Events sells admission to one occasion. Classes & Camps enrolls named people in something that meets on set dates.
A gala, an auction dinner, a golf outing, a 5K, an opening night: one occasion, sold by the ticket, where you offer several ticket levels and mostly need a headcount and a total raised. A six-week pottery course on Tuesdays, an after-school program, a week of summer camp: something where you need each participant's details, a signed waiver, and attendance for every meeting.
Put another way, Events is rich commerce and thin people data. Classes & Camps is thin commerce and rich people data.
Two questions that settle most of it
Work them in order. A yes at either step ends the decision.
1. Does it meet more than once, and do the individual meetings matter? A course, a camp week, a program with a schedule families plan around. Use Classes.
2. Do you need to know who each participant is? A waiver, an age limit, an allergy, a parent's phone number, a shirt size. Use Classes.
Neither? Use Events.
What each one cannot do
Two facts decide most of the edge cases. Events cannot ask a custom question, collect a waiver, or restrict who buys. And Classes has exactly one price, with no second tier, no paid add-ons and no sponsorships.
| Events | Classes & Camps | |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | One start and one end. An event running three evenings is still one record, and it cannot tell the evenings apart. | Every meeting is its own dated row, generated from a pattern, then individually movable. |
| Pricing | Unlimited tiers, such as General $75, Patron $150 and Student $40, plus paid add-ons and a flat family ticket. Early bird per tier. | One price per person, plus early bird. A resident and non-resident rate means publishing two classes. |
| Fundraising | Public goal and progress bar, sponsorship packages with complimentary tickets, and proceeds split across campaigns. | None of it. |
| Participant data | Name and email, both optional. Unnamed seats record as "Guest." Table assignment per guest. | Required named participant, date of birth, grade, guardian, emergency contact and photo permission. |
| Your own questions | Not available. | Your own fields, asked once per order or once per participant. |
| Waivers and eligibility | Not available. | Versioned waiver with timestamp and IP, age and grade limits, and application screening before registration. |
| Attendance | One check-in per guest at the door. It cannot be undone, and it has no sense of which night. | Present, absent or excused for every person against every meeting, with a note and who marked it. |
| Reminders | Nothing automatic between purchase and the day. Export the list to email attendees. | Automatic "starts in 3 days" reminders, and email the roster from inside the product. |
| Refunds | A judgment call each time, with no stored policy. | A published tiered policy suggests the amount. Transfers between classes settle the difference. |
| Next season | Rebuild by hand: tiers, add-ons, sponsorships and benefits. | One click clones the setup and rebuilds the meeting dates. |
Should a one-night workshop be an event or a class?
A class. Classes supports a single-session type, and you get the participant details with it. Choose Events only if you need more than one ticket price.
Should a 5K or an obstacle race be an event or a class?
A class, set up as a single session. Anything carrying physical risk needs a release, and Events cannot collect one at all.
How do I set up a gala that runs three nights?
Three events, one per night, grouped under a series page. A single three-day event sells one undifferentiated ticket and cannot tell the evenings apart.
How do I sell weekly bingo by the night?
Events. Classes prices the whole run as a single enrollment, so a drop-in model does not fit.
How do I collect dietary notes and shirt sizes for a conference?
Classes. Events collects only a name and an email. You are trading ticket tiers for the ability to ask your own questions, and for a conference that is usually the right trade.
How do I give a sibling discount on camp?
Still Classes, for the waivers and the guardian details. The sibling rate itself does not exist in the product, so handle that discount outside it.
How do I handle a corporate sponsor on a youth clinic?
Classes. Waivers and minors outweigh the sponsorship tooling. Record the sponsor's gift separately as a campaign donation.
How do I price adult education for members and non-members?
Classes, with member pricing handled through member benefits. Two unrelated rates means publishing two classes.
What is true of both
Both have a waitlist, with offers, expiration and automatic promotion. The difference is that an event waitlist can run per ticket tier.
Both can be grouped on a branded public page. The class catalog is the direct equivalent of an event series, and it is searchable and filterable. The series hides past events automatically; the catalog does not.
Only event tickets can share a cart with a donation. A class registration is always its own transaction. If you want a supporter to add a gift at the same checkout, that is an event.
Where to go next
Once you have decided, the Events & ticketing guide walks through ticket types, member benefits, early bird pricing, sponsorships and add-ons. To group several events on one public page, see Box office & event series. For the door itself, see Admission and The Kiosk.
