Chobble Tickets vs Pen and Paper
A clipboard and a guest list work for small gatherings. This page covers what dedicated ticketing software adds.
Both approaches share some things:
- Keeping a list of who's coming
- Checking people in at the door
- Working without an internet connection (pen and paper always works; Chobble Tickets QR codes work offline once loaded)
- No mandatory attendee account required
When pen and paper works
For a small gathering where you know everyone, pen and paper is fine. There's no learning curve, no setup time, and no annual fee, so if you're running a dinner party for 20 people you don't need ticketing software.
When software helps
Pen and paper starts to struggle when:
- You're selling tickets online - You can't take card payments with a clipboard
- You need to track capacity - Overbooking is easy when multiple people are taking bookings
- You want confirmation emails - Attendees expect a booking confirmation they can refer back to
- You need to check people in - QR codes are faster and more reliable than scanning a list of names
- You're handling refunds - Tracking who paid what and who needs a refund gets messy on paper
- Multiple people are managing the event - Shared spreadsheets get out of sync
What Chobble Tickets adds over pen and paper
Chobble Tickets supports free events without payment setup, so even if you're not charging you can use it for the RSVP tracking, capacity management, and check-in features. Here is what you get:
- Online payments - accept card payments via Stripe or Square
- Capacity management - automatic capacity limits with refunds if two payments race for the last ticket
- QR code check-in - scan attendees in with any phone camera
- Email confirmations - automatic booking confirmations attendees can refer back to
- Refunds - track who paid what and process refunds in clicks
- Multi-user access - multiple people can manage the same event without things getting out of sync
- Apple & Google Wallet - attendees carry their tickets on their phone
- Custom questions - collect structured answers from attendees at checkout
- CSV export - export attendee lists when you need a spreadsheet
- Activity logs - see who did what and when