Best Class Booking Software: Occasion vs FareHarbor vs Eventbrite Compared

Overview: Class & Workshop Booking Software

Class and workshop booking software helps businesses manage schedules, registrations, payments, and customer communication in one place. Unlike simple appointment tools, class booking systems must support recurring sessions, capacity limits, waitlists, memberships, cancellations, reminders, and repeat customers. For studios, educators, trainers, and local businesses, the right system doesn’t just organise bookings—it drives retention, reduces no-shows, and increases revenue. That’s where a platform like Occasion, built specifically for recurring classes, makes a difference.

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Why Occasion Outperforms Eventbrite and FareHarbor for Classes & Workshops

Eventbrite and FareHarbor are designed for event- and experience-driven businesses rather than pre-scheduled classes. Eventbrite is primarily designed for one-off or occasional events, such as concerts, conferences, and fundraisers, emphasizing bulk ticket sales over ongoing enrollments or memberships. FareHarbor is optimised for tour operators and activity-based businesses, such as sightseeing tours, rentals, and attractions, with workflows centred on availability and ticketed experiences. Eventbrite and FareHarbor are excellent platforms for their core use cases — large public events and tours — but they weren’t built with recurring-class businesses as the primary customer.

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Occasion

Occasion is purpose-built for class, workshop, and activity-based businesses that run on a recurring basis. It’s designed for studios, educators, camps, and local businesses that need versatile scheduling, roster management, memberships, and automation, without the complexity or high fees of event-focused platforms.

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Why Occasion is The Best Class & Workshop Booking Software

Occasion stands out because it’s designed around how classes actually operate in the real world.

For example, a yoga studio running weekly drop-in classes, monthly memberships, and special workshops can manage everything in one dashboard. Customers can book recurring sessions, join waitlists, receive reminders, and be automatically moved into open spots when cancellations occur, features that are difficult or clunky in Eventbrite and FareHarbor.

Another example is an art school offering multi-week courses. Occasion allows structured class series with rosters, attendance tracking, and enrollment limits. Eventbrite treats each session as a separate event, whereas FareHarbor lacks the depth needed for long-term student management.

Occasion also supports upsells, add-ons, and adaptable pricing models, helping businesses increase revenue per booking without extra tools.

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Key Differences Between Occasion, FareHarbor, and Eventbrite

1. Built for Classes vs Events or Tours: Eventbrite is event-centric. FareHarbor is tour-centric, and Occasion is class-centric. Occasion supports recurring enrollments, class packs, credits, and long-term customer relationships that function similarly to memberships.

2. Pricing Transparency: Eventbrite charges per-ticket service fees that scale with volume, while FareHarbor relies on variable booking and merchant fees. Occasion uses a simple, flat booking fee model, which makes costs predictable as a business grows.

3. Roster & Attendance Management: Occasion includes built-in rosters, attendee tracking, and capacity controls. FareHarbor focuses more on availability blocks, and Eventbrite offers limited roster tools better suited for check-ins at large events.

4. Automation & Communication: Occasion’s automation is built around recurring classes and repeat customers — confirmations, reminders, waitlist fills, and cancellations work together to reduce no-shows without manual work. Eventbrite automates reminders and promotion for one-off events, while FareHarbor focuses on tour operations and check-ins.

5. Customer Experience: Occasion provides a smooth, branded booking flow designed for repeat customers. Eventbrite’s marketplace model often distracts users with unrelated events, and FareHarbor’s interface is optimised for travellers rather than local clients.

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Occasion Pricing, Small Business Benefits, and Worldwide Presence

Occasion’s pricing is designed to support small and medium-sized businesses, not penalise them as they grow. With no excessive per-ticket fees or commissions, businesses keep more of their revenue while gaining access to advanced booking, payment, and customer-management tools.

Occasions help small businesses:

• Reduce administrative work through automation.
• Increase attendance with reminders and waitlists.
• Build loyal customer bases via memberships and repeat bookings.
• Expand operations without switching platforms

Occasion serves businesses worldwide through an en-language platform, rendering it accessible to international studios, educators, and service-based businesses. Mobile App allows business owners to manage bookings, view rosters, and track activity on the go, while customers receive a seamless booking experience from any device.

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Conclusion

While FareHarbor and Eventbrite serve their own purposes well, they are not optimised for the ongoing needs of class and workshop-based businesses. Occasion fills that gap with a platform built specifically for recurring classes, flexible pricing, automation, and long-term customer relationships. For businesses built around recurring classes, workshops, and repeat customers, Occasion offers a more natural, scalable fit than event- or tour-centric platforms.

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