor plan, booth inventory, or exhibitor checkout (checked September 2026). If your event's revenue comes from selling booth space, that is a different product category — Map D is built specifically for it.
How much does Splash cost?
Splash does not publish pricing. Its pricing page presents Pro and Enterprise plans built around 'Builder', 'Host' and 'Crew' user licenses, but every call to action leads to a sales conversation rather than a rate (checked September 2026). Third-party estimates for Splash's annual license circulate online, but they are not confirmed by Splash and we do not repeat them as fact. Map D publishes its rates: $1,500, $2,500 or $2,750 per event.
Is Splash owned by Cvent?
Yes. Splash's release notes, community pages, and legal terms are hosted on cvent.com and community.cvent.com, confirming it now operates as part of Cvent's portfolio (checked September 2026).
What is the best Splash alternative for a trade show that sells booths?
Map D. Splash was not built to sell or manage exhibitor floor space, so a show whose revenue comes from booths and sponsorships needs a platform built around a live floor plan — Map D publishes per-event pricing so a small organizer team can budget before talking to sales.
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.
“I am really excited about this. The staff met with me this morning and we all LOVE the platform. People are already filling out their booths.”
Keep exploring
Related event solutions
Sources
- Splash pricing · checked 2026-09-22
- Splash platform overview · checked 2026-09-22
- Splash integrations · checked 2026-09-22
- Splash on-site tools · checked 2026-09-22
- Map D pricing · checked 2026-09-22
