Best Self Hosted Alternatives to ConfTool

pretix is an open-source ticketing and event registration application for conferences, festivals, concerts, exhibitions, workshops, and similar events. It provides tools for selling tickets online as well as handling on-site sales and attendee management.

Key Features

• Configurable ticket shop for pre-sales with quotas, product variations, and add-ons
• Box office and on-site check-in workflows for live events
• Multi-language support for events and storefronts
• Extensible architecture via plug-ins and a REST API for integrations
• Attendee management features such as order management, participant data collection, and invoicing

Use Cases

• Sell tickets and manage registrations for conferences and community events
• Run ticket sales for venues, museums, exhibitions, and public attractions
• Integrate ticketing into an existing software landscape via API and plug-ins

pretix is a mature, production-used platform designed for organizers who need a flexible ticket shop and reliable operations for both online and on-site event workflows. Its extensibility and multilingual capabilities make it suitable for a wide variety of event formats and scales.

Indico is a feature-rich, web-based event management system developed at CERN for organizing lectures, meetings, workshops, and conferences. It combines event content management with end-to-end workflows such as submissions, reviewing, registration, and room booking.

Key Features

• Hierarchical event content management with long-term archival of materials and metadata
• Conference organization workflows including call for abstracts, abstract reviewing, and paper reviewing
• Configurable registration forms with support for integrating external payment systems
• Timetable and agenda management, including drag-and-drop scheduling
• Participant logistics tools such as badge and ticket generation/printing
• Room booking and management with permissions and scheduling support
• Extensible architecture via plugins and integrations with collaborative/video-conferencing tools

Use Cases

• Managing scientific conferences with abstract submission, reviewing, and proceedings workflows
• Organizing institutional meetings and lectures with agenda building and material archival
• Centralizing room booking and event scheduling for campuses and large organizations

Indico is well-suited for organizations needing a robust, scalable event platform that covers the full event lifecycle. Its granular permissions model, archival focus, and extensibility make it a strong fit for both recurring internal meetings and complex international conferences.

OSEM (Open Source Event Manager) is a web application for organizing events, tailored to Free and Open Source Software community conferences. It helps teams manage the full lifecycle of a conference, from content collection to publishing the schedule and handling attendee registration.

Key Features

• Event splash pages for promoting the conference
• Call for Papers workflow to receive, classify, and evaluate submissions
• Session management with detailed public session pages
• Schedule/agenda creation and publishing for attendees
• Registration and ticketing support for tracking attendees
• Administration tools to manage event configuration and operations
• Basic analytics to track program and audience evolution

Use Cases

• Run a community conference with submissions, reviews, and a published agenda
• Maintain a public event website with sessions and speaker information
• Manage attendee registration and ticketing for an in-person or hybrid event

OSEM is a solid choice for teams that want a purpose-built conference manager with a focus on CFP-driven programs and attendee-facing schedules, while keeping full control over event data and workflows.

pretalx is a conference planning and management tool that supports organisers from call for participation through review, scheduling, and publishing the final program. It is designed for multi-track, multi-day events and is highly configurable and extensible via plugins.

Key Features

• Configurable Call for Participation (CfP) and submission forms
• Reviewer workflows for scoring, selection, and optional anonymised reviewing
• Schedule planning for multi-day, multi-room, and multi-track events
• Publishing and managing schedule releases and program updates
• Speaker management, communication, and post-event feedback collection
• Extensibility through a plugin ecosystem and customizable appearance

Use Cases

• Running a conference or meetup with an open call for talks or workshops
• Organising review committees and selecting submissions transparently
• Building and publishing a public schedule for multi-track events

Limitations and Considerations

• Advanced customisation beyond built-in settings may require plugin development

pretalx fits teams that need a full CfP-to-schedule workflow with strong reviewing and scheduling capabilities. It is suitable for both small community events and large conferences that require structured submissions and multi-track planning.

OpenSlides is a web-based presentation and assembly system for digitally organizing meetings, conferences, and committees. It helps manage agendas, motions, elections, and participant processes in one central place and supports projecting and running sessions.

Key Features

• Agenda planning and session management
• Motion and amendment management for assemblies
• Speaker list management for moderated discussions
• Digital elections and voting workflows
• Participant and user management for events and committees
• Presentation/projection support for running assemblies

Use Cases

• Party conventions, member assemblies, and congresses
• Board, committee, and council meetings with formal motions
• Conferences that require structured voting and election procedures

OpenSlides provides a focused toolkit for organizations that need reliable, structured processes for decision-making events, combining preparation, live session handling, and voting in a single web application.

Antragsgrün (Motion.Tools) is a web application for NGOs, political parties and assemblies to collaboratively submit, discuss and decide on motions, resolutions and amendments. It supports meeting workflows including speaking lists, roll calls and votings, and offers export and print templates for final documents.

Key Features

• Submit and publish motions, resolutions, statutes and candidacies with attachments
• Structured amendment workflow allowing submission, discussion and merging of accepted amendments
• Voting workflows including roll calls and configurable vote procedures
• Speaking lists and full-screen projector views for in-person assemblies
• Export options: PDF, spreadsheets and text templates; multiple PDF rendering backends supported
• User management with roles, admin/super-admin separation and configurable submission policies
• Security features: CAPTCHA throttling, optional TOTP-based 2FA, and support for SSO integrations (e.g., SAML)
• Accessibility-focused UI (WCAG AA) and multi-language support
• Docker-friendly deployment and web-based installer/updater, with command-line migration options

Use Cases

• Run congresses or party conventions with large numbers of motions and amendments
• Coordinate drafting and adoption of policy documents, statutes or election platforms
• Manage speaking order, roll calls and real-time votings during assemblies and meetings

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires PHP (>= 8.1), a MySQL/MariaDB database and a webserver; operational knowledge needed for scaling and maintenance
• Some PDF rendering features rely on external tools (e.g., WeasyPrint) or optional commercial plugins for complex PDFs
• SSO integrations are possible but typically require custom configuration and are not bundled as a one-click feature

Antragsgrün is a mature, privacy-conscious tool designed for organizations that need structured motion and meeting management. It is extensible and configurable to fit diverse procedural rules and event sizes.