Comparison
Guestcount vs Luma
Luma is free to start and built for community events and calendars that guests subscribe to. Pick Luma for meetups, run clubs and recurring community events. Pick Guestcount when a brand, agency or venue runs invite-only events on its own domain, with partner invite links and door staff, from $249 per event.
Last updated
Guestcount and Luma side by side
| Feature | Guestcount | Luma |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free to build; you pay to publish. Single events from $249. Essential, Growth and Brand plans from $299 a month, billed monthly or annually. | Free plan with a 5% platform fee on paid tickets. Luma Plus is $59 a month billed annually, with no platform fee. Enterprise is custom. Stripe processing is extra. |
| Branded RSVP pages | Yes: a theme, your colors and fonts, your flyer and page blocks, built in the page designer. | Event and calendar pages. Luma Plus adds a custom URL for event pages. |
| Custom domain | Yes, on Brand: your own domain or a guestcount.com subdomain. | A custom sending domain for email on Enterprise. A custom web domain for event pages is not published. |
| Embedding on your own site | Yes, set up with our team. | Not published |
| Approvals and waitlist | Yes: approval per event or per invite link, with bulk approval. When an event is full, guests are offered a waitlist and you promote them as spots open. | Approval or token-gated registration. An event-wide waitlist that needs a capacity, with approvals made by hand. |
| Plus-ones | An allowance per guest and per invite link. Guests pick a number, name each plus-one, or answer your questions for each. | Not published |
| Door check-in | Yes: search, QR scan and walk-ups on iOS, a shared phone or the dashboard. Door staff sign in by phone and use no seat. | QR scanner on web, iOS and Android, with manual search. Luma Plus adds a check-in manager role. |
| SMS | Yes: invitations, updates and a confirmation text on every event, alongside email. | Email, SMS, push and WhatsApp blasts and reminders on both plans. |
| Partner invite links and attribution | Yes: a link per partner or person, with its own spots and plus-ones. RSVPs, approvals and check-ins are credited per link and per partner. | Not published |
| Guest history across events | Yes, on Essential, Growth and Brand: one record per guest across your events, with their show rate. | Community calendars that guests subscribe to. HubSpot, Salesforce or Marketo sync on Enterprise. |
| Team roles | Admin and Manager roles with per-person permissions, per-event collaborators, and door staff at no seat cost. | Calendar admins (3 on Free, 5 on Plus) and unlimited cohosts. SSO and audit logs on Enterprise. |
“Not published” means we found no public source for it; ask Luma directly.
Who Luma is better for
- Community events, meetups and run clubs.
- Organizers who publish a calendar that guests subscribe to.
- Hosts who want a free plan with unlimited events and guests.
Who Guestcount is better for
- Brands, experiential agencies and venues running invite-only events.
- Events on your own domain, with your branding, questions and approval rules.
- Events where partners bring guests and door staff check people in from their phones.
Common questions
Is Guestcount a good alternative to Luma for brand events?
Yes, for invite-only brand and venue events. Guestcount gives you your own domain on the Brand plan, plus-one allowances per guest and per invite link, partner invite links that credit each guest, and door staff who sign in by phone. For open community events and calendars, Luma is a good fit.
How much does Luma cost compared with Guestcount?
Luma has a free plan with a 5% platform fee on paid tickets, and Luma Plus at $59 a month billed annually with no platform fee. Guestcount is free to build and starts at $249 per published event, with monthly and annual plans. See pricing.
Does Luma have a waitlist and approvals?
Yes. Luma offers approval-based registration and an event-wide waitlist, approved by hand. Guestcount also offers approvals, per event or per invite link with bulk approval, and a waitlist once an event is full.
Can I use my own domain with Luma or Guestcount?
Luma Plus offers a custom URL for event pages, and Enterprise adds a custom sending domain for email. Guestcount includes your own domain, or a guestcount.com subdomain, for RSVP pages on the Brand plan.
Sources
Luma details from these pages, checked . Guestcount details from the product.
- Luma homepage: https://luma.com/
- Luma pricing: https://luma.com/pricing
- Luma help: Enterprise: https://help.luma.com/p/enterprise-overview
- Luma help: waitlist: https://help.luma.com/p/waitlist
- Luma help: check-in: https://help.luma.com/p/check-in
- Luma help: custom sending domain: https://help.luma.com/p/custom-sending-domain.md