"Free" on guest list tools is rarely bait with a hook in it. For a small venue running a hundred guests a month, it costs a vendor almost nothing. It is still worth knowing which wall you will hit — and roughly when.
The four limits, in the order they arrive
1. Guest volume
The obvious one, and usually the last to bite. Most vendors set it somewhere between 100 and 500 guests a month. If you run two nights of 150 people, you get there faster than the number sounds.
2. Door devices
Almost always arrives first, and catches most people out. Plenty of free plans allow exactly one scanning device. This is where the arithmetic from door planning bites: one lane at 5 seconds per guest handles around 720 an hour — in theory. In practice you want a second lane past about 200 guests, or the queue stops moving.
3. Team seats
The moment promoters need their own access, the free plan usually ends. That is also the point at which promoter attribution becomes possible at all — see paying promoters fairly.
4. History
The quietest limit. Free plans often keep data for a few months only, or show nothing across events. You notice when you want to know who has been three times and the answer no longer exists. Why that matters is covered in managing guests across events.
How to tell you are there
- The queue grows even though you have enough staff
- You are adding guests outside the tool because the cap is reached
- Promoters send you names instead of entering them
- You cannot answer a question about last month
EventSync's free tier exists so you can run a real night on it, not so you can click through a demo.