ON24 vs Cvent (2026): What Changed After Cvent Acquired ON24?

ON24 vs Cvent is no longer a normal vendor comparison. Cvent acquired ON24 on April 1, 2026, but the products still solve different jobs. ON24 is built around webinars and digital engagement. Cvent covers broader event management, including registration, onsite operations, attendee apps, venue sourcing, and virtual events.

Key Takeaways

• The direct answer: Choose ON24 when webinars, digital audience engagement, first-party engagement data, and marketing follow-up are the center of your program. Choose Cvent when you need a broader event-management system for registration, onsite check-in, badging, attendee apps, venue sourcing, and multi-format event operations.
• Cvent completed its acquisition of ON24 on April 1, 2026. The deal had been announced in December 2025 at approximately $400 million.
• ON24 still operates as a distinct product. Cvent has said it plans to continue investing in the ON24 platform rather than simply replacing it with Cvent Webinar.
• Both platforms use quote-based pricing for their core enterprise packages. ON24 publishes Essentials, Standard, and Advanced package levels but not dollar prices. Cvent also asks buyers to request pricing for its Professional and Enterprise event-management packages.
• ON24 supports 30+ integrations across marketing automation, CRM, and other business systems, according to its current pricing page.
• The strongest difference is not “virtual events vs events.” It is marketing engagement depth versus event-operations breadth.
• This comparison is most useful for B2B marketing, demand generation, event, and operations teams deciding whether their main problem is running digital programs or managing the full event lifecycle.

How do ON24 and Cvent compare at a glance?

The easiest way to compare ON24 and Cvent is to start with the job each product is designed to handle.

The acquisition makes the comparison unusual. You are not choosing between two unrelated competitors anymore. You are choosing between two product experiences inside an expanding Cvent portfolio.

That matters because the products are complementary rather than interchangeable.

What is ON24 built for?

ON24 is an intelligent engagement platform built mainly for B2B marketers who use webinars and digital content to generate, qualify, nurture, and understand demand.

The product goes beyond basic web conferencing. A standard meeting tool may help you broadcast a presentation and collect a few questions. ON24 is designed to turn the entire digital session into marketing data.

That includes signals such as:

• who attended;
• how long they stayed;
• which polls they answered;
• which questions they asked;
• which calls to action they clicked;
• which resources they downloaded; and
• how engagement changes across accounts, segments, or campaigns.

ON24's current Essentials package includes webinars and videos, virtual-event management, integrations, and performance analytics. Standard adds capabilities such as segment personalization, Key Moments, automated nurture experiences, AI-generated content and videos, and advanced analytics. Advanced adds content hubs and personalized landing pages.

This is why ON24 makes the most sense when the webinar is not simply an event. It is part of a marketing journey.

A demand-generation team, for example, may run a product webinar for 800 registrants. The important output is not only whether the stream worked. The team wants to know which accounts were engaged, who clicked a product CTA, what questions appeared repeatedly, which moments held attention, and what content should be sent next.

That is ON24's home territory.

What is Cvent built for?

Cvent is broader event-management software. It is designed for organizations managing the operational work around meetings and events, not only the digital content experience.

Its current event-management offering includes registration, Attendee Hub, OnArrival, event reporting, exhibitor management, session management, speaker management, venue sourcing, integrations, and other tools.

The difference becomes obvious when an event moves from the browser to a physical venue.

A conference team may need to:

1. build an event website;
2. create different registration paths;
3. collect payments;
4. manage speakers and sessions;
5. handle hotel and travel information;
6. send attendee communications;
7. check people in onsite;
8. print badges on demand;
9. control session capacity;
10. run a mobile event app;
11. capture sponsor leads; and
12. report on attendance and engagement afterward.

That is the type of connected operational workflow Cvent is built to support.

If your event program includes large conferences, trade shows, field events, customer events, internal meetings, and hybrid experiences, Cvent can centralize more of those jobs than ON24 alone.

Cvent also has a major capability ON24 does not try to replace: venue sourcing and hospitality workflows.

For event teams that manage hotel programs, meeting requests, room blocks, suppliers, or a large global meetings program, this difference can matter more than webinar features.

Did Cvent acquire ON24?

Yes. Cvent completed its acquisition of ON24 on April 1, 2026.

The transaction was first announced on December 30, 2025, at approximately $400 million in cash. Cvent described the combination as a way to connect ON24's webinar and digital engagement capabilities with Cvent's wider in-person, hybrid, and virtual event platform.

Cvent has also said it plans to continue investing in and growing the ON24 platform.

That is important for buyers evaluating ON24 in 2026. ON24 has not simply disappeared into Cvent's product menu.

At the same time, buyers should expect the line between the two platforms to keep changing.

Cvent already has its own Webinar product. It has also expanded its event-marketing technology through other acquisitions. ON24 now sits inside that larger strategy.

So a procurement team evaluating ON24 should ask one extra question that would not have mattered a year ago:

What is the long-term product boundary between ON24, Cvent Webinar, Attendee Hub, and the rest of Cvent's digital-event stack?

That is not a reason to avoid ON24. It is simply a question worth getting answered in writing before signing a multi-year contract.

Which is better for webinars, ON24 or Cvent?

For a webinar-first program, ON24 is the more specialized product.

Its product structure is centered on webinars, video, digital experiences, content repurposing, audience engagement, personalization, and turning behavioral data into marketing actions.

The practical distinction is what happens after the webinar ends.

If your marketing team wants to turn a 45-minute webinar into clips, written content, nurture experiences, engagement signals, and sales follow-up, ON24 is designed around that workflow.

If the webinar is one format inside a much larger events program, Cvent's broader platform may matter more.

Which is better for in-person and hybrid events?

Cvent has much deeper in-person event operations than ON24.

Its OnArrival product supports kiosk check-in, self-service, on-demand badge printing, onsite registration, secure payments, session check-in, capacity control, and real-time attendance dashboards.

Attendee Hub extends the experience into a mobile event app with agenda tools, chat, Q&A, polling, gamification, networking, sponsor activation, and live or on-demand video.

ON24 can support virtual and hybrid event experiences, including branded registration, event information, speaker content, emails, and digital engagement. But it is not designed to replace a full onsite operations stack.

This distinction gets lost when software directories put both products in a generic “virtual event platform” category.

A 60-minute webinar and a 4,000-person annual conference are technically both events. Operationally, they are different problems.

If your hybrid event requires registration, onsite badges, mobile agendas, exhibitors, session scanning, attendee networking, and hotel workflows, comparing ON24 with Cvent feature by feature misses the point. Cvent is operating across more of the event lifecycle.

If your “hybrid event” is mainly a high-production digital program with remote attendees, strong marketing follow-up, and a lighter physical component, ON24 may still be the more relevant product to evaluate.

How do ON24 and Cvent compare on marketing and first-party data?

This is where ON24 becomes much more competitive.

ON24's positioning is built around first-party engagement data. Instead of treating an attendee as simply “registered” or “attended,” it captures what the person actually did during the experience.

That matters to B2B marketing teams because a webinar can generate intent signals before anyone fills out another form.

A prospect who stays for 52 minutes, asks two product questions, downloads a buyer guide, and clicks a demo CTA is behaving differently from someone who joins for six minutes and leaves.

ON24 is designed to preserve those differences and pass useful engagement data into downstream systems.

Its current plans support more than 30 integrations across marketing automation platforms, CRM systems, and other business tools.

Cvent also integrates with CRM and marketing systems, and it can collect a wider range of event data across registration, attendance, mobile engagement, sessions, and onsite behavior.

So the question is not which product “has analytics.” Both do.

Ask what type of data your team actually wants to act on.

How do ON24 and Cvent use AI?

Both vendors now use artificial intelligence, but they apply it to different parts of the workflow.

ON24's Ace capabilities focus heavily on marketer productivity and engagement. Current ON24 packages describe AI functions for finding high-performing webinar moments, generating written and video content, personalizing experiences, automating nurture content, and analyzing engagement.

Cvent applies AI across a wider event-management environment. Its products include AI-supported agenda recommendations, event marketing tools, analytics, and workflow assistance across different parts of the event lifecycle.

The buying mistake is to compare the number of AI features.

Instead, test one real workflow.

For ON24, give the platform a finished webinar and ask your team to turn it into follow-up content and a nurture path.

For Cvent, give the platform an event with registration, sessions, onsite attendance, and an attendee app, then see how much useful work AI removes from the organizer's day.

The better AI product is the one that removes work from the job you actually do.

How do integrations, support, and enterprise requirements compare?

For enterprise buyers, the decision rarely ends at webinar features or registration. IT, marketing operations, procurement, and regional event teams will care about how the platform fits the rest of the technology stack.

ON24 puts integrations close to the center of its value proposition because webinar data is most useful when marketing and sales teams can act on it. Its current pricing information says the platform connects engagement and program-performance data to 30+ integrations across marketing automation platforms, CRM systems, and other business tools.

That makes the integration question very specific: can the engagement signal you care about reach the system where your team already scores, routes, and follows up with leads?

Cvent also supports CRM, marketing automation, payment, API, and webhook connections, but the data can come from more parts of the event lifecycle.

Registration, attendance, session behavior, mobile-app engagement, and onsite activity may all matter. For an event operations team, that broader data model can be more useful than webinar depth alone.

Support should also be compared at the workflow level.

Cvent says customers receive 24/7 support through its client-services organization. ON24 describes onboarding, technical assistance, training resources, and dedicated customer-success support.

Those statements sound similar on a vendor page, so ask what support actually looks like during your highest-risk moment.

For a webinar team, that might mean a live broadcast with executive speakers and thousands of registrants.

For an in-person event team, it may mean 2,000 people arriving within 45 minutes while badges, walk-ins, and session access all have to work.

For organizations running events across the United States, Dubai, or other regions, also ask about support hours, onsite-service availability, data residency, accessibility, single sign-on, and procurement requirements.

A feature can exist and still be a poor operational fit if your team cannot get help in the region or time zone where the event is happening.

This is also where a pilot is more valuable than another sales presentation.

Connect one real campaign or event, move the data into your CRM, have a new organizer use the system, and test the support path before making a longer commitment.

How much do ON24 and Cvent cost?

Neither company currently publishes a simple dollar price for its main enterprise platform.

ON24 lists three main package levels: Essentials, Standard, and Advanced. Buyers have to request pricing. The company also says packages can be customized around an organization's needs.

Cvent's main event-management pricing page similarly asks buyers to request pricing for its Professional and Enterprise packages.

Cvent does have separate pricing models in parts of its portfolio.

For example, its pay-as-you-go registration option charges when registrations are captured, while products such as Event Diagramming publish separate prices. Those numbers should not be treated as the price of the complete Cvent platform.

That makes headline price comparisons unreliable.

A better procurement table looks like this:

Do not ask a vendor, “What does the platform cost?”

Give both vendors the same event program and ask for a three-year total-cost model.

For example: 30 webinars, four customer conferences, 12 field events, 20 internal events, 25 organizer users, Salesforce integration, Marketo integration, onsite check-in, badge printing, and a mobile app.

That produces a useful comparison. Two unrelated starting prices do not.

When should you choose ON24?

ON24 makes the most sense when digital engagement is the center of your event strategy.

Shortlist ON24 when:

• webinars are a major demand-generation channel;
• marketing owns the platform;
• you care deeply about first-party engagement signals;
• you want to personalize webinar and content experiences by segment;
• webinar content needs to become clips, written assets, and nurture material;
• CRM and marketing automation data matters more than onsite operations; or
• your team runs recurring digital programs throughout the year.

A useful test is simple: if the event disappeared tomorrow, would your marketing team still need the platform for webinars, digital content, and nurture programs?

If the answer is yes, ON24 is probably solving a broader marketing job for you.

When should you choose Cvent?

Cvent makes more sense when the event itself creates the operational complexity.

Shortlist Cvent when:

• you manage a large portfolio of in-person, hybrid, and virtual events;
• registration rules are complex;
• onsite check-in and badge printing matter;
• attendees need a mobile app;
• venue sourcing and hotel workflows are important;
• you manage enterprise governance across multiple teams or regions;
• you need session attendance and capacity controls; or
• one system needs to support a broad meetings and events program.

Cvent is often more platform than a webinar-only team needs. That is not a weakness if you actually need the breadth.

When do you need neither ON24 nor Cvent?

This is the question most comparison pages skip.

You probably do not need ON24 if you run a few simple webinars a year and your existing video-meeting tool already handles registration, streaming, and Q&A well enough.

You may not need Cvent if you run straightforward events without complex registration, venue sourcing, hotel management, or enterprise governance.

Buying enterprise software for a simple workflow creates a second problem: your team now has to administer the platform.

For teams that need registration, an attendee app, virtual experiences, onsite check-in, badge printing, engagement, and analytics without adopting a large enterprise stack, a connected event platform such as Nunify is another route.

Nunify's event registration software connects registration with attendee data and communications, while its event app covers agendas, networking, polls, Q&A, sponsor visibility, and engagement.

For remote audiences, its virtual event platform supports live and on-demand video alongside networking and interactive experiences.

If you are specifically comparing Cvent because its breadth feels heavier than your team needs, the Cvent alternatives guide breaks down other options by use case.

For another enterprise comparison, see Cvent vs Swoogo.

The point is not that every team needs a third option.

It is that “ON24 or Cvent?” can be the wrong question when your real requirement sits between webinar software and a large enterprise event stack.

What usually goes wrong when teams compare ON24 and Cvent?

The biggest mistake is starting with a feature spreadsheet.

Both vendors can check boxes for registration, virtual experiences, engagement, analytics, integrations, AI, and event management. That makes them look more similar than they are.

The difference appears in the workflow.

A marketing team using ON24 may spend most of its time creating webinar experiences, analyzing audience behavior, generating follow-up content, and moving engagement data into marketing automation.

An event team using Cvent may spend its time configuring registration logic, coordinating speakers and sessions, managing attendee communications, setting up onsite check-in, printing badges, managing mobile-app content, and reporting across multiple events.

Those are different operating models.

The hidden cost is not only software price.

It is the cost of forcing your team into a platform designed around someone else's job.

Before buying either product, give the vendor five real tasks your team performs every month.

Watch how many screens, handoffs, exports, integrations, and support tickets it takes to finish them.

That test is more useful than a 150-row feature matrix.

What should you ask in an ON24 vs Cvent demo?

Use the same questions with both vendors.

Do not let the demo stay on the vendor's happy path.

Bring one awkward event from your real calendar.

Include the registration exception, the last-minute agenda change, the sponsor request, the walk-in attendee, or the webinar question your sales team needs routed immediately.

That is where platform fit becomes visible.

So, ON24 or Cvent?

ON24 and Cvent now belong to the same company, but they still solve different primary problems.

ON24 is the stronger fit when webinars and digital engagement are part of a B2B marketing engine. Its value comes from the depth of audience interaction, first-party engagement data, personalization, content repurposing, and marketing follow-up.

Cvent is the stronger fit when you are managing the full operational lifecycle of events. Registration, attendee apps, onsite check-in, badge printing, session management, venue sourcing, and multi-event governance are much closer to its core.

For some enterprise organizations, the answer may increasingly be both: ON24 for digital engagement and Cvent for the broader event program, with the acquisition making that combination easier over time.

For everyone else, start with the job, not the vendor name.

If the hard part is generating and acting on digital engagement, evaluate ON24.

If the hard part is operating complex events, evaluate Cvent.

If the hard part is connecting registration, attendee experience, virtual delivery, and onsite operations without adopting a large enterprise stack, evaluate a broader alternative such as Nunify.