Ticketing Alternative to Google Forms

What Google Forms gives you

Google Forms is free, easy to set up, and familiar, so you can collect registrations, export to a spreadsheet, and share a link. For a simple free event with no capacity limit, it gets the job done.

Both tools share some features:

Free event registration (no payment required)
Shareable via a simple link
Embeddable on your own website
Works on any device with a browser
Email notifications after submission

Google Forms has advantages Chobble Tickets doesn't:

Completely free — no annual fee, no per-ticket fees, no payment processing fees (because it doesn't process payments)
Everyone knows how to use it — near-zero learning curve for both organisers and respondents
Unlimited custom questions with any field type — add text, dropdowns, grids, file uploads, and more (Chobble supports multiple-choice custom questions)
Google Sheets integration — responses automatically flow into a spreadsheet for analysis, mail merge, and sharing
Conditional logic — show or hide questions based on previous answers
Collaboration — multiple people can edit the form simultaneously with real-time Google Docs collaboration
Add-on ecosystem — third-party add-ons can add features like response limits, email notifications, and more
Templates — start from pre-built templates for common use cases
Embedded anywhere — easily embed in any website

What Google Forms doesn't do

Google Forms wasn't designed for ticketing, so it's missing things you'll eventually need:

No payment processing — you can't sell tickets through a Google Form (you'd need a separate payment tool)
No capacity management — forms don't close when you're sold out (without manual intervention or add-ons)
No confirmation tickets — respondents get a copy of their answers, not a proper ticket with a QR code
No check-in system — you'll need to print a list and manually check names at the door
No encryption — attendee data sits in a Google Sheet with whatever sharing settings you remembered to set
Google owns the data — your attendees' information is on Google's servers, subject to Google's terms
No refund management — no way to track or process refunds
No attendee communication — no built-in way to email ticket holders with updates
No multi-event management — each form is independent with no dashboard across events

What Chobble Tickets adds over Google Forms

Chobble Tickets is a purpose-built ticketing platform, so it handles things Google Forms can't:

Payment processing — accept payments via Stripe or Square, including pay-what-you-want pricing
Capacity management — automatic capacity limits with 5-minute payment holds to prevent overbooking
QR code tickets — every attendee gets a unique QR code for check-in at the door
Apple & Google Wallet — attendees can add tickets to their phone wallet
Encryption — attendee data is encrypted at rest with hybrid RSA-OAEP + AES-256-GCM
Email confirmations — automatic confirmation emails with customisable templates
Refunds — process individual or bulk refunds directly from the admin panel
CSV export — export attendee lists with filtering
Activity logs — full audit trail of all admin actions
Daily/recurring events — per-date capacity with calendar picker
Public API and webhooks — build custom integrations
Event groups with tiered ticketing — organise related events into collections for multi-event bookings, and create ticket tiers sharing a venue capacity cap
RSS and calendar feeds — subscribers get automatic updates
Custom email providers — use Resend, Postmark, SendGrid, or Mailgun so emails come from your domain
Customisable email templates — full control over confirmation emails with Liquid syntax
Apple Pay and Google Pay — accept wallet payments at checkout via Stripe

When Google Forms is fine

If you're running a free, informal event and don't need tickets or check-in, Google Forms is perfectly fine. It's free, everyone knows how to use it, and it connects to Google Sheets.

When Chobble Tickets is worth it

Once you need payments, capacity limits, QR code tickets, or data privacy, a dedicated ticketing platform like Chobble Tickets is worth the £50/year. It also supports free events without payment setup, so you can start with the same simplicity as Google Forms and add payments later when you need them.

Chobble Tickets vs Google Forms